RE: Other college hockey (BSU, UND, SCSU, etc) - 3/26/2016 7:51:56 PM
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twinsfan
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ST. PAUL, Minn. — “18 seconds? Wow.”
Ferris State forward Gerald Mayhew was just letting that sink in during the postgame press conference. His 15th-seeded Bulldogs just knocked off St. Cloud State, 5-4, just 18 seconds into overtime thanks to his assist on Jared VanWormer’s game winner.
Head coach Bob Daniels said that it didn’t even hit him right away.
“It’s a surreal feeling when that happens,” Daniels said.
Mayhew won a faceoff in his own end, and carried the puck all the way down the ice. He didn’t have a very clear path, but he sent the puck toward the net anyway. It bounced off goalie Charlie Lindgren’s stick and went right to VanWormer on the right side of the slot.
“Right place, right time, and I had to put it in,” VanWormer said.
While Ferris State got this far largely on its defense — it held Minnesota State to just 14 shots in last week's WCHA title game — it was an offensive outburst over the first two periods that staked the Bulldogs to a 4-2 lead.
But they couldn’t hold off a St. Cloud State comeback in the third period. So the teams headed to a third intermission.
“There was no panic in the locker room. I give our older guys a lot of credit,” Daniels said. “Even though we lost a two-goal lead, here we were going into overtime in the NCAA tournament. So there’d be a lot of people that would swap spots with us.”
The Bulldogs jumped out to a quick start three minutes into the game with a Mitch Maloney goal. But they played most of the opening frame knotted at 1-1 after St. Cloud State’s Jacob Benson scored 17 seconds later.
With the first period winding down, it looked like they’d head to the locker room tied, but Ferris State struck again with 23 seconds remaining to send the Huskies off the ice looking for answers. VanWormer quietly skated around the defenders and took a pass into the slot uncontested to score his first of the night.
Kenny Babinski netted another goal one minute into the second period to open up the two-goal lead. And after Mikey Eyssimont pulled the Huskies within one in the middle of the frame, the Bulldogs found the back of the net for a fourth time to build their lead yet again.
VanWormer hustled to the puck behind the net and sent a pass into the slot, where a wide open Mayhew was waiting. He had time to control the puck and rip a shot past Lindgren for the 4-2 lead.
“Jared VanWormer is the hardest working kid on the team,” Mayhew said. “He mucks it up in the corner a lot. That always helps; you need someone on your line to do that.”
But the Huskies headed into St. Paul as the overall No. 2 seed for a reason. They came into the game with 171 goals and 306 assists. They poured the pressure on the Bulldogs to start the third.
“If we were gonna lose, we were gonna go down swinging,” Huskies defenseman Nathan Widman said.
Eyssimont scored again four minutes into the frame, and then Joey Benik tied it up with 8:31 remaining. Despite some great looks in the closing minutes of regulation, the Huskies couldn’t finish off the Bulldogs—which set the stage for VanWormer’s overtime heroics.
“They played a heck of a hockey game tonight. They deserve a ton of credit for preparing their team to come in here and play,” St. Cloud State coach Bob Motzko said.
Ferris State’s freshman goalie Darren Smith made 29 saves in the contest, and despite the third period, Daniels felt his netminder held strong.
“He really was solid tonight,” Daniels said.
Last week, Daniels said he “just had a really good feeling” about his team going into the postseason. They won the WCHA Tournament last weekend, and now they find themselves one game away from the Frozen Four.
Four years ago, Ferris State defeated Denver and Cornell on its way to the school’s first-ever Frozen Four. That year, the Frozen Four was also held in Tampa. The Bulldogs hope to work their way back to Florida.
“Our team needs to keep working hard and outworking our opponent,” Mayhew said. “And things like tonight will happen.”
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