Saturday, March 17, 2001

Saturday, March 17, 2001, Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan

The CCHA tournament finals gets a classic match up tonight as two in state rivals face off with the CCHA’s only automatic bid to the NCAA tournament on the line. The Spartans have won 3 out of 4 contests against the Wolverines so far this year. Which team will win with more on the line than ever before?

The Wolverines were hurting even before the game got underway as freshman defenseman Andy Burnes was held out of the game, still feeling the ill effects of a big hit early in the Nebraska game on Friday night. To account for Burnes being out Brad Fraser was brought in while Bob Gassoff and Mark Kosick were scratched in favor of David Wyzgowski and J.J. Swistak.

The Wolverines started this game with a bang as they ran a planned play right off the face off that saw Andy Hilbert get in close with the puck, but the Spartans Miller was up to the task and stopped the shot. The Wolverines continued to carry the offensive play through the first half of this period, but it would be the Spartans who would draw first blood. The Spartans had taken a shot that Blackburn had stopped, but he failed to adequately cover the rebound and Joe Goodenow was in position to chip the puck into the Michigan net.

The teams would continue to battle up and down the ice for most of the remainder of this period, but it would once again be the Spartans who would get a goal. With less than twenty seconds remaining in the period Adam Hall let loose a slap shot that sailed through Blackburn’s five hole to give the Spartans a two goal lead. The first period came to an end with the Spartans holding a 2 to nothing lead. Michigan did out shoot the Spartans to end the period with a 10 to 7 advantage in shots on goal.

Michigan was called for a penalty right at the end of the first period so the Spartans started the second on the power play. While Michigan killed this penalty off they were called for a second penalty seconds after killing this one off putting the Spartans back on the power play. Again the Wolverines were able to kill off the power play, but this certainly wasn’t the recipe for Michigan getting back into this game.

While both teams would have a couple more power plays during this period neither team was able to score with the man advantage. To go along with their anemic power play the Wolverines offense seemed to disappear as the Spartans dominated the Wolverines out shooting them 12 to 3 in this period. The second period came to an end with Michigan State still holding the 2 to nothing lead. The Spartans also held the edge in shots on goal with a 19 to 13 count.

Michigan started the third period with 51 seconds of power play time, but as had been the case throughout this game they were unable to do anything with the man advantage. The remainder of the game saw the Spartans playing defensive hockey and Miller stopping the few shots that actually got through that defense. The Wolverines never really came close to scoring a goal in the final period. Michigan did pull Blackburn to get an extra attacker late in the game, but they were unable to get close to the Spartan goal. The game would come to an end with Michigan State winning by a score of 2 to nothing. The Spartans finished the game with a 26 to 19 advantage in shots on goal.

The Wolverines once again fall to the Spartans after another lackluster game. While they started out with some fire the early goals by Michigan State and their resulting defensive style of play seemed to take the desire out of the Wolverines. The first Spartan goal was a matter of Michigan State simply working harder for the puck down in front of the Michigan goal and the second was a shot that should have been stopped. While Michigan did loose Langfeld early in the first period when he re-injured his knee they simply did not play the kind of hockey they have to if they want to win championships. While there is little doubt that they will receive an NCAA bid, the length of time they spend in this years tournament will depend on them playing solid, aggressive hockey every single game. This is something that this team seems to have been incapable of doing for most of the year. They have good games, but they seem to be followed by bad games. Which Wolverine team shows up in the NCAA tournament is anybody’s guess.