BIG RAPIDS, Mich. — Ferris State swept the Bowling Green hockey team this weekend, defeating the Falcons 10-1 Friday and 5-1 Saturday at Ewigleben Ice Arena.
The tone of the weekend was set in the first 24 seconds of Friday night’s game, when Ferris State’s Derek Nesbitt took the first shot on goal for the evening and scored to give the Bulldogs and early 1-0 lead.
“It was clearly the case right from the start of the game that Ferris State was a step quicker most of the night,” said Coach Scott Paluch. “They made some terrific plays and for the 60 minutes they were the better hockey team.”
Ferris State scored another goal at 6:07 on a shot by Jeremy Scherlinck from just inside the blue line to put the Bulldogs up 2-0.
However, the Falcons’ Mike Falk answered back a minute later on a wrister from the right circle. Ferris State’s goalie Mike Brown tried to catch the shot in his glove and missed to cut their lead in half. The goal was Falk’s first of the season. Brian Escobedo received an assist on the goal.
The Bulldogs scored once more before the end of the first period on a breakaway to make the score 3-1.
“When the game was 3-1 we had some chances and made a mistake off our face-off to make it 4-1, that was really kind of the turning point,” Paluch said.
Ferris State started the second period off with another breakaway goal to increase their lead to 4-1. The Bulldogs would score two more goals before the end of the period giving them a 6-1 advantage.
“They do a good job of shooting the puck from a lot of different areas,” Paluch said. “They also get a lot of players going at the net for their second and third shot. They were able to capitalize.”
The third period was not much different from the first two. The Bulldogs came out and dominated once again scoring four more goals for a final 10-1 victory.
Senior Tyler Masters remained in goal for the entire game, stopping 33 of 43 shots. BG was only able to get off 33 shots.
“[Masters] battled pretty well through most of the night,” Paluch said. “It was a tough game. He was facing tough situations, but he hung in there for 60 minutes.”
Saturday night’s game started out pretty much the same way as Friday night’s game.
“They clearly picked up where they left off [Friday],” Paluch said. This time it took the Bulldogs nearly 10 minutes before they scored their first goal. FSU’s Chris Kunitz created the damage in the first period for the Falcons, scoring both of Ferris State’s goals to create a 2-0 lead at the end of the first period. Kunitz recorded two goals and four assists on Friday.
Ferris State only scored one goal in the third period putting them up 3-0.
Then at 2:34 in the third period, senior captain D’Arcy McConvey scored the Falcons only goal and his first of the season on a pass from Kevin Bieksa to cut the Bulldogs lead to 3-1.
“We knew we wanted to get that first goal in the third period to give us a chance and we did,” Paluch said. “D’Arcy made a great play.”
The Falcons had a two-man advantage early in the third period and were unable to score.
“We had a chance on the 5-on-3 power play and didn’t capitalize,” Paluch said. “I thought we had some good chances. We moved the puck well especially for the first 35 seconds. Their goalie, Brown, is a good goalie.”
The final two goals for Ferris State were power-play goals. “Ferris State was able to capitalize on the power play,” Paluch said. “They did a good job on special teams.”
Ferris State outshot the Falcons once again, 53-25. Sophomore goalie Jordan Sigalet played for the entire 60 minutes, stopping 48 shots.
“We got a tremendous effort out of Jordan Sigalet,” Paluch said. “Jordan got off to a good start. He’s been extremely solid. He cleared the puck a lot and after that he was forced to make a few spectacular plays.”
