Saturday UM-Ferris State recap

[Bob Miller]

In a season opener early on the calendar, Ferris State struck early on the scoreboard with two goals in the first 63 seconds, then held off a late Michigan charge to beat the Wolverines, 4-3, Saturday night at Ewigleben Arena in Big Rapids.

Trailing 4-1 entering the third period, Michigan fought back on goals by Travis Lynch and Evan Allen. For the game's final 1:11, the Wolverines swarmed the Ferris State net with a two-man advantage due to a power play and an extra attacker for pulled netminder Zach Nagelvoort, but failed to score the tying goal.

Typical of early season hockey in October, both teams struggled to put together a coherent attack. Scrambly play was the order of the night. Michigan held an advantage in territorial play, but failed to convert on their chances as effectively as the Bulldogs.

Ferris State capitalized on Michigan's initial poor team defense to take a 3-0 first period margin.

Only 27 seconds into the contest, Bulldog sophomore Kyle Schempp beat Nagelvoort on a partial breakaway after a faulty Michigan line change. Sophomore Chad McDonald continued the Ferris State heroics at 1:03 with a screened shot that banked off the post into the Wolverine net. Freshman Mitch Maloney stretched the Bulldog lead to 3-0 with a power play breakaway goal near the end of the opening stanza.

Michigan's best scoring chance in the first 20 minutes came on a pair of shots close in by freshman defenseman Zach Werenski.

Michigan got the early goal in the second period. Tyler Motte crashed the Ferris State goal, manned by his brother C.J. and brought Michigan back into the game only nine seconds into the middle period.

Bulldog C.J. got his revenge though late in the period when he robbed younger sibling Wolverine Tyler on a power play, leading to a shorthanded goal on the subsequent Ferris State rush. The late second period goal put Ferris up, 4-1 after 40 minutes.

Lynch's and Allen's tallies for the Wolverines drew Michigan within range before time ran out.

The Wolverines next appearance is Monday night at Yost Arena in an exhibition game against NTDP Under-18 national team.

 

[Bob Miller]

Interesting additional note

Young freshman defenseman Zach Werenski is who the coaching staff had on the ice quarterbacking the power play in the final 1:11. He handled the assignment effectively.

 

[Brockman26]

Hey Bob, what's the reasoning behind scheduling a game prior to any real practice? It seems a bit odd not to have an exhibition first and then a week of practice before a live game.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

 

[Bob Miller]

Heard that it was originally scheduled for December, but the date fell through late in the process. This apparently was the best replacement date.

 

[alnike]

Checked out the scoring plays from the Ferris State website and some very glaring mistakes were made on the goals.
1 - Downing with line change 25 seconds in, Lohan can't join play
2- Zach Hyman can't clear and turnover in d zone leads to goal
3 - another very clear breakaway behind the d
4 - Downing looked afraid to check the guy for fear of penalty like last year, or made a very weak physical attempt FSU scores on a 2-1

two exhibitions they need to win, given recent history against NTDP and Canadian teams, then get ready for more out of conference play.

 

[alfadriver]

instead of "need to win," I call the next two cames- "need to fix" games.

The line change process shouldn't even be a problem, but work on it anyway.

But the team needs to be more aware of the offensive minded D- more than once I saw 4 of our players below the face off dots. Which is kinda scary.

Then the defensive coverage when on the PP was pretty weak- a lame attempt at a hip check lead to a 2-1 and a pretty easy goal.

And the PK- how did one guy get *that* far behind the defense??

On a side note- uh- don't slash a guy that obvious unless is 100% prevents a shot. Just hitting him in the arm does nothing but draw a penalty. The only good penalties in my book are ones that prevent chances.

I also would hope that Zach can steal one of those 3 open opportunities. Just one.


That all being said- I'm still pretty optimisitc with this team. They could have mailed the game in after going down 3-0 and even 4-1, but they didn't, and kept fighting. Kinda hard to tell on the TV, but they looked pretty good.

(on a TV note, it would be great if Ferris could get a little wider camera. Totally understand that they have a small rink, but their team is really good, and should get more TV time. So...)