Friday, February 9, 2001

Friday, February 9, 2001, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Both Bob Gassoff and Brad Fraser were scratches in tonight’s contest, this does indicate that the team is finally starting to get their best defensemen healthy as the Wolverines begin their tournament run.

The Wolverines started this game applying great pressure on the Wildcats, both offensively and defensively. The first five or six shots in the game belonged to Michigan. While Michigan had several chances to score early in this game the Northern goalie came up with some outstanding saves to keep the Wolverines off the board. That would all change with 14:59 left in the first period. Waiting for a delay penalty call against Northern, Mark Mink took the puck behind the Northern goal, came out toward the left face off circle, spun, and let a shot go that beat the netminder to give Michigan the lead. Assists on this goal went to Shouneyia and Langfeld.

While Michigan held the lead they wouldn’t hold it for long. It appeared that Northern had scored the tying goal about one minute later, however, the referee waved the goal off saying the Northern player was inside the crease. The Wildcats really took exception to this and you could tell by their play following the waved off goal that this call really gave them an emotional boost. Northern got the game tied with 12:57 left in the period, less than one minute after their first goal was waved off.

A couple of minutes after the Wildcats tied the game they took the games first penalty of the night to put Michigan on the power play. While the Wolverines looked pretty good at the beginning of this power play, by its end they were quite sloppy, unable to mount any pressure on the Wildcat goal.

Play would continue up and down the ice for a large part of the rest of the period until there were just under five minutes left in the period. The Wolverines won a face off to the right of the Northern goal, got the puck back to Andy Hilbert, who took the shot and scored. The lone assist on this goal went to Mike Cammalleri. That would end the scoring for the first period as time ran out with Michigan leading by a score of 2 to 1. The Wolverines also held a slight edge in shots on goal with a 13 to 8 count.

Northern took a penalty late in the first period allowing the Wolverines to start the second period on the power play. Much like earlier power plays this one proved to be ineffective and Michigan was unable to score. With seven minutes gone in the period Michigan would again find itself on the power play and this time the Wolverines were able to take advantage of the opportunity. With some great passing the Wolverines got the puck to a Mark Kosick, waiting on the backside of the goal, and Kosick buried the puck to extend the Michigan lead to 3 to 1. The assists on this goal went to Shouneyia and Mink.

Both teams would skate up and down the ice for the remainder of the period, with Michigan taking a couple of penalties giving Northern their first power play chances of the night. All of that up and down skating would result in no more goals as the second period came to an end with Michigan leading by a score of 3 to 1. Michigan maintained their lead in shots on goal with a 20 to 15 count.

The third period would prove to be essentially uneventful. Michigan would be the recipient of two 5 on 3 man advantages (both for fairly extended periods of time), but they would be unable to take advantage of either one. There were no more goals scored in this period and the game came to an end with Michigan winning by a score of 3 to 1. The edge in shots on goal stayed constant during this period and Michigan ended the game with a 31 to 26 shot advantage.

The first night of the weekend was a solid night of hockey for the Wolverines. They will need to play equally well on Saturday night if they want to sweep the weekend and keep pace with the Spartans. If they should slip on Saturday night, the conference race could well be over.

Week in Review

The Wolverines start the weekend with a clear mission – to win two games. If they want to stay in the hunt for the CCHA regular season championship that’s what they must do.

Other CCHA teams receiving points in the USCHO poll were Miami (31), Nebraska-Omaha (17), Ohio State (12), and Northern Michigan (7), while in the USA Today/American Hockey Magazine poll they were Miami (16), Nebraska-Omaha (15), Northern Michigan (8), and Ohio State (6).

Michigan State continues to hold down the top position in the Pairwise rankings while the Wolverines are setting at number five. The Bronco’s of Western Michigan have fallen to number fifteen in the Pairwise which would seem to leave them out of the tournament if that were to hold true through the remainder of the field.

Three teams in the CCHA have clinched playoff spots; they are Michigan, Michigan State, and Miami. While Michigan could have tightened the race for first with a sweep over Nebraska, they remain within striking distance of the Spartans. Ohio State and Nebraska are in a battle for the final two home ice spots in this years CCHA tournament and the remainder of the field is just as tight as a loss for anyone could cause shifts in playoff pairings. No Wolverines earned player of the week or notable performer mention last week.

The win last Saturday over the Mavericks was the 20^th for the Wolverines this year. That marks the fourteenth year in a row that Michigan has twenty or more wins. That win was also the Wolverines first win ever at the Omaha Civic Auditorium.

The Wolverines finished last weekend with mixed results as they lost to the Mavericks on Friday night, but came back to win on Saturday night. While the Mavericks are a good team it was disappointing to see the Wolverines get beat in the fashion they did on Friday night as they were simply out hustled the entire night. Saturday, playing with more aggression and setting the tone of the game themselves they prevailed. Some of the difference on Saturday may have been because of some line shuffling done by the coaches between Friday and Saturday. Mark Kosick, after being a healthy scratch just a few weeks ago was moved to the number one line with Mike Cammalleri and Andy Hilbert. Captain Geoff Koch moved to the Matzka line with J.J. Swistak, while Josh Langfeld moved to the line of Mark Mink and John Shouneyia. Whether it was the line shuffling or the loss the previous night something inspired the Wolverines on Saturday.

Sophomore Jed Ortmeyer was in Nebraska last week to get a second opinion on his knee and at this time it looks like he will go ahead with surgery. Surgery would of course end the season for Ortmeyer, but playing on the knee in its current condition could be worse. Perhaps the most significant loss to the Wolverines will be Ortmeyer’s emotional play. It is often Ortmeyer who will make a big hit when the team needs it most to fire everyone up.

This Friday’s game against Northern Michigan will be Coach Berenson’s 700^th career game from behind the Michigan bench. Since taking over the helm for Michigan in 1984 Berenson has accumulated a 441-214-44 record. Northern Michigan has certainly caused plenty of trouble for the Wolverines in the recent past. Three of the last four games between these two teams have ended in ties. This will be the first two-game series between these two schools in Ann Arbor since 1984 and it will be the first time Northern has been to Ann Arbor since 1998. Earlier in they ear Northern managed to take a point from the Wolverines as they played Michigan to a 2-2 tie on a Saturday night.

With just seven games remaining in the regular season Michigan’s task seems clear cut – they need to sweep this weekends series. To accomplish this the Wolverines have to play two solid nights of hockey, they no longer have room for the on again, off again play that has plagued this team for a large part of the season. Northern is trying to get home ice for the first round of the CCHA playoffs so winning these games won’t be easy for Michigan (especially when viewed in light of the recent difficulties Northern has given Michigan). Can the Wolverines keep pace with the Spartans in their quest to repeat as regular season CCHA champions? That is the question that each Michigan player and fan will have answered by the end of the weekend.