The breathtaking beauty of hockey’s finesse side is often contrasted by the game’s brutally physical nature. On one play, spectators are awed by the graceful skating and scoring finesse of the sport’s finest centers and forwards. On the next, fans explode from their seats, screaming their lungs out and pounding on the glass that encircles the rink at the sight of a vicious hit against the boards or an all-out, back-alley brawl waged on ice skates.
The line that divides the opposite ends of the hockey spectrum is not always clear, and few people in the sport possess a more keen understanding of that than Bob Daniels, Ferris State’s long-time hockey coach.

Thin Ice
Daniels understands how delicate a balancing act it is for the men who play the sport.
“It’s a fine line,” admits Daniels, whose Bulldog squad became entangled with the nationally ranked University of Michigan Wolverines in a brawl at the Ewigleben Ice Arena that made statewide newspaper headlines last season.
“The fans want the teams to play physical. You’ve got to have that physical mentality working for you when the game starts. When there’s a loose puck, and it comes down to two players, you have to have the mentality, ‘It’s my puck.’
“Because of that emotion, sometimes it’s going to spill over. But I don’t think there is any place in the game for fighting,” continues Daniels, who supports the stiff penalties handed out for players who cross the line from physical play to fighting.
For Ferris State alternate-captain Kevin Swider, a high-scoring forward from Livonia who wrapped up his career with the Bulldogs last winter, there is little doubt about what the fans are looking for in a hockey contest.
“I think the fans get much more excited about the rough style of play on the ice,” Swider says. “When someone gets hit you can hear the crowd going crazy.”
Physical play comes with the territory, according to Ottawa, Ontario, native Jim Dube, who served as team captain as a senior last season.
“I think it’s something you kind of grow up with in hockey,” Dube says. “With so many guys who play that style, it almost becomes second nature.”

Pound for Pound

More and more people find themselves speaking about issues of sportsmanship not only on the ice, but also in the stands. Few environments in the CCHA are more intense, loud and intimidating than the one created by Ferris fans who pack the Dawg Pound.
“There’s nothing like being in that place when it’s rocking,” said Jeff Mier, a member of the Ferris State student organization F.U.S.S., a group with the mission of injecting as much spirit and life into Bulldog sporting events as possible. “Sometimes when we’re getting crazy in the student section, you can see some of the Ferris guys on the bench smiling and laughing, and you see the opposing goalie just shaking his head.”
They come with their faces painted.
They come dressed in crimson and gold jerseys.
They come fired up and loyal to their beloved Bulldogs.
“I can’t overstate enough the importance of the student section to our hockey team,” Daniels says. “There really is a love affair between our players and the student section. I want them to understand how much our players appreciate what the fans do for our team.”
Daniels ranks the emotional support the Bulldogs receive from their student section behind only the rabid enthusiasm the Wolverines garner from their fans at Yost Ice Arena in Ann Arbor.
“We are the extra man on the ice,” Mier said. “The nice thing about it is that we can push it sometimes right to the edge.
“I have to admit, the last couple of home games of the season we probably went a little bit too far with it.”
Even the signs displayed in the stands might have gone a little too far. Some of the F.U.S.S. members were asked by the Ferris athletic department to be a little more selective about what they write and display on signs during hockey games at Ewigleben.
But it’s never anything personal, according to Mier. “If we can bring a smile to someone’s face while we are at games then that’s what it’s all about.”
And while Daniels admits it does get a little crazy sometimes, he and his players wouldn’t have it any other way.

C&G