The unofficial online home for fans of the Western Michigan University Broncos. Part of Collegiate Sports Nation (CSN).

Well, the season officially kicks off early this week in Big Rapids with a Thursday night tilt vs CCHA rival and preseason #20 ranked Ferris State, with return game Friday night in Kalamazoo.

Ferris State 2016-17 Preview
https://youtu.be/2E5Yc3s2zWA

USCHO WCHA preview of Ferris State

Ferris State
Last season
20-15-6 overall, 13-11-4 WCHA, (4th in WCHA). Lost to Denver in the second round of the NCAA tournament.

Names to know
Gerald Mayhew was named the WCHA Preseason Player of the year and he earned it after leading Ferris State with 41 points (25 goals, 26 assists) in 41 games. Sophomore goalie Darren Smith won 17 games last season and had .919 save percentage as a freshman.

Three questions
1. Can Ferris State turn postseason success into a regular season title? The Bulldogs effectively turned the WCHA into a one-bid league last season with their march through the Final Five.
2. How does a young defense adjust? Ferris State graduated four of its top six defensemen from last season, which leaves senior Ryan Lowner and junior Tyler Dorantes to lead a group that consists of six underclassmen.
3. Will Ferris State be the most exciting team in the WCHA? The Bulldogs are going to score quite a bit this season and the young defense group is going to be tested. Bob Daniels expects his defense to push the play, so there should be lots of back-and-forth rushes at Ferris State.

Crystal ball
Ferris State is always going to be playoff threat, but the defense isn’t there to compete for a regular season title. The Bulldogs will grab a top-three spot in the regular season standings and make some noise in the WCHA semifinals.

Ferris State season actually started last weekend with an early WCHA series vs Alabama Huntsville and they were swept by the Chargers:

Bulldogs Fall To Chargers 1-2 In 2016-17 Season-Opener
http://ferrisstatebulldogs.com/sports/mi...1001vnnbmc

Chargers Defeat Bulldogs 4-3 In Sunday Afternoon Contest
http://ferrisstatebulldogs.com/sports/mi...1002sxfbug

Pretty sure Ferris will no longer be ranked after last weekend.

Bought my tickets, haven't been to a game in 2 years, pumped!

LOL. Good for UAH though.

Ferris always plays us tough, but I expect us to sweep.

(10-04-2016 01:56 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  Ferris always plays us tough, but I expect us to sweep.

Expect? Unless Ferris REALLY sucks, I wouldn't go that far. I think Huntsville will improve this season.

I'll also be in Big Crapids for Thursday's game. Will brovol be there? It's like new WCHA heaven there!

(10-04-2016 02:57 PM)Charm City Bronco Wrote:  

(10-04-2016 01:56 PM)Bronc33 Wrote:  Ferris always plays us tough, but I expect us to sweep.

Will brovol be there? It's like new WCHA heaven there!

HaHa, I was thinking same thing.

Brovol....come out to play. Brovol...Come out to play.....

https://youtu.be/NwwY9y6O3hw

Hoping for a split.
Thinking we get swept.

We really lost our exhibition.. . . . . .again?

It's going as I predicted: if football gets good, hockey and basketball will drop.

Last season when we lost our exhibition, there were cries at how poor Murray's been doing. This season, it's like it's no big deal, same ol' same ol.

Exhibitions are just that, nothing more. Watching it, we had a couple of breakdowns in our zone and the goalie didn't even react, some units looked really stead and solid, good skating.

I'm excited to see where we stand this weekend. Is there any way to watch the game in Big Rapid's online anywhere?

Ferris and Western: O/u 20 penalties on the weekend?

^
THAT we had better see get cleaned up.

(10-04-2016 05:46 PM)Moomba Wrote:  Is there any way to watch the game in Big Rapid's online anywhere?

WCHA.tv

This team will not improve this year if we spend all game in the box, period. Also, we outshot them 50-17 and yet lost 4-3?? What? And we were 2-11 on power plays and we gave up a shorty.....I will not start praising this team until I see results. I know that many of our top players didn't dress and Murray played 3 goalies but Murray acts like university of Toronto wins the national championship every year. Always seems like we lose to our exhibition teams and yet other teams smoke theirs...do we do something different than other teams? Idk? Just hope this team has improved since last years cullhane type team

You're already bashing Murray after an exhibition game? That's rich. I'll at least wait until after the DU weekend, when it really matters.

(10-04-2016 08:18 PM)Moomba Wrote:   You're already bashing Murray after an exhibition game? That's rich. I'll at least wait until after the DU weekend, when it really matters.

Nah, been bashing him for the past two seasons :)

Murray is smart and actually uses the exhibition games as coaching moments. We probably could have had our best out there the whole time and won but that doesn't help the team. I only hope it doesn't mess with the player's confidence. That seemed to be an issue last year.

I am cautiously optimistic about this year, a man who has had the track record he has suddenly doesn't forget how to coach.

I saw WMU play a really good DU squad straight up early last year, had high hopes, something went south after that and went bad fast.

I am not so worried about how we do off the start i will just look for gradual improvement as the year moves along. As far as Murray goes he needs to take the reigns off some of the boys when we have the puck or in their end of the ice. Also he is way to worried about balancing lines to try and spread scoring around to much then nobody can score hence last year. The one thing i have noticed in our recruiting the last 2 years is no great big guys that can't skate and take penalties cause they can't keep up. We are alittle smaller but quicker so he needs to change his coaching philosiphy some to more of a puck control team and stop structuring the offence so much. imo

No big guys? We're HUGE.

(10-05-2016 02:39 PM)Moomba Wrote:  No big guys? We're HUGE.

Moomba is correct here... we have like 14 players OVER 6ft tall and over 200lbs...

Iacopelli - 6'3" 206
Muir - - 6'4" 212
Goff - 6'5" 220
Moldenhaur - 6'4" 225
Tiffels - 6'1" 206
McKee - 6'5" 250!!!

Just to name a few.... we ARE huge...

I liked what any said in the press conference regarding defensive pairings. He's switching up the pairings, putting 1 stay at home guy and one offensive defender. This should allow us to generate more offense from the blue line, which was a major part of how we were successful in the ccha end years.