By Journal

Sports Staff

BIG RAPIDS – In need of a win to gain ground in the WCHA standings, the Northern Michigan University hockey team fell flat Friday night at Ferris State.

The Wildcats (12-12-6, 9-8-4 WCHA) gave up four goals in the second period and lost 5-1 to the Bulldogs. Robbie Payne had the lone goal for Northern and Atte Tolvanen made 42 saves in the loss.

After a scoreless first period in which Tolvanen made 22 saves, Ferris (14-9-6, 12-7-4 WCHA) got on the board just 1:03 into the second when Mitch Maloney put one in the back of the net. The Bulldogs later took advantage of a bad line change by the Wildcats and went up 2-0 on a goal by Andrew Dorantes.

Ferris added two more in barely more than a minute near the end of the period. The first came when Simon Denis beat Tolvanen and the second came when Kenny Babinski used a screen to fire a shot into the net.

In the third, Payne notched his 11th goal of the year at the 5:27 mark. On a 3-on-2 rush, Dominik Shine passed the puck up to Barrett Kaib, who then sent it to Payne. After getting denied on his first shot, Payne tapped the rebound past Ferris goalie Darren Smith.

Jacob Hetz finished off the scoring for Ferris just a little more than two minutes later when he beat Tolvanen top shelf.

Northern, now six points behind Ferris in its quest for the final home playoff berth in the WCHA playoffs, will try to salvage a series split at 7:07 p.m. today.

Information compiled by Journal Sports Writer Ryan Stieg. His email address is rstieg@ miningjournal.net.