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Friday, October 1, 1999
Friday, October 1, 1999, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
What a wild and wooly weekend this is going to be. I’ve come to Ann Arbor to catch the annual Blue/White game. I return home after the game (getting home around midnight), get up at 6:00 AM to pick up a buddy so we can go back to Ann Arbor for the Purdue Vs Michigan football game, and then to the hockey game Saturday night after football (again returning home probably around midnight). Needless to say I’m a bit behind in getting my write ups done, but here they come.
There was quite a bit of confusion on the ice if you were trying to figure out who is who and what is what. There were a large number of players without names on their jerseys and I summarized that these players were the walk-ons. After deciding this was the case I got down to watching some hockey.
The home team in this contest was the white with Kevin O’Malley in goal and the visiting team was the blue with Josh Blackburn in goal. You could tell it is early in the season and that practice had only been going for a couple of weeks. Everyone looked a little rusty, a little out of sync to start things off, but they looked eager to get into it. About two minutes into the first period Comrie (skating for the white) got loose and came in alone on Blackburn, but Blackburn was up to the task and turned the scoring attempt away. You could also tell that this was an intra-squad scrimmage because they seemed a little hesitant to really dig after the puck when bouncing around in front of the net. Just over five minutes into the period, with the blue on the power play Merrick got a shot past O’Malley to give the blue the early lead. The assist on this goal went to Langfeld. About one minute later the blue was called for a penalty giving the white a power play opportunity. Just as this power play expired the blue were again called for a penalty giving the white another power play. During this power play the white worked the puck in well against the blue, they got off a great shot, but again Blackburn was up to the task and turned the shot away. With just over seven minutes left in the period Andy Hilbert (for the white) got behind the blue, his teammates got the puck to him and he came in on Blackburn all by himself. He let loose a shot that went cleanly past Blackburn to get the white on the board. Assists went to Ortmeyer and Magnuson. Andy Hilbert is the highly touted recruit that comes in as a true freshman (18 years old). This young man ladies and gentlemen looks like the real deal. He is big and strong and already looks quite comfortable on the ice with the Wolverines. With about 4 ½ minutes left in the period Gassoff (for the white) gets called for a high stick and the blue was once again on the power play. The blue was unable to score on the power play, but with about 1 ½ minutes left in the period the blue got a goal when Swistak got a goal. Vancik was given the assist on this goal, but it really looked like the white had a defensive break down that allowed Swistak to break free. With 12.9 seconds left on the clock Huntzicker was called for a penalty putting the white on the power play to end the first period and begin the second. The period ended with the blue leading 2 to 1 and the blue leading in shots on goal with 10 to the whites 8.
Now the second period got a bit interesting. The white changed goalies and put L.J. Scarpace in goal. The white started on the power play (Huntzicker’s carry over penalty), but they were unable to score a goal. The players got a little testy in this period and started to bang each other around just a little bit. With about 16 minutes left in the period Koch was called for tripping to put the blue back on the power play. Then with about 15 minutes left Kosick (for the blue) was called for roughing, but Gassoff (for the white) was called for a double minor giving the blue a five on three power play advantage. Even with the two-man advantage (for a little less than a minute) and then the continuing power play, the blue was unable to score a goal. Right after all of this power play time expired number 16 (for the white, and I don’t really have a name – it could have been Jake McKee or Dan Turner – it was a no name jersey) broke free and came in hard all alone on Blackburn. Blackburn again was more than the shot takers could handle and turned the shot away. With just over seven minutes left in the period Swistak (for the blue) mugged Comrie as Comrie was driving for the goal. This put Swistak in the penalty box. Shortly after than Comrie was called for a penalty and put in the box, killing off the white power play chance, leaving the sides at 4 on 4. With just under 4 minutes to go in the period John Shouneyia (for the blue) got off a shot that got past Scarpace giving the blue another goal. The assist was given to Matzka. With just over 2 minutes left in the period Kohen (for the blue) was called for hooking putting the white on the power play to finish up the period. While on this power play Hilbert got the puck in fairly close to Blackburn and got off a big shot, which did seem to catch Blackburn by surprise, but Blackburn did stop the shot. This period ended with the blue leading 3 goals to 1, with the shots on goal standing at 19 to 12 in favor of the blue.
To start the third period the white again put O’Malley in goal and this period was run with a 15 minute running clock (it didn’t stop for anything). There was a lot of back and forth in the first part of this period with neither side really mounting any kind of scoring threat. Then with just over 12 minutes left in the period Mink got off a shot that made it past O’Malley giving the blue yet another goal. With just over seven minutes in the period Ortmeyer was called for roughing giving the blue a power play (as if they needed any more help), however, the blue was unable to take advantage of the power play opportunity. With just about 2 minutes left in the period Craig Murray (for the blue) got the puck in front of the net and got it past O’Malley to give the blue a 5 to 1 lead. The assists on this goal were given to Frasier and Trainor. With just under 2 minutes to play the white was again called for a penalty, but again the blue was unable to take advantage of the power play. The period and game ended with the blue winning by a score of 5 to 1. The blue also held the advantage in shots on goal with a 24 to 14 count.
First, I must congratulations to the visitors (the blue team) for the win at Yost – visitors don’t win often in Yost Arena. Well these games aren’t going to win any prizes for beauty, but there were some good things that came out of this game. This team does certainly look faster than the teams from the last couple of years. They aren’t as big, but they are quick. Jillson looked extremely well on defense, Murray looked quite good, and all of the freshman, led by Hilbert, seemed to be having an impact. All in all the 2,116 fans in attendance for this game saw a glimpse of the kind of team we can expect to see on the ice this year – to me it looks good. It does appear that the walk-on defenseman, Brad Frasier has made the team, but until I see this officially I won’t add him to the rosters. Until tomorrow when the Wolverines take on Wilfrid Laurier, C-ya!!
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