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Saturday, February 27, 1999
Saturday, February 27, 1999, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tonight’s game is the second in a weekend series between the Michigan Wolverines and the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks. Last night the Wolverines took it to the Redhawks and came away with a 6 to 1 win – the first win for Michigan in nine games. With OSU idle that brought us to within two points of second place and more importantly should have given the team some much-needed confidence. As important as last nights win was, Michigan must continue this evening and complete the weekend sweep. They are, or at least should be, in playoff mode. They’ve put themselves into a situation where they can no longer afford a loss to anyone for the remainder of the season – as long as this season goes on for Michigan.
The first period started out with both teams playing hard. Michigan picked up where it left off on Friday night, but desperation on Miami’s part gave them a bit of a lift. Miami is fighting for the eighth and final playoff spot in the CCHA tournament and they need a win even worse than does Michigan. The first period remained scoreless until just over five minutes left in the period, when Mike Van Ryn got a shot off from out near the blue line that found the net. This was an unassisted goal that appeared to deflect off a Miami player. In any event the goal counted and Michigan had a one to nothing lead. Michigan had several power play opportunities in the first period, but could make no use of them. Michigan was also called for a late period penalty allowing Miami to end the first period on the power play and start the second period on the power play. The first period ended with Michigan leading 1 to nothing and Michigan holding a much bigger edge in shots on goal at 10 to 4.
Miami started the second period on the power play (almost a full power play as the penalty at the end of the first period was called with just seconds remaining in the first period). However, the Michigan penalty kill simply smothered the Miami power play unit and the Redhawks were unable to get close to a goal, let alone score one. Shortly after Michigan killed off the Miami power play Miami was whistled for a penalty and Michigan was on the power play. Michigan was unable to take advantage of this power play. About one minute into Michigan’s power play Langfeld was called for a penalty looking to kill the Michigan power play by putting the teams at four on four and eventually giving Miami about one minute of power play time. This is where things got interesting. The Miami bench kept putting one player on the ice, then pulling another off, putting one on, pulling one off, etc…. This continued for a bit and the officials whistled that play was to start. Miami continued the player shuffle and the officials again whistled that play was to start and motioned to the Miami bench to get their line up on the ice. The Miami player shuffle continued, but this time the referee whistled the Miami bench for a delay of game penalty. The outcome of this was that Langfeld’s penalty, along with the bench minor, became coincidental penalties and Michigan continued on the power play, skating with a 5 on 4 advantage. I don’t know what Miami was doing, but it was the most comical thing I’ve seen at a hockey game in quite a while. Any way after the penalties were all skated off and no scores were made there were just over five minutes gone in the period Michigan got on the board again when Justin Clark got the puck past the Miami netminder to give Michigan a 2 to nothing lead. Clark picked up the puck in the neutral zone and just marched it right in on the Miami goal and found twine. Assists on this goal were given to Andrew Merrick and Jeff Jillson. While it looked like Michigan might be getting something going this was about the last good thing that happened in this period. A few minutes’ later Miami got the puck past Blackburn to pull within one. The final score of the second period also went to Miami. With about eight minutes left in the period a Miami player and a Michigan player were put in the penalty box. This had the teams skating four on four, which had been favoring Michigan all night long. During this time a Miami player got loose and was on a break away when Huntzicker caught him from behind and grabbed on to keep him from getting a clean shot on goal. While this was probably a good penalty it led to Miami’s second goal of the night. With Huntzicker now off for holding Miami had the 4 on 3 man advantage and they were able to get their second goal of the night. The period did end with the game all tied up at 2 apiece. Michigan still held a fair edge in shots on goal at 21 to 12. The shots in the second were pretty even and overall the second period, like the second period last night, seemed to be a little slower and a little less organized for the Wolverines.
The third period was something altogether different. The Wolverines came out and hit the ice looking very determined. They started putting shots on goal right from the outset and never looked back. With just over two minutes gone in the period both teams lost a player to penalties and we were once again skating four on four. From the face off following the matching penalties the puck was fed ahead to Berenzweig who just blew past everyone, stormed the net, and just slammed the puck into the net. Seven seconds after the penalties were called we were on the board. The assist on this goal was given to Bobby Hayes. While still skating at four on four Miami was called for another penalty giving Michigan the four on three advantage. With just 1 second left in the original penalty Michigan got the puck to Langfeld who punched it past the Miami goaltender to give Michigan a two-goal lead. Assists on this goal were given to Comrie and Kosick. This was Michigan’s first power play goal of the night and things really got interesting for the next couple of minutes. Off the face off following the Michigan goal Miami got the puck into the Michigan zone. Michigan’s defense took the puck away from Miami and fed it up ice to Comrie. Comrie took the puck and weaved and bobbed his way through the Miami defenders and put the puck in the net. Just 26 seconds after going up by two goals we were now ahead by three. Assists on this goal went to Peach and Koch. A short time later Miami again had the puck in the Michigan zone, the Michigan defense again took it away, this time getting the puck up the ice to Matzka. Matzka got loose, flew into the Miami zone and let loose a slap shot that slammed so hard into the back of the net that it bounced back out, but the goal was on the board. When I said a short time later I mean that this sixth goal came just 31 seconds after the fifth goal and Michigan had just scored four goals in less than three minutes. The assist on Matzka’s goal was given to Van Ryn. At this point Miami replaced their goaltender and just a few seconds later with Michigan now holding the four-goal lead O’Malley came in for Blackburn. Now we had a little breathing room before the next score of the game, a whole minute and 45 seconds or so. Miami had been whistled for a penalty putting Michigan back on the power play. Michigan was putting all kinds of pressure on the Miami net when a shot was taken. The shot was blocked, but Michigan picked up the rebound, shuffled the puck to the other side of the net to a waiting Comrie, who slipped it into the net for his second goal of the night. Assists on this goal were given to Berenzweig and Langfeld. With both teams once again skating four on four and Miami again in the Michigan zone the Michigan defense takes the puck away from them again. This time Bobby Hayes gets the puck and takes off down the ice. He takes it all the way down the ice on his own and scores an unassisted goal, his third of the year. This goal came just 1 minute, 21 seconds after the last one. At this point Michigan held an 8 to 2 lead, the third period was less than half over, and they were scoring a goal every 1 ½ to 2 minutes. It was just fantastic. Keeping this up a short time later it appeared that Michigan had scored their ninth goal of the game (right on schedule to), but it was waved off with the officials saying a whistle had blown prior to the score. Miami was the next team to score. With about eight minutes left Jillson made a lazy pass deep in Michigan’s zone that Miami picked up and pushed to the net. They were able to get the puck past O’Malley, but he didn’t stand much of a chance as this give away happened deep in our zone and right in front of the net. One-minute Michigan had the puck and was headed out of the zone, the next minute Miami had the puck and was shooting it. While this type of mistake has been Michigan’s down fall the last month or so, this was the first time such a glaring lapse of concentration occurred this weekend. While it was disappointing to see after such a good weekend of hockey it did my heart good to see Berenzweig giving Jillson a talking to as they were coming off the ice. The seniors made their presence known this entire weekend in scoring and in simply leading the team. With about six minutes left in the game Michigan again sent in crowd favorite Greg Daddario to finish the night in goal for Michigan. The final goal of the period for Michigan came with just under five minutes to play in the period with Michigan again on the power play. Michigan was working the puck around the Miami zone extremely well when they pushed it down deep, from one side of the goal to another, back across the goal to a waiting Greg Crozier, who punched it past the Miami goaltender. Miami ended the scoring in the game by slipping one past Daddario with just 25 seconds left in the game. This was a power play goal and it looked like Daddario had stopped the shot, but it just slipped past him. The final score in this game was Michigan 9, Miami 4. Michigan ended up with a HUGE advantage in shots on goal at 42 to 20 getting 21 shots on goal in the third period alone.
Well this was the first, small step for the Michigan hockey team on their quest to get into the NCAA tournament this year. They swept Miami on the weekend and for the year (I think the only team in the league that Michigan swept this year). These two wins were very convincing and should go a long way to building some confidence. Keeping things in perspective, however, Michigan should have beaten Miami like this. They are a weaker team, Michigan is the stronger of the two teams, and they should have beaten them up as bad as they did. We now have two final regular season games to go and Michigan must once again win them both. This time, however, we have to win them on the road in some unfriendly places. Next weekend we have two games in the Upper Peninsula with a game Friday night against Lake State and a game Saturday night against Northern. Michigan should have all the incentive they need with the playoffs coming up and their future in those playoffs hanging by a thread, but if they need a little extra mental push all they have to do is remember February 5th of this year. On that date LSSU came into our house and just ripped Michigan apart. It was one of the worst games Michigan has played all year and was right in the middle of their very long winless streak, which I hope is now finally behind them.
Once again, to make sure I give credit as evenly as I give criticism, the seniors led this team tonight and this entire weekend. They led by example with their tenacious play and they led by putting a lot of points on the board. In tonight’s game the seniors scored four goals and had two assists for a total of six points. To the seniors, you led this team this weekend and my hat is off to you, but you must continue to lead this team in the same fashion for as long as this season continues.
The win tonight did move us into a tie with OSU for second place in the CCHA, but OSU does own the tiebreaker. OSU has to tie or loose next weekend and Michigan must win both games for us to claim second place. The nine goals scored tonight were the most scored in any game by Michigan this year. Michigan scored a total of 15 goals this weekend. You have to count back six games to get a total of 15 goals and they got these in two nights. We did clinch home ice for the 1st round of the CCHA tournament with this win. Notre Dame and Northern are locked in a battle to settle the fourth and final home ice team in the tournament with only one point separating them. Michigan will have their hands full in Marquette next week when they play Northern. That game could mean the difference between home game or road game for the Wildcats in the CCHA 1st round. Ferris tied MSU on Friday and for a while it looked like WMU might actually beat MSU, but MSU came on and took the win. Miami still holds the eighth and final spot in the CCHA playoffs, but by only one point and LSSU is the team one point out so you know they will be looking to win next weekend as well. There is still a lot of hockey to play with only two games left. Michigan can and should win their final two games, but they must play with the same intensity that I saw this weekend. Well that’s it for this weekend, and a great weekend of Michigan hockey it was. Let’s hope that this is just the start of a great finish to this somewhat mediocre season (at least by Michigan standards). Until next week, C-ya!
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