Saturday, February 03, 2001

Saturday, February 03, 2001, Omaha Civic Auditorium, Omaha, Nebraska

The Wolverines started this game on fire as they peppered the Nebraska goal with several shots in the opening seconds of this game. It didn’t help the Mavericks when they were called for a penalty just nine seconds into the game. It would take Michigan just 56 seconds to score their first goal of the night and take the usually boisterous crowd out of the game. It would be Mike Cammalleri who would start the scoring for the Wolverines as he chipped in a rebound off a missed shot. The assists on this goal went to Hilbert and Jillson.

Michigan continued to pound the puck at the Nebraska goal and the Mavericks were very lucky not to give up a second (or third) goal over the course of the next few minutes. Michigan had, what appeared to be golden scoring chances that they just missed on. Both teams would trade penalties back and forth, but it would be the Wolverines who dominated play for the first half of this period. Then for a short time it was the Mavericks who seemed to be gaining the momentum as Michigan, perhaps a bit tired from their initial attack, got caught standing around in front of their net several times. Through all of this Blackburn would stand tall and turn away all of the Maverick scoring attempts.

As time was beginning to run out in the period the teams were skating four on four when Nebraska was called for another penalty putting Michigan on the power play. While on the power play a couple of great passes by Mink and Shouneyia would find their way to Mark Kosick who would bury the puck in the net for Michigan’s second power play goal of the first period.

Michigan would have to kill off another Nebraska power play following this goal, but the Wolverines would get another power play chance late in this period when Nebraska was called for too many men on the ice with just 38 seconds remaining in the period. Michigan turned up the heat once again and almost scored their third goal of the period when Josh Langfeld clanged the puck off a post. The Wolverines would be unable to get their third goal as the first period came to an end with Michigan leading by a score of two to nothing. Michigan held a slight edge in shots on goal at the end of the period with a 15 to 12 count.

By virtue of the late period penalty in the first Michigan started the second period on the power play, but the Mavericks were able to kill it off without suffering any damage. Not long into this period Cammalleri would be sent to the penalty box for roughing and this would lead to perhaps the best scoring chance the Mavericks had seen in the game so far. However, Blackburn came up with a fantastic save to end what looked to be a great scoring chance for Nebraska.

There was a long stretch in the middle of this period where nothing of any significance happened. The Wolverines took a few more penalties and were able to kill them off and it looked like the second period would end the way the first had, with Michigan leading by a score of two to nothing. However, things did start to heat up in the final five minutes of the period. The first great chance would belong to Michigan while they were on the penalty kill. Bill Trainor got clean on a breakaway and came in on the Nebraska goal, one on one. The Nebraska netminder would just turn away Trainor’s short-handed attempt to keep the Mavericks within two.

It would of course be another penalty, this time to Captain Geoff Koch with 2:14 left in the period, that would lead to the Mavericks first score of the night. It only took the Mavericks about 25 seconds to take advantage of this late power play chance as they got the puck past Blackburn top shelf to cut the Wolverine lead to one goal. The second period came to an end with Michigan still leading, but by a score of 2 to 1. Michigan continued to hold the edge in shots on goal with a 29 to 22 count.

Because of a couple of late period penalties both teams start the third period skating four on four. John Shouneyia missed what appeared to be a sure goal when the Nebraska netminder stuck his glove in the air and managed to snag the Shouneyia shot while lying on the ice. The penalties were killed off, but the Wolverines continued to apply pressure to the Nebraska goal. The Nebraska crowd was cheering their team on when they were once again silenced, this time by Mike Komisarek who came out from behind the net and punched a little backhand shot into the net to return the Wolverines to their two goal lead. Assists on this goal went to Bill Trainor and Scott Matzka.

That third goal really took the wind out of the Mavericks and their crowd and the remainder of the period was relatively straightforward. The teams of course continued to trade penalties, although they ended the night with about half as many penalty minutes as they took on Friday night. The final score of the game would come with just 36 seconds remaining when Bill Trainor would get an empty net goal to seal the victory for the Wolverines. This final goal was unassisted and the game came to an end with Michigan winning by a score of 4 to 1. The Wolverines ended the game with a 39 to 25 advantage in shots on goal.

Another mixed weekend for the Wolverines as they let two points get away from them that they probably should have picked up. The only good thing about not getting the two points was the gift Michigan State gave Michigan by also loosing on Friday night or the conference race would be all but over. Next week Michigan hosts Northern Michigan for a pair of games at Yost in Ann Arbor. Northern played Michigan very tough in their first two games of the season and of course it was Northern who beat Michigan State this weekend. These will be two tough, but critical games for the Wolverines if they want to continue playing for the conference championship.