Friday, October 22, 1999

Friday, October 22, 1999, John A. Carlson Center, Fairbanks, Alaska

Well it’s once again Friday and its time for another full weekend of Wolverine sports. This week it is time for the hockey teams yearly bonding trip to the Great White North as they have a two game stand against the Nanooks at Alaska-Fairbanks. Our Michigan Wolverines left A2 early Wednesday morning as they began their travel time to Alaska. Michigan likes to make this trip early in the year because it gives them the ability to spend some quality time together as a team (as the coach says, no parents, no girlfriends, no distractions) and more fully integrate some of the younger players into the team. They’ll do some sight seeing, but they are there to play hockey and they are there to win.

Well two weeks after the initial pre-season polls came out a new college hockey poll was released this week and there were a few changes to be seen. First, the change that us Wolverine fans are most concerned about involves our team. The Wolverines moved up two spots from their pre-season number five ranking to number three on the strength of the unbeaten run to start the season. Before we go tooting our horn to loudly, lets remember that it is very early in the season and this upward movement is similar to what happened last year. We started the season last year somewhere between number 5 and number 10 (if memory serves me correctly). Over the first half of the season we moved up to number 2 in the nation only to drop like a rock as we started the second half of the season with an eight game winless streak. So while it’s nice to be ranked number three in the country right now I’ll like it better in February and March. North Dakota, who has yet to play a game, stayed put at number four while the Spartans dropped two spaces to number five. Yes, that’s right we basically traded spots with the Spartans. Clarkson, another team that hasn’t played a game dropped two spots, from number seven to number nine. Don’t ask me why one team is left in their spot without playing a game (North Dakota), but another is dropped two places (Clarkson). In other CCHA rankings Northern Michigan moved up one spot from number nine to number eight. Make no mistake these Wildcats are for real. That’s going to be quite a match up when they and the Wolverines meet a little later in the year. Both Notre Dame and Ohio State dropped from site in the rankings. To make up for these two dropping out Miami is in the vote collecting category (with 14) and surprise of surprises the Western Michigan Broncos have picked up a vote. The Broncos aren’t in the top ten, but they are one of the teams listed who picked up votes.

In the CCHA things do look a little weird this early in the season. Those Western Michigan Broncos mentioned in the previous paragraph are sitting on top of the league all by themselves with five points. Now before you drop over in shock they have played two more games than the place teams so while they are on top right now, don’t expect them to stay there for the entire season. There is a three-way tie for second that sees Michigan, Northern Michigan, and Michigan State each with four points. Miami holds down the next spot with three points. There is another logjam in the next spot as Alaska-Fairbanks, Ohio State, Ferris State, and Lake Superior all have two points. The remaining three teams are all knotted up with zero points and this group includes Nebraska, Bowling Green, and Notre Dame (huh??). There are some interesting match ups this week. Bowling Green, who skated real well with Boston College last weekend has two games against the Broncos of Western Michigan. We should start to see some things sort themselves out concerning both the Falcons and the Broncos. Notre Dame will look to get back on track as they take on Ferris for two contests this weekend. This series sees the Bulldogs and Irish facing off in Big Rapids on Saturday, but their second game is on Sunday and will be in Grand Rapids at the Van Andel Arena. So for all you Bulldog, Irish, and just plain ‘ole college hockey fans head on down to Grand Rapids on Sunday for the game (starts at 7:05 PM). The more interesting in conference series involves the Spartans and the Buckeyes. The Buckeyes split a series with Alaska in earlier play so we will see this weekend if the Buckeyes are going to be a force in the conference or if they are sliding back into mediocrity. I know it’s early for such statements, but hey, I’m feeling particularly doom and gloomish for the Buckeyes today. In out of conference play Miami hosts Providence, Lake State hosts New Hampshire, and Northern Michigan hosts Clarkson. With all of Miami’s injuries of late I look for Providence to win both games in Oxford. Lake State started the season with high hopes and we’re going to get a good read on this team this weekend. I still look for New Hampshire to take the series, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see a split. The most interesting involves Northern Michigan. As I mentioned earlier Clarkson has yet to play a game and they start their season against one of the hottest teams in the country. Northern has been hot, hot, hot so far this year while Clarkson is picked as the best in the conference this year. So we’re going to find out a lot about both of these programs this weekend. I have to give the edge to Northern simply because of how well they’ve been playing and because they have some games under their belt where Clarkson really doesn’t.

Well I’ve rambled about the national picture and what’s been up in the CCHA so now that leaves me with the Wolverines. They play the Nanooks from Alaska in Alaska and Fairbanks does have an Olympic size sheet of ice. While this can sometimes cause teams some problems that aren’t used to it I don’t see this as being a problem for Michigan. They play on Olympic size ice several times a year and with the speed that this years team takes to the ice I think the extra space will simply give them more open lanes to motor through. However, let’s not take the Nanooks lightly. They have really started their season out well with weekend splits against Ohio State and in state rival Alaska-Anchorage. The Nanooks have a new coach and a new outlook, but looking at the stats they still play a very physical game of hockey. Look for the Wolverines to get plenty of power play chances this weekend and that could be the undoing for the Nanooks. The Wolverines special teams have been outstanding so far this season with the power play converting on just over 30% (30.6% I believe is the actual number) of their chances (which is outstanding) and the penalty kill is working at a 93.5% clip (again if memory serves me right). The penalty kill has also picked up two short-handed goals. These are great numbers for the Wolverines and it will speak volumes about this team if they can maintain this pace throughout the year. There is some news on the injury front. Dave Huntzicker’s injury last weekend was not as serious as first thought. He suffered only a slight should separation and is scheduled to play this weekend. However, Bob Gassoff did suffer a fairly serious concussion late in last week’s game. The hit knocked him out and when he fell to the ice he had no control and fell funny on his knees injuring both of them. Jeff Jillson has spent the week nursing a sore groin, but he is expected to play. Brad Fraser will probably see playing time on the defense with the injury to Gassoff and the team has been experimenting with Bill Trainor and Krikor Arman on defense in practice. Mike Comrie leads the conference in scoring at this early point in the season. Michigan and Michigan State are tied for first in most goals scored per game at 5.5 goals per game after two conference games each. What’s up with that, MSU leading in goals per game. This is starting to look like a year when real strange things happen. One final note. If UM can get a sweep this weekend they will give Coach Berenson his 400^th win of his coaching career. So here’s hoping the Wolverines remain undefeated and the Coach reaches yet another milestone. Well since Alaska is several hours behind us I’m going to try to sneak a little nap before the game starts.

Well my little nap turned into a big nap so most of the coverage in this article will be summarized from other sources. I picked up the action with five minutes left in the third period. Going back to the beginning of the game the Nanooks came out as expected playing a very physical brand of hockey. After 15 minutes of a back and forth physical brand of hockey Michigan took the lead when Comrie got a pass from O’Malley, skated in from the blue line, and got a goal. It was kind of a funny goal, as it appeared Comrie was sending a pass through the crease only to have it bounce off a Nanook skate and get past their goalie. You would have thought things would go Michigan’s way after that kind of play. This goal came with one second remaining in a five on three power play for Michigan. Almost exactly two minutes later another somewhat strange goal went the Nanooks way. O’Malley was out of the crease over by the left face-off circle to intercept a pass. While O’Malley was away from the goal a Nanook player came in, took the puck off O’Malleys stick, and pushed it into the open Michigan goal. The period ended with a tie score at one to one. The Nanooks outshot the Wolverines 13 to 11 in the first period.

The second period was pretty much of a replay of the first except there was less scoring. The only goal of the period went to the Nanooks about midway through the period. The Wolverines had several opportunities to get the tying score and a go ahead goal, but they were unable to get any of their shots past the Nanook goalie. At the end of two Michigan had taken the lead in shots on goal with a 25 to 18 edge, but they were trailing on the scoreboard by one at 2 to 1.

The third period went much the same way as the first two. A physical brand of play that saw neither team really mounting any kind of offensive pressure. About midway through the third period the Wolverines finally started to turn up the heat. They started applying a lot of pressure on the Nanook goal getting off several shots from inside 15 feet; however, the Nanook goalie was as solid as a rock. As I stumble out of my nap there are just five minutes left in the game with AF leading by a score of 2 to 1 and the Nanooks are on the power play for 1:45. Michigan has killed off the AF power play and Michigan is looking to get something going to get this game back. Hilbert gets off a good shot, but it goes just wide of the net. We’re no under three minutes to go in the game. UM gets the puck stolen at center ice and AF takes it in and scores an unassisted goal to extend their lead to 3 to 1. UM calls a time out to figure out what they want to do. They are down by two goals to Alaska-Fairbanks, a team that has never beaten the Wolverines. The Nanook goalie, in his fifth career game, has been a stone wall that the Wolverines have been unable to crack. Michigan has pulled their goalie with about 2 minutes left in the period to get the extra attacker. Jillson gets off a quick shot, but the AF goalie saves it. Now Michigan gets off another shot that the goalie does stop, but UM picks up the rebound and bumps it into the net to close to 1 goal. Kosick gets the goal with assists going to Mink and Langfeld. With 1:33 left in the game Michigan needs one more goal to tie it up, O’Malley back on the bench. We’re now down to 1 minute with UM working the puck around the AF zone. UM pumping shots at the AF goal, but they cannot get the puck past the AF goalie. UM gets a great shot that goes just wide followed by two more and they can get none of them into the net. The AF goalie covers the puck and the face off will be in the AF zone with 19.2 seconds left. After getting off several shots in the final seconds UM looses the puck and AF scores an empty net goal to seal the win by a score of 4 to 2. The Wolverines easily won the battle for shots on goal with a 47 to 24 margin, but were beat where it counts on the scoreboard.

Well that’s is certainly not the way we wanted this weekend to start off. The Wolverines loose the first game in this two game series. This is the first time Alaska-Fairbanks has ever beaten Michigan (that’s over a 19-year span of time). Reading some of the comments from coaches in other publications it would seem the Wolverines were a bit sluggish and just a bit off for this evening’s contest. They had several chances to take and hold the lead in this game and were simply unable to capitalize on the opportunities. This is something they have done very well up to this point in the season. The Nanooks have been surprising people in the early going this year and their goalie certainly played an outstanding game stopping 45 of 47 shots. Here’s hoping Michigan gets refocused for Saturday nights game, I’m sure they will. Until then C-ya!!