Sunday, March 02, 2008

Ferris and Michigan split finale

by Tom Balog / Ferris State Beat Writer

A night after getting thumped by the Michigan Wolverines 5-3 in Ann Arbor Friday, the Ferris State Bulldogs returned to their home ice on Saturday and shocked the No. 1 team in the nation with a 4-3 overtime win.

"It's a tough loss when you lose in overtime, obviously," said Michigan head coach Red Berenson. "I thought we were playing pretty well in the second period -- we had the lead. We gave up the lead in the third and maybe had our chances, but I thought we gave up too many chances. We didn't play as well defensively. Our penalty killing wasn't strong, and our faceoffs were a factor in tonight's game."

FSU started the scoring with back-to-back, first period power-play markers by Justin Lewandowski and Justin Menke.

The Wolverines responded with markers by Carl Hagelin and Kevin Porter and the score was tied 2-2 after 20 minutes of play.

Max Pacioretty gave U of M their first lead when he scored at 13:58 of the second.

Lewandowski notched his second of the night at 3:57 of the third to tie up the score at 3-3 and that would last until overtime.

Senior Adam Miller became the hero at 3:22, redirecting in his seventh of the season to give the Bulldogs the victory.

With the win, the Bulldogs snapped a seven-game losing skid to the Wolverines.

Mitch O'Keefe stopped 29 shots in between the pipes for FSU. Bryan Hogan turned away 37 for the Maize and Blue.

Ferris State will face Western Michigan in the first-round, best-of-three CCHA playoff series that will begin Friday night at the Ewigleben Arena in Big Rapids. Friday's game will also be televised on FSN Detroit at 7:35 p.m.

Michigan will get a week off and a first-round bye in the CCHA tournament.

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