SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. — In a battle of two teams looking to end winless skids, the Ferris State Bulldogs got a stellar performance from netminder Darren Smith, who picked up his first shutout of the season in a 4-0 win over Lake Superior State on Friday night at the Taffy Abel Arena.
“I thought we played a pretty strong game,” said Bulldogs coach Bob Daniels. “It wasn’t error free; I thought [Smith] stood tall for us in the second and third period. The game itself was fairly even, but I thought our goalie was very strong, and I was happy with the effort from the team.”
Smith, a junior, stopped all 27 shots he faced, as he earned the first road shutout for Ferris State (10-14-1, 7-9-1 WCHA) in nearly two years. The Bulldogs’ last shutout on the road came Feb. 5, 2016, against Alaska -– also courtesy of Smith.
“This has been a bit unusual in that our goaltending has been inconsistent,” remarked Daniels. “We’ve always enjoyed good goaltending, and this year it has been a bit inconsistent, so I’m hoping we’ll see a return to more consistently good goaltending. Certainly Darren looked as though he was on form tonight.”
Ferris State has utilized a tandem of Smith and sophomore Justin Kapelmaster this season. The two are averaging 3.22 goals-against and a .903 save percentage, although Kapelmaster’s numbers have been slightly better.
For the fourth consecutive Friday night game, the offense for Lake Superior (5-16-4, 3-10-3 WCHA) was shut out. They have not scored a Friday goal since Dec. 8, when they lost 5-1 to Minnesota State.
Ferris State came into the game holding the final WCHA playoff spot, one point behind Alaska for seventh place and seven points ahead of the Lakers.
Concerning the slide his team was on, Daniels said the coaching staff had not talked much about actual wins and losses.
“We do talk about performance, effort, and those sorts of things, letting the results take care of themselves,” said Daniels. “I thought last Saturday against Bowling Green that our goalie played very well, although we lost. You can’t dwell on wins or losses because that doesn’t get you anywhere. What you have to dwell on is the actual process of improving.”
The Bulldogs got on the board when Coale Norris and Marshall Moise got into the Lakers’ zone on a two-on-one. Moise fed a pass to Norris, who put the puck into a wide-open net as Moise had gotten Lake Superior goaltender Mareks Mitens out of position.
Two goals just 37 seconds apart early in the second period led to Mitens being relieved in favor of junior netminder Nick Kossoff. Corey Mackin made the score 2-0 by stickhandling his way around Lakers defenseman Tyler Anderson and beating Mitens on the glove side. A long shot from the slot by Nate Kallen sounded the end of the night for the native of Ventspils, Latvia.
A shot on a power play from the blue line by Ryker Killins eluded Kossoff to give the visitors a four-goal lead. With Smith slamming the door shut across the ice, the Bulldogs got their first win since a 4-3 victory over Michigan Tech on Dec. 8.
In goal for Lake Superior, Mitens made 10 stops on 13 shots before Kossoff entered the game. He saw 12 shots on goal, making 11 saves in the process.
For the Lakers, a team on the outside of the WCHA playoff race, the point gap continues to grow. As it stands, the Lakers sit eight points out of the playoffs and just three ahead of last place Alaska-Anchorage. Lake Superior’s last conference win came back on Dec. 2 when they beat Alaska, 4-1. They have gone 0-6-1 since.
With the win, the Bulldogs moved into sixth place in the WCHA standings, one point ahead of Alabama-Huntsville.
“Our first job is to try and secure a playoff spot; that’s goal number one every year,” said Daniels. “We’ll strive for that and then we’ll see what the next goal we can go after is. Given where we’re at in the standings, I’m not going to really fall in love with watching [the other teams] or seeing where we’re at. Let’s have good performances, and the standings will take care of themselves.”
