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Saturday, October 23, 1999
Saturday, October 23, 1999, John A. Carlson Center, Fairbanks, Alaska
After last nights loss to the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks it’s important that the Wolverines get the win tonight and at least salvage a split in this weekend series. We can't afford to give away two games in conference play. Even though it is still very early in the season I don’t want to see us have a zero point weekend this entire year. That can really hurt over the course of the season. We should look for the Wolverines to be a bit more focused tonight than they were last evening.
The first period of this game was another hard fought, penalty filled affair. Much the same as Friday nights contest. The Wolverines seemed to be a bit more focused, but the Nanooks were just as intense looking to get their sweep of the favored Wolverines. About midway through the first period the only goal by either team in this period was scored. This goal went to the Wolverines and was another one of those strange bounce goals. Koch took got the puck and circled behind the Nanook net. From there he dumped the puck out to Peach at the top of the left face-off circle. Peach moved in a couple of feet to get in front of the crease. Once there he to a shot which hit the shoulder of a Nanook player and bounced past their goalie. In both games of this series the Wolverines get on the board first, and in both instances they bounce the puck for those goals off a Nanook player. That was the only goal of the first period so at the end of one it was Michigan 1, Alaska-Fairbanks nothing.
The second period went a little better than the first when your talking about penalties, but not as good as the first when your talking about points. There were quite a few penalties called in the first period, but there hadn’t been much penalty action in the second until we were about eight minutes into the period. At that time Hilbert was called for a five minute major and given a game disqualification. J.J. Swistak had gone into the penalty box just moments before this call against Hilbert so the Nanooks suddenly had a long 5 on 3, followed by a lengthy 5 on 4 advantage. The Michigan penalty kill was up to the challenge during this extended Nanook power play period and killed off both of the penalties. Later in the period Magnuson took a severe hit into the boards that saw the Alaska player take a five minute major and game disqualification. This gave Michigan their own extended power play opportunity, but it was the Nanooks who took advantage of this situation. Just 34 seconds into this long Michigan power play the Nanooks got a short-handed goal to tie the game at 1 apiece. Alaska almost got a second short-handed goal during this period when they got a break away, but O’Malley deflected the shot over the cross bar. It was a bit disappointing for the Wolverines to give up the short-handed goal, but at least they didn’t give up two. The period ended with the game tied at 1 goal apiece.
The third period was a better one from the Wolverine point of view. Just 1 ½ minutes into the third period, while on the power play, the Wolverines got the go ahead goal Kosick got the puck past the Nanook netminder. The initial shot came from Comrie, but Kosick got the rebound and picked up the goal. Assists for this goal when to both Comrie and Jillson. About 6 ½ minutes later, again on the power play, Michigan picked up their third goal of the night. Matzka got the puck behind the Nanook goal fed a pass out front to Vancik, who got the first goal of his Michigan career from the high slot. Assists on this goal went to Matzka and Koch. After picking up two assists in this game Koch picked up the Wolverines fourth and final goal of the game (third of the third period). Ortmeyer made a terrific play with his skate to intercept a Nanook pass deep in the Nanook zone. He circled around, got the puck to Koch, who got it past the Nanook goalie. Ortmeyer got the lone assist on this goal. That was the end of the scoring for this game. Michigan gets the series split with a 4 to 1 victory over the Nanooks. Michigan also won the shots on goal battle in this game by a 44 to 30 count.
Well we would have all liked to get the series sweep and remain undefeated, but it wasn’t to be this weekend. The Nanooks played a great weekend of hockey, playing a physical, focused brand of hockey. It would seem they might make more noise in the conference this year than expected. We’ll have to see if they can remain as focused over the entire season. By only picking up one win for the weekend Coach Berenson sits one win short of 400. The Wolverines get a chance to give the coach his 400th win next weekend on Saturday night when Yale comes to Yost. Because of the game disqualification Hilbert will not be able to play in the game against Yale. Comrie stays hot, picking up at least one point in every game so far this season. The Wolverines have also scored first in every game they’ve played so far this season.
Lets take a quick look back at some of the other match ups around the conference before leaving this weekend behind. Michigan State now sits alone on top of the league with eight points (4-0-0) by picking up a weekend sweep over the Buckeyes. Western sits all alone in second after splitting the weekend series against Bowling Green. They have still played two more conference games than either the Spartans or the Wolverines. Michigan sits all alone in third place with six points, followed by a group of teams with four each (Northern Michigan, Alaska, and Ferris), Miami and Bowling Green each have three points, Ohio State and Lake Superior each have two points, while Notre Dame and Nebraska continue to sit in last place with no points. New Hampshire did sweep Lake Superior in a two game series this weekend, while Clarkson picked up a weekend sweep over Northern Michigan to start their season in fine fashion. Ferris beat Notre Dame on Saturday night and is playing Notre Dame again Sunday evening at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. Well that’s it for this weekend so until next Saturday, C-ya!!
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