BIG RAPIDS – The Ferris State University men’s ice hockey team is set for a rivalry weekend as it welcomes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association’s first place Bowling Green Falcons this Friday and Saturday with both games now set for 7:07 p.m.
The streaky Falcons come to town riding their best stretch of the year, a three-game winning streak in which they’ve scored 12 goals to their opponent’s five.
That follows a six-game losing streak where they had a -14 goal differential (deflated badly by an 8-2 loss to Western Michigan at home).
Last season, these two teams split the four-game set, with Ferris State scoring a 6-3 doubling of the Falcons in Ohio and a 2-1 overtime win at home to bookend the season series.
These are two largely similar teams: An impact transfer, sophomore that was one of the league’s best freshman, a good power play, and are in every game.
All that said the Falcons are the CCHA’s current first place team. They’ve played more games than the next teams down the list, and their sweep of St. Thomas, which was briefly in doubt until the Falcons scored twice in the final five minutes Saturday to earn that sweep, has them at the top.
Austen Swankler paces the Falcons with seven goals amongst 10 points, while Ryan O’Hara (five goals) and Ethan Scardina (six goals) are both off to nice scoring starts as well. Transfer Chase Gresock has a booming shot but has mainly played the role of distributor thus far (2-6-8).
Keep an eye on Nathan Burke as well, who is off to an uncharacteristically quiet start (three points in 12 games). Christian Stoever is doing the bulk of the goalkeeping with a .910 save percentage and 3.11 goals against average in 540 minutes. Zack Rose has been in and out over four outings with a .902 save percentage and 3.25 goals against average.
Ferris State junior goaltender Logan Stein and sophomore goaltender Noah Giesbrecht each had strong starts at No. 20 Bemidji State this past weekend. Stein’s 44 out of 46 (.956) mark led the way to two points Friday. He also stopped all three Bemidji State shootout attempts on the night to get the Bulldogs the extra point.
On Saturday, Giesbrecht’s 32-34 night got the Bulldogs another point, on a .941 save percentage. The mark was the second best of the year for Giesbrecht, only out-dueled by his win over Canisius (29-30).
The Bulldogs have the second best combined save percentage in the CCHA (.906), while Stein himself now ranks second in the league in save percentage on his own (.928) behind only preseason goalie of the year Blake Pietila.