NMU hockey team to face Ferris State

MARQUETTE – NMU sophomore goaltender Mathias Dahlstrom is quickly making himself a household name in the world of college hockey. Through six games, Dahlstrom has the second best goals against average in the nation, at a stingy 0.82 GAA.

Dahlstrom and the Wildcats will take on one of the nation’s top goalies and teams in C.J. Motte and the No. 16 Ferris State Bulldogs this Friday and Saturday. The Bulldogs offense has struggled the last two weeks– they’ve scored just three goals in their last four games.

Although they’re lacking in the goal scoring department lately, Ferris State will be the Wildcats toughest test to date this season.

“They’ve had a lot of success and they have a lot of experience that’s gone through that success,” said NMU head coach Walt Kyle about the Bulldogs. “They have a confidence about them and a style of play that’s difficult to play against. We know that we’re going to be challenged and quite honestly we’re ready to be challenged. We need to have some challenges right now that are big that we need to rise up to and answer.”

“We’ve studied Ferris quite a bit,” said NMU co–captain Jake Baker. “They put a lot of pressure in down low when we’re in our offensive zone, so we’ve changed up a few strategies. Mainly, we have to stick to the basics and stuff like that.”

“We need to have traffic in front of the net,” said NMU co–captain Ryan Kesti. “Any goalie that can’t see the puck gives us a better chance of scoring goals. It will be a very exciting series– people are going to be real intrigued to see two of the best goalies in the country.”

NMU will not have the services of forward John Siemer for Friday’s game. Siemer is serving a one–game suspension for making contact to the head of a Alabama–Huntsville player last weekend.