|
|
|
Saturday, March 4, 2000
Saturday, March 4, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tonight is the final regular season game for the 1999-2000 CCHA Champion Michigan Wolverines! That sounds kind of nice doesn’t it? Things surely tumbled wildly last night in the CCHA. Out of the top three teams the only one that came out on top was Michigan. Notre Dame tied Michigan State and Lake State beat Northern. The loss probably hurt Northern more than the tie hurt MSU. This dropped Northern back into a tie with MSU and these two teams win tonight (certainly not a given) Michigan State would take second by virtue of the CCHA tiebreakers. It is still possible for Lake State to draw into a tie with MSU and NMU for second. I still think MSU would take second because of the tiebreakers, but I haven’t really looked closely enough to know. I certainly don’t know how things would work out between Lake State and Northern. While the top five teams and the five teams getting home ice in the CCHA first round are fixed (Michigan, Michigan State, Northern Michigan, Lake Superior, and Notre Dame) there are still some things to be sorted out at the top. I think there are two things certain right now. First, Michigan is in first place and nobody can catch them. Second, I believe Notre Dame and Ferris are right where they are going to stay, regardless of wins or losses tonight. That would make for perhaps the most interesting match up in the 1st round, as Notre Dame would host the Bulldogs. Ferris is not a team to be taken lightly and we all remember what happened to Notre Dame last year in the first round. Things at the bottom are just as undecided. Bowling Green, Miami, and Western are all tied up trying to sort out the last three spots in the conference. Of course the team that ends up in tenth place has to come to Yost next weekend for their first round games and I’m not sure any of those teams want to do that. Right now it looks like Bowling Green holds the edge in the tiebreakers (most league wins). However, if Bowling Green looses tonight (which all Michigan fans hope) and both Miami and Western win Bowling Green would be on their way back to Ann Arbor next weekend. Miami plays Ohio State; this is at Miami and I have to give the Redhawks the edge. This is Ohio State’s last game of the year and they have absolutely nothing to play for (except maybe for a shred of Buckeye pride). Western hosts Ferris; after beating Ferris on their ice and dashing any thoughts the Bulldogs had of getting home ice I wouldn’t want to be in Western’s shoes. The game is at Western, but I look for Bulldog revenge tonight. Of course Bowling Green comes to Yost to finish out Michigan’s season. While I would dearly like to see Michigan win tonight to close out the season, I’d much rather see Michigan get some work for their other players. I fully expect to see all the seniors’ dress and play quite a bit in tonight’s game. I would also expect to see the other goaltenders get some work. Play Blackburn in the first period, then bring in Scarpace for the second, and maybe even get O’Malley a period of work in the third. Let’s get people some playing time while we can, because once next week begins we need to get every win as we work for one of the top NCAA seeds. Well we can all finally stop playing the what if games after tonight. All of these questions will be answered. There are probably tickets available for tonight’s game and it would be really cool to pack every possible body into Yost. Tonight after the game all the seniors (all five of them) will be introduced and we can all say our final farewells. In addition, the CCHA championship trophy will be presented to the Wolverines following the game. These are things not to be missed if you’re looking for something to do after the game. I’ll add the game update information upon my return from Yost tonight, until then C-ya!
As expected all of the seniors dressed and were ready to play in their last regular season game as Michigan Wolverines. In the first couple of minutes of the game Michigan really came out flying and almost took an early lead when some great passing got the puck ahead to a sizzling Matzka. Matzka got off a great shot, but he just missed. There is no telling what a goal in the first two minutes of the game might have meant to Michigan, but on that attempt it was not meant to be. Michigan did strike early in the penalty phase of the game as they picked up the games first penalty just two minutes into the contest. Michigan was able to kill of the Bowling Green power play, but with just over fifteen minutes left in the period Michigan picked up their second penalty of the night returning Bowling Green to the power play less than a minute after killing off the first one. From where I was setting this was a pretty touchy-feely kind of penalty and just didn’t set well after watching BG’s bigger players pound Wolverines all over the ice for five minutes. Michigan again killed off the power play and in the doing Hilbert came oh so very close to picking up a short-handed goal. About two minutes after that another very questionable penalty gave BG their third power play in the first ten minutes of the game. Michigan had killed off all but about 30 seconds of this power play when BG was finally given a penalty. This penalty ended the power play, both teams skated four on four for about 30 seconds, and Michigan had their first power play chance of the night (for about 1:30). Neither team scored while skating four on four and BG killed off the UM power play without taking any damage. With just under seven minutes left in the period there was a bit of a dust up around the bench doors. The end result of this was a 2 minute penalty to BG, two 2-minute penalties to Merrick (with Arman serving time for one of them), and yet another BG power play. With 26 seconds left in the BG power play all kinds of interesting things happened. Play was whistled dead and a BG player was behind the net pointing with his hand at the net and talking to the referee. The referee went to the scorer’s booth and called a pair of matching roughing penalties and then when everyone thought the action was over there was suddenly a goal on the board for Bowling Green. Apparently without any indication of a goal by the referee or the light keeper behind the goal one of the officials out by the blue line said the goal was scored and the goal was awarded after review. I don’t know if they used a replay review or they just talked their way into it, but they got a goal. This was right in front of me and I can’t say for sure one way or another without benefit of replay. I knew it was close, but since the referee made non-signal (and he seemed to be in perfect position to make the call) I assumed that no goal was scored – go figure. Less than a minute later BG went up by two when Blackburn made a save to his right, but the rebound bounced to his left right to a BG player who tapped it in for an easy one. With 3:53 left in the period BG was called for a penalty for the first time all night where there were no other players in the box. However, just when we thought UM was going to the power play Koch was called for slashing to even things up at four on four. This was another penalty that I simply did not see (there were a lot of those in this period). With 2:41 left BG was called for another penalty giving UM a 49 second two man advantage. Michigan needed a goal badly right here, but they were unable to come up with one. With 1:57 left in the period BG was called for another penalty giving UM a two-man advantage for 1:16. Michigan got off a couple of great shots, but the BG netminder stopped them all. With 1:03 left in the period BG was called for yet another penalty extending the Wolverines two man advantage for another 1:18. With 11.1 seconds left a pair of matching penalties were called, leaving Michigan with the two-man advantage. Even with all the time they had in this stretch with a two-man advantage (it had to be about 3 minute’s total) Michigan was unable to get the puck past the BG netminder. The first period ended with Bowling Green leading by a score of 2 to nothing while Michigan held the edge in shots on goal with a 12 to 8 count.
The second period started out with Michigan having a 7 second two man advantage and then 1:12 of regular power play. Michigan was unable to do anything with the power play to start this period and the teams settled into a bit of up and down hockey. Michigan almost cracked the BG net with just under 15 minutes left when they got a great shot off a face off, but again the BG netminder ended the scoring chance. With about 13 ½ minutes left in the period BG extended their lead to 3-0 when a BG shot deflected past Blackburn off a Wolverine defender. If you haven’t figured it out absolutely nothing was going Michigan’s way in this game. With just over 12 minutes to go in the period BG was called for a penalty giving Michigan a power play chance. However, with 13 seconds left in the power play Michigan was called for a penalty ending the power play and giving BG about 1:45 of power play time. Michigan killed off the BG power play and the teams continued to work up and down the ice. With 5:25 left in the period Michigan finally got on the board when Matzka took a beautiful pass at the BG blue line, rushed the BG goal, and found twine. Assists on this goal were given to Langfeld and Vancik and it seemed to momentarily energize the Wolverines. With just under two minutes to go in the period Langfeld unleashed a shot that literally took the BG goalies helmet off. It was a huge shot that gave everyone something to say "WOW" about, but no goal (and no injury). The period ended with Bowling Green still leading by a score of 3 to 1 and Michigan still holding the edge in shots on goal with a 24 to 20 count.
Just 18 seconds into the third period a pair of matching penalties were called to put both teams skating with four apiece. While you might have thought this would favor Michigan with their faster skaters (and it should have) it actually turned out favoring the Falcons. With just 1 ½ minutes gone in the period BG scored their fourth goal of the night and it proved to be the game winner. With 17:43 remaining in the game BG was called for a penalty giving UM another power play opportunity. About 1:15 into this penalty BG picked up another penalty to give UM another two man advantage. Badly needing a goal to get back on the road to winning this game Michigan finally scored a power play goal with just over 15 minutes left in the period. Shouneyia got the goal with Hilbert and Comrie picking up assists. Suddenly Michigan was back within two with 15 minutes to go and the world didn’t look as dark. With 14:55 left in the period UM was called for another penalty putting BG on the power play. With 13:09 left in the period Cammalleri got a great pass up the ice to a streaking Matzka. Matzka was hauled down to end the scoring chance, but BG did pick up a penalty. This evened the teams up at four apiece and resulted in a shorted power play for Michigan. The Wolverines were unable to do anything with this power play and the score remained 4-2. With 10:34 left in the period BG was hit with another penalty giving Michigan another power play, which they were unable to do anything with. The door was slammed shut on the Wolverines when Bowling Green picked up two goals in less than two minutes. The first game with 5:39 remaining in the period and the second came with 4:05 left in the period while BG was on the power play. Michigan added a short handed goal when Matzka took a pass from Roemensky and slammed the puck past the BG netminder, but it was far to little, far to late. The game ended with Bowling Green winning by a score of 6 to 3. The Falcons seriously outplayed Michigan in the third outshooting the Wolverines 10 to 5 in the final period to end the game leading in shots on goal with a 30 to 29 count.
Well for the first time this year Michigan played a game that meant absolutely nothing and it showed. They did not look sharp in this game at any time. You knew things were headed in the wrong direction when a total of 17 penalties were called in the first period alone. There were a couple of flashes from individuals, but this certainly did not look like the Michigan team we’ve been watching for the last couple of months. They had no intensity and lacked any sense of urgency. This was not unexpected. It was a little disappointing to see them get outplayed as badly as they did, but again with nothing to play for I imagine it was difficult to focus on the game. Scott Matzka was one of the few Wolverines who played a decent game, but even his heroics couldn’t pull Michigan through. That was the first win for Bowling Green in Ann Arbor since February 8, 1992. Also after leading most if not the entire year it would appear that Comrie has lost the regular season scoring title to Shawn Horcoff from MSU (numbers are not yet updated). When you couple the Wolverines lack of intensity with a very intense Bowling Green team, still fighting for playoff position, it was not a happy night for Wolverine fans. I should rephrase that; it was not a happy night of hockey for Wolverine fans. It as great to see the CCHA trophy presented to the team after the game and equally stirring to bid farewell to the four seniors on this team as they received the flags and took their traditional skate around Yost. At the end all four of the seniors took a turn around Yost together stopping in front of the band where they got down on their knees and bowed to the band (doing a very good "We’re not worthy, We’re not worthy" bow session on the ice to the band). The seniors ended up at center ice where they all planted a kiss on the block M and made their final farewell (no, nobody got stuck to the ice).
To Krikor Arman, Kevin Magnuson, Andrew Merrick and Sean Peach thanks for being Michigan Wolverines and good luck in whatever your futures hold. Lead the team on one final march into the frozen four. Hopefully there is one bigger piece of hardware for you to bring back to Yost Arena before you finally hang up your skates as Wolverines.
Until next week, the first round of the CCHA playoffs, C-ya!
|
|
|