Saturday, February 13, 1999

Saturday, February 13, 1999, Lawson Arena, Kalamazoo, Michigan

The slump continues. We went into Saturday nights game having not won a game in the last five and having not won a road game in the last six attempts and by time the game was over Saturday night those runs just got longer. Now these are not the type of streaks we have gotten used to over the last decade and they are a little difficult to take, especially when you see the same mistakes game after game which are costing us the wins. Saturday night we took on the Broncos of Western Michigan, a team that has won only four league games all year and is sitting in tenth place, a mere two points out of last place. After the last month of very frustrating losses you would have thought the Wolverines would have come out and just unloaded on a much weaker team, this was not the case.

The first period played out much the same as several games in the past played out. The Wolverines were being pressed on all points and could muster no offense. Finally, about eight minutes into the period the Broncos got their first goal of the night when Blackburn got caught out of position giving WMU an easy goal to take the early lead. A few minutes later Michigan got their first power play opportunity of the night (the one and only power play for either team in the first period) and did absolutely nothing. WMU shut that power play down with ease and Michigan never came close to scoring a goal. The first period ended with the Broncos leading 1 to nothing and holding a 7 to 5 edge in shots on goal.

The second period started out much different, but ended up with the same result. Michigan came out of the gate flying and peppered the WMU goalie with five shots within the first couple minutes of the period, but could none of them past the goalie. Even with the domination they exhibited in this stretch of time the best scoring opportunity in the first couple of minutes went to the Broncos when the Wolverines made a mistake in the neutral zone, giving the Broncos the puck, and a clean shot at our goal. Luckily we dodged this bullet. Another couple of minutes later (about 3 ½ to 4 minutes into the game) Michigan had a golden opportunity to get on the score board when they got Bronco goalie to one side and on the ice leaving an open net. We even had the puck right there, but we still couldn’t find twine. About this time I was asking – What madness is this?? Another two minutes into the period the Broncos again got an easy goal, when the Wolverines gave the puck away deep in their own zone giving WMU a point blank shot at the goal. They of course took advantage of this gift to take a 2 to nothing lead. Making matters worse two Wolverines took penalties within a short span of time giving the Broncos a 5 on 3 advantage for quite a long time, followed by a 5 on 4 advantage for another minute. Even with the extended power play opportunity the Wolverines were able to kill off both penalties and keep the score from getting any worse. The only bright spot during this stretch of time was provided by Dale Rominski who got a break away and almost got the short-handed goal. The down side is that Dale missed an open net and another "sure thing" goal went unscored. With about 7 ½ minutes left in the period Michigan again had the puck deep in the WMU zone, got the goalie out of position giving them a shot at another open net, and again failed to take advantage. Finally, with just under five minutes left in the period Langfeld got Michigan on the board when he took a pass from Peach, skated it in, and buried it in the WMU net. Right at the end of the period Michigan was called for a penalty putting WMU on the power play. A minute later WMU got called for a penalty putting both teams even with four players each. The period ended with WMU holding the 2 to 1 lead and still holding the edge in shots on goal at 16 to 15.

The third period stayed true to form. Both teams were skating with four players. When the period began there was just under one minute left in the Michigan penalty (53 seconds) and just under two minutes left in the WMU penalty (1 minute 57 seconds). Michigan was going to get about one minute of power play time at the start of this period. Alas nothing good was to come out of this situation. In fact the entire period was pretty much a waste. Michigan continued to generate no offense, but they continue to give the puck away at center ice (or worse deep in their zone). As the game clock ticked away the play got more frantic. Finally, with about one minute left in the period Michigan pulled their goalie to get the extra attacker on the ice. Even with the extra attacker it looked like Michigan was going to give another game away when Kosick finally got the puck into the WMU net with just 7.1 seconds left on the clock. It was good to see them not give up and fight to get the score, but the game still ended up tied at 2 goals apiece. At the end of three Michigan now held the edge in shots on goal at 27 to 23.

The five-minute overtime period went much the same as the entire game had gone. Michigan did get several shots in the overtime stanza and held WMU to only a couple, but neither team could score the game winning goal. The game ended in a 2 to 2 tie, with Michigan winning the shots on goal battle 31 to 25.

This entire game can be summed up in this way. Mistakes and missed opportunities. I couldn’t believe the number of times Michigan gave the puck away in the neutral zone or deep in their own zone. At the same time there were at least four or five times (and probably more) when Michigan had the puck deep in the WMU zone, got the goalie out of position, giving them an open net to shoot at, but was unable to put the puck in the net. Blackburn continues to make some spectacular saves, but also continues to give up easy goals. He will make an astounding save, making you ask how on earth did he ever get over there to stop that shot, but then he will give up the softie. In this respect he reminds of Turco. Marty had a habit of giving up some easy goals, but he also made some spectacular saves. The harder the save the better the chance that Marty would stop the shot, the same seems true of Blackburn. The big difference of course is that in years past Michigan would score at least 3 to 4 goals a game and we could overcome those give aways. This year with Michigan struggling to score even one goal a game the pressure on the goalie to pitch shut outs night after night is tremendous.

This team must decide what they want to do with the remainder of the year. This game was just another in a long string of extremely frustrating non-wins. This entire season continues to slip away and the chances of Michigan playing beyond the CCHA playoffs grow dimmer and dimmer. The regular season title is so far out of reach at this time that its not even a possibility. We are six points behind MSU who sits comfortably in first place. We are three points behind OSU who appears to be well on their way to locking up second place. We sit in third place with a three-point edge over ND. Luckily we still hold that edge because ND lost a pair of 1-point games to MSU over the weekend and we’re only three points behind OSU because they lost Saturday night. The way that Michigan is playing right now the chances of them beating MSU, OSU, or ND in the playoffs is remote. For the first time in a very long time Michigan appears to be on the brink of missing the NCAA tournament, let alone going to the final four. It’s now up to the team, which way do they want to go. They can still make the tournament and I continue to believe they have the talent not just to go to the final four, but to win the entire enchilada. However, they won’t go and they won’t win playing the way they are right now. This is one Wolverine fan that hopes they get it together in time to make a run. We’ll all be waiting for our Michigan team to reappear and play the way we all know they can.