Friday, March 10, 2000

Friday, March 10, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

It’s finally here; all the talking is over, the comparing and contrasting is complete, it’s tournament time! The CCHA tournament will play out over the next two weeks and on Sunday, March 19, 2000 we should find out the NCAA field, the seedings, and where each school will play. Michigan starts the first round of the CCHA tournament on home ice against the Western Michigan Bronco’s. However, let’s stay true to form and start with a quick look around the country before we dive into this week’s tournament coverage.

Well things are almost the same as they were going into last week with Michigan’s split with Bowling Green. Two of the three polls I follow have Michigan in the exact same place they were last week. Both polls have Wisconsin as the number one team in the country. Both teams have Boston University and North Dakota as the number two and three teams in the country. However, they are reversed in each poll and just to make it interesting they are reversed from where they ranked last week (last week poll 1 had BU 2 and ND 3, now they are BU 3 and ND2; poll 2 had BU 3 and ND 2, but this week it’s BU 2 and ND 3 – go figure). Michigan and New Hampshire take up the next two spots; poll 1 has New Hampshire 4 and Michigan 5, while poll 2 has Michigan four and New Hampshire fifth. Poll 1 finishes out their top 10 with Maine, Boston College, St. Lawrence, Michigan State, and Colgate taking up positions 6 through 10 with the only change being the switch of positions between Boston College and St. Lawrence. Poll 2 finishes out their top 10 with Boston College, Maine, Michigan State, St. Lawrence, and Northern Michigan. The changes in poll 2 gave New Hampshire sole possession of fifth place dropping Boston College out of a tie and Maine and Michigan State trading places. This could also be the only poll yet ranking Northern Michigan (they still have points in the other poll, but have almost dropped off that ones radar screen). Last week’s split with the Falcon’s seems to have Michigan the most in the power rankings. They go into this weekend ranked number 10 in the PairWise. This would generally be considered not so good, but I’m not sure it was Michigan’s loss so much as it was losses by teams that Michigan had beat. In my understanding of the PairWise if a team’s record is below .500 wins don’t count (which means Friday nights win over Bowling Green didn’t help Michigan). The thing I’m not sure on is whether a loss against a loosing team hurts you; the way I read the explanation it doesn’t, but again I’m not sure. It does hurt Michigan when teams with winning records that they beat (like Michigan State) get beat. There was more than enough of this going on last weekend as Michigan State, Ferris, and Northern all lost (again not sure if the Northern losses hurt Michigan because we tied them). Anyway I believe it was all these losses that hurt Michigan in the PairWise this past week, not Michigan’s loss. The Spartans are the next best CCHA team at number 12, Ferris is next at 17, Lake Superior took a big jump up and now sits at number 20, and the last CCHA team ranked is Northern dropping all the way down to number 25.

For his performance in last weekends series against Bowling Green Scott Matzka was named the CCHA offensive player of the week. Congratulations Scott and keep up the good work as the Wolverines make their tournament run.

All right that leaves us with this weekends first round action against the Bronco’s. These are the same Bronco’s that Michigan blasted out of Yost just a few weeks ago. As you remember the Bronco’s hung tough with the Wolverines through two periods in each game, but ran out of gas in the third period. In both of these games the Wolverines put up multiple goals in the third period to win going away. I know as Wolverines we want nothing more than a repeat, however, I happened to run across the weekly Bronco radio broadcast this past week while scanning that old radio dial. The Bronco’s certainly weren’t talking about the recent losses, they were talking about coming to Ann Arbor and winning this series. They certainly didn’t talk about sweeping, but in their view if they can keep the games close, get a split Friday and Saturday to force the third game on Sunday, they have a chance to win. I would have to somewhat agree with them. Western has been playing not so bad lately, they did play Michigan close through two in each of the prior two games, and they went to Ferris and won last week which was unbelievable considering that Ferris could have gotten home ice in the tournament had they won. I know there was some talk on WTKA earlier this week about whether the loss on Saturday was a sign of things to come or if it was just a one of a kind thing. I happen to believe it was a one of a kind thing. As I mentioned in my CCHA tournament preview (at least I think it was there) last Saturday’s game was probably the first one of the year that meant absolutely nothing. It’s my opinion the Wolverines kind of took a night off and as far as I’m concerned they deserved it. The team playing last Saturday was certainly not the team I had come to expect week in and week out over the last couple of months – practically the entire team was off their game. I fully expect the Wolverines to come out with all guns blazing this week as they send a message to the rest of the CCHA and the country that they are a force to be reckoned with this year in the NCAA tournament. Of course it doesn’t hurt that they really need to win the CCHA tournament with a little sizzle to hopefully gain a few beauty points as they try to get one of the top seeds and a first round bye in the NCAA tournament. I’m looking for a Wolverine sweep this weekend as well as a very lively Yost crowd. As of yesterday there were still tickets available to this weekends games, so get on down to the ticket office and let’s fill the place up. The next two weeks are the only in state games left for the Wolverines and the Michigan faithful really need to fill up both Yost and Joe Louis to cheer their Wolverines on. I’ll add game information upon my return from the game so until then C-ya!

The game started out pretty much the way Wolverine fans expected and wanted it to start, Michigan was flying up, down, and all around. The Wolverines jumped on the Bronco’s early in this game as their very first shot on goal was in fact a score just 1:37 into the game. They had some quick shots that had gone wide of the net, but the first one on net found twine. The goal went to Josh Langfeld with assists going to Kosick and Matzka. Michigan continued to skate up and down the ice putting all kinds of pressure on the Bronco goal. That continued pressure paid off again with 7:59 gone in the first when J.J. Swistak picked up a loose puck down by the Bronco goal and fired it past the Western netminder. The lone assist on this goal went to John Shouneyia. Again play continued up and down the ice and the next event encountered was the first penalty of the night with just over seven minutes left in the period. This was a cross check against the Bronco’s giving Michigan the first chance at the power play (remember the power play proved deadly against the Bronco’s just a few weeks earlier). This power play got under way in very shaky fashion. The face off to start the power play was in the UM zone (that’s where the penalty occurred). Western controlled the puck off this face off and almost came up with a goal. Michigan finally got control of the puck and took the action into the Western zone. The shaky start was a bad omen for this power play as it ended with Michigan really never coming close to scoring a goal. Michigan almost stretched their lead to three goals with 3:01 left in they just missed getting a goal right off a face off. This was so close it hurt to see it miss. With less than two minutes left in the period Michigan was called for a penalty to put the Bronco’s on the power play for the first time. Michigan held on to get to the end of the period with their two to nothing lead intact. Michigan ended the period with a solid advantage in shots on goal with a 12 to 4 count.

Western started the second period with eighteen seconds of power play time, which Michigan killed off. However, that was about the last good thing to happen for Michigan in this period. With about four minutes gone in the period Comrie was called for hooking giving Western another power play chance. Michigan killed this penalty off and both teams continued to skate up and down the ice, but at a somewhat slower pace than in the first period. Both teams seemed to have lost a half step form their first period pace. At the midpoint of the period the Bronco’s picked up their only penalty of the period to give Michigan another power play opportunity. Unfortunately Michigan was unable to do anything with this power play chance and the score remained 2 to nothing. With about 7 ½ minutes left in the period Michigan picked up another penalty on what looked like real lame call. Our goalie got leveled on this play and we got called for the penalty; just looked real funny to me. Michigan killed off this penalty, but not without a bit of excitement as Scott Matzka almost picked up a short-handed goal with about 35 seconds left in the WMU power play. A short-handed goal at that time would have been huge, but it was not to be. With about 2:17 left in the period Kosick again came close to extending the Wolverine lead when, with some great stick and puck handling, he came oh so close to picking up a goal all on his own. With 2:06 left in the period Kosick picked up an obstruction-hooking penalty putting Western on the power play for almost the remainder of the period. Michigan again came extremely close to picking up a short handed goal with about one minute left in the period, but again just missed. Michigan killed off the penalty and the period ended with Michigan still leading by a score of 2 to nothing. Michigan again out shot the Bronco’s in that period and extended their lead in shots on goal with an 18 to 8 count.

Michigan again jumped early in the third period as they notched their third goal of the game with just 2:09 run off the clock. This was a fantastic goal and a testament to crashing the net when a shot is taken. First, Cammalleri got loose with the puck, rushed the net, and got off a big shot that the Western goalie blocked. The rebound came out in front of the net and a trailing Koch got off a second shot that was again blocked by the Bronco netminder. The rebound from this block also came out in front of the net and trailing Mark Mink got to the rebound first and slammed the puck into the Bronco net. The goal went to Mink and the assists went to Cammalleri and Koch. This was just a great thing to watch – shot, rebound, shot, rebound, shot, SCORE!! Things were starting to look good as the Wolverine lead was extended to three goals, but the good times were to be short lived. Just over a minute later Western got on the scoreboard for the first time all night when they blasted a shot past Blackburn. Just over two minutes later Western again beat Blackburn to shrink the Wolverine lead to one goal. Suddenly with a 3-½ minute span of time Michigan had gone from a three-goal lead to a one goal lead and Western had some real momentum going. Just to make things interesting Michigan was called for a penalty two minutes after the second Bronco goal and a collective gasp was heard in Yost. Michigan seemed to have gone to sleep following their third goal and Western had everything going their way. Michigan did step up enough to kill of the penalty and that little wake up call seemed to bring them out of their snooze. In the last ten minutes of the period Michigan seemed to step it up a notch and play with more intensity to end the Western momentum. With about 5 ½ minutes left in the period Western was called for a penalty putting Michigan on the power play and you could just feel everyone going score now, score now. This, however, was not to be as Western killed off the power play, but Michigan still held the one goal lead. With 2:45 left in the period Michigan finally got a little bit of a cushion as Matzka punched the puck past the Western netminder to move Michigan back out in front by two goals. Assists on this goal were given to Langfeld and Vancik. With 1:06 left in the period and down by two goals Western called a time out to figure out how they were going to play the last minute. Coming out of the timeout Western pulled their goalie to get the extra attacker on the ice. Even with the extra attacker Western was unable to crack Blackburn again and Michigan went on to win the opening game of the first round by a score of 4 to 2. Both teams put eleven shots on goal in the third period, but Michigan ended the game with the edge in shots on goal with a 29 to 19 count.

This game certainly belonged to Michigan in the first period. However, the domination over the Bronco’s coupled with the previous two whipping’s Michigan had given the Bronco’s seemed to give Michigan a false sense of security as they didn’t look nearly as sharp in the second period. Once they lost that edge it took them a while to get it back. Even though Michigan out shot them in the period, I would say that Western controlled the play in the second period and really the first half of the third period. Finally, after seeing their lead shrink to one and having to turn away a spirited Western power play Michigan got back on track for the final ten minutes of the game. Hopefully this impressed on the Wolverines that this is the playoff’s, what happened a couple of weeks ago no longer matters, and Western knows that if they want to play next week they have to win. I would hope and really expect that we should see a more consistent game by Michigan in Saturday night’s game as they go for the sweep. Now there were some good things on the night, but certainly there is room for improvement.

There were certainly some interesting things in tonight’s CCHA first round so let’s take a quick look at the other action around the conference. Bowling Green went up to the Sioux this weekend and came away with a 2 to 1 overtime win. I predicted a Laker win in three games so I’m still in the running in this series. Michigan State stayed true to form and beat up Miami by a score of 6 to 2 (a regular scoring bonanza for the Spartans). Nebraska-Omaha went to Marquette to take on the Wildcats from Northern and they won the game by a score of 4 to 2. I predicted a Northern sweep in this series so I’m already out in the cold on this series. I don’t know what is up with Northern; they seem to have imploded down the stretch. Notre Dame and Ferris played a great game with Notre Dame coming up with the 4 to 3 win to take the early series lead. I predicted a Ferris win in this series, but taking three games to do it so I’m still in the running here. All in all there were a couple of surprising scores on the night, mainly in the Upper Peninsula. If this keeps up there could be a couple of very unexpected teams in Detroit next weekend, we’ll just have to wait and see. Until we start things all over again at Yost on Saturday night, C-ya!