Saturday, February 19, 2000

Saturday, February 19, 2000, Berry Events Center, Marquette, Michigan

Well I’ve already lost my Michigan sweep for the weekend, but a Michigan win tonight would give me three quarters of a sweep and right now a three point weekend is MUCH better than a 1 point weekend. Michigan needs to crank things up tonight, even though they applied a lot of pressure during the game they didn’t put up nearly enough points. In addition, they gave up more shots than they took, and Michigan took 30 shots in the game. The defense must play a better game, the entire game. Michigan played pretty well in the first period; good offensive pressure and good defense. The problem is they got outplayed in the second, not unusual for Michigan, it is there worst period, but they also got outplayed in the third period. In fact they lost the game in the third period after leading going into that period. That’s the second time in a month that has happened after not happening in five years. To be fair there were two outstanding performances in goal last night as both netminders played fantastically. You also had to know that Northern was going to after it in Friday night’s game after getting swept the night before. Tonight Michigan has to take advantage of their chances, get on the board first, and get a couple more for cushion. You can bet Northern will be ready to play again tonight and the Wolverines need a solid 60 minutes of hockey not 20 minutes, followed by 40 minutes of hang on hockey. Michigan needs the win tonight to regain some momentum going into next weekend’s showdown with MSU. It’s Saturday so a short and sweet ramble tonight, let’s get to the game.

Northern takes the early lead in this game as they notch a goal with less than two minutes gone in this game. With 2:11 gone in the game a pair of penalties are called and the teams will skate 4 on 4 for two minutes. Northern gets called for a penalty with just a little bit of time left in the first penalty. They started with a 4 on 3 power play, but they now skate 5 on 4. Michigan could really use a goal on this power play. Another pair of penalties to put the teams back to 4 on 4, this is not the kind of game Michigan wants to play. They need to stay out of the box and put some pucks in the net. As we near the midpoint of this period Blackburn comes up with a big save to keep the Wolverines within one. Now Jillson tackles a Wildcat and Northern goes on the power play. Half way through the Northern power play Michigan almost comes up with a short-handed goal, but they don’t and the NMU power play continues. Michigan kills off that NMU power play without suffering any more damage and both teams now skate at full strength. Now it’s Michigan’s turn on the power play with about eight minutes left in this period. Come on BLUE; let’s get that goal back right NOW! Northern kills off the penalty and Michigan continues to trail by one. As time begins to run out in this period Michigan will return to the power play. Northern kills off Michigan’s third power play of the night and Michigan didn’t do a thing with that opportunity. The first period ends with Northern ahead of the Wolverines by a score of 1 to nothing. Northern also leads in shots on goal with a 7 to 5 count. Hasn’t been much good to say in this period for Michigan, let’s hope tonight they get the better of the 2^nd and 3^rd periods or this weekend is going to be an absolute waste.

Well that’s a wonderful start to the period, the referee misses a blatant penalty against Hilbert and then call a penalty against Comrie so Michigan finds itself killing a penalty in the first minute of this second period. With 19 seconds left in the Comrie penalty Jillson picks up another penalty to give Northern a two-man advantage. This two man advantage will be followed by another 1:41 of power play time, not exactly the way Michigan should be looking to start this period. Now Northern gets called for a penalty and the teams will skate 4 on 4 followed by a 20 second Michigan power play. Michigan now moves to the power play for a very short period of time. The Michigan power play is killed, lets see if Michigan can get some 5 on 5 offense going now. Northern gets called for interference in front of the Michigan net giving Michigan a power play opportunity. Half the Michigan power play over and Michigan unable to get anything going. Now Northern gets called for a cross check and Michigan will have a two-man advantage for about 40 seconds. If they could pick up a goal while the first penalty is still being skated off we would still have a power play. Michigan unable to get anything going with the two man advantage, then Northern gets a pass up to the player coming out of the box, and they get a break away. The puck goes into the boards and Jillson comes up to try to make a play, instead picks up his fourth penalty of the game. This ends the Michigan power play, will give Northern a power lay, and of course Jillson couldn’t just leave it be and he picks up a ten minute misconduct so we now loose two players for two minutes as Mink has to serve time for Jillson’s initial penalty. A penalty now goes to Northern and we will now skate 4 on 3 for a short period of time and then 4 on 4 for the remainder of the Jillson penalty. This is Michigan’s seventh power play chance of the game and all have come up dry. Michigan has at least been getting some pressure on the net this time, but the Northern goalie is having another outstanding night. There are now 43 seconds of 4 on 4 hockey. The teams are now skating at even strength with seven minutes left in this period. Michigan has had a couple of great chances in the last couple of minutes, but this Northern goalie is having absolutely none of it as he is stopping anything that comes his way no matter how good a shot it might be. Northern caught Michigan on a line change there and if it weren’t for Blackburn Northern would be up by two. The Comrie line was coming out on that change and after the Blackburn save Northern put a stick across Comrie’s throat. Northern will go to the box for high sticking giving Michigan their eighth power play chance of the night, maybe this time we’ll get a goal out of it. So far this power play has belonged to the Northern penalty kill. Another Michigan power play has come and gone and Northern continues to hold the one goal lead. If they can do it wrong tonight, Michigan is doing it, they get yet another penalty to put Northern back on the power play. What an ugly game this has been to this point. A close call there as Northern almost picked up their second goal of the night. The second period comes to an end with Northern hanging on to their 1 to nothing lead. Michigan did get some shots on goal in that period and they now lead in that category with a 20 to 11 count.

The third period will start with Jillson still in the box to finish off his ten minute misconduct penalty and Northern will still be on the power play as they look to capitalize on that late second period Michigan penalty. As this period starts Michigan has now gone 89 minutes 42 seconds without a goal, their second longest scoreless stretch of the year. Well that didn’t take long as Northern takes advantage of their early power play to get their second goal of the night. Michigan’s hole is ever so much deeper as they seem unable to get anything going in this game, regardless of the number of shots they have. This was technically not a power play goal, but Fraser had just set his skate on the ice as Northern scored the goal. The misconduct penalty to Jillson is now over, he better play flawlessly the remainder of this game. We are under 15 minutes to go in regulation and Northern still holds the two-goal lead. With about 12 ½ minutes to go in the game matching penalties get called to put the teams at 4 on 4. Jillson atones for some of his misdeeds in this game as he drives the puck past the Northern netminder right off the face off following the penalties. We will continue to skate 4 on 4 as that was an even strength goal. I believe the assist on this goal went to Kosick who won the face off. That goal ended a 97 minute 13 second scoreless stretch for Michigan, there longest of the season. Both teams are now at full strength and just as the teams get back to full strength Michigan gets off a shot. The rebound comes out and Ortmeyer was right there and jumps all over it to bring Michigan back to even. This goal was scored with 10:20 to go so there is still plenty of time to win this game. Michigan has some jump back and they are looking to get that go ahead goal. The assists on that Ortmeyer goal went to Hilbert and Comrie. Big save by Blackburn on a puck that looked like it might be going past him. Michigan buzzing around the Northern goal again, but Northern manages to get the puck down in the UM zone where there will be a face off. Matzka got loose on a break away, got a shot off, but it was stopped easily. Matzka was falling down as he took the shot so it didn’t have much juice on it, but the face off is now in the Northern zone. There was a penalty called against Northern for tripping (that’s why Matzka was falling) so Michigan is on the power play once again. Michigan just missed a wide open net that would have put them ahead, Northern ices the puck, and Michigan will have to reset the power play. Michigan has 25 seconds of power play time and 5:54 left in the game. The power play is now over and the game remains even at 2 goals apiece. Northern got loose and had a break on the UM zone, but Blackburn comes up with a huge save and also stops the rebound shot. We move under five minutes to go in this game as Michigan looks to complete the comeback bid. As we move under two minutes to go in the regulation time Blackburn comes up with a big save to keep Michigan in the hunt. There were a couple of possibilities there for Michigan, but Northern broke them up before shots could be taken. We are now under one minute to go in regulation as both teams look for a winning shot. There are eight seconds left in the period and there is a face off in the UM zone to the left of Blackburn. Regulation time ends with this game all tied up at 2 apiece and we have our second straight overtime game between these two teams. Michigan holds the edge in shots on goal with a 30 to 22 count.

Not only is this the second overtime game of the weekend between the Wolverines and the Wildcats, but this is only the second overtime ever between these two teams. After a 2-minute rest we will go into a 5-minute sudden victory period. Both teams going back and forth in this period and now the puck gets pinned on the back of the UM net so the face off will come in the UM zone. Michigan working in the Northern zone right now looking for an opening. Now Northern has the puck coming back toward the UM zone. Line changes with 2:49 left in the overtime period. Michigan now pushing into the NMU zone, the puck goes out of play, and the face off will come in the NMU zone. Now Michigan back on the attack as we close in on the one-minute mark. We now move under one minute in the over time period as Michigan continues to look for the opening. Time is running out in the overtime period and the puck is stuck at center ice. Well the game ends with the score all tied up at 2 apiece. There was only one shot on goal for each team in the overtime period so Michigan ends the game with an advantage in shots with a 31 to 23 count.

Well I don’t know what to say about this. Two ties on the weekend, the good thing is that they did get two points on the weekend, but now the game next weekend means that much more. Michigan didn’t have a very good first period as Northern out shot them. Despite having a decent edge in shots on goal in the second period Michigan played a very poor period of hockey. They took penalty after penalty and while they didn’t pay a price for that in the second they did at the start of the third as Northern got their second goal of the game in the first minute of the third period just as Michigan was returning to full strength. About a minute later Jillson’s misconduct penalty was finally over and Michigan was facing that 2-goal deficit. Jillson, the man of many penalties in tonight’s game, made up for some of his misdeeds as he got Michigan on the board for the first time around the midpoint of the period. Michigan got the tying goal a short time later and then spent the rest of the period looking to get the winning goal. The game ends in a tie in regulation and remains tied after the overtime period. Next weeks game against Michigan State is just going to be huge. If Michigan State wins they will move into a first place tie with Michigan. If Michigan wins they will stretch their lead to four points with just two games left. It’s going to be a rocking Yost next Friday as the Wolverines look to take a big step toward a first place finish. Until next week, C-ya!