Friday, October 6, 2000

Friday, October 6, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ice Breaker Tournament, Day one, Game 1, #1 North Dakota vs. #9 New Hampshire

First, I have to correct an error I had in my pre-tournament write up. I was under the impression that North Dakota had graduated the goaltender that saw them through last year’s national championship – I was wrong.   They have both their then junior now senior goaltender Karl Goehring as well as last years backup Andy Kollar.   In other words North Dakota did not come to Ann Arbor this weekend with a new goalie, but with two very experienced and good goaltenders.

This game started out fast and stayed fast throughout the contest; for this early in the season it was really quite amazing that both teams were able to maintain the pace they did.   North Dakota was able to draw first blood in this contest and the goal was not pretty. In fact, the goal scored was very much a fluke.   Defenseman David Hale was moving the puck up ice and went to bounce a pass off the boards. The puck did hit the boards and New Hampshire goalie Ty Conklin went behind the net to make the play. The only problem is that the puck took a strange bounce off those boards and went into a very open and unguarded net. This goal was unassisted.   However, if you take that goal out of the equation there was some very good goaltending in this period with both goaltenders making some good saves. The period ended with North Dakota holding a one to nothing lead and fairly good edge in shots on goal with a twelve to five count.

New Hampshire started the second period on the power play (about 1:07 of power play time). Even with the man advantage to start the period New Hampshire was unable to score. With the power play just ended New Hampshire missed what would have been the tying goal.   Off the miss the Wildcats got the puck back with the North Dakota goalie out of the net.   A Wildcat player passed the puck back through the crease, but there was nobody there to take advantage of this chance either.  The overall play in this period continued it’s relentless pace when North Dakota extended their lead.   While on the power play (only about three seconds left actually) the fighting Sioux out played the New Hampshire goalie to notch their second goal of the night. This was a real nice goal as the North Dakota players sharply passed the puck down the ice, drew the Wildcat goalie out, and then slid the puck into the open net.   The goal went to Bryan Lundbohm with assists going to Jeff Panzer and Travis Roche.   With time beginning to run down in the period New Hampshire finally got on the board when Jeff Yurecko got the puck in the net.   Assists went to Tyler Palmiscno and I believe Wes Dorey. Believe it or not the pace in this period picked up as time ran down. This period did end with North Dakota keeping their one goal lead with a score of two to one. They also increased their edge in shots on goal with a 28 to 10 count.

The up and down action continued in the final period with New Hampshire looking to get even and North Dakota looking to put the Wildcats away. It took them almost nine minutes, but the Wildcats finally drew even with North Dakota while the teams were skating four on four. New Hampshire had missed on several close calls leading up to this point and they were finally able to connect. The action continued through the period, but as the period went on it appeared to me that New Hampshire started to get the better of North Dakota.   They seemed to be picking up their pace and intensity as the game progressed. Even with the increased intensity nobody was able to score a goal.   With just 1:58 left in regulation time matching penalties were handed out and the game ended with both teams on the power play.   The game ended with the score tied at two goals apiece. New Hampshire got closer, but North Dakota still held a decent edge in shots on goal with a 35 to 24 count.

A five-minute overtime ensued to see if a winner could be determined. New Hampshire’s intensity continued into the overtime period as they really buzzed the North Dakota goal all during the overtime period. While they got close the Wildcats were unable to score a goal and neither was North Dakota. After the five-minute overtime period expired the game was still tied at two goals apiece.   The shots on goal still favored North Dakota with a 36 to 27 count, but New Hampshire did draw closer during the overtime period.

Since this was a tournament setting a winner had to be found so a five-man shootout was held. Both teams got five shots at the opposing goalie, but neither team was able to get the game winner. After the first five men the format changed to rounds of sudden victory shootout.   In the seventh round New Hampshire finally got a shot past the North Dakota goalie.   Junior defenseman Chad Mazurak came down the ice, deked the Sioux netminder, and punched the puck into the net.   This was a fantastic goal from an unlikely source and suddenly the pressure was on the Wildcat goalie and the North Dakota shooter.   Conklin stood tall in goal one last time, stopping the North Dakota shot, insuring New Hampshire’s appearance in the Ice Breaker championship game on Saturday.

While the results were somewhat unexpected this was an excellent game in what was the season opener for both of these teams.   Two strong contenders for this years national championship, both led by senior captain goaltenders, went at it tooth and nail in this game. For those that came to the game, congratulations and wasn’t that something.   For those that didn’t you missed a good one.

Ice Breaker Tournament, Day one, Game 2, #2 Michigan vs. #16 Colgate

In what turned out to be a vision of how Michigan’s game was to go Andy Hilbert got off a huge shot that clanged off the goalpost just 25 seconds into this game. This shot was coming so hard that the goalie didn’t even react to it until after it hit the post. With 17:27 to go in the first period Michigan picked up their first penalty of the night.   With about half of the power play over Colgate scored their first goal of the night to take an early one to nothing lead. Shortly after the Colgate goal Michigan got their first chance of the night on the power play, but they were unable to convert. Like the first game of the night both of these teams were setting a pretty good pace on the ice. This game wasn’t quite as fast, since Colgate didn’t want an all out skate-a-thon (Michigan is a faster all around team). With just over thirteen minutes left in the period Michigan picked up their second penalty of the contest. While this isn’t much to talk about it is worth mentioning that Hilbert just missed picking up a short-handed goal for Michigan while Colgate was on this power play.   It took until midway through the period, but Michigan finally cracked the Colgate goaltender.  UM had taken a shot and the goaltender had stopped it, but he did not hold the puck. As it rebounded out in front of the net Josh Langfeld was right there waiting for it and he punched it into the goal. Assists on the goal went to Andy Burnes (his first point as a Wolverine) and Scott Matzka.   Not long after getting the tying goal Michigan put Colgate back on the power play and the Red Raiders once again connected to regain the lead with seven minutes left in the period.   Both teams got another power play chance during this period, but there was no more scoring.   The first period came to an end with Colgate leading Michigan by a score of 2 to 1. Michigan had the edge in shots on goal with a 12 to 6 count.

Michigan started the second period with about thirty seconds of power play time, but they were unable to do anything with it.   Shortly after this power play time expired Colgate put Michigan back on the power play and the Wolverines really needed to get a goal to get back in the swing of things.   The power play expired without any score.   Michigan is passing the puck fairly well looking for the good shot, but maybe they need to start taking a few marginal shots.   You cannot score unless you’re pushing the puck at the net and Michigan seems to be doing everything on the power play except shooting the puck. With just under sixteen minutes left in the period Michigan picked up a real dumb penalty to put Colgate back on the power play.   With thirty-two seconds left in this power play Michigan picked up a second penalty to give Colgate a two-man advantage for about thirty seconds. Michigan had killed off the two-man advantage and was working on killing off the remaining penalty when Colgate picked up a penalty putting the teams at even strength at four apiece. Michigan ended up with about one minute of power play time after this exchange of penalties, but was again unable to convert on the power play.   This started a stretch of time where Colgate picked up penalties just as prior penalties were seconds from expiring.   Michigan was on the power play for four or five straight minutes, but could not convert. With just over eight minutes left in the period there was a big snarl of players behind the Colgate net that sent players from both teams into the penalty box.   All of this power play time was skated off without either team notching a goal.   Colgate gave Michigan one final shot at the power play with just 2:07 left in the period (this was Michigan’s eighth power play of the game).   Michigan was finally able to convert on this power play. Mike Cammalleri let loose a shot from the blue line that sailed over the net, however, it bounced off the boards out in front of the net where once again Josh Langfeld was waiting.   Langfeld punched the puck past the Red Raider net minder to tie the game for the Wolverines.   Assists went to Cammalleri and Jillson.   The second period ended with the score all knotted at two goals apiece. Michigan maintained their edge in shots on goal with a 22 to 13 count.

With 16:20 remaining in the third period it looked like Michigan was finally going to take the lead when Mark Kosick had a shot at a wide open net, but Mark was unable to get the puck up in the air and the opportunity was missed. Over the course of the next six or seven minutes Michigan picked up a penalty and Colgate picked up two penalties. During this time Langfeld just missed putting Michigan in the lead and picking up his hat trick and Josh Blackburn made an outstanding save to keep Colgate from picking up a short handed goal. There were of course some scoring opportunities for both teams and the intensity seemed to pick up as time began to run down, however, the period came to an end with the score still tied at two goals apiece.   The Red Raiders out shot the Wolverines in this final period, but Michigan maintained its edge in shots on goal with a 28 to 21 count.

Like the first game of the tournament a five-minute sudden victory overtime period was held to try and get a winner.   Just 37 seconds into the overtime period Colgate picked up a penalty to put Michigan on the power play.   Even with the man advantage Michigan was unable to pick up a goal to secure the win.   Michigan got one more power play chance when Colgate was called for too many men on the ice about midway through the overtime period.   Again Michigan was unable to take advantage of the man advantage. The overtime period came to an end with the score still tied up at two goals apiece.   Michigan did outshoot the Red Raiders 4 to none to extend their advantage in shots on goal to 32 to 21.

Again, as with the first game, a winner had to be declared to determine who advanced to the championship game so a five-man shootout was held. Suffice it to say that Michigan did not fare well in the shootout. The first two Red Raider shooters ate Blackburn alive and scored while the first four Michigan shooters never came close to scoring a goal.   The end result was that Colgate advanced to the championship game against the New Hampshire Wildcats while Michigan advanced to the consolation game against North Dakota.

This was a very strange game for Michigan.   They go one for twelve on the power play for a whopping 8% conversion rate (this was after going zero for fifteen in the exhibition game against Wilfrid Laurier).   While Michigan got more shots they ran into a goalie that just seemed to get in the way of everything – even when he was clearly out of position.   Hats off to the Red Raiders who came into Yost and played probably about as good a game against Michigan as you can.   To compliment their goaltending their defense stopped a whole bunch of shots before they even made it to the net (probably twenty or more). If these shots had gone in or Michigan had connected on some golden opportunities the outcome would probably have been different.   As it is we get our rematch with North Dakota, but not in the game we expected to play in. Michigan is having some trouble right now finding the net and their power play is non-existent. While the boys in maize and blue didn’t look that bad they clearly have plenty to work on.   We’ll find out if they get the scoring on track tomorrow when Michigan takes on North Dakota in the consolation game at 5:00 PM.

A side note about these two tie games that were decided by shoot out. As far as the NCAA record goes these games count as ties, not wins or losses. The tiebreaker was held simply to determine which team would advance to which game on Saturday. fter the first day of play all four teams have identical records of 0-0-1.