It is too bad they can’t hand out a Perani’s Cup three star selection to the puck. Strange bounces haunted both teams through the second and third periods. In the end, it was Greg Rallo who scored the game-winner at 8:42 off a feed from Carter Thompson to give Ferris State a 5-4 victory over Miami.
“It was one of those games that should have been a 3-2 game,” Bulldog coach Bob Daniels said. “Look at the way that puck bounced out there today. We got a couple fortunate bounces while it bounced back their way in the third. It was just one of those games where the score was not indicative of the way the game was played.”
Ferris State got on the board first at 4:12 of the first period. Brett Smith passed the puck across the top of the crease to Jeff Legue. Legue was hooked, but sticked the puck into the open wide side of the net to make it 1-0.
The second period was all Ferris State when it came to scoring chances. The Bulldog defense turned it up a notch and kept all the shots to the outside while Mike Brown came up with more than just a few glove saves to keep Redhawks off the board. Giovanni Flamminio gave the Bulldogs a two goal lead at 2:17. Carter Thompson’s wrist shot hit the pads of goaltender Brandon Crawford-West and Flamminio was there to put it home.
The puck started bouncing in the Bulldog’s direction shortly after that goal. Simon Mangos capitalized at 6:29 when his soft wrist shot hit the pads of Crawford-West and trickled into the net to make it 3-0. Brett Smith gave Ferris State a 4-0 lead on a soft wrist shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that went between the legs of the sprawling goaltender to make the crowd go crazy.
“It was good to see the students back tonight,” Daniels said. “Our last two weekend home series were on break so the student support just wasn’t there. I have to hand it to the community coming out in the interim, but the students make it loud and that is what really helped our team tonight.”
At that point, Crawford-West was pulled in favor of Nick Petraglia who filled in admirably as Miami got new life. Todd Grant got Miami on the board at 19:20 of the second period. Andy Greene passed the puck over to Grant who shot the puck top shelf over Brown to make it 4-1.
The third period, the ice tilted in favor of the Redhawks as they got a huge bounce to put them back into the game at 4:17. Greg Hogeboom collected the puck in the defensive zone and wristed it toward Brown. Brown came out to collect it, but it hit a rut in the ice and bounced over the blocker of the goaltender and trickled into the net to make it 4-2.
Andy Greene got another bounce to make it 5-3 when his wrist shot hit the heel of Brown’s stick and trickled behind him at 15:01. Taylor Hustead made it a one goal game at 16:44, but that was the closest they got as Ferris held on.
“I really couldn’t be upset with the guys after that game,” Daniels said. “They played very disciplined overall, and the defense played a very complete game. I am most concerned about tomorrow night though. It seems like we haven’t put together a solid game on the second night of a weekend series yet.”
