Ferris State splits with No. 1 Notre Dame

by Andy Oliver

Friday night in South Bend, Ferris State came back from a two-goal deficit to beat top-ranked Notre Dame 5-2.

Kevin Deeth started the scoring for Notre Dame at 7:17 of the first period with assists going to Ryan Thang and Justin White.

Early in the second period Mark Van Guilder added a power-play goal for the Irish with Noah Babin and Matt Case assisting on the play.

Ferris State than scored the next five goals to seal the victory.

Many Ferris players had multi-point nights starting with Mark Bomersback, who had two goals and one assist, Brendan Connolly with one goal and two assists, Matt Case with one goal and one assist and Cody Chupp with three assists.

Corey Couturier had one goal on the night while Evan Case and Jeremy Scherlinck each added one assist to round out the scoring for the Bulldogs.

Ferris State goalie Mitch O’Keefe made 21 saves to get the win and improve his record to 6-18-3.

Notre Dame goalie David Brown made 15 saves on the night in getting the loss.

Ferris went 1-for-4 on the power play, while Notre Dame was 1-for-5.

Saturday night was a different story as Ferris State ended up being shutout by Notre Dame, 2-0.

The first period saw a lot of hard hitting physical play, with 30 penalty minutes, but no goal scoring.

Jason Paige (Saginaw) scored the first goal of the game for Notre Dame at 10:55 of the second period.

The power-play goal came on a scramble in front of the Ferris net after a shot from Deeth was bounding around and Paige knocked it in the net.

Van Guilder scored the second and final goal for Notre Dame at the 1:25 mark of the third period.

Van Guilder walked into the face off circle and let a quick wrist shot go that beat Ferris goaltender Derek MacIntyre high off the cross bar.

MacIntyre made 33 saves on the night in a losing effort.

Brown made 15 saves for his fifth shutout of the season.

On the power play, Ferris was 0-for-5 and Notre Dame was 1-for-6.

With the loss, Ferris State finishes the season in ninth place in the CCHA with a record of 10-16-2.

The Bulldogs will play Lake Superior State next weekend at Sault St. Marie for the first round of the playoffs.

Notre Dame finished in first place in the CCHA with a 21-4-3 record and was presented the championship trophy after the game by CCHA commissioner Tom Anastos.