BIG RAPIDS, Mich. — Ferris State honored seven players during its senior night festivities Saturday at Ewigleben Ice Arena, but it was freshman Coale Norris who ensured the Bulldogs a 4-2 win and the weekend sweep over visiting Lake Superior State in Western Collegiate Hockey Association action.
Ferris (14-21-1, 11-16-1 WCHA) has locked up a berth in the WCHA tournament that starts next weekend, while the loss ended the Lakers’ season. The Bulldogs will visit Bowling Green as a sixth seed. LSSU (10-22-4, 8-17-3) needed a win over the Bulldogs and an Alaska loss Saturday to become the tournament’s eighth seed.
“Sweeps are really hard to come by in college hockey, in particular when you’re going against an opponent that has an awful lot on the line, too,” Ferris coach Bob Daniels said. “They were playing, and don’t forget they walked in here on a four-game winning streak.”
Norris scored twice, including the game-clinching goal at 7:37 of the third. The Oxford, Michigan, native cashed in on a Trevor Recktenwald pass near the right side of the net.
“I was trying to make a play there. I’ve been working on trying to drive to the net more, so I drove the net there and got a lucky bounce right in front of my feet,” Norris said.
Sophomores Zach Yoder and Cameron Clarke set up Norris’ first goal, a snipe from about 20 feet away at 3:43 of the second. The effort knotted the score 1-1 after LSSU’s Collin Saccoman scored his first goal of the season at 5:07 of the opening period.
“I threw a cross-ice pass to Yoder, and it was kind of a scramble down the corner,” Norris recalled. “They threw it off the net, and it hit somebody and popped to the slot area, and I kind of just one-timed it.”
Mitch Maloney scored a pair of empty-netters in the waning moments as LSSU pulled Mareks Mitens (34 saves) to try and salvage its postseason hopes.
Ferris goalie Darren Smith picked up his second win of the weekend, following up his 37-save performance Friday night with 30 more stops.
“I like the way he’s playing a lot,” Daniels said. “It’s easy to just look at the stats, but you drill down on it further, and you watch his positioning in net and calmness in net. We’re not seeing a lot of pucks laying around the crease. His decision-making of when to play (the puck), when not to play it, when to cover (has been great).”
A small scrum with 49 seconds left sent nine players between the two teams to the penalty box all at once, while another was sent to the locker room. Shortly after, LSSU’s Gage Torrei took advantage of the ensuing mismatches on the ice by sneaking in a short-handed goal with 26 seconds left.
In his 26 years at Ferris, Daniels had never seen anything like that before.
“They probably all nine deserved it,” he said. “It’s the way it goes. You get to the end of your season, and it’s a little emotional. It was a tough, hard-fought series. I’m glad no one got DQ’d, and that’s what is important right now.”
The Bulldogs started February with four-straight road losses, but they’ll enter the WCHA tournament with confidence after winning their final two home games.
“I remember the year we won it all, we were the (No.) 4 seed,” Daniels said. “We plowed our way through to win the MacNaughton Cup. I think this group can do the same thing.
“I really don’t think there’s that much difference in teams in this conference. It’s difficult because we’ll have to go on the road and win two out of three and then go on the road again and win two out of three, but you don’t have to win four games in the first night. All you got to do is show up, get a win and show up the next night.”
