{"id":137991,"date":"2023-01-11T10:00:28","date_gmt":"2023-01-11T16:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/?p=137991"},"modified":"2023-01-11T05:45:37","modified_gmt":"2023-01-11T11:45:37","slug":"this-week-in-ccha-hockey-speed-willingness-to-adjust-to-change-a-big-part-of-ferris-states-maclaren-succeeding-on-bulldogs-back-end","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/2023\/01\/11\/this-week-in-ccha-hockey-speed-willingness-to-adjust-to-change-a-big-part-of-ferris-states-maclaren-succeeding-on-bulldogs-back-end\/","title":{"rendered":"This Week in CCHA Hockey: Speed, willingness to adjust to change big part of Ferris State’s MacLaren succeeding on Bulldogs’ back end"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Brenden MacLaren has compiled nine points so far this season for Ferris State (photo: Ferris State Athletics).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The knot in his stomach when Brenden MacLaren initially took the ice as a defenseman in a real college game is something that he won\u2019t easily forget.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember my first couple games there were a couple times where I\u2019m like, \u2018Holy crap, there\u2019s a forward on Mankato ripping full speed down the ice at me,\u2019\u201d the Ferris State senior said. \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like a deer-in-the-headlights moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacLaren, who came to Big Rapids as a speedy, scrappy center, had only ever played defense in one game \u2013 an emergency situation during his first year in junior hockey when three or four of his Janesville Jets teammates went down with injury and illness. That game gave him a little taste of what was to come in his college career.<\/p>\n

After MacLaren spent his first two collegiate seasons in and out of the lineup as a fourth-line forward, Ferris State coach Bob Daniels noticed something about MacLaren \u2013 he could really skate. The Bulldogs, going through something of a personnel crisis last season, needed another defenseman, and Daniels was convinced MacLaren could be the answer.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a good, hard-nosed type player, but for whatever reason, it never seemed to click for him up front,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cThen we went through a situation where we were a little thin on defensemen with injuries and so forth, and I just asked him one day in practice, \u2018Will you be a ‘D’ in practice? But I really want you to try this, not just go through the motions.\u2019 We\u2019ve done it with other players in the past, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn\u2019t, but for him, almost immediately, his skating allowed him to play well on defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

As it turns out, since making the conversion, MacLaren has been one of the Bulldogs\u2019 most reliable blueliners. He\u2019s played in every one of Ferris\u2019 20 games this season and Daniels now trusts him to play on both the power play and the penalty kill.<\/p>\n

Not bad for a player that, less than two years ago, was still fighting to stay in the lineup as a forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty crazy transition,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019ve played forward my whole life. But I\u2019ve kind of always been known, when I was a centerman, for playing good defense and not getting scored on. Because that was one of the things I hated most, was getting scored on. I\u2019m still learning as I go, pretty much, but I think what helps a lot is how close our team is, especially our ‘D’ corps. I\u2019m learning a lot from those guys, \u2018cause they\u2019ve played defense their whole careers. And our ‘D’ coach, Mark Hoffman, has done a great job helping me make that transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the hardest part of changing positions would be, say there\u2019s a turnover in the neutral zone or a quick transition, my gap control is by far the hardest thing to learn. Knowing when to turn out on a guy, when to step up, when to not, when to take your ice back. It\u2019s hard because mainly when you\u2019re playing up front you\u2019re always skating forward, never backwards much.\u201d<\/p>\n

MacLaren also credits fellow defenseman Matt Slick with helping him improve at his position. Slick, who transferred in from Holy Cross this season, played more than 120 games for the Crusaders before coming to Big Rapids and is, along with MacLaren, a co-captain.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew right when he got here, he was a great fit. He\u2019s a great kid, a great leader,\u201d MacLaren said of Slick. \u201cI watch his game a lot to help my game because he\u2019s played his position his whole life and he\u2019s very good at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

One other ironic aspect of MacLaren\u2019s move: He\u2019s scored more as a defender than he did as a center. This year he\u2019s got nine points (two goals and seven assists), adding to 5 a season ago. In his first two seasons, he had six points combined.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the one thing I was pleasantly surprised about, is that offensively, the numbers started to come for him,\u201d Daniels said. \u201cWith the game in front of him, it actually opened things up and made him a better offensive player. Now all of a sudden, he\u2019s on the penalty kill, he\u2019s on the power play unit, and in a lot of ways, it\u2019s really changed his game.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a big part of why the Bulldogs (9-9-2, 6-5-1 CCHA) are having something of a resurgence following a few tough years. MacLaren was there for the infamous one-win campaign just two seasons ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think last year we obviously took a big step from our one-win season,\u201d he said. \u201cWe could kind of start to feel it in the locker room in certain games. Last year there were moments where we had a lead on a team, and they\u2019d score one to tie it, and the key moments in the game we would let slip away from us.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year we\u2019ve got a really mature group. It seems like we finally know how to win. In my four years here, we didn\u2019t really know how to win. This year we\u2019ve taken an important step. It definitely helps coming in to work every day in practice knowing you\u2019ve got a really good chance to win on a Friday night.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Bulldogs have yet to be swept this year and are sitting in good shape in the CCHA standings. They\u2019re currently in the thick of a race for, at the very least, home ice in the first round of the playoffs and aren\u2019t actually too far away from first place in the conference. And with a second-half schedule that features series against conference front-runners Bemidji State, Minnesota State and Michigan Tech \u2013 all at Ewigleben Arena \u2013 MacLaren and the Bulldogs like their chances.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we want to focus on getting home ice,\u201d MacLaren said. \u201cNobody likes coming and playing at our rink. But it\u2019s really nice that we play all those teams at home, so that will definitely help our odds there. I\u2019m confident going into any game with this group that we have. I think teams are starting to acknowledge that we\u2019re not the same team we\u2019ve had the last couple years, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The knot in his stomach when Brenden MacLaren initially took the ice as a defenseman in a real college game is something that he won\u2019t easily forget. \u201cI remember my first couple games there were a couple times where I\u2019m like, \u2018Holy crap, there\u2019s a forward on Mankato ripping full speed down the ice at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":98,"featured_media":137992,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[812],"coauthors":[854],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nThis Week in CCHA Hockey: Speed, willingness to adjust to change big part of Ferris State's MacLaren succeeding on Bulldogs' back end - College Hockey | USCHO.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The knot in his stomach when Brenden MacLaren initially took the ice as a defenseman in a real college game is something that he won\u2019t easily forget. \u201cI\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.uscho.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137991\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"This Week in CCHA Hockey: Speed, willingness to adjust to change big part of Ferris State's MacLaren succeeding on Bulldogs' back end - 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