The NIU D-II men’s hockey team were unable to snap its four-game losing streak, as it dropped a pair of games to Ferris State its season series finale.

The Huskies (11-19-2-1) had only two forward lines and five defensemen dressed for the game against the Bulldogs Friday, as they fell 15-4.

NIU coach Greg Chromy said the final score was not indicative of the kind of effort his shorthanded team gave Friday.

“I thought the defense played really well,” Chromy said. “I thought everyone there gave great effort. I thought both lines played as hard as they could for going out every other shift.”

The Huskies were down 4-2 after the first minutes. As the game wore on NIU ran out of stamina, especially in the third period.

“We were dead in the third,” Chromy said. “They got most of their goals in the third period. I think the score was 4-2 after the first, and we missed an open net. We were competitive until we just ran out of gas.”

NIU forward Rob Bock said another challenge that the team had to deal with was making the trip up to Michigan.

“Traveling here was probably the next hardest part because we essentially had to go right from the bus to the game within the span of like 20 minutes because of the snow storm,” Bock said. “So we didn’t get a chance to warm up. And obviously being short on players we were kind of behind the eight ball from the beginning.”

NIU wasn’t able salvage a split on its final weekend of the season, falling 8-4 to the Bulldogs Saturday.

Bock said he was proud of the effort he and his teammates came out with the close out the season.

“They did beat us, but we kept it close and we kept it competitive,” Bock said. “And we kind of did come together as a team for a little bit there, so that was definitely a good thing going into next year.”

Chromy said the fact that this was NIU’s last game of the season might have had something to do with its effort.

“I thought they played with much more intensity knowing that it was last game of the season,” Chromy said. “They left everything out on the ice.”