Bob Daniels knows his Ferris State team will be opening the 2025 Mason Cup playoffs on the road.
Considering how well the Bulldogs seem to have played away from Big Rapids, Mich. — they’re 6-8-0 on the road compared to 5-8-2 at home — that’s just fine with Daniels.
“We could finish as high as fifth and as low as lowest eighth, so there’s a lot to play for, and we really don’t care where we go. Our road record has been pretty good this year. We’ve been a pretty good road team, so we’re fine with that,” Daniels said on Monday, following his team’s road split with Michigan Tech in Houghton. The Bulldogs lost 6-1 on Friday night and were down 2-0 on Saturday night before winning 3-2. “I do think coming from behind at Michigan Tech, which is a really a great fun environment and difficult environment to play, I do think that’s going to bode well going into the playoffs and knowing that we just recently took on a pretty darn good hockey team, and we’re able to split with them on the road.”
Because of where Ferris State is in the CCHA standings, it means that this weekend’s home series against Northern Michigan will also be the Bulldogs’ final regular-season home dates at Ewigleben Ice Arena. By extension, those two games will also be Daniels’ last two home games behind the Bulldog bench. The 65-year-old Daniels announced in January that he is retiring at the end of this season.
And although the FSU athletic department plans on pulling out all the stops for their longtime head coach of 36 years in these two games — going so far as to call this “Bob Daniels Weekend” in his honor — Daniels would love nothing more than to treat these games like any other. At the very least, he wants to make sure his players get their due before him.
“Well, I’m sure there will be emotions, but I really am trying to just take it as another game only because, you know, I like our team, we fought hard all year long, and I don’t want to get distracted at the end,” Daniels said. “Our seniors, it’s their last games, too. And so, rightfully, I think the spotlight should be on them.”
The Bulldogs have five seniors on the team–captain Kaleb Ergang, Nico DeVita, Zach Faremouth, Nick Grimaldi and Nick Nardecchia, as well as graduate transfer goaltender Noah West and Jacob Dirks.
“This has been a really good group of guys to work with, just really self-directed, no issues off the ice, they play with a purpose, and they’re fun and they’re engaged, so that’s why I really feel compelled to make sure that we run through the finish line and give these guys every opportunity and make sure we give them our best so that they have every opportunity to go and make a memorable season out of it.”
The Bulldogs, currently 12-18-2, have been on a pretty good run since the start of 2025 and can continue that this weekend with a pair of games against Northern Michigan–who they already swept on the road. In their last eight games, FSU is 5-3-0 and won against three of the top four teams in the CCHA (Minnesota State, Bowling Green and Michigan Tech). Whatever matchup the Bulldogs get in the next round, they’ll be battle-tested.
“I really enjoyed the heck out of this season,” Daniels said. “But when it’s over, I think I will be saying that it’s going to be the exact right time, and there’ll be no regrets or no, you know, ‘We should come back for another year.’ It’s pretty darn close to perfect timing. I don’t feel like I went too long. I don’t feel like it got shorter, that’s for sure. So it’s perfect. But I do want to kind of really enjoy the last games. And I’d like to keep going as deep as we can.”
After that? Daniels said he’ll finally have more time to reflect on his career once the season is over and the emotions subside. After all, there’s a lot of memories packed into nearly 40 years of time behind the bench in Big Rapids. As head coach, Daniels went to four NCAA tournaments, one NCAA title game and won three regular season league titles (two in the old CCHA and one in the WCHA). He also won his 500th career game back in November.
“It will be nice to get opportunities to look back and thank people,” Daniels said. “And I know there’s something going on this weekend, so we’ll have a reception and so forth, but, you know, anything else we plan on really doing will probably take place after the season ends.”
And he plans on remaining with the program in some capacity.
“I would like to stay involved to some extent, in terms of maybe helping out with growing our booster club, and, you know, maybe look to lend my name and help a little bit, and some fundraising endeavors go. I don’t want to get involved with the program, other than, what can I do to kind of help grow the, you know, grow our program financially,” Daniels said. “I don’t want to be involved in the Xs and Os. I’ve been there, done that, but I do know from being there, there’s times you can use a voice or a hand, maybe approach an alum saying, ‘Hey, we could use a little help, you know, in this area. And would you be willing to do so?’ And I would certainly be open to that. But yeah, when it comes to hockey, I’m going to let the coach do that.
“They don’t need me,” he joked. “There’s a couple thousand other coaches sitting in the stands at the game. I’ll let them help.”
