The Ferris State Bulldogs continued to struggle on home ice as they lost a pair of CCHA contests to the University of Michigan Wolverines on Friday and Saturday.
Friday night, the Bulldogs opened the scoring on a Blair Riley goal at 9:49 of the first period as Wolverine goalie Billy Sauer fanned on a clearing pass to set-up the scoring opportunity. Cody Chupp and Joe Van Culin drew assists on the play.
Michigan retaliated just 24 seconds later as David Rohlfs burst between two defenders and rifled a shot over the shoulder of Ferris State netminder Mitch O'Keefe. Helpers were given to T. J. Hensick and Kevin Porter. Chad Kolarik followed with the second Michigan goal in a 32 second span as he pumped home his first goal of the night off a Ferris State turnover at its own blue line for a 2-1 Wolverine lead. Andrew Cogliano got the lone assist for U-M.
After a scoreless second period, the Wolverines scored their third goal on a 5-on-3 power play at 6:26 of the third period as Kolarik netted his second goal of the night assisted by Porter and Jack Johnson. The Bulldogs tallied at 19:36 to make it a 3-2 contest as Matt Verdone scored with assists credited to Zac Pearson and Chris Zarb, but couldn't get the equalizer in the final 24 seconds.
Sauer finished with 33 saves, while O'Keefe stopped 34 shots.
"Any time you win it's a good victory on the road," U-M senior defenseman and captain Matt Hunwick said. "We didn't come out and play the way that we wanted to. I think the first 10 minutes we played pretty well. We took a lot of penalties and so did the other team. It kind of threw our game off track a little bit. We never really got into the flow of the game. We were lucky to hang on and win that game 3-2."
On Saturday night, it was all Wolverines as the boys fron Ann Arbor skated to a 5-1 victory. Cogliano scored at 12:53 of the first period to give Michigan the lead. The Bulldogs knotted the score at 19:24 of the first on a power-play goal by Dan Riedel with assists to Jeremy Scherlinck and Verdone, but the Wolverines regained the lead just 31 seconds later at 19:55 on their own power-play goal by Rohlfs as the first period ended 2-1.
Michigan scored twice in the second period on Travis Turnbull and Kolarik goals to put the game out of reach for the Bulldogs. The Wolverines' Brian Lebler completed the scoring at 8:30 of the third to bring the final mark to 5-1.
Sauer made 33 stops and O'Keefe turned aside 29.
Michigan swept Ferris State in Big Rapids for the sixth time in program history. The last U-M sweep at Ferris State was Nov. 3-4, 1995, which was also the last time Michigan played a weekend series at FSU.
The Bulldogs (3-8-1, 1-6-1 CCHA) host the Western Michigan Broncos on Tuesday. The contest will be the third meeting between the two teams with the season series tied at one win each.
The Wolverines (9-3-0, 6-2-0 CCHA) entertain the Michigan State Spartans at Yost Arena on Tuesday.
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