MARQUETTE – Northern Michigan University goalie Atte Tolvanen has had a spectacular season so far and on Friday against Ferris State, he made some good saves to keep the Wildcats in their game against Ferris State.

But despite another strong performance, Tolvanen got burned by a bad break late in the third period that led to the Bulldogs’ 4-2 victory at NMU’s Berry Events Center.

The break in question started with a glove save before the puck fell out and Ferris’ Andrew Dorantes fired it into the net to give the Bulldogs a 3-2 lead. A few minutes later, the Bulldogs’ Corey Mackin tallied an empty-netter for the final margin.

“That was a tough one,” NMU head coach Walt Kyle said.

“It was one of those games where you trade punches and we wound up losing the game.

“I thought we came out sluggish early and I kind of expected that because it’s finals week and that’s what happens, but I thought we corrected and played pretty good the last two periods.”

Ferris kept the puck in the NMU zone early on, putting pressure on Tolvanen. But NMU moved possession to Ferris’ end and pulled even in shots by the midpoint of the opening period.

The Wildcats had two good looks during this surge, with one of them close to being a nice goal.

That came when Northern’s Darren Nowick showed off his speed, beating a defender to the near post where he made a pass across the crease to John Siemer, but the puck was just out of his reach.

Ferris ended up breaking the scoreless tie late in the first. Tolvanen made the initial save on a shot, but the rebound went to Bulldogs winger Andrew Mayer, who fired it into the net.

Northern’s penalty killing unit looked sharp in the second period.

Tolvanen made consecutive saves to keep Ferris from going up 2-0, then the penalty killers shined late in the period as well as Northern was whistled for back-to-back penalties and special teamers made three clears in front of Tolvanen.

“Our penalty killers did a good job,” Kyle said. “We just took too many penalties that we didn’t need to take.”

Northern also had two nice scoring opportunities in the middle period.

The first came when Casey Purpur skated in with the extra attacker and fired a shot at Ferris goalie Charles Williams. Williams allowed a rebound, but a Bulldog player got to the puck first and got the whistle.

The second occurred when Dominik Shine broke free down the far side and passed the puck back to Robbie Payne. Payne had a good look at the net and his shot would’ve gotten past Williams, but it went just wide.

NMU finally evened the score with 3:01 left in the period and also ended a drought for its power play. A deflected shot trickled its way to Nowick, who beat Williams high to his blocker side.

The Wildcats took a 2-1 lead early in the third. After killing off another penalty, Northern brought the puck into the Ferris zone

During a scrum in front of the net, Nowick tapped the puck past Williams for his second goal of the night. NMU had two other scoring opportunities soon after the goal, but couldn’t capitalize.

It cost them as Ferris first tied, then took the lead in the final period.

The NMU penalty killers let one in during an extended power play when Trevor Recktenwald tapped a loose puck past Tolvanen to tie it.

“We missed some assignments off the face-offs and they capitalized,” Kyle said.

“They had two for sure, maybe three face-off goals and we’ve got to do a better job at that.”

The two teams will face-off again at 7:07 p.m. today at the Berry Events Center.

Ryan Stieg can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 246. His email address is rstieg@miningjournal.net.