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Saturday, January 23, 1999
Saturday, January 23, 1999, Jerome Schottenstein Center's, Value City Arena, Columbus, Ohio
It was just three short weeks ago that the Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Michigan Wolverines 1 to nothing in this very same arena to start the 1999 half of the season. Yes Michigan was short some players, the Buckeyes were playing their first game in their new arena, and a blizzard raged, but it was a hard fought game (maybe not the best played), which didn’t go the Wolverines way. On this Saturday Michigan looks to turn the tables on the Buckeyes, get an edge in the season series, and add a little more momentum to the upcoming matches against Michigan State and Notre Dame. While Michigan has won the last two games they have been against teams that they should have beat, not against teams that can as easily beat Michigan as Michigan can beat them. Tonight’s contest promises to be a hard hitting, high flying, hockey match between two of the countries best teams. This won’t be an easy win for Michigan, but I’m confident they can get the win.
I didn’t have tickets for this game so was going to watch or listen to it, however, due to circumstances beyond my control (mother nature decided to knock power out to my house last night) I was unable to watch or listen to the game. I have looked around some different places to find out who scored and when and can only relate that to you here.
It was a defensive struggle in Columbus that saw no goals scored in the first period. I could find no mention of whether defenseman Mike Van Ryn, injured in Thursdays night contest against Bowling Green, played in this contest or not. A goal was finally scored early in the second period (3:10 into the period) by Comrie of Michigan to give the Wolverines a 1 to nothing lead. Assists on the goal went to Koch and Langfeld. The defensive play continued for remainder of the second period with neither team able to tally another point. The third period continued much as the first two periods of play, with a lot of defense and no offense. With just 1 minute ten seconds left in the game a rebound popped out in front of Blackburn and an OSU player hit the soft three-foot shot between Blackburn’s legs to tie the game and eventually take the game into overtime. Once again the defenses proved the stronger of the two units on the ice in the overtime period. Though both teams had scoring opportunities, neither team was able to take the win. The game ended in a 1 to 1 tie.
The game certainly didn’t end the way us Wolverine fans would have liked to see it end, but a tie at this point in the season is better than a loss. We shouldn’t have lost any momentum, however, we probably didn’t gain a whole lot either. There is still much work to be done for this Michigan team to get all facets of the game working at the same time on the ice. If they can do that, they could really be a force on the ice. That was Michigan’s fourth overtime game this season and their third tie. Michigan’s record in overtime games this year is 1-0-3. Once again we got some help from Michigan State. While both teams won their opening contest of the weekend (Michigan on Thursday and Michigan State on Friday), they also both ended up with ties on Saturday. For the second weekend in a row MSU has had the opportunity to put some distance between themselves and Michigan and both times they have been unable to get the win that would do it – not all things are bad. We get our chance to move back into a tie with MSU on this coming Friday when we go to East Lansing and Munn Arena to take on the Spartans in a head to head match. After this weekends games OSU took sole possession of third place in the CCHA. Michigan must win both of next weekend’s games and that won’t be an easy task. A win Friday would move them into a tie with MSU, a loss would drop them four points behind, not a position to be in with only about 1 ½ months left in the regular season. So get focused, get ready, and Go Blue!! Mother Nature willing next week I’ll have a bit more information, until then C-ya!
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