Friday, January 15, 1999

Friday, January 15, 1999, Ewigleben Arena, Big Rapids, Michigan

Well here we are again on a Friday night ready to kick off another weekend of MICHIGAN HOCKEY!! Well I like the sound of that. Tonight is the third and final game between Ferris and Michigan in the regular season CCHA schedule. Michigan took a pair of wins against Ferris last weekend in two very close games at Yost Arena. The two wins last week moved the Wolverines up two spots in the national polls from seventh to fifth. As usual the CCHA race is very tight with Michigan in a must win situation pretty much for the rest of the year (unless MSU takes a couple of losses, coupled with Michigan wins). We are one point behind league leading MSU and as long as MSU wins, we must win to keep pace. Michigan does have a game in hand and we do play MSU two more times this year, but our schedule this month is really tough. Tonight’s game against Ferris is on Ferris’s ice and should be a very tough game. Ferris is a much improved hockey team and can play with anybody in the CCHA and the country for that matter. Michigan needs to bring their best game to Big Rapids to get this win, but they are certainly capable of getting the season sweep over the Bulldogs.

I of course got out of work late tonight and missed the entire first period and the start of the second. From all accounts, and from what’s going on in the second, this game is moving at a fast pace. Both teams are skating up and down the ice with a good measure of hard hitting thrown in for good measure. The difference in the game so far is a power play goal scored by Ferris in the first period. The first period ended with Ferris leading one to nothing and that is where the score stands as I pick up the game in the second period.

I tune into the second period with just over five minutes gone in the period and Michigan applying pressure on the Ferris goal, but trailing one to nothing in the game. After a couple of up and downs Ferris is called for the penalty giving Michigan their third power play opportunity of the night. About half the power play is over and most of the play seems to be more in the Michigan end, rather than the Ferris end. Most of the play in this power play controlled by Ferris, no real scoring opportunities for Michigan. The power play is over, but Ferris is applying all of the offensive pressure at this time. Again pressure by Ferris, but Blackburn comes up with a great save. Ferris gets the next power play opportunity and get a couple of chances, but Blackburn stops them all. Just as the Ferris power play expires Ferris gets another great chance that Blackburn turns away by flipping the legs into the air. Michigan gets off a shot, but it was from quite a distance from the net and Owen saw it all the way. Not a real challenge for the Ferris netminder. There is a face off in the Ferris end, Michigan gets the puck, and there is a hit against Koch. Koch is wobbling out there on the ice. He hangs on for the rest of the shift, but he really took a whack. We are now down to the last five minutes of the second period with the score still one to nothing in favor of Ferris. Michigan working the puck around the Ferris end, but gets no scoring attempts. Ferris turns it around and moves on the Michigan goal, gets off a shot, but once again Blackburn comes up with a great save. Another shot by Ferris and another great save by Blackburn. The only good shots seem to belong to Ferris. We have a penalty call, but it’s not clear whom it is against. Well now we know whom it’s against, it’s against Michigan and Ferris is again on the power play. Ferris puts their top line on the ice looking to get a little bit of breathing room on the scoreboard. Hayes steals the puck, passes it up to Rominski who moves in on the Ferris goal. Rominski wraps around the goal, gets the shot off, oooohhhh he hits the post. Michigan almost picks up a short-handed goal to tie the game. Ferris clears the puck, but is called for icing. The face off comes back into the Ferris end. Right at the end of the period Michigan again pushes in on the Ferris net and gets a couple of great opportunities, but can’t get anything to go into the net. It appears there was a penalty against Ferris right at the end of the period so Michigan should start the third with a full power play. The second period ends with Ferris still clinging to the one to nothing lead.

The fast pace and hard hitting have continued through two periods of this game. Michigan starts the third on the power play and needing a quick goal to draw even with the Bulldogs. Michigan with a couple of quick chances right off the third period face off. Michigan continues to apply pressure, but Ferris gets it cleared out. After a couple of quick chances early in the period Ferris kills of the penalty and both teams are now at full strength. Right at the end of the power play Ferris gets a break away and gets a shot off, but Blackburn comes up with another stop. Now Michigan is called for a penalty putting Ferris on yet another power play. The period started out the way we wanted it to, but it’s been all down hill from there with Ferris taking the play to Michigan. Ferris almost comes up with a top shelf goal, but Blackburn gets his shoulder in the way, deflecting the puck and avoiding the score. Blackburn turns away another shot by Ferris. Now Matzka takes the puck into the Ferris zone, but Ferris now has it back in the Michigan zone. Michigan back into the Ferris zone and gets a shot off but it misses. Ferris now pushing back into the Michigan zone, they get a step ahead of the Michigan defense, get off a shot, and they get the puck past Blackburn. The second power play goal of the night for Ferris giving the Bulldogs a two to nothing lead in the third. This is not good news for the Wolverines as tight as these games usually are, we are down two goals and now the clock becomes even more of an issue. Once again Michigan continues to get scoring chances, but just can’t seem to generate any kind of consistent offense. Just what we didn’t need, Hayes gets called for the penalty giving Ferris their seventh power play opportunity of the night – not long after Ferris had just scored a power play goal. Matzka gets off a couple of scoring shots while skating in a short-handed situation. Not the best of scoring chances, but it keeps the pressure off the Michigan net. Michigan gets this power play killed off without giving up any other Ferris goals. Both teams again skating at full strength. Kosick gets off a shot, but the Ferris netminder keeps his shut out intact. Both teams working the puck back and forth, up and down the ice. Both defenses continue to turn the scoring pushes away and turn the puck back the other way. Michigan has the puck behind the Ferris goal, but it gets cleared. We are down to about nine minutes left in the game, still down by two goals. Ferris settling into a defensive posture and simply keeping Michigan from mounting any kind of offensive flow. Someone needs to step up for the Wolverines to make something happen. We need a score and we need it bad. Here is a chance; there is a face off deep in the Ferris zone. Langfeld tries to get set up for a shot, but can’t get anything going and the puck gets cleared. Well the bad just got worse. Michigan gives the puck away at the blue line, Ferris marches it in, and gets yet another shot past Blackburn. Ferris now holds a three to nothing lead with only about five minutes left in the game. That should just about end any chance Michigan might have had for getting back into this game (come on Michigan, prove me wrong). Well both Michigan and Ferris loose players to penalties, so we now are skating four on four. There is just under four minutes left in the game and we goals, and we need goals fast. Well there you go, there was a fast goal, but it went to Ferris who now holds a four goals to none lead. This night just continues to get worse and worse. This game is over, all we need to do now is get the clock to zero and regroup. Ferris gets a break away, but this time Blackburn turns the shot away. Now tempers flare with all ten players on the ice going at it. There is some serious banging going on out there on the ice. We could loose a player or two to game disqualification’s, we don’t need anything like that going into Saturday’s game. This is all happening with less than two minutes left in the game – you just can’t let the frustration get to you like this. It’s been a bad night, but there are other nights left in this season and we need all our players on the ice, this just makes a bad night worse. Ferris ends up with a five on three power play; more on any disqualification’s as soon as I get the information. Well there is the end of the game, with Ferris getting the win with a four to nothing score.

Well this is exactly what Michigan didn’t need, a loss. Assuming MSU wins tonight they will now have a three-point lead in the CCHA over Michigan. This night was pretty much a total loss. While we skated hard and got some scoring chances we just couldn’t get the puck into the Ferris net. WE NEED SOME OFFENSE! This shut out by Ferris was only the second in history between the Bulldogs and the Wolverines. The last Ferris shut out was back on January 5, 1985. Michigan needs to get back to Ann Arbor and regroup and get back on track Saturday against Western. This will be the first time we see Western this year and Western seems to always play Michigan close. Michigan will have to play Saturdays game minus three players. Jillson, Merrick, and Crozier were all given game disqualifications and will have to sit out tomorrow’s game against Western. This night was just bad, bad, bad, all the way around. We can only hope tomorrow is better, so until then C-ya!