Hockey Preview - Week 6 - Opportunity Knocks As Ferris State Hosts National #2 Minnesota State

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The Bulldogs lock horns with the nation's #2 ranked Minnesota State Mavericks on Friday and Saturday (Nov. 5-6) inside Ewigleben Ice Arena coming off a road win at Canisius, and a rematch of the WCHA Quarterfinals from March.

Ferris State vs. Minnesota State Mavericks: Weekend Preview

While the Bulldogs snatched a split in dramatic fashion at Canisius last weekend, they get no reprieve as they come home to meet one of the nation's hottest teams in the Minnesota State Mavericks, whose losses have only come to a team that went on to unseat them as National #1 (Michigan) and a narrow 3-1 loss to national #2 (at the time) St. Cloud State. Their ridiculous strength of schedule includes blowout wins over the defending national champion UMass on the road (in a sweep), a 5-2 win over #10 Providence, and handily knocking out Northern Michigan 11-2 on the weekend at home last week.

Reigning CCHA forward of the week Brendan Furry, whose Saturday night hat-trick propelled the Mavericks to a 7-0 win over the NMU Wildcats, is tied for the team lead in scoring with Nathan Smith (WPG) with identical 4-6-10 scoring lines. The deadly Julian Napravnik also has nine points, and Reggie Lutz, who returned as a graduate player, has seven points and leads the Mavs in goal scoring (5) through eight games. In goal, Dryden McKay's 

numbers don't look exactly like he's used to, but forgive him, he set the NCAA Men's Division I record for career shutouts, passing Michigan State's Ryan Miller this past weekend with his 27th career shutout. He's played 473 of his team's 480:00 minutes this season (the empty net holds the remainder of the ice time).

For Ferris State, senior forward and captain Liam MacDougall capped off a gutsy effort with four points, including a three-point night with the game-winning goal Saturday at Canisius (2-1-3 on Saturday). Freshman forward Bradley Marek scored twice, blocked six shots and won over 50 percent of his faceoffs for the fourth consecutive weekend. Senior goaltender Roni Salmenkangas rode his way to a 23-save victory allowing just a pair of goals Saturday in his regular season debut. Dallas Tulik is tied for the team lead in point-scoring (8) with MacDougall. MacDougall as has two of Ferris State's three game-winning goals on the campaign.

Bulldogs Lead CCHA in Shorthanded Scoring

Ferris State's penalty kill got off to a slow start but since have stabilized and been a big part of the Bulldog offensive attack. The Dawgs now lead the CCHA in shorthanded goals with three after Justin Michaelian ripped one in on Friday at Canisius. Stepan Pokorny (OT GWG) and Jake Transit (first goal of the season) have the others for Ferris State as they've made opportunistic runs down the ice while shorthanded to negate their man-disadvantage the most times in the country (tied for national lead). 

Marek Named CCHA Rookie of the Week for Second Time

Ferris State freshman forward Bradley Marek continued his hot start to his freshman campaign racking up a pair of goals and six blocked shots on the weekend to win his second CCHA Freshman of the Week award in just four weeks of action. He has a 3-2-5 scoring line in eight games, sees time on the power play, penalty kill, and in late game situations as the nation's top face-off winning freshman and the only freshman in the top 50 in the country in total faceoff wins through five weeks of action. Marek's award is the third amongst Bulldogs this season in just five weeks as Ferris State continues to play their best hockey against their higher-end opponents.

This Week In Bulldog History

Nov. 3, 2017 - After falling at Michigan the Bulldogs bounce back and force overtime at Yost Ice Arena. Michigan's apparent game-winner is waved off due to goaltender interference in overtime and Ryker Killins rips in the winner on the road in Ann Arbor moments later.