Sometimes, one player is the difference-maker in a game. Tonight, it was Luke Glendening, who netted the only two goals scored in a contest where very little real estate was available, as Michigan downed Ferris State 2-0.
Both of Glendening’s goals came in the second period, both even strength, both scored in similar fashion — from the slot near the inner edge of the right circle, beating Ferris State goaltender Pat Nagle near the right post on the glove side.
“Tonight was a good victory against as good of a team that we’ve played since Wisconsin,” said Michigan head coach Red Berenson. “I thought defensively we had to play one of our best games — not that they didn’t get some shots.
“I thought the game was played the way we needed to play.”
The Wolverines outshot the Bulldogs 36-22, but it was no easy game for Wolverine netminder Bryan Hogan.
Hogan, who earned his sixth career shutout, was particularly good in the third, when he stopped FSU’s best scoring chances of the night on shots by Mike Embach and Kyle Bonis midway through the period.
“He played outstanding,” said Michigan defenseman Steve Kampfer of Hogan. “He stood on his head and made some big saves for us.”
While Hogan worked to save the shutout late in the game, it was the defense and the penalty killing that gave Michigan the momentum in the first period. At 12:25, both Glendening and David Wohlberg were sent to the penalty box — Glendening for tripping, Wohlberg for holding the stick — giving FSU a full two minutes of 5-on-3 advantage.
In that span, the Bulldogs couldn’t register a shot on goal, and the Wolverines managed not only to clear repeatedly but to threaten offensively as well. After it was over, the cheers of the fans in Yost Ice Arena were deafening.
“That really got the crowd into it and at that point in the first period when people were kind of settling into their seats and it looked like it might be a good road game for us,” said Ferris State head coach Bob Daniels. “The absence of them scoring early, it was almost as good as a goal in terms of the crowd getting into it.
“It was loud and it should have been; they did a great job of killing it.”
“That was huge,” said Berenson. “It was just one of those shifts where three different players were called for a penalty in the same shift and so we were two men short. That could have been the game for them. To kill that penalty off kept us in the game.”
Glendening scored his first goal at 3:43 in the second on a 2-on-1 breakaway.
Louie Caporusso took the puck in on the left wing and passed over to Glendening, who used Bulldog Brett Wysopal as a screen to get the puck past Nagle near the right post.
At 8:19, Glendening made it 2-0 when he picked up the rebound of Scooter Vaughan’s initial shot, which hit Bulldog Travis Ouellette and came straight back to Glendening — who used Ouellette as a partial screen as he again beat Nagle over the glove hand near the right post.
“Those were two nice goals Luke scored and my hat is off to him,” said Daniels.
“Those looked like goal-scorer’s goals, like he knew what he was doing.”
“He has a nice shot and he works his tail off,” said Caporusso. “That’s what is going to happen when you try hard, and I’m lucky to have him on my line.”
Neither team scored on the power play, with FSU going 0-for-3 and UM 0-for-4. Daniels said that with two goals allowed on 36 shots, Nagle wasn’t the problem for Ferris State tonight.
“I thought our goalie played very well,” said Daniels. “I was real happy with him.
“That’s the second time in three games that we’ve been shut out and we’ve got to address that. We need to create some more offense than we did. It’s nice to play good defensively…but you’re not going to win the game if you don’t score any goals.”
On Saturday, Michigan (14-10-1 overall, 9-7-1-0 in the CCHA) travels to Big Rapids to cap this home-and-home series against Ferris State (16-7-2, 10-5-2-2). The puck drops at 8:05 p.m.
