Friday, December 10, 1999

Friday, December 10, 1999, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

It is upon us. The first half of the season is over once this weekend’s series against the Mavericks from Nebraska is complete. Saturday is the final game until the Great Lakes Invitational (GLI). A time when the players get to go home and see the family and friends (even if only for a short time) before starting the all important run to tournament time.

The loss to Bowling Green cost the Wolverines two positions in the national polls this week as they fell from number 6 to number 8. There was a lot of movement in the polls once again this week as Maine, ranked number 1 going into last weekend, fell three spots to number 4. North Dakota, Wisconsin, and New Hampshire each moved up one spot to fill the void left by the falling Black Bears. Michigan State stayed at number 5, while Rensselaer moved from number 8 (Michigan’s new spot) to number 6 (Michigan’s old spot). Boston University, after a year away from the top ten moved up three from number 10 to number 7. Northern Michigan held steady at number 9 and Colgate rounds out the top 10 after dropping 3 spots from number 7 to number 10. No other CCHA team received any votes in this weeks poll while pre-season consensus number 1, Boston College, has a lot of work to do to get back into the top 10. The hockey poll is usually one that doesn’t see teams bouncing all over the place like some of the other polls, but this year certainly seems to be different. Teams are moving up and down by 3 or 4 positions when in years past a single loss wouldn’t have any affect on their ranking. The hockey teams play a lot of games and there are a lot of good teams out there – no one is expected to win everything. I have tried to say little about the polls this year because they are just that – polls – and because whenever a Michigan fan talks about Michigan getting "no respect" in the polls it is always seen as whining. I’m not whining, but I pose this scenario to all of you to ponder. In this case you have two teams from the same league ranked together in the middle of the top ten (say positions 5 and 6 for example) going into a weekend of hockey. Coming out of that weekend of hockey both of these teams loose one game and win one game. Both losses were to teams in the exact same position in the league (oh say 9/10 out of 12 teams). Both teams suffered that first loss on the first night of a weekend of the series and of course both teams won their games on the second night of the weekend. After that weekend of hockey one of those teams (say the number 5 team) retained the ranking in the poll, while the other team (obviously the number 6 team) drops two spots to number 8. If you haven’t guessed by now the two teams are Michigan State and Michigan. MSU started last week ranked number 5, went 1-1 for the weekend against Notre Dame, and retained their number 5 ranking in the polls. Michigan started last week ranked number 6, went 1-1 for the weekend against Bowling Green, and dropped two spots to number 8. Bowling Green and Notre Dame are tied in the CCHA with ten points each waiting to see which one is number 9 and which one is number 10. This isn’t the first time this has happened this year and I just don’t get it – do you?

On to bigger and better things. I said last week after Michigan’s Friday loss that they now needed help from other conference teams in order to move past the two teams ahead of them in the standings. This was mainly because neither Northern Michigan nor MSU played on Friday and if you assumed that neither Northern or MSU would loose to a team they should beat they would have enough conference points to make it impossible for UM to pass them by in head to head competition. Well a Christmas gift was delivered last weekend as both Northern and MSU lost one game apiece, both to teams they should have beaten, keeping UM within striking distance. Of course this means one thing at this point – Michigan must win. They can no longer afford to loose games they should win and every single one of their losses was against teams they could have and should have beaten. Nebraska-Omaha is the new kid in the CCHA, but they are starting to get things together. They are tied with Miami at 7/8 and this weekend’s upcoming series against Michigan is probably the biggest one they’ve had so far this year. If Michigan doesn’t take the Mavericks seriously and come out sending everything they have at them this could be a long weekend at Yost. The Wolverines have had all kinds of problems lately, looking much like they did last January when no matter how hard they worked, nothing went their way. This team has great talent, they just need to settle down and play Michigan hockey. Yost fans be there and be loud as we send our Wolverines off on their much deserved holiday weekend. Don’t worry about the editorials in the student paper saying how obnoxious and mean you are. That’s what makes the crowds at Yost so much fun – if only we could get that at football and basketball games. I’m looking for L.J. Scarpace to start in goal this weekend, I believe he has earned that job. Nothing against O’Malley, but he is struggling right now and Scarpace always seems to turn up in the right place at the right time. Let’s give him the first night and see how he does. If he wins, give him the weekend. A sweep this weekend would be just the kind of send off this team needs to have a good holiday and come back for GLI in a good mood ready to return the GLI championship to Yost.

If I didn’t mention it last week Jeff Jillson and Andy Hilbert will be joining the US national Junior team on the 17th of December for the annual international tournament (this year in Sweden somewhere up around the Arctic circle – burrrrr). Mike Comrie has been invited to try out for the Canadian team, also going to this tournament. I’m sure Canada won’t make the same mistake they made last year and leave Mike at home. What will this mean you ask? It will mean that Michigan will play the GLI tournament without three of its best, but the rest of the team will rise up to the occasion and win GLI anyway (no I’m not looking past the Mavericks). Congratulations to Jeff and Andy and have fun in the tournament. Mike I don’t want to jinx you anymore than I already have so I’ll hold my congratulations until you make you know what team. I’m writing this oh so very long and verbose lead in for Fridays game wrap up on Thursday night because I’m going to be at Yost on Friday night and I wanted to get a jump on the article. So let’s get on with the game and GO BLUE!!!

As the game got underway it was indeed L.J. Scarpace who started in goal, however, the Wolverines were not exactly playing good hockey. They were being sloppy with the puck, not clearing Mavericks from in front of the UM net, and basically looking like the struggling team we have been watching for the last few weeks. The end result of this was that the Mavericks took an early 1 to nothing lead with just over three minutes gone in the period. Scarpace came up with the initial save, but there were just to many Mavericks around the net and they chipped the rebound in for the score. Perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, because this coupled with a goal of their own seemed to breath some life into the Wolverines and their intensity level seemed to increase slowly but surely over the remainder of the night. Just over a minute after scoring their first goal Nebraska was called for a penalty, putting Michigan on the power play for the first time of the night. Michigan moved the puck fairly well and about one minute into the power play Mark Kosick drew the Wolverines back to even as he picked up his ninth goal of the year. Jillson who let loose a shot from the left point started this goal. This was blocked, but Langfeld got the rebound kicked it over to Kosick, and Kosick just floated it into the net through the open back door. Both Langfeld and Jillson picked up assists on the goal. Just about two minutes later Michigan would take the lead for good and never look back. Comrie intercepted a pass in the Michigan zone and brought it up ice into the Maverick zone. Once there he made some great moves with the puck, dropped a backhand pass to Koch, who got off a shot. Again the Maverick netminder stopped this shot, but Andy Hilbert was right there in front of the net to scoop up the rebound and put it into the net before the Nebraska netminder knew what hit him. Assists on this goal went to Koch and Comrie. Suddenly Michigan had gone from being down 1 to nothing to leading 2 to 1. It was kind of funny watching this play unfold. You see Comrie had originally been given an assist on Michigan’s first goal, but once play resumed they announced a change in the scoring taking the assist from Comrie and giving it to Langfeld. It was just seconds after this announcement ended that Comrie stole the puck and set up the play that got Michigan their second goal. I turned to the people setting around me and told them that it seemed Mike didn’t like having his point taken away – the sequence of events was just so good that it made it look like that was indeed what had happened. Anyway that was the end of the scoring for the first period as both teams went up and down the ice with no one able to get anymore goals. Nebraska was called for a second penalty with about 45 seconds left in the period, but Michigan didn’t get any score in the 1st period. The period ended with Michigan leading 2 to 1 and leading in shots on goal by an 11 to 7 count. I must also add that there were only two penalties in the first period, both against Nebraska. Yes that’s right – Michigan played an entire period without taking a single penalty – WOW!!

The second period started with the Wolverines on the power play, but were again unable to get the score. They worked the puck around pretty good, but they just didn’t get any openings. In fact the first 10 minutes of this period were pretty uneventful. Michigan did get another power play chance about 4 minutes into the period, but couldn’t score. Michigan picked up their first penalty of the night with almost 10 minutes gone in the 2nd period (29 minutes of penalty free hockey by Michigan – that is incredible). With Nebraska on the power play the Wolverines once again struck. While defending against a Maverick run up the ice Comrie intercepted a pass just outside the Michigan blue line. Comrie, Hilbert, and Peach changed direction immediately and Michigan had a 3 on 2 charge into the Maverick zone. Comrie brought the puck into the zone, passed off to Hilbert, and Hilbert found Peach all alone in the slot. Peach got the puck and sent it home giving Michigan a short-handed goal and extending their lead to 3 to 1. Assists on this goal went to Hilbert and Comrie. This was a great looking play and Comrie’s puck handling was outstanding. Things settled down a little bit as both teams spent most of the rest of this period blazing up and down the ice, but you could tell that Michigan’s speed was starting to take it’s toll. The Mavericks were barely keeping themselves in position as Michigan was getting closer and closer to skating past their defense. Just when it looked like the period would end with no more scoring the Wolverines struck for the second time in the period. Koch got the puck in the UM zone and passed it out to center ice to a waiting Comrie. Comrie took the puck and skated it into the Maverick zone with Hilbert trailing along. Comrie cut in front of the Nebraska net did a 180 spin, sent a backhand pass over to Hilbert, and Hilbert punched it into the net. Luckily this play happened right in front of me and it was just an amazing thing to see. Again Comries puck handling and play making was just outstanding. This goal came with, if memory serves me correct, just 9.8 seconds left in the second period. It was a dagger in the heart of the Mavericks. As their coach was leaving the ice he was shaking his head and muttering something I couldn’t quite hear, but I don’t think he expected the Wolverines to pick up that goal. The second period ended with Michigan leading by a score of 4 to 1 and they continued to lead in shots on goal with a 22 to 18 count.

The third period was a bit more of the same, except Michigan’s speed was even more evident. The defense was also played extremely well in this period. Nebraska got very few looks at the net in this period as Michigan was just skating circles around them. Michigan picked up their fifth goal of the night with just over eight minutes gone in the period with Comrie once again in the lead. Comrie beat a Maverick defender down the right side of ice, got a pass ahead to Koch, who buried it in the net. Assists were given to Comrie and Jillson. Less than one-minute later Michigan notched their sixth goal of the night when Cammalleri picked up his eighth goal of the season. Cammalleri got the puck behind the Maverick net and skated over to the left post. There was nothing happening there so he reversed himself went back around behind the net, coming out by the right post. From there he stepped out in front and let loose a shot that just settled inside the left post and was in the net. Assists on this goal went to Gassoff and Ortmeyer. Nebraska did pick up a second goal, but there was just over one minute left in the game. The remainder of the period was just Nebraska trying to keep up with the Michigan players and not let the score get any worse than it was. The game ended with Michigan winning by a 6 to 2 score. Michigan also led handily in shots on goal with a 31 to 22 count.

Michigan’s defense in the third period was the best I’ve seen it in several weeks. They held the Mavericks to just 4 shots in the period and they were just all over them. Michigan State was idle Friday night and plays outside the CCHA on Saturday. That means that this is the weekend that Michigan is burning up their games in hand against MSU making it even more important that they sweep this series. They are now within four points of the Spartans and can draw to within two if they get the win Saturday. Then they are in position to pass the Spartans in head to head competition. Andy Hilbert had his best night as a Wolverine picking up two goals and one assist. This is the kind of play that everyone expected from Andy and perhaps he is finally settling into his role on this team. Let’s hope we see a lot more of that from Andy in the weeks to come. There were a lot of players out there on the ice working hard tonight – Kosick, Peach, Cammalleri, Mink, Swistak, Langfeld, Jillson, etc…. . I could go on and on, but the one player that deserves special mention is Comrie. He was just in a league of his own tonight. As I was leaving Yost I turned on WTKA to hear their game wrap up. As they were announcing their three star selection (which was Peach #3, Hilbert #2, and Comrie #1) they announce the number 1 star going to Comrie who was a man among children on the ice in this game. I couldn’t agree more and I don’t know how to convey it, but he was just outstanding in this game. The Wizard was in rare form and nothing or nobody was going to stop him. Michigan goes for the sweep tonight against these same Mavericks and they really must win to end the first half, pull within two points of the Spartans, and go on the holiday break with a pair of wins to think about, not a lost opportunity. So until tonight’s game – C-ya!!