West Shuts Out St. Lawrence as Ferris State Hockey Rolls To Road Victory

Canton, New York – Goaltender Noah West had a stellar performance between the pipes Friday (Oct. 18) as he led the Ferris State University men's ice hockey team to a 1-0 shutout victory over St. Lawrence in Appleton Arena.

The Bulldogs (1-2-2) collected their first win of the season on the back of West's shutout, the first time since Jan. 13, 2023, the Bulldogs held an opponent scoreless. West stopped all 35 shots he faced, recording the win in his second career shutout.

Neither team scored in the first period despite each team having one power play chance and FSU being outshot 12-7 by the Saints. Jan Olenginski was called for an interference penalty at 13:42 and Connor McGrath was also whistled for interference at 18:08. However, both teams killed their penalties, and the game was scoreless going into the second period.

The Saints started the second period with eight seconds of power play carried over from McGrath's penalty, and quickly after the Bulldogs got back to full strength, Caiden Gault scored his third goal of the year. The goal, at :25 in the second period, came when Nico DeVita broke a puck out of the zone to Max Itagaki, who fired a pass to Gault. Gault worked through the Saints' defense and beat Mason Kucenski for the only goal of the game. Itagaki collected his fourth assist while DeVita got his first point of the year. Gault's goal was his third of the year and fourth point.

Jacob Dirks was called for a hooking penalty at 4:33, but the Bulldogs killed that penalty, and they held onto their 1-0 lead going into the third period.

With 3:04 remaining, SLU pulled Kucenski and skated the rest of the game with an extra attacker. The Saints got multiple good looks late in the game, but West made four crucial saves and DeVita blocked a shot. Gault had a chance to hit the open net with 14 seconds left in regulation, but a missed shot gave SLU one more chance. They pushed back into the offensive zone but were unable to register a shot.

The win was Ferris State's first victory of the season. They now have a 4-2 all-time record at Appleton Arena.

For the game, St. Lawrence had 35 shots on goal compared to 27 for Ferris State. The Saints won 34 faceoffs compared to 23 for Ferris State.

DeVita and Kade Turner each blocked two shots in the victory. As a team, Ferris State blocked 10 shots. DeVita, Itagaki, McGrath, Gault and Travis Shoudy finished the game +1 and Matt Corbet had a game-high six shots on goal.

Kucenski saved 26-of-27 shots as the starting netminder for St. Lawrence. Jan Olenginski led the Saints with three blocked shots while Tomáš Mazura and Greg Lapointe led the squad with five shots on goal apiece.

Ferris State will be back in action Saturday (Oct. 19) to close the series against St. Lawrence. The 16th all-time meeting between the two teams is scheduled for a 7:00 p.m. (ET) puck drop inside Appleton Arena with pregame coverage beginning on Sunny 97.3 FM at 6:30 p.m. (ET).