When Ferris State headed into the holiday break with a 13-3-2 record and just a stone’s throw out of first place with an 8-2-2 record in CCHA play, to many it seemed too good to be true. The Bulldogs have put together strong seasons before, the 2002-03 regular season championship team being exhibit No. 1, but it was hard to believe that this year’s team could keep up its excellent team defense and torrid scoring pace coming out of a three-week intermission.

After the first night back on the ice at the Badger Hockey Showdown in Madison, those who had their doubts felt vindicated, as Ferris State came out uninspired and flat and experienced its first great disappointment of the campaign – a 6-1 bulldozing at the hands of an excellent Yale team on the strength of a four-goal third period. The battle of the Bulldogs was hard-fought through two periods, with Yale leading 2-1 after 40 minutes, but a bad goal past Ferris State netminder Taylor Nelson in the opening minutes of the final period sent Nelson and his teammates reeling and Yale flying.

Having faced adversity for the first time all year, it was far from certain how Ferris State would respond.

“It’s going to be interesting to see,” Bulldogs coach Bob Daniels said after the game. “We knew somewhere along the line we were going to stub our toe, and we were going to have a real downer of a game, and this is the first time that has occurred. I would like to think we’ll respond with a hard-fought game.”

And that Ferris State did, rebounding from the crushing defeat to cruise past Merrimack in the third-place game by a 5-1 mark, and then spoiling goodwill Notre Dame had built up at the Shillelagh Tournament with a 5-2, 4-2 sweep in South Bend.

With the two wins at Notre Dame, not only had the Bulldogs overcome the disappointment from their lackluster second-half opener, but they also closed the gap between themselves and the CCHA-leading Miami RedHawks, leaving the two teams tied atop the conference standings ahead of a critical pair of head-to-head clashes in Big Rapids this Friday and Saturday.

Preparing for a series that will either leave the teams in a deadlock for first place or give one team a marked advantage in the chase for the title, Ferris State will look back on lessons learned from the disappointing loss to Yale to avoid similar pitfalls against an equally, if not more, dangerous Redhawks team.

“Certainly we need to handle the puck better,” Daniels said. “We’re normally a pretty good passing, receiving and puck handling team, but you wouldn’t know it from (the Yale) game. I thought we were fighting it and our passing was off. I did think that as the game wore on, we responded by trying to play more individualistic instead of staying with the team game and getting more grounded in our systems.”

Goals could be hard to come by in the Miami series with two of the nation’s top three defensive teams facing off. The RedHawks boast the nation’s stingiest team defense at 1.77 goals surrendered per game, and Ferris State is not far behind, sitting third nationally with just 1.91 goals against per game. Because play is likely to be tight and the Bulldogs don’t boast the depth of explosive talent up front that Miami does, the systems and teamwork Daniels alluded to will be of utmost importance.

If Ferris State is to put together a strong offensive performance, it will rely on a top line of Blair Riley, Casey Haines and Cody Chupp. The Bulldogs’ top group that has been productive all year long, with Riley’s 16-10-26 line and 10-game point streak leading the way. The trio have worked well together, acknowledging their own strengths and weaknesses and sticking to Daniels’ system to give opponents fits. Riley scored twice in the first Miami-Ferris State meeting of the season, but was held scoreless on the second night.

In the earlier meetings at Miami, the teams were tied after five minutes of overtime both nights, with Ferris State escaping with the extra point both nights after winning the shootout.

Starting Shorthanded: Ferris State will be without freshman forward Travis Ouellette for both contests this weekend after he took a checking from behind penalty in the third period of Sunday’s series finale at Notre Dame last weekend. Ouellette’s hit on Teddy Ruth earned him a game disqualification, which took him out of Friday’s game, and then he was handed an additional game’s suspension by the CCHA earlier this week.