Big Rapids 4 Midland Dow 2

A balanced scoring effort and some strong special teams allowed Big Rapids to come out on top against Midland Dow 4 to 2 at Ferris State on Friday evening. Scoring opened in the first on a goal by sophomore Michael Hickson at the 10:54 mark as he was on the receiving end of a nice pass off the wall from Paul Goggins and then went top shelf – wide side to start the scoring for Big Rapids. The period was dominated by the Cardinals until Midland got a goal at the 1:06 mark from Charger's Stuart Kendall, with the assist coming from Michael Oakley and even though Midland was outshot 10 to 4, it was 1 to 1 at the period break. Neither team took any penalties in the first.

Not sure what was said in the locker room, but the Cardinals came out and fired 10 shots during the next period, 6 of those were power play shots as Midland took three penalties during the 2nd frame. Scoring proved difficult for both teams though, as Midland missed on a nice 2 on 1 scoring opportunity midway through the game. Later in the 2nd, Cardinal sophomore Tom Hancock got a power play goal at the 1:06 mark on a nice feed from senior defenseman Matt Farnsworth and junior defenseman Billy McMullen to put Big Rapids up 2 to 1 at the break. Big Rapids again outshot Midland Dow ten to two in the period.

The third period was great hockey…shots evened up and both teams capitalized on some scoring opportunities as they pressured each other in respective zones. Dow had 4 power play opportunities to Big Rapid's 2 during the period. Scoring finally got underway at the 10:05 mark, as junior forward Jordan Defever deflected a Matt Farnsworth power play shot from the point to put the cardinals up 3 to 1, Phillip Carley also assisted. Midland Dow got back on the board late in the game as they pulled their goalie to take advantage of a Cardinal penalty and then a Michael Allen slap shot that was deflected by Eli Rytlewski to close the gap to BR 3 - MD 2. Feeling the pressure, Big Rapids responded about a minute later with senior forward Paul Goggins knocking home his third goal of the year, with the assist going to Tom Hancock. Eric Saum gets the win in net for Big Rapids, stopping 13 shots on the evening. Big Rapids faces a streaking East Grand Rapids team Saturday evening at Ferris.