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Saturday, January 16, 1999
Saturday, January 16, 1999, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Well here we are again, its Saturday night and it’s once again time for some hockey. Michigan is playing without Jillson, Merrick, and Crozier who are setting out game disqualifications from last night’s game and they are also missing Koch who was injured in last nights contest with the Bulldogs. While Western hasn’t had the best of years they seem to play Michigan close no matter what their record is, so expect this game to be a close one. Even though we lost last night to Ferris we got a bit of a break as far as the CCHA is concerned because MSU played to a tie so they only added one point to their league lead. Michigan needs to get back on track with a win tonight to get some positive momentum going as we head into a very tough stretch of the schedule here in January. Let’s get to tonight’s game.
I pick up the first period with about 14:00 minutes left in the period and Michigan leading Western one to nothing. Langfeld got the goal about 7:00 minutes into the game. Michigan is going on the power play for the first time tonight. The referee got hit somehow above the eye and got a nasty cut. Play has stopped while they attend to the injured official. This leaves us with two rookie officials to continue on with this game. All right we are now ready to resume play and Michigan goes back on the power play. Just shortly after the resumption of play Kosick gets a power play goal, giving Michigan a two to nothing lead only a couple of minutes after getting their first goal. Assists on this goal were given to Peach and Van Ryn. Matzka drives the puck into the Western zone and gets off a shot. The shot is blocked and Matzka gets his own rebound, but can’t get it into the net. Rominski intercepts a pass, gets the puck ahead to Comrie, who moves on the goal, but can’t score. Kosick now makes a rush at the goal, gets off a shot that goes up high, but misses. Michigan continues to move the puck on the Broncos goal trying to set up another scoring chance. We are down to seven minutes left in the period with a face off coming off the Michigan goal. Now both teams loose players to penalties. Van Ryn gets off a shot that goes wide; the puck is kept in the Bronco zone. The puck comes out in front to Hayes who gets off a shot. Then Langfeld goes for the puck, but it’s finally cleared by the Broncos. Berenzweig and Comrie moving the puck on the goal, theres the shot – it’s just off. Rominski working the puck deep in the Bronco zone, the Broncos get the puck and then Michigan is called for a penalty. This will give the Broncos a 4 on 3 power play. The first set of penalties is over and the Broncos are now skating with a five on four advantage. The Broncos trying to set up a play, but Michigan breaks it up and clears the puck. Michigan being fairly successful at keeping play outside the Michigan zone and killing off this power play. Michigan has killed off the penalty and the Wolverines drive the puck into the Bronco zone. The Broncos turn it back to the Michigan end, but Michigan gets it back. Then there is give away and the Broncos get a great shot off, but can’t get the puck past Blackburn. Another shot by the Broncos, but this one goes wide. Michigan pushing the puck back toward the Western net. There’s a shot, can’t get it in the net. There’s another shot that is turned away. The puck is kept in the zone, Crawford has the puck passes it ahead to Rominski who gets off a shot – SCORE!! Michigan now has a three to nothing lead late in the first period. The lone assist was given to Crawford. Langfeld now pushing the puck into the Western zone, puck goes back out by the blue line, but is kept in. Now they try to get it back down to Langfeld, but Langfeld gets taken down and there will be a penalty against the Broncos. Michigan gets a late power play opportunity. There is only about one minute left in the period so they will end this period on the power play and start the second on the power play, unless we get a late score. Well that ends the period with Michigan holding a three to nothing lead. Michigan holds a ten to seven advantage in shots on goal.
The second period starts with Michigan on the power play. The Wolverines push into the Bronco zone, there moving the puck around the zone looking for an opening. They can’t find the opening to score and the power play is killed off. Now less than a minute after killing of the previous power play Western is called for another penalty putting Michigan back on the power play. Michigan working the puck around, Langfeld pushing the puck down, gets a pass to Rominski as he is going down, and Rominski gets it into the net giving Michigan their second power play goal of the night. Assists on this goal are given to Langfeld and Van Ryn. More important than the goal is that the goal was a power play goal. UM has two already tonight after getting no power play goals last night. The Broncos have been applying a lot of pressure, but they are unable to get past the UM defense. Now Michigan gets called for a penalty putting WMU on the power play. Broncos apply a lot pressure, even get Blackburn out of position, but can’t get the puck past Blackburn. About midway through the power play Michigan called for another penalty giving WMU a 5 on 3 advantage. There was a lot of Bronco pressure, but no Bronco scores. A bit later UM gives up the puck in the Michigan zone and the WMU player blasts a quick shot past Blackburn to put WMU on the board. Michigan now working the puck down in the Bronco zone, taking their turn at applying pressure on the opponent’s goalie. Comrie gets a couple of shots, missing both. WMU now called for a penalty, putting Michigan back on the power play. Michigan worked the puck hard during this power play, but could get no real scoring chances. The best chance for a goal in this power play was to WMU when they almost got a short-handed goal. Even with the power play over UM continues to apply the pressure. With just over 7:00 minutes remaining Michigan is back on the power play. Again they apply some decent pressure, but cannot get a real good scoring chance. The power play was killed, when a WMU player got a break away. It appeared that WMU would score for sure when Magnuson came out of nowhere to poke the puck away and stop what appeared to be a sure score. Now WMU is on the power play when UM gets a chance at a short-handed goal. During the power play a WMU player gets called for a penalty putting both teams at four on four, however, UM will end up with a short power play. UM now has about 1:00 minute of power play time and get one great chance at scoring, but the WMU goalie stops the shot. WMU kills off the power play and the action continues with both teams at full strength. As time begins to run down in the period Hayes is called for a five minute major and given a game misconduct. This takes the fifth player out of the UM line up. The only good thing about this is that a WMU player was also given a penalty, so for the first two minutes of the 5 major penalty both teams will be even at four on four. There is no real scoring chance by either team and the period ends. Michigan takes a four to one lead out of the second and into the third period. The end the second with a twenty-one to ten leads in shots on goal.
The third period ends with WMU still on the extended power play. There are now three minutes left in the 5:00 minute major given to Hayes. WMU trying to set something up. As they move down the ice a WMU player takes a long shot that Blackburn stops. Blackburn takes the puck and passes it way down the ice to Clark. Clark takes the puck in and scores a short-handed goal with the assist going to Blackburn. A short time later WMU gets another goal while there is still 1-½ minutes left on the power play. UM kills off the remainder of the power play without any more scores. Both teams are now skating four on four after a pair of penalties when UM is called for another penalty giving WMU a very good opportunity to get another goal. The end result of this is that WMU gets a power play goal to move the score to 5 to 3. WMU gets another great chance to score when the pick up a loose puck in front of Blackburn and get a shot off. Blackburn is able to glove the puck and stop the WMU scoring threat. There is now just ten minutes left in the 3rd period when a WMU penalty puts Michigan back on the power play. This power play is killed off by WMU with no scores during the power play. Comrie appears to be the player that WMU has decided to harass continuously. He is getting mugged all along the boards when the referee finally called a penalty on the WMU player. UM starts this power play out by applying some good pressure and continue to apply pressure, however, this power play also ends with no scores put on the board. There has been a lot of back and forth hockey for the last several chances, no real scoring chances by either team. Just a defensive, back and forth hockey game. We are now down to 3 ½ minutes left in the game when the Wolverines get a couple of real good shots at the goal. The puck gets blocked each time and on the last one it bounces out in front of the goal (out towards the blue line). Huntzicker picks up the puck and unleashes a slap shot that buries the puck in the goal giving Michigan a 6 to 3 lead. Now we are down to just of two minutes in the period when both teams are called for penalties. The third period will end with both teams skating four on four. Now Langfeld and Rominski work the puck down into the WMU zone, Langfeld gets a pass off to Rominski, after drawing the goalie to him, and Rominski has a shot at an open net, but the shot goes wide. A great chance for the hat trick, however, Rominski is unable to find twine. Well that’s how the game ends; Michigan wins it by a 6 to 3 score.
After a rocky start to this weekends hockey play Michigan got back on track by beating the Western Michigan Broncos six to three. With MSU taking the tie on Friday night we end the weekend only two points behind the Spartans, rather than three. This coming Thursday Michigan hosts Bowling Green in the last home game before Michigan starts a really brutal stretch of time on the road. Well here is a change for you. The last score of the game, originally credited to Huntzicker has been changed. Apparently Rominski deflected the shot in front of the goal and Rominski is now credited with the goal. Assists were give to Huntzicker and Langfeld. Until next week C-ya.
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