Junior forward and co-captain Drew Shore posted the lone goal for the Pioneers, while sophomore goalie Sam Brittain put up 32 saves in the loss.

“I thought Sam Brittain really kept us in there. Sam did a terrific job in goal for us kept us in the game allowed us to give us a chance to tie it up. Thier goal tender made some terrific saves

Bulldog goalie Taylor Nelson saved 25 Denver shots and Jordie Johnston and Simon Denis scored the Ferris State goals.

“Their goaltender played outstanding tonight, and I think that was a huge difference in the game,” said sophomore forward Jason Zucker. “I think, myself included, we had a ton of offensive chances and we just couldn’t put them in and when we pulled our goalie we had a few chances there to tie the game but obviously Drew put one in and he’s been an offensive catalyst for us all year.”

“I want to congratulate the Ferris State University Bulldogos. They played a very good game, took advantage of our miscues and their goaltender was really good,” said head coach George Gwozdecky. “sam Brittain really kept us in there. He did a terrific job in goal for us. You have to be a little lucky at this time of year to be healthy, and this team has battled through a lot of challenges this year, including a lot of lenghty injuires. I’m really proud of our team. Sometimes it just doesnt work out, and I think that’s just one of those times right now.”

Denver played without sophomore forward Beau Bennett, sophomore defenseman David Makowsk and junior defenseman Paul Phillips. Junior Chris Knowlton, Zucker and freshman defenseman Josiah Didier played despite serious injuires, and Denver was forced to dress only five defensemen for the second consecutive game.

“We knew it was pretty severe when Beau had his surgery back before in the first half of the season we knew that there was a very good chance that we weren’t going to have him back. The David Makowski issues we didn’t expect and yet it continues to, hopefully we’ll have him back and healthy here in the next few weeks to a month he can start training, but those are two pretty good examples of two players that we didn’t have on our lineup,” said Gwozdecky. “I will say that based upon that, with two key guys out, I thought our team did a really great job. Hopefully we will have some time to rehab our injured warriors.”

Denver, who has battled the second half of the season to qualify, was still unable to advance past the first round of the tournament after a loss in the championship game of the Final Five tournament last weekend.

“At Christmas, we were on the outside looking in. We weren’t in good shape, not only in our league, but from a National standpoint, and this team battled really hard and put ourselves in the position where we were able to chase Minnesota-Duluth down the stretch and have a terrific playoff series against Wisconsin and in the Final Five. It just wasn’t quite enough,” said Gwozdeckey.

The Bulldogs opened the scoring in the second period after a scoreless first stanza when Johnston netted his goal, and Denis followed with the second goal for Ferris State in the third period before Denver answered. The Pioneers pulled Brittain with two minutes remaining, but couldn’t tie the game.