Saturday, February 12, 2000

Saturday, February 12, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Michigan started the weekend in fine fashion last night with a 7 to 2 win over the Bronco’s of Western Michigan. They also got a little bit of breathing room back in the conference race as MSU took a hard fought overtime win against the Wildcats from Northern Michigan. Northern and MSU tangle again tonight up in East Lansing and the Wolverines host the Bronco’s for the second straight night. Michigan’s task in this evening’s game is two fold. First they need to stay focused on tonight’s game and not start looking ahead to next weekend’s showdown with Northern (that’s for us to do!). The second thing, and may prove to be the more difficult thing to do, they need to keep their heads in tonight’s game. If Michigan once again opens a large lead, like they did last night, Western could go after the UM player’s trying to provoke them into committing bad penalties. The Bronco’s showed no hesitation in attacking Comrie early, late, and everywhere in between. Some of those penalties, especially the third period ones, took an ugly turn as they had more potential to injure, not just knock Comrie off the puck. If that happens again tonight, and it probably will, Mike has to let it go and turn the other cheek, so to speak. The other players on the team have to do the same thing. As I look ahead, something that the UM players can’t afford to do until tomorrow, I see Northern Michigan coming up next weekend. Depending on how things go in East Lansing tonight, this series between UM and NMU could ultimately decide the conference. UM cannot afford to go to Marquette with any players sitting out DQ’s, so all you Wolverine players out there, keep your emotions under control – NO FOOLISH PENALTIES. Believe me the Wildcats and the Wildcat fans are already getting geeked about Michigan coming to town and next weekends series is going to be a tough one. My really long ramble is on the front of the Friday article so that’s all I have to say as a lead in to this evening’s contest. So keep focused, stay intense, play smart, and complete the sweep.

The scratches for Saturday’s game did include J.J. Swistak. The last word I heard was that he was ok after Friday’s game so hopefully they held him out just so they didn’t take any chances. On a good note Josh Langfeld was unexpectedly dressed and did play in Saturday’s game. We were only a minute or two into the game and it was clear that Michigan was pumped, primed, and ready to play this game. Michigan was all over the WMU net. The first five minutes of the game went by and I was amazed that Western had managed to keep UM scoreless. With just over five minutes gone UM picked up the first penalty of the game giving WMU the first power play chance of the night. Through the first half of this power play Western had not mounted any real scoring threat and with 1:05 left in the power play WMU picked up a penalty to even things up at 4 on 4. The end result of all the penalties was a short UM power play and Michigan came oh so close. They had a golden chance to put the puck in the net, but managed to miss the target. About 20 seconds later they did not make the same mistake as Michigan drew first blood with a power play goal. With just over 12 minutes left in the period Mike Comrie found the WMU net with assists going to Hilbert and Huntzicker. There were matching penalties called immediately following the goal, but it proved to be no advantage for either team. With about 7 ½ minutes left in the period WMU picked up another penalty putting UM back on the power play. This was a strange one because they didn’t just call one Bronco for a penalty, but called two giving Michigan a full two minutes of 5 on 3 hockey. I was sure we would see another Michigan goal during this time, but Western was able to turn away any scoring threat and killed off the penalties. The first period ended with Michigan leading by a score of 1 to nothing (just like Friday night), but tonight Michigan held a big edge in shots on goal with an 18 to 7 count (very unlike Friday night). Had to take hats off to the WMU goalie who really kept his team in this game as Michigan put immense pressure on the WMU goal.

Michigan started the second period by picking up another penalty and giving WMU a quick power play chance. Michigan killed this penalty off without suffering any damage. Michigan extended their lead with 15:14 left in the second period when Langfeld got the puck behind the WMU goal. Langfeld made a beautiful pass up to Koch in front of the net and Geoff buried the puck in the WMU goal to put Michigan up by a score of 2 to nothing. Almost a minute later WMU picked up a penalty putting Michigan on the power play and Michigan decided to make the best of it. On this power play the Wolverines were moving the puck around the Bronco zone extremely well. All this movement generated several shots that came awfully close to scoring a goal. The pressure being applied by Michigan became so great that a Bronco purposely knocked the net off the moorings and picked up a delay of the game penalty giving Michigan a short two-man advantage. Michigan didn’t score with the two-man advantage, but they did score a power play goal just seconds after the original penalty had expired putting Michigan up 3 to nothing. The goal was given to Mink and assists were given to Shouneyia and Peach. Those three Wolverines picked up the points, but Michigan picked up that goal because of the awesome way they moved the puck on the power play. At this time you kind of felt that Michigan was going to run away from the Bronco’s, but in the last ten minutes of the second period the wheels came off for the Michigan Wolverines. Michigan started by picking up a penalty with 10:40 gone in the period. They had managed to keep WMU at bay when about a minute into the power play the found a chink in Blackburn’s armor and got on the board with a power play goal. They got the goal, ended the power play, but put WMU right back on the power play as they picked up a roughing penalty at the same time. Michigan was again doing a decent job of killing of the power play when Jed Ortmeyer came up with a fantastic effort. Jed had been playing a very good game up to this point, but this play was just outstanding. Jed stole the puck at the WMU blue line, skated it into the WMU zone, and crashed the net putting the puck in the Bronco net to pick up a short handed goal and put Michigan back up by three. The short-handed goal was a thing of beauty, but the rest of the period as far as the Wolverines were concerned was a thing of ugliness. Michigan picked up penalty after penalty keeping Western continuously on the power play. The end result was two more Western power play goals and the period ended with Michigan hanging onto a one-goal lead by a score of 4 to 3. Both teams got eight shots on goal in this period (Michigan’s mostly in the first half and Western’s mostly in the second half), but Michigan continued to hold a significant edge in shots with a 26 to 15 count. A Bronco picked up a charging penalty right at the 20 minute mark of this period and little did we know just how important that penalty was going to be.

With the gift at the end of the second period Michigan started the third on the power play and they came out of the locker room really buzzing. There was an early mistake in this power play as Michigan mishandled the puck and gave it away in their own zone. Western came terribly close to picking up the short-handed goal, but Blackburn turned the charge away. Then with 16 seconds left in the power play Michigan’s Mark Kosick put Michigan back in front by two goals with a power play goal. Assists were given to Hilbert and Huntzicker and Michigan was off to the races. Western’s last good chance would come with about 6 ½ minutes gone in the period. A set of matching penalties were called leaving both teams skating with four players apiece. About half way through this pair of penalties Huntzicker was called for a hooking penalty to give Western a power play chance, first at 4 on 3 and then at 5 on 4. I thought Huntzicker had made a great defensive play by riding the Bronco away from the net and I really did not see the hooking that was called by the referee. Michigan was got out of this without taking on any damage and killed off both of the penalties. That was the last Michigan penalty of the night, but it was certainly not the end of the action for the Wolverines. A few minutes later, about midway through the period, Comrie made another fantastic play. He stole the puck at the UM blue line skated through neutral ice, and just flew in on the Bronco goal. He left everyone in the dust and slammed the puck past the Bronco netminder to pick up his second goal of the night, unassisted. For the next 5 or 6 minutes both teams raced up and down the ice. It was mostly Bronco’s doing their best to keep up with Wolverines as Michigan continued to buzz up and down the ice and keeping the pressure on the Bronco goal. With 4:03 left in the game Sean Peach notched another goal for the Wolverines with assists going to Ortmeyer and Comrie. About 2 ½ minutes later Bill Trainor picked up his second goal of the season as he picked up Michigan’s eighth goal of the night. Assists on this goal were given to Shouneyia and Murray. Just to make things truly ugly (if you’re a Bronco fan) Western picked up a penalty with just 1 minute left in the game putting Michigan back on the power play. With just 10 seconds left in the game Andy Hilbert picked up the final Michigan goal while on the power play. Assists on this goal went to Kosick and Jillson. The game ended with Michigan winning by a score of 9 to 3. Michigan put 18 more shots on goal in the final period to end the game with a huge advantage in shots on goal with a 44 to 20 count.

This was really quite a weekend for Michigan hockey and I think it came at just the right time. We almost have all our players’ back. Friday Langfeld was still out and then Swistak got injured. On Saturday Swistak was out, but we got Langfeld back. Hopefully as we get ready to go to Marquette next weekend we will have a full complement of players to make the trip. Probably the most important thing about this weekend was the offense getting back on track. They had been playing pretty good, but they were just not getting any goals. This weekend they got goals by the bucket. I know it was against Western and that they should have scored some goals, but Western has been playing some good hockey the last month or so and usually give Michigan a lot of trouble. Actually if you look at both nights games Western was relatively close after two periods in both games, but in the third period on both nights Michigan just outplayed the Bronco’s. This was good because Michigan lost a game last week in the third period, something that they just don’t usually do. Anyway great effort in tonight’s game with everyone focused and playing very hard. They came to Yost ready to play and did not look forward to the series next week against Northern. Early in the second half of the season I thought the new lines put together were really good (Comrie/Hilbert/Koch and Matzka/Kosick/Langfeld), but the lines they put together this weekend seemed to be outstanding. We will have to wait and see how the lines get put together next weekend. I hope the guys enjoyed the win last night because it’s now time for them to forget it and focus on the next opponent, Northern Michigan. Around the CCHA tonight bowling green beat Miami completing their weekend sweep of the Redhawks. Michigan State completed their weekend sweep of the Northern Wildcats with a shutout Saturday night. Notre Dame got a weekend split against Nebraska and has laid claim to fifth place, the last home ice spot in the conference. Ohio State lost one and tied one against the Lakers to all but end their season. While I believe they still have a mathematical chance of making the CCHA playoffs it sure doesn’t look good for the Buckeyes after this weekend. Ferris State got a weekend sweep over Alaska with a couple of one-goal wins up in Alaska. Last, but certainly not least, Michigan got their weekend sweep over the Bronco’s. That leaves Michigan all alone in first place four points ahead of Michigan State who retook second place their sweep of Northern. Northern is now in third place, along with Lake State, with each team having 30 points. Then it’s Notre Dame, Ferris, Nebraska, Miami, and Bowling Green with a total of five points between number five and number nine. The tenth playoff spot is currently held by Western who has 19 points. Next weekend the biggest series in the CCHA will be the one between Michigan and Northern as the Wildcats host the Wolverines. You can bet after getting swept this weekend those Wildcats are going to be riled up. Michigan will have to get focused, keep their heads, and play a couple of outstanding games up in the North country. Well that’s about it for this weekend, until next week – C-ya!