Friday, January 12, 2001

Friday, January 12, 2001, Value Center Arena, Columbus, Ohio

The Wolverines started this game like they had a tiger on their tail as they kept the Buckeyes scrambling to keep up for the first ten minutes of this hockey game. Even though Michigan was consistently attacking the Buckeye goal, Ohio States freshman goaltender was up to the challenge. With a couple of great saves and solid goaltending in between the young goaltender turned away every Michigan shot to keep the Buckeyes in the game. Both teams were whistled for three penalties apiece in the first period, but neither team was able to take advantage extra man. The first period came to an end with the score tied at zero. Michigan held a slight edge in shots on goal with a 9 to 7 count.

The Buckeyes had a very brief power play chance to start the second period (about 3 seconds), but they were unable to do anything with it. However, it wouldn’t be long before the Buckeyes got their offense in gear. Michigan was as bad at the start of the second period as they were good at the start of the first. With just 1:42 gone in the second period Ohio States Miguel Lafleche picked up the first goal of the night. Michigan had turned the puck over in their own zone, Ohio State got control, pulled Blackburn out of position, and ended up with the goal and the lead.

The poor play in the early going of this period was just an indicator of how things would go for the first half of this period. As if Ohio State needed any more motivation after scoring this goal Michigan put the Buckeyes on the power play about two minutes later and the Buckeyes came after Michigan. The Wolverines were able to kill this penalty off without suffering any damage and in fact came close to tying the game seconds after the OSU power play ended when Cammalleri clanged the puck off a post. As we approached the mid point of the second period it looked like Michigan might get a chance to get even as Ohio State was whistled for a penalty putting Michigan on the power play. However, about half way through the power play Michigan was whistled for a penalty of their own to end their power play and set the Buckeyes up with a short power play of their own.

Michigan continued to earn time in the sin bin with Gassoff being sent off for slashing as the clock moved under the ten-minute mark in the period. Thirty-three seconds into the power play Ohio States Doug Andress beat Blackburn to his glove hand to take a two goal lead. Once again Michigan didn’t feel they had given the Buckeyes enough chances to score goals as the Wolverines were called for another penalty barely twenty seconds after giving up the power play goal to the Buckeyes. Michigan was able to kill this penalty off and get out of the period without picking up any more penalties.

Ohio State got the last penalty of the period with just under five minutes to go and once again poor play by the Wolverines almost gave the Buckeyes their third goal of the period. Hilbert was getting ready to bring the puck out of the Michigan zone when he turned the puck over giving Ohio State a great opportunity to score the short-handed goal. Blackburn was able to turn this scoring chance away and the period came to an end with Ohio State leading by a score of 2 to nothing. Michigan continued to hold a slight edge in shots on goal with a 19 to 16 count.

Michigan started the third period needing two goals just to tie the game and they got a chance to get one of them back just a little over one minute into the game when Ohio State was called for holding. Even with the early man advantage Michigan was unable to score a goal and Ohio State killed off the penalty. Michigan was skating very hard in this period and got some quality chances in the first few minutes and finally got one past the Buckeye netminder with just over five minutes gone in the third. Mike Komisarek got the puck out near the blue line and let fly with a shot. The shot deflected off an Ohio State defenseman and made it into the Buckeye net. Without the deflection it probably would have been stopped, but the Wolverines needed a break and they finally got one. Assists on the goal went to Jillson and Hilbert.

The Wolverines continued to apply great pressure on the Ohio State goal and Jillson almost got the tying goal just seconds after the first; his drive was stopped. A second Ohio State penalty with 6:32 gone in the period gave Michigan another man advantage, but they were again unable to capitalize. In fact probably the best scoring chance on this power play belonged to the Buckeyes as Michigan once again turned the puck over in their zone giving Ohio States Ganga a clean break on the goal. Blackburn turned away the shot, but that was certainly wasn’t the kind of play Michigan needed while on the power play. Just seconds after killing off this penalty Ohio State was called for another penalty giving Michigan a second straight power play opportunity. Ohio State, like the previous penalty, killed this one off without giving up any further goals.

Michigan had several other good scoring chances over the final ten minutes of the period, but each chance was either stopped by the Buckeye goaltender or went wide of the target. As the game approached the final minute of play Michigan pulled Blackburn to get an extra attacker on the ice. However, as with every power play of the night (eight in all) Michigan was unable to score a goal. Ohio State added an empty net goal with one second remaining in the game to seal the victory. The game came to an end with Ohio State winning by a score of 3 to 1. Michigan out shot the Buckeyes in the third period 15 to 5 to end the game with a 34 to 21 advantage in shots on goal.

Once again Michigan found a way to loose to a team they should not have lost to. It was another game of inconsistent play by Michigan that really cost them this game. While they played fairly well in the first and third periods and even the final nine or ten minutes of the second period, it was their poor play in the first half of the second period that cost them this game. During those ten minutes Michigan was constantly caught out of position, turned the puck over numerous times, and simply got out hustled by the Buckeyes. If the Wolverines want to play for the conference championship they must start playing sixty minutes of hockey each and every night. This large senior class must provide the leadership, both on and off the ice, if this team is going to continue playing in the month of March. The second game of this series is Saturday night at 7:35 PM.

Week in Review

Michigan rebounded from their worst weekend of hockey in a decade with two solid shut out victories over Lake Superior State last weekend. This certainly wasn’t their best weekend of hockey, but it was head and shoulders above the prior weekend. This week the Wolverines take on the Buckeyes from Ohio State in a pair of games that they need to win in order to stay in the hunt for the CCHA regular season championship.

Even with the two shut out wins Michigan did not move in the USCHO poll, but they actually dropped a spot in the USA Today poll. That’s what happens when you play as poorly as the Wolverines did at the Great Lakes Invitational – on television no less.

USCHO put out their first Pairwise rankings of the year this week and there aren’t too many surprises their. The Pairwise ranking is a system, which attempts to mimic the method used by the NCAA selection committee to determine the participants for the NCAA tournament. They don’t use the exact calculation that the NCAA uses (since they keep that a secret), but they come pretty close. The Pairwise has accurately predicted the NCAA field the last three or four years. Michigan State sits at the top of the rankings in this poll, followed by fellow CCHA member Western Michigan. The WCHA holds down the next two spots with Colorado College and North Dakota. Positions five and six are filled by two teams from Hockey East, New Hampshire and Boston College. The next CCHA team is Michigan sitting at number seven. The top ten is rounded out by Minnesota, St. Cloud, and Denver.

In our final visit to the World Junior championships it was team USA coming away with fifth place after beating Switzerland by a score of 4-0 on January 5, 2001. Team Canada also ended up their tournament on the 5^th of January with a 2-1 win over Sweden; a win good enough for the bronze medal. The Czech Republic came away with the gold medal for the second straight year. Finland went home with the silver medal after loosing to the Czech Republic.

In another world tournament, this one in Nova Scotia, the national under-17 team brought home the gold medal from the World Under-17 Challenge. Team USA finished the tournament with a 6-0 record and beat Canada Pacific 5-4 to win the gold medal.

For those interested Mike Comrie has moved to the NHL after signing on with the Edmonton Oilers. His contract will pay him anywhere between 3 and 10 million dollars over three years. Whether Mike reaches certain contract goals to activate bonus clauses will determine just how much he ends up making on this deal. While playing major junior hockey in the Western Hockey League Comrie had racked up 79 points in 37 games.

In last weekends games Michigan accomplished several things that haven’t happened to a Wolverine hockey team in quite some time. The back to back shut out wins over Lake State were the first back to back shut outs since 1964 when Michigan won shut outs over Ohio State and Michigan State. These shut outs were the first over the same opponent since two 1-0 wins over Wisconsin in 1927. Michigan has killed off the last 17 power plays opportunities for their opponent and has held their opponents scoreless for the last 128:03 of playing time. Of course while these things are all good they will mean very little this weekend against the Buckeyes.

For his performance last weekend against Lake State Josh Blackburn was named the defensive player of the week in the CCHA. Josh stopped a total of 49 shots on goal, 29 of them coming on Saturday night. A couple of other players were named CCHA notable performers from the last week or two. The first was Andy Burnes who was +2 against the Lakers and helped Michigan kill off all 12 Laker power plays last weekend. The second Michigan player to get mention was Craig Murray who scored three goals over the weekend against Lake Superior, including the game winner on Sunday.

Like last weekend it appears that senior Mark Kosick will be a healthy scratch from the games this weekend. His play has been very inconsistent this year and he will now have to earn his way back into the starting line up. Michigan is 4-0-1 against the Buckeyes in the last five games and were last beaten by Ohio State on February 6, 1999, in Ann Arbor by a score of 3-2.