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Saturday, February 5, 2000
Saturday, February 5, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Last night was the second in a home and home series between the Bulldogs of Ferris State and the Wolverines of Michigan. This game was the second and final time these two teams will meet in the regular season. In Friday nights game Michigan came away with a last minute win in a game that they probably should have lost. Saturday night the Bulldogs were looking for a little payback. Michigan didn’t play a particularly good game Friday and things certainly didn’t get any easier for them on Saturday night as several key players were out of the Michigan lineup. We got Craig Murray back from illness, but Mark Kosick is still out of the lineup with a sprained knee. We were also be without the services of Geoff Koch who is having back problems and Josh Langfeld was out after sustaining an injury in Friday nights game against these same Bulldogs. They have been saying that Kosick is day to day with his knee injury, but I saw Mark at the game last night and he seemed to be walking gingerly to say the least. I hope it was because he just finished an intense session of rehab and is really in better shape than he appeared. I have not heard what the injury was to Langfeld, we will probably all find out some time this week. It wouldn’t surprise me if we ended up without Huntzicker next weekend as he went down with in injury to his knee in Saturday night’s game. In that injury it looked like Dave went into the boards, leading with his knee. He did come back into the game, but I’m afraid it will really stiffen up over night and make it difficult for him to play this week. Hopefully I’m completely wrong on this and he will be ready to go come Friday. Well let’s go over the game last night and then take a quick look at the conference and at next week.
Michigan went into the penalty box early in this game as they drew their first penalty of the night just 2:08 into the game. To make matters worse Michigan picked up a second penalty less than 30 seconds later and suddenly found themselves killing off a 5 on 3 advantage for the Bulldogs. While Ferris tried to get something going with this sudden early advantage Michigan really did a great job of killing off these early penalties. In retrospect it might have been better if they had given up a goal here, it might have focused their attention a little better on this game. Both teams were wheeling up and down the ice in this game and Michigan did get one really good break away. However, they were unable to convert the break away into a goal. Ferris took their first penalty of the game with 8:19 gone in the first period. On their first power play chance of the night Michigan was able to do absolutely nothing. At times it looked like Ferris was on the power play, not Michigan. With 11:19 gone in the period it appeared that FSU was going to get a power play as Roemensky was called for tripping, however, a FSU player got caught roughing after the whistle to even things up at four per team. In a strange twist the first period ended in a similar fashion to its start, but this time it went the Wolverines way. With 3:00 minutes left in the period FSU was called for a penalty putting Michigan on the power play. The Wolverines were applying some decent pressure when FSU was called for a second penalty with 1:31 left in the period. This game Michigan about 30 seconds of a two-man advantage and then the rest of the period was on the power play. While Michigan was unable to crack the goal line with the two-man advantage, they did strike first seconds after Ferris got back to four men. With just 55 seconds left in the first period Matzka picked up a deflected Peach shot and slipped it past the FSU netminder. Assists on the goal were given to Peach and Ortmeyer. The first period ended with Michigan holding a slim 1 to nothing lead. Michigan did hold a significant advantage in shots on goal with a 13 to 4 count.
The second period started out kind of slow and plodding. Neither team was able to mount much offense and the first real break of the period came with 5:49 gone in the period when FSU picked up a penalty and gave Michigan another power play opportunity. Like their first power play chance, this third opportunity produced absolutely no offense at all. They never came close to the Ferris net as Ferris easily killed off the penalty. Play continued in it’s up and down form when with 9:30 gone in the period FSU picked up their second penalty and game Michigan their fourth power play opportunity. This time it only took Michigan 35 seconds to pick up their second power play goal of the night. This was a great goal made possible by the great puck handling of Mike Comrie. Comrie did a little move on a FSU defender out by the blue line, brought the puck deep into the FSU zone, and then dropped a pass back to Hilbert who made no mistakes and put the puck in the net. Assists were given to both Comrie and Jillson on this goal. This goal was scored at the 10:05 point in the period and at this time things were starting to look good if you were a Michigan fan. Things took a turn for the worse with 14:46 gone in the period when a FSU player picked up a loose puck deep in the Michigan zone and flipped it past Blackburn. After Blackburn had come up with a couple of really great saves in this game, it was disappointing to see this little flip shot go into the net. About two minutes after the FSU goal Michigan picked up a penalty to give Ferris a power play chance late in this period. While on the power play they got one good scoring chance, but Blackburn came up with a fantastic glove save to hold the line. The period ended with Michigan holding onto a 2-1 lead and the Wolverines still held a commanding edge in shots on goal with a 23 to 11 count.
Well it was all on the line going into the third period. Michigan went into the third period sporting a 117-0-5 record when leading games after two periods. As the third period got under way the game and this impressive string of non-losses were both on the line. That goal in the second had really put some jump in the Ferris team and they came out playing hard. Uncharacteristically Michigan seemed to be kind of going through the motions. It didn’t take Ferris long to take advantage as they tied the game up with just 2:09 gone in the third period. Just nine seconds later a FSU player must have said something to one of the officials because he was hit with a 10 minute misconduct penalty. It left the teams skating at full strength, but FSU was without one of their players for 10 minutes. Both teams went up and down the ice when FSU was called for a penalty with 4:36 gone in the period. Michigan had another power play chance and with the game tied a score here would have been huge. They did get one really fine look at the net during this power play, but again missed the net. This was a great scoring chance that was simply wasted. Ferris killed off the penalty and with 7:35 gone in the period Michigan took a bench minor for too many men on the ice. It looked like the Wolverines would kill this penalty off, but with under 10 seconds left in this Ferris power play the Bulldogs picked up the goal that put them ahead for the first time in this game. This ultimately proved to be the game winner and once again a Michigan penalty that never should have been costs them dearly. Of course just to give Ferris a little extra incentive Jillson took a penalty right after this goal to put Ferris right back on the power play. Michigan was able to kill this penalty off without taking any more damage. Ferris picked up another penalty putting Michigan on the power play again with just over six minutes left in the period. Again Michigan was unable to do anything with the power play and Ferris retained their one goal lead. With just over 5 minutes remaining in the period a pair of matching penalties were given out to keep the teams at even strength. Michigan got one final power play chance in this game as Ferris was called for roughing with 1:14 left in the game. The face off following this penalty was in the Ferris zone so Blackburn was pulled from the game to give Michigan two extra attackers. Ferris managed to get a couple of chances at the open Michigan net, but was unable to take advantage. With under 30 seconds left in the game it looked like Michigan got a goal to tie things up, but somehow the Ferris netminder came up with a great save and kept his team on top. Unfortunately for Michigan the rebound on this shot was picked up by a Bulldog, not a Wolverine, and this time Ferris put the puck in the open Michigan net to ice the game. The final score in this game was 4-2 in favor of the Bulldogs, even though Michigan out shot the Bulldogs by a 33 to 17 count.
Well this was surely a strange weekend. On Friday Michigan won a game they probably should have lost and on Saturday night they lost a game they probably should have won. If there was ever a glaring example of the old adage that "what goes around, comes around" this weekend was it. When you look at the statistics for this game you would think that Michigan must have really played a great game. However, as I have thought about last nights game this afternoon it seems they really didn’t play all that well. For some reason they seemed completely out of sync and for most of the game played without much intensity at all. In a lot of ways it looked like they were simply going through the motions on the ice. I want to say it was because of the players they were missing, but I can’t. They had plenty of opportunities to win this game; they just seem unable to score goals right now. This inability to score goals has been a problem for the last couple of weeks; it is a problem they must find a way to solve and soon. Because of the injuries we skated with four completely new lines last night and that probably did contribute to some of the confusion that was, at times, a glaring problem. Let’s hope we get our players back from injury so we can finally skate with a full team. Michigan has to shake this weekend off and put it behind them as they host the Bronco’s for two games next weekend. For anyone who doesn’t know the Bronco’s have been playing some very good hockey lately and they gave Michigan all kinds of trouble last year.
While Michigan split their weekend series they still cling to sole possession of first place in the conference, but things have really tightened up. The Spartans also split this weekend so Northern Michigan now sits all alone in second place, just one point behind the Wolverines. Michigan State is tied for third with Lake Superior just four points’ back. As we go deeper into February the race for the conference title gets tighter. Michigan still controls their destiny; they have just lost what little breathing room they might have had. All Michigan has to do is win the remainder of their games and they will win the conference. While there are other scenarios that would allow them to win, I believe they must go into their last four weekends with that goal in mind – win out. With last nights loss at Yost it is now official, Michigan has now lost more games at home than they have on the road. It’s never good to have more losses at home than on the road, no matter who the team is you have to win your home games. Well that’s about it for this week, let’s all shake this off and get ready for the Bronco’s next weekend and take our first step toward the end of the season. Until next week, C-ya!
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