Friday, February 2, 2001

Friday, February 2, 2001, Omaha Civic Auditorium, Omaha, Nebraska

The first nine minutes of this game were relatively uneventful as neither team was able to score a goal and each team managed to place clean checks and take no penalties. However, once the penalty parade began it was a non-stop foul fest. Nebraska would take the first penalty of the game, but Jillson would pick up a penalty less than a minute later to end the Michigan power play. A short time later it would be Huntzicker taking a penalty, giving Nebraska a two man advantage with two of Michigan’s best defensemen in the sin bin. The first penalty of the two had just expired when Nebraska drew first blood when they got a shot past a screened Blackburn. About the only thing that happened for the remainder of the period were penalties. Nebraska picking up another, while Michigan picked up two additional penalties including a ten-minute misconduct given to Hilbert. The first period came to an end with Nebraska leading by a score of 1 to nothing. Nebraska also held the edge in shots on goal with a 9 to 7 count.

At the end of the first period Murray was called for a penalty putting Nebraska on the power play to start the second period. While still killing off the Murray penalty Vancik picked up a penalty to give Nebraska a two-man advantage early in the second period. While Michigan was able to kill off the first half of the two penalties it was Nebraska scoring again just after the first penalty expired. Shortly after giving up their second goal it would be Mink getting hit with a ten-minute misconduct and once again Michigan had one of it’s better players in the box for an extended period of time. The remainder of the period would see a couple more penalties called against each team, but at the end of two it was Nebraska leading by a score of two to nothing. Michigan did take the lead in shots on goal as they end the second with a 21 to 14 advantage in shots.

The third period started much the way that the first two had ended with penalties being called. This time those penalties went against Nebraska and Michigan was finally able to get on the board. Langfeld, getting the puck from Kosick and Cammalleri, would score the Wolverines one and only goal of the night while on the power play. It was Langfeld’s 60^th career goal and unfortunately it was Michigan’s only offense of the night. Nebraska would put the game out of reach with about 3 ½ minutes remaining when the Mavericks picked scored their third goal of the night. To keep their pattern complete Michigan would also pick up a 10-minute misconduct penalty in this period, this time by Matzka, their third misconduct penalty in as many periods of hockey. Nebraska would get a fourth goal, empty net, with just 31 seconds left in the game. The final score was four to one in favor of Nebraska. Michigan did end the game with a big advantage in shots on goal with a 35 to 20 count.

A fairly undisciplined, lack luster performance for the Wolverines following one of their best weeks of hockey this year. Not the kind of hockey you expect from this team who is fighting for first place with only nine games left in the regular season. Unfortunately for Michigan tonight would belong to the Mavericks, just as it did the last time these two teams met, in last years CCHA semi-finals. Just when it looked like the regular season championship was out of reach, following this loss, word comes in that Michigan State also lost tonight to keep Michigan just three points out of first place. If the Wolverines had won this game they could have moved within one point of first, but under the circumstances Michigan must be relieved to still be in the race. These two teams do it all again tomorrow night in Nebraska.

Week in Review

That good week of hockey helped the Wolverines improve their standing in the Pairwise rankings as well as they go into this weekend of hockey sitting at number five in the Pairwise. They are actually tied with Boston College and Colorado College, each team with 31 points; however, the other two teams have a better winning percentage so are ranked higher. Michigan State continues to hold the top spot in the Pairwise and Western Michigan is still in the top ten at number seven; no other CCHA team is in the top twelve.

For their week of solid play, with wins over both Notre Dame and Michigan State, the Wolverines were named the countries team of the week by USA Today. In the CCHA Andy Hilbert was named offensive player of the week, with one goal and five assists for the week. Hilbert was involved in the goal that tied the Spartans on Saturday night and scored the game winner in that same game. Andy Burnes was named the CCHA rookie of the week for his play during last week’s games. Burnes helped to limit last weeks opponents to just 47 shots on goal and those two opponents were zero for seven on the power play while Burnes was on the ice. Also honored for his defensive play last week was Mike Roemensky who received notable performer honors. Mike was also involved in the penalty kill that shut down their opponent’s power play.

Going into this weeks contests against Nebraska the Wolverines lead the all time series with a 2-1-0 record. The last time these two teams played was in last years CCHA tournament when the #7 seed Mavericks upended the #1 seed Wolverines in the semi-finals. This weekend’s trip to Omaha marks the first time the Wolverines have traveled to Nebraska to play the Mavericks on their ice.

Michigan State retains their hold on first place in the CCHA with Michigan now just three points behind in second place (with two head to head games against the Spartans yet to be played). Western Michigan has slipped to third place with twenty-three points, a full five points behind Michigan. There is a very tight race in the middle of the conference as six teams are within five points of each other going into the final weeks of the season. Going into this weeks play it is Bowling Green and Notre Dame that appear to be out of the playoffs.

Michigan goes into this weekend without Jed Ortmeyer who appears to be done for the season after suffering an injury against Notre Dame last week. While the injury did not initially look to be serious, a more in depth examination has shown that he has a tear in ACL, the injury that appears to be Michigan’s injury of choice this year. While Ortmeyer did not travel with the team, he will be in Omaha this week as he seeks another opinion on his injury by a familiar physician.

Needless to say this weekend’s games against the Mavericks of Nebraska are very important to the Wolverines. They will need to win these games to keep pace with a Spartan team that has lost only one game in their last twenty-four tries. The Mavericks are playing for third place in the conference and are a tough team to beat on their home ice. It could be difficult for the Wolverines to re-focus on hockey after that very emotional win over the Spartans last weekend, but if they want to continue their pursuit of the CCHA regular season championship they had better get focused on these games and fast. Nebraska will come to play and they will be confident – the last time they played Michigan it was the Mavericks that were victorious, not the Wolverines. After this weekend the Wolverines have just seven more games to go, only three on home ice.