Late in the third period, Michigan’s Sam Piazza scored his third goal of the season to take a late lead, beating the Ferris State Huskies, 2-1.
On Saturday night, two of last year’s NCAA Tournament teams faced off in in Big Rapids, Michigan. This would be the 64th time that Michigan’s head coach Red Berenson and Ferris State’s head coach Bob Daniels would face off against one another. Michigan beat Ferris State last year 5-2 at Yost Ice Arena.
Coach Berenson and the Wolverines came into Saturday night’s game with a 1-1-0 record after splitting the series their season opener with the Union College Dutchman. Michigan won the second game of the series with a 4-0 shutout and where Hayden Lavigne would record his first career win and shutout as a Michigan Wolverine. Saturday night against Ferris State, the Wolverines would start their third different goalie in as many games as they would start freshman Jack LaFontaine in net.
Coming into the game against Ferris State, the Michigan offense has seen scoring come from both their talented young freshman like Will Lockwood and James Sanchez and from experienced leaders Sam Piazza and Tony Calderone.
Both clubs would start the period with some intensity and both Michigan’s LaFontaine and Ferris State’s goaltender sophomore Darren Smith would be tested early by their opponents. Michigan and Ferris State would both get power play opportunities but would not be able to capitalize on them. Ferris would outshoot the Michigan 11-8 in first period.
Entering the second period you could tell that each team really wanted that first goal of the game. At the 6:17 mark of the second, Ferris State’s junior defensemen Evan Dorantes would head to box for tripping and would give the Wolverines their third power play of the game. This time Michigan would capitalize on the opportunity when freshman James Slaker would score his first goal of his career at Michigan and give them a 1-0 over Ferris State.
The Bulldogs would have get their own power play opportunities during the second period but were not able to capitalize on the opportunities as the Michigan’s LaFontaine and their penalty kill would hold them to four total shots on both chances. Ferris State would outshoot the Wolverines in the second period 10-5 but still trail 1-0 heading into the final period.
Michigan would start the third period 1-0. This would be the third straight game the Wolverines would take a lead heading into the third period this season. Michigan record on the season when having the lead is 1-1-0. They gave up a 3-2 lead heading into the third period to Union College on Oct.7 which they would allow 2 goals in the final five minutes to lose 4-3.
The game would get tied up at 1 at 8:37 of the third period when Ferris State’s junior Andrew Mayer would capitalize on Michigan freshman Nick Pastujov’s holding penalty. Penalties are very crucial in the game of hockey and they can change the course of a hockey game and with young inexperienced players, penalties can happen for any team.
Late in third period of a close 1-1 game, Ferris State’s junior Zach Szajner would head to box for hooking and the Michigan power play would take the ice to try and give the Wolverines the lead once again. As the penalty to Szajner was coming to an end, Sam Piazza would score his third goal of the season.
The Wolverines would come back to the game against the Bulldogs 2-1 and winning their second straight game of the season moving to 2-1-0 on the season and handing Ferris State their fifth loss of the season. Freshman Jack LaFontaine would earn his first win of his Michigan career stopping 28 of 29 shots that he faced. Darren Smith would earn his fifth loss of the season stopping 12 of 14 shots that he faced.
It was a tough games for the Wolverines as they were only able to register 14 shots on net but were able to capitalize on two of them.
The Wolverines look to extend their winning streak to three games this weekend as they host the Michigan Tech Huskies. It will be homecoming weekend for the Wolverines. Friday night, the Wolverines will be honoring the 1995-96 National Championship team during the first intermission. Faceoff is scheduled for 7:30 PM EST.
