On the heels of its first WCHA Playoff Championship, Ferris State advances to the NCAA Tournament for the third time in the past five seasons. The Bulldogs travel to St. Paul, Minnesota to play #1 seed and second ranked St. Cloud State Saturday, 2:00 PM (CT) at the Xcel Energy Center. The winner advances to the Regional Final Sunday at the Xcel Energy Center, and will face the winner of Saturday’s second West Regional semi-final matchup between Boston University and Denver, 5:00 PM (CT).

 

Ferris State won the Broadmoor Trophy and earned the WCHA’s automatic bid into the 16- team NCAA Tournament after defeating Minnesota State 2-1 at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Michigan Saturday night. Gerald Mayhew scored the game-winning-goal late in the second period on a penalty shot, and freshman goaltender Darren Smith made 13 saves, earning Final Five MVP honors. Over the weekend, Smith allowed just one goal on 44 shots, including 30 saves in Friday’s 1-0 semi-final victory over Michigan Tech.

 

Saturday marks the first game this season between Ferris State and St. Cloud State, but Ferris State Head Coach Bob Daniels does not have to look hard to learn how the Huskies earned the top spot in the West Regional.

 

“Generally during the course of the year I’ll catch other teams play, but I have not seen them at all this year so I have minimal exposure to them. I have learned that they have tremendous depth in scoring, more of a line 1A and 1B, but beyond those two lines they have tremendous depth in all the lines for scoring.”

 

St. Cloud’s balanced attack enters the game second in the nation in scoring at 4.28 goals per game. Senior forward Kalle Kossila leads the team and is fifth in the nation with 52 points (14-38=52), but is one of seven Huskies that have scored more than 30 points this season. St. Cloud’s offense also includes two 20-goal scorers in senior Joey Benik (22-24=46) and sophomore Patrick Russel (20-21=41).

 

But the Huskies depth in scoring is not unlike Ferris State, who enters the game with 13 players in double digits, including four players on the blue-line with double-digit points, Sean O’Rourke (4-8=12), Ryan Lowney (2-11=13), Simon Denis (7-7=14), and Brandon Anselmini (2-14=16). Leading scorer, forward Gerald Mayhew, has 36 points (14-22=36) on the season and has points in 14 of the past 18 games.

 

“Obviously that line with Mayhew will be important, but like St. Cloud, we do have depth to our scoring too. I don’t think we’ll have to lean on one guy or one line, last weekend Gerry [Mayhew] scored a big goal for us, but there are other players. Kenny Babinski, another senior forward, scored the game-winner on Friday, Brandon Anselmi scored a goal on Saturday, we can kind of manufacture goals from a variety of different areas as well.”

 

Defensively, St. Cloud boasts Hobey Baker Finalist senior Ethan Prow and junior goaltender Charlie Lindgren. Prow leads the nation in scoring among defenseman with 37 points (8-29=37) and is seventh in the nation with a +32 rating. In net, Lindgren leads the nation with 39 starts and 30 wins, posting a .927 Save Percentage and five shutouts.

 

“I figured a team that scores goals at the rate they do, defense may not be first and foremost, but they are a very good defensive team and I am really impressed by that.”

 

Daniels added. They play very solid defensive hockey, they’re very well coached, and very well organized. They have a plan and stick to that plan, obviously for them to be a #2 seed in the nation they’re going to be a very good hockey club.”

 

Defensively, Ferris State enters the NCAA Tournament allowing 2.54 goals per game for the season, but allowed just five goals in four games during the WCHA Playoffs (1.25 per game). Leading the way is freshman Darren Smith in net, with a 16-9-5 record, .923 save percentage, and three shutouts.

 

“He’s technically a solid goaltender, he doesn’t get rattled, if there is a goal that gets by him it doesn’t seem to affect the rest of his game and that’s one of the things I really like.” Daniels said of his freshman goaltender. “He’s able to erase things and move on and I think it really helped our team, every goalie is going to let one or two in he didn’t want to, but it’s the fact that they accept it and you can’t tell, he just refocuses and doesn’t let it affect the rest of the team and that personality seems to mesh well with the rest of the team.”

 

Smith’s calm personality in net, combined with a solid core of juniors and seniors, have his team primed to make a run in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

 

“For us we do have some pretty good experience to lean on, two years ago we played in the Regional Final and lost in double overtime to North Dakota and we have quite a few players that were around for that experience. It will be really important that the younger guys take the lead from the veterans, and not get too enthralled with the big stage but I don’t think that will happen, we’re a pretty experienced group.”

 

For Daniels though, it’s not just experience for the players that help on the big stage, leading his team to the NCAA Tournament on multiple occasions, including a trip to the 2012 NCAA Championship game, also gives Daniels experience to call upon from the bench.

 

“One thing I’ve really learned over the years is you can’t change a lot because the game is big. You have to go through your normal practice, all of a sudden because it’s a bigger stage and there’s a little more on the line you cant try to coach differently, guys will sense it. We want to play the same as we always play, so I try to avoid coaching or behaving differently.” With that said, Daniels also recognizes the importance of the NCAA Tournament and says it helps to embrace the bigger stage, not shy away from the increased media attention.

 

“There’s going to be more distractions, more media attention, just some different things that maybe are out of the ordinary, but don’t be fearful of it, embrace it and just keep going rather than try to shut everybody out. The kids are more resilient than we give them credit for, they’re so used to media and all the stuff that goes with that nowadays that you don’t need to be fearful.”

 

Fearful was not a characteristic Ferris State showed last weekend in defeating McNaughton Cup Co-Champions (WCHA Regular Season Champions) Michigan Tech and Minnesota State to claim the Broadmoor Trophy. After Saturday’s contest, Daniels referred to a good feeling he had heading into the playoffs, a feeling he hopes will continue as the Bulldogs prepare this week and look to make another run in the NCAA Tournament.

 

“I’m more of a process guy, the style we play has been well engrained in us all season. This time of the year there’s not going to be a lot of changes by us, and I doubt they will either. Really just point out certain tendencies to the guys and some adjustments we’ll make in the game, but it won’t be much anything different than how we played last weekend.”

 

At this point in the season Daniels knows it is about believing in that process and drawing upon those previous experiences. With each coming game comes a bigger stage, but that doesn’t faze Daniels in his preparation and he stresses that the bigger the game, the better off you are keeping things simple.

 

“Hopefully the players can know that while it’s a big stage, its nothing more than hockey. There’s a net at both ends, scoreboard in the middle, and officials on the ice, so lets go.

 

Keys to the Game:
- St. Cloud enters the game ranked 2 nd in the country on the power-play at 28.9%. Ferris State enters 14.5% on the power-play. This year, Ferris State is 15-5-1 when scoring on the power-play, while posting a 2-9-5 record when held scoreless on the power-play. The Bulldogs are also 5-7-2 when allowing a power-play goal, and 12-7- 4 when holding its opponents scoreless on the power-play.

- “We have a real appreciation for the power-play, so with that said we’re going to try and hammer home the easiest way to kill is to not get on it,” Daniels said. “We don’t need to be killing seven or eight power plays, we need to minimize the exposure to their power play and kind of take everyone’s word that they’re really good and maybe not see it.”

- Ferris State is 13-3-3 this season when scoring 3 or more goals, while posting a 4-11-3 record when scoring 2 goals or less.

Quick Hitters:
- After his Game-Winning-Goal on Saturday, Junior Gerald Mayhew now has eight goals and four assists in 12-career playoff games for Ferris State.

- Bulldog Freshman forward Corey Mackin received the 2015-16 WCHA Rookie of the Year award and was also named to the All-Rookie Team. Mackin led WCHA freshman during league play with 21 points (9-2=21), and has 23 points (9-14=23) overall this season.

- In his 24 th season, Ferris State Head Coach Bob Daniels is the winningest coach in program history. Daniels led the Bulldogs to its first WCHA Regular Season Championship in 2013-14 and an Elite Eight Appearance in the NCAA Tournament, while receiving WCHA Coach of the Year honors. He also led the program to the 2012 NCAA Championship Game, and was previously honored as the 2002-03 Coach of the Year (Inside College Hockey and March of Dimes West Michigan Sports Awards) after posting a 31-10-1 overall record that year.