For the second night in a row, Ferris State found themselves up by a goal in the waning minutes of the game. This time, they held on to defeat Bowling Green, 4-3, in their last regular season home game as a CCHA member.
On senior night in front of a sold out Ewigleben Ice Arena, it was the whole team, not just the seniors, that saw Ferris State through to the win.
Ferris State had scoring from all four lines, including senior captain Kyle Bonis, who finally got the monkey off his back after missing three breakaway attempts last night. Bonis scored short-handed with less than a minute remaining in the first period to give Ferris State a 2-1 lead.
“I just tried to take advantage of his [Bowling Green freshman goalie Tommy Burke] off positioning,” said Bonis of the breakaway goal, in which Burke appeared unsure if he should come out to play the puck or not. “Getting a short-handed goal doesn’t happen all the time.”
Ferris State started the scoring and controlled play for much of the first period, just as they did Friday night. Justin Buzzeo netted the Bulldogs’ first goal with a shot from the low slot after a nifty pass from Justin DeMartino got him behind the Falcons defense and alone in front of Burke.
However, Bowling Green came right back with a goal of its own from Adam Berkle, who stickhandled through three Ferris State players before roofing a shot over C.J. Motte.
Ferris State took a two-goal lead early in the second with a tally from junior Cory Kane, but it would be short-lived.
Midway through the game, Bowling Green came back with two goals in just 35 seconds. Brent Tate and Brett Mohler both scored from just in front of the net to tie the game up.
Ferris State took the lead for good late in the second period with a power-play goal from Garrett Thompson.
“Special teams has been our Achilles’ heel all year long,” said Bowling Green coach Chris Bergeron. “We played better than we did last night, just a different result. We did a lot of things we want wanted to; we just didn’t score enough.”
For Ferris State, tonight was about coming back from a tough loss and taking momentum into their bye-week, which couldn’t have come at a better time, as the Bulldogs are battling a spat of injuries.
“Sometimes, you get kicked down a bit,” said Bonis, “and the next night is a lot more telling when it comes to the team’s character.”
