Friday, January 7, 2000

Friday, January 7, 2000, Munn Arena, East Lansing, Michigan

A week has passed and it’s time for the rematch between the Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State Spartans. Last week Thursday Michigan suffered a heart breaking loss to the Spartans in the Great Lakes Invitational (GLI) finals. This was a game in which they really outplayed the Spartans, but an out of this world goal-tending stand by the Spartans Joe Blackburn kept Michigan in the loss column. This is the first game in conference in the second half of the season. This is a really big game as far as conference standings are concerned. The Spartans hold a two-point lead on the Wolverines and they have both played the same number of games. If Michigan wants to win the conference title outright they cannot loose this game. If they loose they will be two games behind the Spartans. If they win they will be tied for first place. This is a strange month as far as schedules go. The only game of the weekend for Michigan is this one against the Spartans, so they don’t need to hold anything in reserve. Michigan will start Josh Blackburn in goal, his first game since suffering the early season injury to his foot (the dreaded "buckeye" toe). The big question is whether Blackburn will be in game shape as we start this second half of the season. Michigan State will start Ryan Miller in goal, a younger goalie but just as talented as Joe Blackburn. It should be a good one tonight and I expect our Wolverines to step it up and get the win against the Spartans.

Michigan has Andy Hilbert and Jeff Jillson back, but the first line is still missing Geoff Koch who is still bothered by that groin injury. It appears to be more serious than first thought. As I said earlier in the article Blackburn is back in goal, that is a good thing. The Wolverines inched up one position in the national polls, moving from number 7 to number 6. Michigan State sits at number 5, where they have been for many weeks. Northern Michigan is ranked number 8 in the country. The only other CCHA team with any points in the poll is Ferris State who had a great week out of conference last week.

The game is under way and both teams seem to be skating with fire. Both teams are skating hard and checking just as hard as there have been several big hits on the ice in the early going of this game. We have played five minutes of this game and we remain scoreless. These teams are just skating up and down the ice, putting everything they have into the game. There have been very few shots so far in this game; I believe one per team at this point. We get our first penalty of the game as Mike Comrie is sent to the box. The Wolverines knack for committing untimely penalties last week in the GLI cost the Wolverines the game. Michigan State goes on the power play first in this game. The Wolverines kill off the penalty and both teams are once again at full strength. A group of penalties are called as two Wolverines and two Spartans go to their respective penalty boxes. There was an extra Spartan penalty so Michigan finds itself on the power play for the first time in this game. The Spartans kill off the penalty and both teams are now skating at even strength. The Spartans put on an attack there, but Blackburn gets the puck in his glove and ends the scoring chance. The face off comes in the Michigan zone as time in this period begins to grow short. Shouneyia got loose on a break away, but Miller was able to turn the shot away. Peach got off a good shot, the rebound came out, and Matzka got off a shot but it went over the net. Michigan with a couple of good scoring chances in the last minute or so. Michigan is now skating on a delayed penalty, no score but MSU touches the puck and now Michigan will go on the power play. Michigan has come close a couple of times in the last few minutes and getting a score on this power play would be a huge lift to these Wolverines. There is only 1:05 left in this period so if they don’t score in this one, they will get 55 seconds of power play time to start the second period. That ends the period with no score for either team. This has been a typical Spartan game, heavy on defense. This will probably be a low scoring game whose outcome will probably be unknown until the last second has ticked off the clock. The Spartans hold the edge in shots on goal by a 7 to 5 count.

Michigan starts the second period with 56 seconds of power play time. It would be a real lift for the Wolverines to start the second period with a quick score. Kosick got a pass across in front of the net to Langfeld, but he couldn’t handle the pass. If hey had it would have been a Michigan score. Another shot by Michigan that just misses and now the power play is over and both teams are skating at full strength. Comrie and Hilbert pass the puck around in amazing fashion getting the puck to Matzka, Matzka gets off a shot, but it hangs up in Miller’s pads. That was a golden opportunity that Michigan should have taken advantage of. Michigan will once again go on the power play as the Spartans pick up another penalty. The Michigan power play is over and the score remains zero to zero. Both teams wheeling up and down the ice with both the Spartans and Wolverines applying some pressure to the opposing goal. The Spartans ice the puck to relieve that pressure and we will have a face off in the Spartan zone. Nothing comes of the face off and we are once again going up and down the ice. We move under 10 minutes to go in this period as both teams continue to battle up and down the ice. The Spartans get called for another penalty giving Michigan yet another power play chance. They really need to take advantage of these power plays; it’s not often that they go on the power play more than the penalty kill. So far they are 0 for 3 on the power play. Michigan State kills off another power play and Michigan fails to score on another power play. Right after the power play expired Michigan State iced the puck forcing a face off in the Spartan Zone. Right off the face off Matzka gets the puck and puts it in the net giving Michigan a sudden one to nothing lead. That first goal is huge – the way this game is going that might be enough to win. Kosick and Peach receive assists on this goal. The Spartans looking for a goal, but Blackburn breaks it up and Michigan clears the puck out to center ice. Another great save by Blackburn as the Spartans look to tie this game up before the second period comes to a close. The second period ends with Michigan holding a 1 to nothing lead. The teams are tied in shots on goal with a 12 to 12 count.

As we get ready for the start of the third period a couple of notes. There was a penalty against the Wolverines as the second period came to a close so the Spartans will start this final period on the power play. Since Michigan is leading this game after two we now have the BIG STREAK on the line. For years Michigan has not lost a game when leading after two periods. The current record is 114-0-4, if they hold on in this game it will be 115-0-4, we have 20 minutes to see. The Spartans are putting all kinds of pressure on the Michigan net as this period gets underway. Blackburn comes up with a great save to keep the Spartans off the board. Michigan kills of the Spartans second power play of the game and we now skate even strength. Michigan having trouble clearing the puck as Blackburn comes up with another great save. Now Michigan breaks out of their zone, Comrie makes a great play to freeze the defender, then gets the puck to Hilbert, who slams it into the Spartan goal to give Michigan the 2 to nothing lead. That is a huge score as it gives Michigan a little breathing room. There was a take away by Merrick who just missed giving the Wolverines a three-goal lead. Another great save by Blackburn as the Wolverines retain their two-goal lead. The Spartans will get another power play opportunity as Michigan is called for a penalty. I hope they don’t start racking up penalties all over the place. This is only their third penalty of the game, but it was penalties that doomed them at the GLI. Another fantastic save by Blackburn to keep the Spartans off the board. Michigan successfully kills of the penalty and we are back to full strength. Matzka gets loose on a break away, walks in, gets off a shot, but it goes just wide. We move under the midway point of this period as Huntzicker steals the puck giving the Wolverines another scoring chance, but they are unable to take advantage. Another great play by Blackburn who just seems to have not missed a step after the long injury break. Michigan gets off a shot that is blocked, Langfeld gets to the rebound, but Miller takes the puck off Langfeld’s stick to end the scoring threat. Michigan just misses on a three on one break as a pass is just off target. We are down to 6 ½ minutes to go in the period as the Spartans start to look for some scores; they are getting a little desperate as time begins to run out on them. We close in on the five-minute mark and Michigan still holds their two-goal lead. The Spartans now start to move out of their normal mode of play, starting to open things up rather than play the defensive battle. This has to work in Michigan’s favor, the Wolverines are quicker than the Spartans and in a free wheeling game this has to favor Michigan. There was just a penalty called, I believe against Blackburn. Let’s see what it’s all about. Vancik gets put in the box as the Spartans get their third power play chance of the game with only 3:40 left in this game. Needless to say this is a big penalty kill for the Wolverines. Blackburn comes up with another huge save to keep the Spartans off the board. Michigan kills off the penalty and is once again skating at full strength. We are under 2 minutes to go in the period and with 1:38 a slashing penalty goes against the Wolverines. The Spartans will be on the power play to finish the game. We are down to the last minute of play in this game and the Spartan goalie is still in net. Comrie and Hilbert break away closing on the Spartan goal, they work the puck down, get off a shot, but it goes over the net. That’s is it, Michigan gets the 2 to nothing win at Munn Arena. Michigan State did outshoot the Wolverines by a 23 to 19 count.

The game has ended with an all out fight down in the Michigan State zone. There will probably be some game disqualification’s given out for these fights. This could have a big impact on next weeks games, lets see what the officials hand out. Bob Gassoff is the only Wolverine to receive a game disqualification and he will miss the first game in our series against Miami next week. Michigan State will be short two players as they host the Mavericks from Nebraska – go Mavericks.

What a return by Josh Blackburn, he not only gets the win he gets a shutout. With this win Michigan moves into a tie for first place in the CCHA with these same Spartans. This was Michigan’s one and only game of the weekend so we are done for the week. This was the first win against the Spartans by Michigan in quite a few games. It was also the first win for Michigan in Munn Arena in five years. This was a big one and should really give Michigan a boost going into next weekend’s series against the Redhawks from Miami. Michigan is now 115-0-4 when leading games after two periods – that is just an unbelievable string. There are just 13 regular season games left in the season and Michigan’s remaining schedule is tougher than the Spartans remaining schedule so getting even in tonight’s game is big. Until next week, C-ya!!