FERRIS STATE RECEIVES FIRST-EVER BID TO NCAA TOURNAMENT

CCHA Regular-Season Champs Earn No. 2 West Region Seed; Face North Dakota In First Round

The Ferris State University’s men’s ice hockey team has earned its first-ever NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Championship Tournament bid as the No. 2 seed Bulldogs will face No. 3 seed the University of North Dakota this Friday (March 28) in a 5 p.m. (EST) West Regional First-Round game at the University of Minnesota’s Mariucci Arena in Minneapolis, Minn. The announcement was made today (Sunday, March 23) by the NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey Committee.

Ferris, which claimed its first-ever Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) Regular-Season Championship title this season, presently sports a school-record 30-9-1 overall mark while the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s (WCHA) North Dakota Fighting Sioux are 26-11-5 overall this season.

The West Region’s top seed, the Minnesota Golden Gophers (24-8-9) of the WCHA will host No.4 seed and Metro Atlantic Conference Hockey League (MAAC) champion the Mercyhurst College Lakers (22-12-2) in this Friday’s (March 28) second first-round contest at 8:30 p.m. (EST). The winners of the first-round contests will then square off Saturday (March 29) in the regional title game at a 5 p.m. (EST).

Tickets for an all-session pass (three games) is $70 per individual and will be sold only as an all-session package. Ferris State will receive an original allotment of 200 tickets and those tickets can be purchased by contacting the FSU Athletics Ticket Office at (231) 591-2888. A limited number of tickets for the NCAA West Regional remain and can also be purchased by calling (612) 624-8080 or 1-800-UGOPHER.

Fourth-ranked Ferris State had its school-record 12-game winning streak snapped last Saturday (March 22) with a 5-3 loss to the University of Michigan Wolverines in the CCHA Tournament Super 6 Championship game at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Mich. North Dakota, which was ranked 11th nationally last week, suffered a 2-1 loss to Minnesota-Duluth in the opening game of the 2003 Kellogg’s WCHA Final Five last Thursday (March 20) at the Excel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn.

North Dakota holds a 5-0-0 all-time series lead over Ferris State. The most recent meeting between the two was back in the 1997-98 season (12/28/97) when the Bulldogs dropped a 6-3 decision in the championship game of the Pepsi College Hockey Tournament at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids, Mich.

Joining Ferris State as CCHA representatives in the 16-team tournament field are Michigan in the Midwest Regional and the Ohio State University Buckeyes in the East Regional.

The NCAA Frozen Four will be held Thursday, April 10 and Saturday, April 12 at the HSBC Arena in Buffalo, N.Y. The West Region winner will face the Midwest Region champion while the Northeast and East Region winners will square off against one another. Semifinal times for the two April 10 contests are 12 p.m. (EST) and 6 p.m. (EST). The national championship game will take place April 12 with a 7 p.m. (EST) opening faceoff scheduled.