CINCINNATI — With a single power-play goal by Gerald Mayhew and 35 saves by CJ Motte, Ferris State defeated Colgate 1-0 on Friday to advance to the Midwest Regional final.
“The game unfolded pretty much the way we anticipated from the standpoint [that] we thought it would be evenly played, a one-goal game where specialty teams would come into play and goaltending,” said Ferris State coach Bob Daniels.
[scg_html_mw2014]”Certainly, the goaltenders for both teams played exceedingly well. We’re definitely very proud of what CJ accomplished tonight. He got some good support defensively, but I thought the teams were evenly matched. I thought that was pretty obvious. It’s not a surprise that it came to a one-goal difference tonight.”
Colgate coach Don Vaughan said that the Raiders played their game in their attempt to solve Motte.
“We had a game plan,” said Vaughan. “I thought we stuck to it pretty effectively. I thought we could have taken even more shots than we did. They did a great job of getting in lanes and I think we hung onto the puck a little bit too much sometimes. We were nervous early, but once we got the nerves out, our game came the way we wanted it to. We didn’t make any major adjustments within the course of the game.”
Mayhew netted the only goal of the game at 10:01 in the first, swatting Andy Huff’s rebounded shot out of midair and past Colgate goaltender Charlie Finn. Mayhew, a freshman, had three goals for the Bulldogs in last weekend’s WCHA Final Five.
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G000035l5H6jQtnM” g_name=”20140328-NCAAMidwestRegional-FerrisState-Colgate-RachelLewis” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.Y67i73nXsQrsycOvra_kdydJXWzSLJAZSUKzpo9FriCqveyEmTg–” ]”He’s really played well as of late,” said Daniels. “When you watched Gerald earlier in the season, you could see that he had really good stick skills. What I mean by that is that he’s got a quick stick. He can handle the puck, but it’s quick. Usually those guys are good goal scorers. As the season’s progressed and he’s got some seasoning under his belt, you can see the chances coming more and more.
“Even leading up to last weekend, you could see the chances. He was hitting a number of goalposts. Now he deserves a few bounces.”
Each team had its chances in the second and third periods, but each goaltender was up to the task. With five minutes left in the second, Motte made a leg save on Mike Borkowski, giving up a huge rebound to exactly the spot where no Raiders player could get to it, preserving the slim lead.
Late in the third, Ferris State’s Kyle Schempp flew in alone on Finn and the freshman goalie kicked away the bid at an insurance goal.
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Trailing late in the third, the Raiders knew they were still in the game.
“We were pretty even keel and we were hungry,” said sophomore forward Kyle Baun. “We just couldn’t get a bounce tonight, but we never lost faith, never lost hope until the last second.”
“This team has had great composure all year long,” said Vaughan. “We’ve been in a lot of one-goal games in the last month of the season here, so the composure on the bench was great. Our guys really were confident and thought we were going to win the game.”
The Raiders ended their season with a record of 20-13-5. The Bulldogs (28-10-3) will play the winner of the second Midwest semifinal game Saturday to determine who will advance to the Frozen Four.
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