Thursday, October 7, 1999

Thursday, October 7, 1999, Joyce Center, South Bend, Indiana

Well its Thursday night and its once again time for hockey. Notre Dame has a home football game this weekend and they didn’t believe they could have a hockey game the same night as the football game (with the Joyce Center being just across the road from the football field). Because of this the Saturday night game was moved to Thursday. Before we get into tonight’s game lets take care of some housekeeping.

First, the national polls. The first national poll (the pre-season poll) came out this past Monday (October 4) and there weren’t too many surprises. Boston College starts the season in the number one spot with Maine coming in at number two. The first team from the CCHA is Michigan State as they start the season at number three. North Dakota (last year’s almost continuous number one) starts this year ranked number four in the country. The number five spot is held down by our very own Michigan Wolverines. New Hampshire, the team that knocked Michigan out of the NCAA tournament last year starts the year at number six, followed by Clarkson at number seven, and Colorado College at number eight. Northern Michigan, the last CCHA team in the top ten, starts the season ranked number nine, with the top ten being rounded out by Denver. Three other CCHA teams, Ohio State, Notre Dame, and Bowling Green, received votes. I was kind of surprised that MSU started the season has high as they have and that Notre Dame didn’t do any better than they did, but time will tell. It’s very early for the polls to really mean anything, but its kind of interesting to see how the experts think things look as this new season gets under way.

In general UM hockey news UM announced this week that long time (12 years) coach Mel Pearson has been named associate head coach of the hockey team. It is no secret that Coach Berenson wants Coach Pearson to take over as coach when he finally retires (sometime in the distant future lets hope). Pearson was also considered for several head coaching jobs this past off-season and I believe he was offered the head job at Miami (Ohio). It’s good to see that he will be staying with Michigan, this bodes well for stability in the program for years to come. Just some notes about how I will do some things with regards to goals and assists this year. I will not be reflecting any goals or assists from the Blue/White or the exhibition game in season totals. Also I will not include the exhibition game in the record for Michigan this year. I have included the scores on the schedule for the Blue/White and the exhibition, but that’s as much as I will do with them. If you look at either one of the rosters you will see that I have included columns for goals, assists, and total points. I will update these totals after the weekend is over and I have had a chance to verify the official goals and assists. These things (especially the assists) sometime change from how they are called and how they actually get scored. By updating these once for the weekend it will also keep VV from having to post a bunch of changes continuously over the weekend.

Injuries are starting to crop up for the Wolverines where we can least afford to have them. Senior Captain defenseman Sean Peach will not play in this weekends series with Notre Dame. He is still out with a groin injury suffered during the Blue/White game. UM has retained walk-ons Bryan O’Rear and Jeremy Motz to use in practice on the defense. I have finally seen it in print; the Wolverines did ask freshman walk-on Brad Fraser to join the team in September. This proves especially timely since he is also a defenseman and he will play in Peaches place this weekend. In one final injury note Freshman Mike Cammalleri will also sit out this weekends series with Notre Dame with a shoulder injury. He suffered a slight dislocation of his shoulder this past weekend against Wilfrid Laurier (he did not make the trip to South Bend).

All right I think we are ready to get into tonight’s game. These are of course the first real games for both of these teams and rather than start their seasons out of conference we jump right into conference play. While they won’t be considered huge games this early in the season to me they are huge for the end of the year. These are the only two games these two teams will play against each other in the regular season and both teams are expected to contend for the conference title. If either team is swept in this series they could have some serious trouble at the end of the year when 1 or 2 points either way can be the difference between 1st and 4th place. Look for UM to light up the scoreboard more this year than they have for the last couple of years. They have a much quicker; more offense minded team this year than last year or the year before. They are perhaps a little smaller than the last two teams, but they will fly up and down the ice and have the potential to score from many directions. Just how well they do will depend on how well the team plays as a team and how well some of these players perform (freshmen and veterans alike). So let’s get on with the game.

As expected Notre Dame comes out putting the body to UM as ND’s Clark dumps Koch into the bench and gets called for the penalty putting UM on the power play in the first minute of the game. Michigan is really putting a lot of pressure on the ND goalie in this power play. UM was able to hold the puck in the ND zone for the 1st minute of the power play before ND was finally able to clear. There we go, what a way to start the year. After ND cleared the puck UM brought it right back down into the ND zone and with just 11 seconds left in the power play Koch buries the puck in the ND net to give UM the early 1 to nothing lead. Mink and Matzka got the assists on the goal. Now seconds after scoring our first power play goal of the year UM is called for a penalty giving ND their first power play chance of the year. ND gets off a shot, but Blackburn comes up with the save. Now ND gives it away and Ortmeyer gets off a shot, but it is blocked by the ND defense. ND again putting some pressure on the UM goal, the puck is in front kind of setting there, finally Blackburn jumps on it to put any thoughts of scoring to rest. There a few seconds left in the power play, but UM effectively kills it off as ND is called for another penalty. The teams will skate four on four for a few seconds and then UM will be back on the power play. UM again really putting the pressure on the ND goal and the puck does seem to be taking some strange bounces tonight. Notre Dame is able to kill off this UM power play, but there we came awfully close to putting another goal on the board. The Wolverines are definitely speedy out there as they give ND all they can handle. Notre Dame looking to take advantage of their size advantage are looking to put their bodies on UM players at every turn, but this philosophy may not be working as they get called for their third penalty of the first period. UM is now on their third power play of the first period. With one minute left in this power play UM is once again really applying the pressure on the power play. Just as the power play expires UM gets their second goal of the night as Langfeld gets his first goal of the year. Jillson and Clark got the assists on this goal. UM now called for a penalty giving ND another power play opportunity. The UM penalty kill is also looking pretty good so far in this game. UM kills off the ND power play as we go under seven minutes in the period. As Comrie was breaking free into the ND zone he got dragged down from behind and ND gets called for interference putting UM on the power play once again. UM is again working the puck well around the ND net. There is a break down as UM gives it up and ND gets a two on one break away. ND gets off a shot, but it goes over the cross bar. UM again on the attack in the ND zone, but ND is able to kill off this UM power play. Again the speed of Michigan appears to be causing ND some problems as Hilbert was breaking away around the corner and the only option ND had was to drag him down. UM gets their fifth power play opportunity of the period as time begins to run down in the period. Jillson gets off a quick shot on this power play, but it hits the post and bounces away. ND is able to kill of the UM power play, but UM again putting some good pressure on the ND goaltender. Just as the UM power play ends UM is called for a penalty putting ND on the power play for the remainder of this period and the first part of the second period. Now one of the ND forwards get knocked into Blackburn and as Blackburn pushes him out of his crease, Blackburn gets called for a penalty giving ND a 5 on 3 advantage with 5 ½ seconds to go in this first period (Swistak sits down for Blackburn). Michigan gets out of the first period with a two to nothing lead, but they will start the second with ND holding a decided power play advantage. Michigan also had the big edge in shots on goal with a 15 to 5 count.

The second period starts with ND skating 5 on 3 for 1 minute, 20 seconds. The Wolverines have to come out and play some smart defense and hold ND scoreless so they don’t get any kind of momentum going. ND gets off a quick shot, but Blackburn stops it. As UM was trying to clear the puck out of the zone, it hit a Wolverine, came loose in the UM zone, and ND takes advantage by getting their first goal of the game. This came while they still had the two-man advantage so now ND still has 1-½ minutes left to the Blackburn penalty so ND stays on the power play. UM kills off the ND power play and holds ND to one goal at the beginning of the second period. Wow after some back and forth action Michigan gets the puck down in the ND zone, they center the puck, and Swistak gets his first goal of the year, giving Michigan a three to one lead. John Shouneyia gets the assist on this goal and it was well deserved as he worked his tail off leading up to the score. There is going to be a delayed penalty called against Michigan as ND has pulled their goalie to get the extra attacker. Michigan finally touches the puck and play is whistled down. Koch is called for checking from behind and ND gets another power play chance. With some great defense UM was able to kill off the penalty with ND getting no real scoring chance. After such a great defensive stand UM gets caught completely out of position in a line change, ND gets a 4 on 2 break, they charge the net, and get a goal pulling back to within one goal. Comrie breaks away, gets off the shot which bounces off a post, but he draws the penalty putting UM back on the power play. UM again cycling the puck well on the power play. The puck gets pushed down around the front of the net, hits a skate coming to a dead stop, where Langfeld picks it up and gets his second goal of the night; one second after the power play had expired. Jillson and Kosick got the assists on this goal. Comrie gets called for tripping and ND is once again on the power play (this has certainly not been a penalty free game). With about 30 seconds left in the ND power play UM is called for to many men on the ice giving ND a 2 man advantage for the second time this evening. Now UM gets one of their player’s back so now we skate 5 on 4. UM unable to clear the puck and ND putting some pressure on the UM goal. Finally Ortmeyer gets a stick on the puck and clears it out of the UM zone. UM kills off the ND power play as we move under five minutes to go in the period. With just under two minutes to go in the period UM is putting a great deal of pressure on the ND goal. The second period ends with Michigan holding a 4 to 2 lead. Each time ND scored in this period UM answered right back keeping any ND momentum in check. ND won the shots on goal battle in the second with an 11 to 9 count, but Michigan holds the edge for the game by a 24 to 16 count.

The third period starts with UM holding a two-goal lead and looking to add a little cushion. So far in this period there has been a good bit of back and forth with neither team mounting any real scoring threats. We’ve gone a whole three minutes into this period without one penalty being called, here’s hoping this doesn’t jinx things. We are now under 15 minutes to go in the game as both teams continue to move the puck up and down the ice, but there have still been no real scoring threats in this period. There’s our first penalty of the third period as ND is called for dragging Koch down and introducing him to the boards. UM gets their first power play opportunity of the final period with just over 14 minutes to go in the final period. Michigan putting some pressure on the ND goal, looking for that extra goal. Well that is not the way we want things to go. Michigan makes another mistake out by the blue line, ND gets the puck, gets a 2 on 1 break, and ND gets the short handed goal to pull back to within one. The UM power play has expired and ND has a bit more jump after getting that goal. UM back after it as they put yet more pressure on the ND goal. We go under ten minutes in the period as we hang onto a 1-goal lead. We move under eight minutes to go in the period as UM clings to their one goal lead. With 4 ½ minutes left in the period Michigan still clinging to that one goal lead. Still neither team getting any real offense going in this period. We move under three minutes in the period and we still are going back and forth. ND gets a face off in the UM zone as UM gets called for icing. Now down to 2 ½ minutes to go, look for ND to pull their goaltender somewhere around 1 ½ to 1 minute left in the period. Under two minutes to go, UM with the puck in the ND zone. Now ND has the puck in the UM zone, ND getting a couple of shots, but Blackburn stops all of them. Blackburn finally gets the puck covered up. That was a big chance for ND late in the period, and Blackburn was up to the task. There is 1 minute 20 seconds left to go in the game and UM still clings to that one goal lead. The face off comes to the right of Blackburn and ND has pulled their goalie. Now the face off is just outside the UM blue line, UM trying to clear the puck out of their zone. There are now 51 seconds left in the period with the face off at the top of the circle to the right of Blackburn. UM clears the puck out, they get a breakaway at a wide open net, Ortmeyer gets a back hand shot, but he misses. ND brings it back to the UM zone, but UM gets it back. This time Comrie moves in on the open net and Comrie makes sure the puck goes into the net. This gives Michigan the two-goal lead with just 14 seconds to go in the game. Vancik gets the assist on this goal for his first official point as a Wolverine. That’s the end of the game with Michigan getting the win by a score of 5 to 3. Once again ND out shot the Wolverines in the third period 5 to 3, but Michigan ends the game with a 27 to 21 edge in shots on goal.

Well that’s kind of what everyone expected for an early season meeting between two of the leagues top teams. While the score was very close I do believe Michigan played a much better game than Notre Dame. The score was really a lot closer than it probably should have been, but give Notre Dame credit. They took advantage of the openings given to them by UM to keep themselves in this game. They get one goal on a Michigan break down on a line change which led to a 4 on 2 break away by Notre Dame. They got another goal while skating with a 5 on 3 advantage and they got a short-handed goal when Michigan mishandled the puck. All of the freshmen did a fine job tonight, with some great playing from other players. I’ll name Matzka, Comrie, Langfeld, and Koch – just to name a few, but the TEAM played very well for their first game of the year. If they can really get together as a team and smooth out some of these mistakes they can really be a force this year. Tomorrow night we do it all again as Michigan looks to get a sweep against the Irish, but we can do no worse than a split for the weekend. So until tomorrow night, C-ya!!