Friday, November 5, 1999

Friday, November 5, 1999, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The Wolverines return to CCHA play this weekend with a two game, home and home series against the Buckeyes of Ohio State. The Buckeyes are riding a seven (that’s 7) game loosing streak and are having a bit of a tough time early in the season. OSU is in our cluster within the CCHA so we will see them again this year, but I’m all for getting the sweep this weekend (kick the Buckeyes while their down).

Michigan moved up a notch in the national polls to number five, right where we started in the pre-season poll. The big change in the poll was at the top. After getting beaten by RPI Boston College dropped two spots to number three. With the top spot open the Maine Blackbears moved into the top spot followed by North Dakota. On the strength of that big win RPI jumped three spots from number nine to number six. New Hampshire’s loss dropped them from number five to number seven. Clarkson and Colorado College each moved down a spot after they got beat last weekend and Denver moves into the poll at number ten. Northern Michigan is the only other CCHA team with points and they are right on the verge of making the top ten (just four points out). The big jumps around in the polls continue to amaze me as the hockey poll seemed to be a bit more stable than the others given the number of games they play, but this year that all seems to be different. Expect to see more juggling this week. If I read the information correctly Boston College got beaten again on Tuesday (the day after this poll came out), so they should drop into the bottom five. Well let’s get onto tonight’s game with the Buckeyes.

The first period started kind of slow for the Wolverines, they just didn’t seem to have much jump in their legs. However, the Buckeyes looked like they came to play. They were buzzing around the ice chasing the puck, banging into players, and just generally looking to make something happen. With all of that said it was a full five minutes into the game before either team got a shot on goal. UM did miss a couple of opportunities to get a shot off, but basically this has been a defensive game. With just under five minutes gone UM goes on the power play, but it was a little difficult to tell. With some kind of lazy play in their own zone and in the neutral zone the Wolverines gave the puck up not once, not twice, but three times to give OSU chances at rushing our goal. Even with the golden chances provided by the Wolverines the Buckeyes were unable to take advantage and the game remained zero to zero. The first score of the game came with 12:05 left in the period when the Buckeyes scored a power play goal to take the early lead. The goal looked kind of strange. The shot came from O’Malleys left and was really more of a pass straight through the crease, but someone in front deflected it between O’Malley and the post. With 10:38 left UM again went on the power play, but they were unable to get anything going. It looked to me as though they simply got outhussled on this one. The game again settled into its defensive mode until 5:51 left when UM finally got on the board. The Wolverines were again on the power play, with time running out on the power play, when a big scramble for the puck took place in front of the OSU net. They finally got Aho down on the ice, the puck dropped down in front of the net, and the ever-vigilant Mark Kosick was there to chip it in over the horizontal Aho. Both Langfeld and Comrie picked up assists on this goal. Now things begin to get interesting here at the end of the period. With about 3 minutes left in the period OSU was on the power play. With 1:13 left in the power play UM picks up another penalty giving OSU the two-man advantage. Not exactly what you want to see as a period draws to a close. UM finally picks up the pace a bit and kills off both penalties without giving up a single goal. The period ends with the score knotted at one apiece. Michigan held the slightest edge in shots on goal with a 7 to 6 count. OSU picked up a penalty right at the 20-minute mark so UM should start the 2nd period on the power play.

Well we don’t start the second period on the power play. The penalty assessed against the Buckeyes was a ten-minute misconduct penalty so the OSU player is gone for the night. About 30 seconds into the period it looked like UM was going to go on the power play, but Jillson mixed it up with a Buckeye player as the officials were putting the Buckeye in the box so we will skate 4 on 4. The Wolverines are skating with much more zing in this period and the four on four situation seems to suit them just fine. With the extra bodies off the ice the Wolverines extra speed seems to be paying dividends. With just over one minute gone in the period Comrie picks up the puck near our own blue line. He breaks away going one on one against a defenseman. He gets pushed a bit off to the side of the goal so he circles around behind the goal taking Aho with him. As he comes out from behind the goal he sees a trailing Huntzicker, he passes the puck to Dave, who buries it in the net to put UM ahead for the first time in this game. Both Comrie and Matzka picked up assists on this goal. My description probably doesn’t do it justice, because the passing and all around play on this goal was a thing of beauty. Again things kind of settled into that defensive mode, but UM looks to be skating much harder than they were in the 1st period. With 14:25 left in the period both teams pick up penalties and we again skate four on four. With 41 seconds left in this set of penalties each team picks up another set of penalties, but we remain four on four. With 12:03 left in the period Cammalleri picks up a penalty that I still don’t believe was called. He looked to be just standing on the ice when an OSU player slipped and fell. Of course all the referee saw was an UM player standing and an OSU player falling so he put Cammalleri in the box. Anyway even with all of the penalty action in this stretch neither team puts any points on the board. With around ten minutes left in the period OSU is going to be called for a penalty. UM has possession of the puck so O’Malley comes off as UM works on the delay penalty call. Cammalleri worked the puck down into the zone, got it over to Hilbert, who got it into the net. Cammalleri and Merrick each picked up assists in this game. It looked to me like Andy bounced it into the OSU net off an OSU player’s skate, but it was good to see him pick up his second goal of the season. This is where the wheels really started to come off for the Buckeyes. Shortly after scoring this goal the Buckeyes were called for another penalty and this time they ended up in the box. With 1:44 left in this penalty OSU picks up another penalty giving UM the two-man advantage. After about 20 seconds of power play time UM picked up their fourth goal of the night when Comrie got off a shot. Aho blocked the shot, but didn’t cover the rebound and Kosick was right there to put the rebound into the net. We still had 1:45 of power play time after this goal, but we were unable to pick up another score. The final score of the period came with less than one minute to play. Comrie was bringing the puck down the ice, when he passed over to Huntzicker. Huntzicker saw Jillson get a step on an OSU defender so he passed the puck over to Jillson. Jillson picked up the puck in stride and just slapped it past Aho. This was just another beautiful play all started by the play of Comrie. The period ends with Michigan now leading the Buckeyes by a score of 5 to 1. UM also had a much larger edge in shots on goal with a 19 to 10 count.

A couple of minutes into the intermission a trainer came out of the UM locker room and picked up a goalie mask from the bench. It would appear that Scarpace will play in the third period. Right at the end of the 2nd Mink was called for a penalty so OSU starts the third period on the power play and Scarpace is indeed in goal. Both teams skating hard and UM kills off the power play. Just seconds after the OSU power play expired UM gets called for another penalty putting OSU back on the power play. I thought this penalty was kind of cheap, and for the rest of this period there were several penalties against UM that looked cheap. Needless to say UM killed off this power play as well. The penalty kill, which had been darn good throughout this game, was really clicking in this period. I have to say that Swistak was just awesome tonight on the penalty kill. There were several times when he would have the puck all alone in the OSU zone, with two or three Buckeyes down there trying to take it away from him, but he just kept skating and scrapping and just generally causing all kinds of havoc for the Buckeyes. With 14:53 left in the period OSU picks up a penalty and UM again goes on the power play. With 1:28 left in the power play there was a face-off to the right of the OSU net. Kosick won the face-off, getting the puck to Langfeld. Langfeld fed the puck over to Comrie who slapped it between Aho and the right post. Comrie finally gets a goal on the night. There are some more penalties for each team, but neither team is able to score a goal. On several OSU power plays Scarpace made some fantastic saves to keep OSU off the board. After the Comrie goal the scoring was over. There were some great chances for OSU, but as I said Scarpace turned them all away. Comrie got another chance on a breakaway, but again he missed. Swistak continued to fly all over the ice. The game ended with UM winning by a score of 6 to 1 and holding the edge in shots on goal with a 30 to 22 count.

What a game. After a bit of a slow start the Wolverines really cranked it up and won this game going away. If you didn’t notice I mentioned Comrie a lot tonight. He had a hand in five of the six Wolverine goals. Not only did he pick up five points on the night, but also he has now picked up a point in every game this season and this was his fourth multipoint game. The scary thing is that even with all the points he picked up he missed on four, that’s 4, breakaways where it was just him and the goaltender. You won’t see that happen to many times. The goaltending was outstanding tonight by both O’Malley and Scarpace. Once again I thought the play of the freshmen was outstanding, especially Swistak and Cammalleri. Merrick had a good night; Kosick had a great night, missing his hat trick by just one goal. I don’t have a total number of minutes, but there were a ton of penalties called in this game. It could get ugly down at OSU Saturday night when these two teams face off again. OSU is now riding an eight game loosing streak and I want to see UM make it nine. Besides we could use the CCHA points. So until Saturday, C-ya!!