Despite scoring a trio of first period goals, the Miami RedHawks were unable to come away with a win as the visiting Bulldogs of Ferris State scored the equalizer midway through the third period to earn a 3-3 tie at Goggin Ice Arena.
Ferris State struck first with a Greg Rallo goal just 35 seconds into the first period off a beautiful centering pass from Derek Nesbitt. The Miami offensive attack took awhile to gather momentum but sophomore Andy Nelson got the RedHawks on the board at the 12:03 mark of the first with assists from freshmen Brad Robbins and Mitch Ganzak.
With Ferris State’s Chad Haacke in the penalty box, junior Taylor Hustead scored the first of his two goals on the night when he banged home the rebound of an Andy Greene shot from the point staking Miami to an early 2-1 lead with five minutes remaining in the first period. Less then four minutes later Greene and Hustead teamed up again when Greene intercepted an FSU clearing effort and chipped the puck ahead to Hustead who skated in all alone and beat Ferris State’s Mike Brown to give Miami a two-goal lead after 20 minutes of play.
Ferris State’s Jeff Legue scored the lone goal of the second period, beating sophomore netminder Brandon Crawford-West to draw the Bulldogs to within one at 3-2. The RedHawks held onto the one-goal lead until the 11:23 mark of the third when Nesbitt and Legue combined to even the score at 3-3 and send the game into overtime.
In the extra period, Miami had several outstanding scoring opportunities, including a breakaway by senior Joe Pomaranski, but the RedHawks couldn’t solve Brown who made 20 saves on the night to move his season record to 4-7-2. Crawford-West also turned away 20 shots to make his record 7-7-2 on the year.
The RedHawks were 1-for-4 on the power play and kept the Bulldogs scoreless in four chances with the man-advantage.
With the tie, the RedHawks move to 7-8-2 overall and 3-6-2 in Central Collegiate Hockey Association action while the Bulldogs are now 5-10-2 and 2-7-2 in the CCHA.
