On an evening dominated by the Ferris State defense, two goals by sophomore defenseman Phil Meyer helped lift the Bulldogs to a 3-0 victory over Waterloo in exhibition action at Ewigleben Ice Arena Saturday night.
FSU got the scoring started early in the first period. Kevin Caudill fed Meyer, who then shot a bouncer that skipped over Waterloo goalie Patrick Herman’s pads and into the net at 2:22.
The rest of the first and the entire second period showcased both teams’ defense. Ferris kept Waterloo out of the zone by standing forwards up at the blue line, and the checking got harder and more frequent as time went on.
With eight minutes to go in the second period, after a successful save by Herman, the two teams collided when FSU’s Rob Lightfoot tried to poke the puck loose. Punches were exchanged, along with the usual clutching and grabbing, in a disply of the roughness that lasted throughout the evening. For the game, FSU was penalized 23 times for 46 minutes while Waterloo was assesed 18 penalties for 36 minutes.
Ferris finally broke the score open early in the third, as at 2:56 Jim Dube scored on the power play, assisted by Chris Kunitz and Kevin Swider with some beautiful puck movement in the zone. Meyer rounded out the scoring for the Bulldogs off a nice pass in the slot by Kevin Caudill less than a minute later.
In net for Ferris, Vince Owen, who started the game and played the first 29:23, and Phil Osaer both came up with the necessary saves, but most of the credit for the shutout went to the stingy defense of Ferris State. Ten of the thirteen shots the Bulldog goalies faced were from the blue line or farther.
Ferris State opens the regular season by traveling to face St. Cloud for a pair of games next weekend.
