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Saturday, March 13, 1999
Saturday, March 13, 1999, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tonight the Wolverines look to complete their sweep of the Falcons from Bowling Green and move onto the championship round of the CCHA tournament at Joe Louis Arena. The season is certainly on the line for Bowling Green, if they loose tonight they will be done. If Michigan were to loose they will still have Sunday, but we all want a Michigan sweep. If they put Bowling Green away tonight they can stay on the regular routine of two games per week and get that extra day of recovery and preparation that a team playing three games in the 1st round doesn’t get. As expected Bowling Green played Michigan very tough on Friday night. It took two Michigan goals in the third period Friday to pull out a win. With so much riding on this game for BG tonight expect them to leave everything they have on the ice.
This game started out as expected. It was fast paced and both teams were giving everything they had to give. Unlike last night the first half of this period was relatively penalty free and the period as a whole was relatively penalty free with only five penalties being called in total. Michigan got their first power play chance with 14:13 left in the period and it was to say the least impotent. This was the only down side to the period so far for Michigan, as they had really owned the period to that point. Bowling Green, with the best power play unit in the conference, got their first power play opportunity about midway through the period. With 10:58 left on the clock Sean Peach went into the box for interference. The best way to describe Michigan’s penalty kill in this BG power play is smothering. Michigan killed this penalty off, making the best power play unit look like the worst. Bowling Green never came close to scoring a goal on this power play. The period continued without a score, but as you sat there and watched play unfold you knew it was only a matter of time. While they had not scored Michigan had dominated the play and held a decided edge in shots on goal. Finally with 4:59 left on the clock Michigan got on the board. It all started with some superb defense in the Michigan zone. Michigan’s Comrie got the puck in the UM zone, fed it up ice to Langfeld, who took it into the BG zone. Langfeld got off a shot, the shot went wide, but the rebound was picked up by Michigan and brought back out in front to Huntzicker. Huntzicker fed the puck back over to Comrie who got off a shot that sailed past the BG goaltender and Michigan was up 1 to nothing. The passing and workmanship by all the players involved in this goal were superb; it was a thing of beauty. Assists on the goal went to Huntzicker and Langfeld. Just a short time later, with 3:12 left on the clock, with the teams skating four on four BG was called for another penalty. This gave Michigan the man advantage as they skated 4 on 3. Again superb passing and great play by Michigan who worked the puck around the BG zone and got the power play goal with 2:56 left on the clock. This time it was Langfeld who got the rebound and the goal, with assists going to Jillson and Comrie. That’s how the period ended, Michigan 2, Bowling Green 0. Bowling Green had closed the gap in shots on goal, but Michigan still held quite an edge at 14 to 9.
The second period started out kind of shaky with both teams loosing a player to penalties just 1 ½ minutes into the period. With both teams once again skating 4 on 4 this time it was Michigan who was called for the second penalty giving the Falcons the man advantage at 4 on 3. Michigan looked like they might survive this, but just after the first penalty had expired, giving Michigan 4 men on the ice, BG got a shot past Blackburn to get back within one. Since the first penalty had expired this goal killed off the remaining power play opportunity for the Falcons. After the Falcons got on the board both teams traded some scoring chances and continued to play very hard. Finally with 11:51 left on the clock Koch took a pass from Huntzicker and slammed the puck home to once again give Michigan the two-goal lead at 3 to 1. Huntzicker got the lone assist. Michigan did get a couple of fantastic scoring chances about midway through the period while on the power play, but they were unable to get the score. With about 6 minutes left in the period, with Michigan working extremely hard, the Wolverines broke the Falcon defense. Ritchlin broke loose, Kosick fed him the puck, and Ritchlin drove in unchallenged and got the fourth Michigan goal of the night. The lone assist on this goal went to Kosick. Bowling Green wasn’t ready to fold just yet though. With about five minutes left in the period UM got called for a penalty. While on the power play Bowling Green was able to score into an empty net. This was a real cheap goal. The BG goaltender had pushed the puck up the ice and was looking to bank it off the boards down into the UM zone. Blackburn saw that the puck, when it came off the boards, was going to head behind the net so he left the net to intercept the puck. However, the darn puck didn’t do what he thought it would. It hit the wall funny, took a very strange bounce, and the net effect was an open net goal for BG. This cut the Michigan lead back to 2 goals. This went down as a power play goal, BG’s second of the period. Just when it looked like the period would end with the score 4 to 2 Michigan again came up big. There was some furious play in the neutral zone by both teams. Suddenly the puck squirts clear of players; Bobby Hayes picks it up clean, charges in on the BG net, dekes the goalie, and flips the backhand shot in for Michigan’s fifth goal of the night. This was an unassisted goal and was yet another thing of beauty. The period ended with Michigan leading 5 to 2 and while BG outshot UM in this period Michigan still held the edge in shots on goal at 24 to 21.
Going into the third period I was setting there thinking all Michigan had to do was score early and they could break BG’s back. At the end of the second period the Bowling Green players had looked very tired and after that late goal by Hayes they looked kind of shell shocked. Every time BG looked to be getting back into the game tonight Michigan answered and retained their edge in goals. Once BG was out to show that they hadn’t given up yet and with just 28 seconds run off the clock in the third period BG once again scored to cut the UM lead to 2. Blackburn had stopped the initial shot on this goal, but he had to move way over to one side of the goal and fell down while making the stop. We didn’t get the rebound covered up and BG got another easy one to start out the period. From here on out ladies and gentlemen it was all Michigan, not that it hadn’t been pretty much all Michigan up to this point. With 17:27 left on the clock BG is called for a penalty putting Michigan on the power play. With 16:08 left on the clock, with 41 seconds left in the original BG penalty, BG is called for their second penalty and now Michigan is skating 5 on 3. Michigan was cycling the puck around the BG zone just fantastically when Hayes took a pass and banged the puck past the BG netminder. This was Bobby’s second goal of the night and the assists on this goal went to Jillson and Peach. It was a power play goal and since it came before the first penalty had expired (there were only seconds left in the first BG penalty) this goal killed off that penalty, but it still left Michigan with the man advantage for another 1:25. Michigan continues to pressure the BG goal getting off several good shots and cycling the puck around the BG zone with authority. After missing a couple of golden opportunities Van Ryn took a pass and slammed the puck past the BG goalie to put Michigan up 7 to 3. The assists on this goal went to Kosick and Comrie. With 12:33 left on the clock and with the BG players looked broken, dazed, and confused and UM continuing to play just fantastic hockey Michigan struck again. Berenzweig pushed the puck up the ice into the BG zone, but couldn’t get a good shot off. He passed the puck over to Ritchlin, who passed it over to Crozier, who passed it past the BG goalie for Michigan’s 8th goal of the game. With 12:23 left in the game Comrie and a BG player got tangled up behind the play and both ended up drawing penalties. While the officials were sorting this out another BG player committed a flagrant penalty and was given a game misconduct. Things were starting to get ugly out there, but they hadn’t yet reached the pinnacle of ugliness. With 5:20 left in the period O’Malley came in for Blackburn. With about five minutes left in the period the real ugliness began. Matzka and a BG player got tangled up and when it was all said and done they had both won game misconduct’s. A bit later (about 2:51 left in game) while the officials were huddled across the ice by the scorers box sorting out some other penalties, a BG player came off the bench, threw off his gloves, and went after Bob Gassoff. Of course this had Michigan players squaring off against BG players all over the place, but mostly it was just to keep everybody honest. As the officials came racing across the ice to break this fight up Gassoff had dropped his gloves and was proceeding to pound on this BG player (he probably learned that age old lesson tonight, don’t pick on someone bigger and stronger than you). There were a host of penalties handed out at this time let me see if I can sum them up. Gassoff and the BG player who were fighting each got game disqualifications. Bobby Hayes and another BG player were both given game misconduct’s. At first it was announced that Hayes was given a game disqualification, but the announcer quickly corrected himself and changed it to misconduct. Another BG player got a double minor. This was really an ugly stretch and it seemed to me that the BG players, knowing their season was over and that they had just been thumped, were trying to hurt Michigan’s chances next week by drawing players into making bad decisions and getting DQ’d. Luckily we only lost one player (Gassoff) to a game disqualification. While his loss won’t go unnoticed, we could have lost two or three players to disqualification and that could have doomed us. A short time later a BG player and Merrick got tangled up. The BG player was given a minor penalty and sent off the ice, but Merrick was given a game misconduct. I’m still don’t think he deserved the misconduct, but by this time the officials weren’t taking anything from anybody. To wrap up the scoring Michigan notched one more goal with under 1-minute to go in the game. While on the power play, skating 5 on 3 (still from the melee fallout) Langfeld took a pass and punched it past the BG goaltender. This was Langfeld’s 21st goal of the season and the assists went to Comrie and Peach. That’s how it ended, Michigan 9, Bowling Green 3. Michigan just pummeled BG in the third period to end up with a game ending edge in shots on goal of 39 to 26.
This was a game that Michigan just dominated from start to finish. While the score was close for the first couple of period’s Michigan was pretty much in control of this game right from the start. I don’t know where it happened, but suddenly Michigan seems to be firing on all cylinders. All the line juggling by coach Berenson seems to have worked out, as he seems to have settled on four line combinations that work best and all four lines are now contributing. Michigan no longer has one or two lines that opponents have to worry about, they suddenly have four. They are getting great play and scoring out of all four lines at this point and if they continue to play this way I’ll take Michigan against any opponent (they should at least be giving themselves a chance to win). This was just a great game and a great way to finish up the year at Yost. There’s still a lot of hockey to be played, but Michigan once again does seem to be playing some of their best hockey as they go into the playoff season. Bowling Green converted on 2 of 4 power plays, while Michigan converted on 5 of 9. Like I said, Michigan appears to be running on all cylinders right now.
It looked and sounded like the students bought a lot of the extra tickets for this game, as the student section was the fullest (of students), loudest, and most boisterous I’ve seen all year long. A thought for Mr. Goss, lower the student ticket prices back down so they can afford them. Having that very loud student section (what you supposedly want in Chrysler Arena) at these home games is so very important. You had in Hockey what you say you want in Basketball. Do what you have to do to keep that student section full and loud. It is a completely different atmosphere when the students are in full swing.
I do know that Michigan, Michigan State, and Ohio State have swept their series and will be going to Joe Louis. Northern slammed Notre Dame Saturday night and they will play the deciding game Sunday evening. Michigan State will play the winner of the Northern Michigan, Notre Dame series and Michigan will play Ohio State. Michigan will face off against the Buckeyes Friday night at 8:30 PM. There should still be tickets available for these play off games so lets fill up the seats. I’ll put together a forecast of the CCHA semi-finals and finals early this week, but for now that’s all – C-ya!!
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