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Friday, September 29, 2000
Friday, September 29, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Let me start by saying I’m sick of construction. Thanks to an unexpected construction delay I missed the majority of the first period of Friday nights Blue-White game. As it turns out most of the scoring in this game took place in that time. Even though I got into the arena late I can still provide you with the information on who scored what. I got into a seat with 5:20 left in the first period with the game tied at two apiece. Craig Murray, skating for the blue, got the scoring started in this contest. This was a power play goal with assists going to Huntzicker and Hilbert. The Blue team also got the second goal of the night when walk-on Geoff Kobayashi got the puck past the White team goalie, Josh Blackburn. Assists on this goal went to Murray and Huntzicker. Just seconds later the White team got the puck in the net when Mike Cammalleri got the puck past the blue team goalie Kevin O’Malley. The lone assist on this goal went to Mark Kosick. Just 2 ½ minutes later the White team evened the game up at two goals apiece when Brad Fraser got the puck past O’Malley. This was a power play goal with assists going to Jed Ortmeyer and Mark Kosick. Those four goals were scored in the first 7:51 of the period. As I said I got into my seat with about 5:20 left in the period and with 2:56 left in the first the Blue team regained the lead. During a rush up the ice the puck was dropped back to Hilbert who slammed it past Blackburn. Assists on this goal went to Matzka and walk-on Jeremy Motz. That was the last goal of the period and the first period was over with the Blue team leading the White 3 to 2. Shots on goal also favored the Blue team with an 11 to 7 count.
In the first minute of the second period the Blue team almost got a goal when Matzka got off a hard shot but it clanged off the post. After the miss action continued; with just under 16 minutes to go in the second Josh Langfeld went down on the ice in what looked to be quite a bit of pain. Didn’t see exactly what happened, but it looked like it hurt. The comparisons of Komisarek to Jillson are not very exaggerated. This kid really looks big on the ice and he was handing out some pretty good hits while out there. With just 1 ½ minutes left in the period the Blue team got their cushion goal when Mike Komisarek got a power play goal to extend their lead to two goals. Assists on this goal went to walk-on’s Geoff Kobayashi and Michael Gougherty. This was the final score of the period and the Blue team finished the second period holding a 4 to 2 lead. The Blue team also retained their lead in shots on goal with a 17 to 16 count.
It was announced at the start of the third period that this period would be played with a running clock. This period was just a lot of skating and working. There were no goals scored in this period and there were no penalties given out during this period. The game finished with the Blue team winning by a score of 4 to 2. The Blue team also finished the night with the slight edge in shots on goal with a 23 to 22 count.
All in all it wasn’t a bad scrimmage. No one appears to have suffered any serious injuries; Langfeld was hit by a slapshot and was ok. The team got to get a little done in a game like setting and they certainly looked rusty, but that’s not unexpected since they have only had one week of official practice. All three goalies got to play two periods, with O’Malley starting the game in goal for the Blue (to get the win) and finishing the game in goal for the White. Blackburn got the loss while Scarpace had no win/loss impact. I will say that while Scarpace got neither the win or the loss he did look pretty sharp in goal. In fact once that early game scoring fest was over the goal tending was quite good. Several of the walk-ons got some points and good ice time. There is only one, maybe two, spots for the walk-ons to fill. I expect it’s quite nerve racking playing for a spot on the team, knowing there are very few spots to be had, but several of them had good nights. All in all this wasn’t a bad way to start the exhibition season. We wrap that exhibition season up on Saturday night when Wilfrid Laurier comes to town. Until then, C-ya.
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