Ferris hockey coach happy with team’s progress this season – The Pioneer

BIG RAPIDS The CCHA title game is this weekend with Bemidji at Minnesota State while Ferris State hockey coach Bob Daniels will be working at home in preparation of the 2022-23 season with hopes of getting Bulldog hockey back into title contention.

The Bulldogs made some strides this year with an 11-24-1 record, which was improved from a 1-23 mark in the previous seasons COVID restriction year. The Bulldogs also were very close in other games considering they lost four straight late in the season to Michigan Tech, all in overtime. Both 3-2 playoff losses to the third-place Huskies were in overtime earlier this month.

Coach Bob Daniels ended his 30th season as Ferris skipper with a certain amount of satisfaction and high hopes for 2022-23. Ferris was seventh in the new eight-team CCHA.

Looking at the Michigan Tech series which ended the season, obviously the results I wasnt happy with, Daniels said. I was very proud of the guys performance. Obviously, we played two very good games which went into overtime and could have gone either way.

We came a long way from early in the season. We started stringing some wins together in the second half. All in all, I was happy coming out of that series with our effort and performance.

The season has ended and the 2022-23 campaign resumes in early October. But this doesnt mean there isnt enough to do.

We start (on Wednesday) the off-season conditioning program thats very important to the team, and moving forward, Daniels said. Were still figuring out whos coming back and whos not. Some guys have extra years were keeping an eye on recruiting as well. Well have some high school advanced camps well be running.

Well have a pretty full plate. Theres a little bit of fund-raising and golf outings. Theres plenty to keep us busy.

Daniels said there are four players who can take an extra COVID year but is waiting to get final determinations. The announcement of new recruits is close.

We probably have eight commitments, he said. Some of them well push off until the following year and some well bring in this year. Right now we have a couple of defensemen and five forwards.

Daniels is confident the program will take another step next season.

I like where were at and I like the players who are returning, he said. Our young kids performed well in the playoffs. We got goals from the young kids in big games. We return a real solid nucleus of pretty darn good players.

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Ferris hockey coach happy with team's progress this season - The Pioneer