An attendance of 2,538 people witnessed the Ferris State Bulldogs defeat the top-ranked Michigan Wolverines in a dramatic overtime victory Saturday night at Ewigleben Arena.

In maybe his finest moment of his hockey career, senior centerman Adam Miller slammed home a rebound with less than two minutes to go in overtime to lift the Bulldogs above the Wolverines for the first time in the last eight meetings.

“I saw him (Brendan Connolly) go to the corner and I went to the net,” Miller said. “I couldn’t picture a better senior night, four years flew by, I’m proud of my teammates, this gives us a better shot in playoffs.”

The Bulldogs split this weekend against nationally top ranked Michigan Wolverines in a home and home series that showcased the Bulldogs losing the first game 5-3 in Ann Arbor, Mich. then rallying to defeat the Wolverines 4-3 in dramatic fashion at Ewigleben Arena in Big Rapids, Mich.

“It’s really exciting,” head coach Bob Daniels said. “It’s a thrill to get this win for our fans and community. We enjoy it until Monday and then we get ready for playoffs.”

With the win the Bulldogs place fifth in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association with 28 league points and a record of 15-14-5 overall and 12-12-4 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

Game one showcased the Bulldogs' power-play running perfect Friday night, recording three powerplay goals at Michigan’s Yost Ice Arena.

Despite the offensive production, the Bulldogs were unable to weather the Wolverines' offensive storm as Michigan recorded five of their own to record the win.

The Bulldogs skated stride for stride against the Wolverines with the first period proving scoreless for both teams.

The Wolverines struck first as Brandon Naurato scored early in the second period to give his team the first lead of the game.

Junior left wing Brendan Connolly fired a one-timer from the point that hit of the crossbar and into the net to tie the game at one.

The celebration was short lived however as Brian Lebler scored 21 seconds later putting the Wolverines ahead by one.

The Bulldogs bounced back and tied the game as freshman defenseman Scott Wietecha fired a shot that was tipped by sophomore left wing Blair Riley past the Wolverine goalie.

Late in the second, the Wolverines would claim the lead for the last time of the game, putting the puck behind freshman goalie Patrick Nagle making it 3-2.

Michigan went up 4-2 in the third period as Max Pacioretty scored just 15 seconds in.

The Wolverines tallied another score with Louie Caprusso scoring the goal and putting the game out of reach for the Bulldogs.

Nagle retired from the game after the goal in favor of senior goaltender Derek MacIntyre.

With five minutes left to go, freshman left winger Mike Fillinger launched a wrister over the Wolverines' netminder but the goal was a little too late as the Bulldogs were unable to erase the 5-3 deficit.

The next night proved to be a memorable one for the Bulldogs and their fans as they defeated Michigan 4-3 in overtime in front of a sold-out home town crowd.

With the crowd on the edge of their seats, Connolly took the puck around the Wolverine's net with 1:38 left in overtime where he took a shot that ricocheted off of the Wolverine goaltender. The puck then squirted out to Miller who wasted no time slipping it between the netminder’s legs to end the game and send the crowd and his team into a frenzy.

The Bulldogs came out firing in the first period scoring two powerplay goals in the first ten minutes of the game.

Junior right winger Justin Lewandowski notched the first goal of the game, picking up a rebound off of a shot from the point.

The Bulldogs capitalized on their second powerplay opportunity with Connolly taking a shot that was deflected by Chupp onto the stick of freshman centerman Justin Menke who fired it into the open net.

Michigan proved why it’s the top team in the country, scoring two goals before the period ended to tie the game.

The Wolverines gained the lead in the second period with Pacioretty giving his team their first lead of the game.

Lewandowski wouldn’t let the Wolverines walk away with another win though as he scored on a backhand shot in the third period to tie the game at three.

The Bulldogs pounded away at the Michigan net throughout the extra five minutes until Miller was able to tally his goal and lift the Bulldogs ahead of the Wolverines.

Ferris State hosts the Western Michigan Broncos in the firstround of the CCHA playoffs next weekend.

“We could really use support,” Daniels said. “If the fans could come we’d really appreciate it.”

The best two-of-three series begins Friday night at 7:35 p.m. with the second game Saturday at 7:05 p.m. If necessary, game three will be played on Sunday at 7:05 p.m.

The Lady Bulldogs needed a win over the Northwood Timberwolves to remain in the hunt for an NCAA tournament bid, and a win they got. They defeated the hosting Timberwolves in a high offensive game 93-89.

“It was a great team effort tonight and I’m ecstatic we got the win, Northwood is a very good team and this easily could have gone the other way. Our kids had a very solid floor game and I’m proud of them for stepping up and knocking down some big shots,” head coach Tracey Dorrow told Bulldog Scoreboard.

The Timberwolves defeated the Bulldogs for the first time in Dorow’s career at Ferris State. The second time the two teams met was on Jan. 14, but the Bulldogs proved their dominance in a well-balanced offensive attack.

The Timberwolves experienced their first ever GLIAC tournament, and the Bulldogs made sure it wasn’t a positive one as senior All-American center Rachel Folcik led the Bulldog charge with a team-high 19 points and grabbing 11 boards after missing the last two games because of injury.

“I’m glad Rachel got a chance to play because I really didn’t know if she’d be able to play or what she could do, she played very well for us, but we also had some other kids make plays for us as well,” Dorow told the Bulldog Scoreboard

Junior forward Caitlin Hutchison recorded 18 points as both junior guard Teghan Thelen and freshman guard Becci Houdek finished with 14 points each.

The Bulldogs began the first half dominating the Timberwolves, showing what a team in the tournament for the 10th time looks like as they quickly went up by seven, 14-7. Next the Timberwolves were able to grab some momentum when their player Sarah Glowacki made a three pointer.

The Bulldogs were unable to respond and the Timberwolves were able to tie the score after Megan Starnes made a jumper from in the paint.

Folcik quickly responded on the other end to regain the Bulldog lead, and gave the Bulldogs the spark they needed as they broke away from the Timberwolves and went up by six, 27-21, with 9:50 remaining in the first half.

The Timberwolves were able to rally and tied the score again, at 27 after Glowacki’s two free throws.

The Bulldogs remained poised and battled to regain the lead and control as both teams fought for the lead.

The Timberwolves were able to finagle a four point lead, 43-39, with 2:13 remaining in the half before the Bulldogs decided they were done messing around, and ended the half with a 7-0 run. They finished off with a pair of free throws from senior forward Sam Johns, with three seconds left in the half.

This sent the Bulldogs into the locker room with a 46-43 lead and the fun was just beginning.

The Bulldogs have developed a second half swagger over the season, and it continued into the playoffs as they picked up where they left off, going up by eight after Thelen made her second of two free throws.

Starnes and Glowacki held strong against the Bulldogs and brought the Bulldog lead down to three, 53-50 with 16:49 left in the game. That’s the closest the Bulldogs would allow the Timberwolves to come, as they dominated every aspect of the game, going up by as much as 12, after Hutchison’s jumper in the paint.

The Timberwolves were able to chip the Bulldog lead down to single digits, but couldn’t get closer than eight points. A pair of free throws from Thelen kept the Bulldogs ahead by 12 as the clock dropped inside the minute and a half mark.

The final minute caused the Timberwolves to refuse to go down without a fight as they caused the Bulldogs to send them to the line three times for five points in the final minute, but it was too little to late, as the Bulldogs move on to the semi-finals at Michigan Tech.

The Bulldogs will take on the number two team from the south GLIAC, Ashland, on Friday with tip off scheduled for 8 p.m.

The Ferris State men’s basketball season concluded Saturday, Feb. 23 with a record setting crowd sending them off. The Bulldogs ended their season with an overall record of 10-19 and GLIAC record of 5-13. Ferris State used home court advantage in its 14 games going .500 at Wink Arena with an average attendance of 606 fans cheering them on.

One of Ferris State’s season highlights came in its second game of the season on Nov. 19 when hosting Grace Bible College. Coming off an opening season loss, the Bulldogs put up 101 points in their highest scoring victory of the season. The closest and most exciting game this season came on Nov. 29 when freshman guard Darien Gay hit a running shot with time running out to steal the win from Saginaw Valley State University 68-66.

The Bulldogs' conference play left them in the middle of the GLIAC. Ferris State’s big men averaged three blocked shots a game, fifth best in the conference. The Bulldogs were eighth in defensive rebounds with 22.52 boards per game and first in offensive rebounds with 13.24 per game. Ferris State’s buckets put them right in the middle of the pack, averaging 66.8 points per game.

On the season, Ferris State’s statistics showed where they did well and where they need improvement. The Bulldogs averaged almost seven steals a game and 13.4 assists per game. Ferris State shot 43 percent from the field, averaged just over four three point baskets per game with 125 buckets on the season, but only 68 percent from the free throw line in its 588 attempts. Bulldog turnovers are another thing that the team looks to work on next season.

Ferris State’s senior C.J. Van Wieren averaged just over five points again in his final season with a high of 15 points twice in the last week. The senior grabbed 105 rebounds and dished out 60 assists. Juniors Jason Holder and Mark Gildersleeve each helped out with minutes in the paint this season. Holder averaged five points a game and four rebounds per game. Gildersleeve scored 45 points on the season and grabbed 39 rebounds.

The freshman class has led the team all season. On top is center Justin Keenan with a season high 27 points against Wayne State. Keenan averaged almost 16 points a game, seven rebounds and 19 steals. Coming off the bench for the Bulldogs, DeJuan Wright averaged 10.8 points per game, five rebounds, 50 assists and a season high 30 points against Michigan Tech.

Point guards Bryan Pasciak and Darien Gay handled the ball for the Bulldogs all season. Pasciak started hitting shots late in the season with a season high of 23. Pasciak dished out 64 assists, seven points a game and almost 40 percent from the three point line. Gay scored a season high of 17 points while averaging just fewer than seven a game. Gay led the Bulldogs in assists on the season with 99 and was second on the team with 27 steals.

Lou Williams affected teams on the defensive end with 41 blocks. Williams scored 167 points on the season and grabbed 131 rebounds. Matt DeHart and Darryl Nobles helped lead the Bulldogs with their three point averages. DeHart hit 36 percent from down town and Nobles hit 34 percent. The two averaged just fewer than two rebounds a game and just under five points a game.

Ferris State will look to this season’s freshman class to help lead them next season. With Holder and Gildersleeve as the only upper classman next season, look for the team to work together and improve a lot come next season’s opening tip off!

The Ferris State University Equestrian Club doesn’t get much press. It has just been quietly adding ribbons to its trophy case. The Recognized Student Organization formed in 2005 and is finishing its second year of competition.

“We think of ourselves as a team, not a club,” said Melissa Randall, a member and fundraising chair for the group.

“Our team has competed in both Western and English against the top universities in the state, including U of M and MSU, Grand Valley and Saginaw,” said Randall.

The 12 riders practice at a farm owned by their coach, Tiffany Spedowski, in Stanwood, Mich. Spedowski donates her time and the use of her horses twice a week between August and mid-November, weather permitting.

“We’re really lucky that our coach lets us use her horses for practice. Other teams have to pay about $700 per semester; Tiffany doesn’t charge us anything,” said Randall.

“They’re a dedicated group,” said Spedowski. “This is their second year of competing, and they’ve placed pretty high in some of the competitions. We even have a few reserve champions.”

Unlike 4-H and other types of shows where participants ride their own horses, the Equestrian Club members draw a mount at the beginning of each class.

“There is no practice time,” said Spedowski. “In equitation, it’s all on you to get the best performance possible out of whatever horse you’re given.”

Randall approves of what seems an unorthodox method.

“These are the best lessons I could have; they’ve brought me up so many levels,” she said.

The club donates time to the community by helping other equestrians improve their skills. Last summer the club held a clinic at the Big Rapids fairgrounds and invited local 4-H groups. The clinic offered a fashion show of riding apparel as well as workshops in first aid, how to clip your horse, and different ways to braid the mane and tail.

The club holds an annual fundraiser to help meet travel costs and other expenses.

“We will be having a tack sale on March 29 at the Morley/ Stanwood Middle School,” said Randall.

“Local people and businesses can join us by purchasing a booth for $15 and sell crafts, garage sale items, pretty much whatever they’d like. We’ll also have a concession stand and some kind of raffle.”

The show season is nearly over. The final events will be the Intercollegiate Horse Show Association regional competitions. First is the Equestrian English competition on March 15 at the University of Findlay in Findlay, Ohio. The Western Discipline Stock Seat competition will be held on March 22 at Cheff Therapeutic Riding Center in Augusta, Mich. Admission to both shows is free and all are welcome.

It is not necessary to own a horse but only full-time students are eligible for membership in the Equestrian Club. Anyone interested in joining the club may attend a meeting for more information. Meetings are held every Wednesday night at Rankin Center. Contact Melissa Randall at (231) 250-8415 for meeting times and more information on the upcoming tack sale.

I’m not sure how many of you witnessed the Detroit Red Wings game this past Friday night, but if you did then you will know what I’m talking about.

If not, let me lay it out for you. The Red Wings are facing off against the San Jose Sharks and are down 2-1. It’s the third period and the Wings are building momentum off of their last goal and are looking to make a comeback to end one of the worst losing streaks in recent years.

Everything’s going fine, they're down by one but there is still time left, and then San Jose takes a shot from the point. The puck is deflected up and into the protective netting above the boards. Dead play right?

Not according to the four referees who were on the ice. With their eagle eyes, not one saw the puck hit the netting. The Detroit defense saw where the puck went and stood there waiting for the whistle that never came.

The puck bounced off the netting and in front of the Detroit net where a San Jose player was waiting and knocked the puck behind a confused Red Wings goaltender.

No whistle from the refs means the goal stands, and whether or not the puck hit the netting is not a reviewable play. San Jose went up 3-1 and defeated the Red Wings in the end 3-2.

Now I understand that referees miss calls sometimes, and I understand it’s useless to complain about the officiating, but come on. These guys have one job to do and they manage to screw it up.

A missed penalty I can understand, a questionable call, hey it happens. But when four sets of eyes don’t see the little black thing that everyone on the ice is chasing bounce up and hit the net, I don’t get it.

What in the world were they looking at? Their job isn’t that difficult. Watch the puck, watch the puck, and then watch the puck some more. Oh yeah, and try to do your best to call a penalty once and awhile, if there actually is one, but that’s a different story.

How do you screw that job up? It’s not brain surgery. Everyone at Joe Louis Arena witnessed that puck hit the netting except for the four guys who are being paid to watch it hit the net!

I applaud the Detroit team and head coach Mike Babcock for being understanding and not blaming their loss on a bad call. But I’m not a Detroit Red Wing or coach Babcock. I am one upset fan who feels that his team was robbed by the guy wearing the black and white stripes.

It’s an ever increasing epidemic with no cure in sight. Something needs to be done about these referees because their mistakes are ruining my favorite game.

Look at the replay, the puck hit the net, it was no goal. Plain and simple, yet that’s not how it happens.

Referees continue to make mistakes and cost teams victories. I don’t see what is so hard about the job. There's 60,000 other people in the arena who see everything that happens and they don’t even have professional training.

We can no longer put our trust into these referees. They no longer carry the credibility that they once did. I would rather see a game played without officials than watch them ruin game after game.

In my mind there’s no excuse. If I screwed up as many times at my job as these referees do at their job, then I would have been fired a long time ago.

We need to stop giving these guys the benefit of the doubt that calls get missed. I’m tired of giving them that crutch.

I’m taking a new stance on the issue. Keep your eyes open and make the right call ref. Do your job right or we will find someone who can. Isn’t that the standard that everyone else is held to? Do well and keep your job, do bad and your fired?

Why is it that referees screw up the majority of the time yet they keep their job?

If you read my column on a regular basis than you know I’m pretty much the world’s biggest hockey fan and a huge Detroit Red Wings fan.

It’s coming down to the end of the season and that means playoffs are just around the corner. That means my intensity level is about to go through the roof.

If I have to watch another round of playoffs where referees miss calls, call penalties when there are no penalties, and allow a puck to hit the netting without blowing their little whistle I don’t know what I’m going to do. I guess there’s nothing I can do.

Regardless of how right or wrong I am, I’ll always be just another fan angry with the officials. I’m not the first, and I won’t be the last.

As many conferences are wrapping up regular season play and heading into conference tournaments, sports enthusiasts, bookies, and math teachers are preparing for March Madness to begin.

It’s an exciting time of year, where teams are labeled Cinderella, overrated, or a disgrace to the game. It’s where teams become legendary, coaches become icons, and where the basketball net is more coveted than the trophy.

While the analysts are turning the brackets into a science on what teams are in, who are probable bubble teams, and a miracle needs to happen bubble teams, I have taken it upon myself to put together the brackets, and help the clueless analysts out.

To keep from going insane I’m only going down to the fifth seed because 64 teams is a little out of control, and you have better things to do.

First seed teams: Memphis, University of North Carolina, UCLA, the fourth first seed team is debatable but I like Texas.

Texas has a well balanced offense, plays in a tough Big XII conference, and has proven that Kevin Durant wasn’t the entire offense, and his early departure for the NBA had little or no effect on the Longhorns.

Second seed teams: Tennessee, Kansas, Duke, Wisconsin. I know I’m probably giving Wisconsin a higher seed than many will agree with, but Bo Ryan has a solid team and I expect the Badgers to make it deep into the tournament.

Third seed teams: Indiana, Xavier, Stanford, Georgetown. I know no one is able to name the conference that Xavier (Atlantic 10), Stanford (Pac-10), and Georgetown (Big East) are in, but they have risen in the rankings this season, and Indiana has been dominant all season.

Fourth seed teams: Purdue, Connecticut, Butler, Vanderbilt.

No one thought Connecticut would see March at the beginning of its season, but after the schedule went up in the locker room, the players got down to business and turned their losing season into a winning one. UConn has the needed March experience, and won’t want to be sent home when the Lady’s team wins it all. Expect UConn to have a solid performance.

Purdue’s young team has surprised the entire Big 10, but I don’t know if the Boilermakers will be able to handle the pressure of oneand- done.

Fifth seed teams: Michigan State, Marquette, Washington State, Louisville. I’m probably placing Michigan State and Louisville higher than the analysts will, but I like Michigan State because it nearly defeated UCLA until the final minutes when the starters fouled out, and the Spartans defeated Texas back in December.

Yes, the Spartans have struggled, so did the 2000 National Championship team.

Louisville’s strength of schedule is going to play the largest factor of its seed, but from what I have seen, the Cardinals are fast, crisp, and know what to do with the ball.

All I know is the more the team wins the better the chances are that the team will get into the Madness, unless the season began with many losses, then the team may enjoy March from the couch.

Ferris State Long Jumper Ranked First In The Nation
According to the Feb. 26 NCAA-II National Performance List, senior long jumper Amy Woodman posted a school-record leap of 19 feet 10.75 inches at the Eastern Michigan Classic in Ypsilanti on Feb. 16.

Woodman out jumped south GLIAC member Findlay’s Kirby Blackley by six inches, who originally was first on the list.

Senior Honored By ESPN The Magazine For Academic & Athletic Efforts
Women’s basketball senior center Rachel Folcik earned first team academic All-American honors in ESPN magazine. Folcik is the only representative from the GLIAC and NCAA Division II Great Lakes Region.

Men’s Tennis drops first match of season
Aquinas College defeated Ferris 6-3 at the Orchard Hills Club in Grand Rapids. Aquinas swept the doubles round and took the top three singles flights for the win.

Women’s Tennis
The women’s tennis team lost to visiting Calvin College on Friday 6-3. Calvin led 2-1 after the doubles round and took four out of six singles flights. Calvin improved to 3-0 overall, while Ferris dropped to 4-10 overall, losing its second consecutive match this spring.