|
Saturday, October 16, 1999
Saturday, October 16, 1999, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Tonight we meet the Umass River Hawks for the second of
two-night stand against this Hockey East opponent.
Last night the Wolverines put the hurt on Umass with an 8 to 1
win with 7 of those goals coming on the power play.
So far this weekend the special teams have really played well and
you can bet they will have to put on another show tonight.
After the beating they took last night I’m
betting that the Hawks will be coming out with a little extra jump in their
legs. O’Malley played a good game and
Scarpace did some good work while in the game as well.
I was looking for a good game between these
two teams going into this game and it was a close one until the third period.
The Hawks started Cam McCormick in tonight’s contest to give
UM a different look and they did come out of the gate playing a more controlled
game. It was UM that came out a little
bit flat in this game, probably caused in part by the whipping they inflicted
on the Hawks last night. UM goes to the
power play early, much like Friday night, but tonight the Hawks penalty kill
was playing a bit better and killed off the power play chance by the
Wolverines. UM get their first penalty
with about five minutes gone in the period.
O’Malley came up with a great save during this penalty and there was
some really good defense during this power play as the Wolverines killed off
the Hawks power play. UM takes a couple
of other penalties in this period, but we got out of them with some good
penalty kill play. UM finally broke the
scoreless tie with about 7 minutes left in the period when Jillson and Matzka
work the puck to Koch who gets the Wolverines first short handed goal of the
year. With about 30 seconds left in the
period UM was called for another penalty giving the Hawks the chance to finish
the first period and start the second period on the power play.
The first period did end with UM leading by
a 1 to nothing score, but they were losing in shots on goal with a 9 to 7
advantage belonging to the Hawks.
The second period started with Umass still on the power
play, but the penalty kill was also playing well and they killed off the Umass
power play. There wasn’t much action
until the mid point of the period, unless you consider UM taking penalties and
killing them off action. Don’t get me
wrong, here the UM penalty kill was playing really well, but they were giving
Umass way to many power play chances in this period.
With just over ten minutes gone in the period Umass gave the puck
up on a give away, but they gave it up to the wrong person.
Comrie got his stick on the puck and took it
in unassisted to give UM their second short-handed goal of the night and year.
Umass did get on the board late in the
second period, but the period ended with UM leading 2 to 1 although they
continued to lose in the shots on goal category by a 21 to 11 count.
The third period started much the same as the second went,
with UM picking up plenty of penalties.
Umass picked up a few of their own, but UM was the one giving the
penalty box door. However, through it
all the UM penalty kill was up to the task.
Again it was midway through the period when UM notched their third goal
of the game. This time Hilbert got the
puck from Koch and sent it home to get his first career goal.
About thirty seconds later Shouneyia took a
pass and he found twine for his first goal of the season.
Assists on this goal went to Langfeld and
Jillson. Just over two minutes later
Cammalleri got his first goal of the season when he took a pass from Mark Mink
and sent the puck home, this was a power play goal.
While the two teams traded some penalties during the closing
minutes of the game that was the last goal scored in this contest.
So UM got the win out of this game by a score
of 5 to 1, but they lost the shots on goal battle by a 25 to 20 count.
This was quite a contest.
The UM special teams again were shining.
While they only went 1 for 8 on the power play tonight they did
pick up two short-handed goals and the UM defense and penalty kill were nothing
if not terrific. O’Malley had a pretty
darn good weekend which should give him some good confidence as he steps into
the starting position. It was also
really great to see the last three scoreless freshmen get back-to-back-to-back
goals in the third period to break this game open.
This freshmen class continues to impress.
So UM begins the season 4-0 with a couple of
back-to-back sweeps, but their troubles on the injury front continue.
Huntzicker went out during the second period
with a separated should and Gassoff was hit from behind and sent into the
boards in the third. This hit and the
resulting meeting with the boards gave him a fairly serious concussion.
Neither Huntzicker nor Gassoff are expected
to play next weekend, as we travel to the great white North and take on
Alaska. So until then, C-ya!!
|