The Ferris State Bulldogs continued their winning ways on Friday, beating the
\nNotre Dame Fighting Irish, 2-1, in the second round of the CCHA playoffs for
\ntheir seventh win in their last nine games.<\/p>\n
Coming off a bye week, the Irish came out sluggish in the first period,
\nsurrendering both of Ferris State\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goals within the first eight minutes of the
\ngame.<\/p>\n
\u00e2\u20ac\u0153I think the first ten minutes really made the difference,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Ferris State coach
\nBob Daniels said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153You could see Notre Dame shaking the rust off after that.
\nThe fact that we played twice last week was definitely to our advantage.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Ferris State got on the scoreboard first only 4:08 into the game when Cody
\nChupp capitalized on an Irish defensive zone turnover. Chupp stole the puck
\noff the stick of Notre Dame defenseman Ian Cole in the slot and flipped a quick
\nshot over the shoulder of Irish goaltender Jordan Pearce that hit the crossbar
\nand dropped into the net for a 1-0 Bulldogs lead.<\/p>\n
The Bulldogs wasted little time adding onto their lead, striking on the power
\nplay only three minutes later. After a shot from the point left Irish
\ndefenseman Brock Sheahan down and injured in front of the net, Justin Menke
\nbeat a diving Pearce to give Ferris State a 2-0 lead. Blair Riley recorded an
\nassist on the play.<\/p>\n
Pearce made 26 saves on the night in the losing effort.<\/p>\n
Ferris State continued to control the play throughout the majority of the first
\nperiod. Notre Dame did not register their first shot on goal until the 13:21
\nmark.<\/p>\n
Irish coach Jeff Jackson echoed Daniels\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 thoughts, saying \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The first 10
\nminutes of the game were the difference. You could tell they were in much
\nbetter game shape than we were, and it showed.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
The Irish got back into the game with a goal from freshman Ben Ryan in the
\nfinal minute of the first period. Due to a delayed penalty on the Bulldogs,
\nNotre Dame forward Kevin Deeth came onto the ice as an extra attacker. He
\nreceived a pass from Evan Rankin in the neutral zone and carried the puck all
\nthe way into the zone and behind the net. <\/p>\n
Deeth then found an open Ryan in front of the net, and the freshman wasted no time beating Mitch O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Keefe for his ninth goal of the season.<\/p>\n
After Ryan\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goal, however, O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Keefe was stellar. Coupled with a tenacious
\ndefense that blocked 22 Irish shots, O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Keefe made 25 saves on the night to
\npreserve the lead for his team.<\/p>\n
The second period was scoreless despite several chances for Notre Dame to tie
\nthe game. The first came 8:30 into the period, when a flurry of pressure put
\nMitch O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Keefe out of position in his net. Bulldog defenseman Matt Case saved a
\ngoal when he stopped an Irish shot with his stick near the goal line.<\/p>\n
A few minutes later, Ryan Thang took a pass off the boards and went in on a
\nbreakaway. Thang deked around O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Keefe, but the put rolled off his stick and
\ntrickled harmlessly into the corner.<\/p>\n
The Irish had a potential tying goal waved off with just under four minutes to
\nplay in the second period when the referee incorrectly blew the whistle on a
\nhigh stick. A Bulldog player got his stick on the puck in the neutral zone,
\nand the puck bounced directly to a streaking Ben Ryan, who buried the shot.<\/p>\n
However, the referee apparently believed that a Ferris State player first
\ntouched the puck, and the whistle blew before the goal was scored.<\/p>\n
Jordan Pearce worked hard to keep Notre Dame in the game throughout the third.
\nA giveaway by Dan VeNard sent Bulldog forward Cody Chupp in alone on Pearce
\nnearly halfway through the period, but Pearce stoned Chupp on a backhand
\nattempt.<\/p>\n
Ferris State now leads the best of three series 1-0. Game 2 of the series is
\nSaturday night at the Joyce Center, where the puck drops at 7:05 P.M. ET.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ferris State Bulldogs continued their winning ways on Friday, beating the Notre Dame Fighting Irish, 2-1, in the second round of the CCHA playoffs for their seventh win in their last nine games. Coming off a bye week, the Irish came out sluggish in the first period, surrendering both of Ferris State\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s goals within […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8877"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8877\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8877"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=8877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}