Saturday, October 7, 2000

Saturday, October 7, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Ice Breaker Tournament, Day two, Game 1, #1 North Dakota vs. #2 Michigan

It was the game everyone wanted to see, just not at the time everyone expected to see it as Michigan and North Dakota tangled in the consolation game of the Ice Breaker tournament. North Dakota started a different goalie in this game than in their first game Friday night (Kollar). It appears they want to get both of their goalies some playing time. The first penalty of the game was called just 40 seconds in and little did we know at the time what an omen it would be. North Dakota went to the box early giving Michigan a real early power play chance. With just 40 seconds of this power play gone North Dakota picked up their second penalty of the game giving Michigan a two-man advantage for 1:18. At this time everyone was thinking this is it – a perfect opportunity to get the early lead. While the people in the stands were saying that the team wasn’t listening as this golden opportunity got away from them. Michigan picked up their first of many penalties with about four minutes gone in the first period and they were able to kill the penalty. North Dakota picked up another penalty with about 13:25 left in the period. Both of these penalties were killed off by the respective teams, however, shortly after the Michigan power play ended Michigan drew first blood. After some great puck work in the North Dakota zone Geoff Koch put the Wolverines on the board to take the lead midway through the first period. Assists on the goal went to Mark Mink and John Shouneyia. A minute or so after the Michigan score Michigan picked up a penalty putting North Dakota back on the power play. This time the Fighting Sioux made the power play work as they notched their first goal of the game to tie things up. This goal came with only 18 seconds left in the power play, but they did score it. With just over six minutes left in the period North Dakota picked up another penalty putting Michigan back on the power play. During this power play Michigan just missed a couple of huge shots. While the Wolverines were working the puck around the North Dakota zone to set those shots up North Dakota picked up a second penalty. This was being called as a delay penalty and you could tell North Dakota did not want to touch the puck. The Sioux skaters did everything they could to keep away from the puck to reduce the length of time that Michigan would have the two-man advantage on the power play. They finally had to touch the puck and Michigan found itself with a two-man power play advantage for the second time in this period. This time with 3:32 left in the period and 29 seconds remaining on the first North Dakota penalty Michigan picked up their first power play goal of the season to regain the lead. Jeff Jillson scored the goal with assists going to Mike Cammalleri and Andy Hilbert. Now it was Michigan’s turn to give North Dakota a helping hand. With just over two minutes remaining in the period Michigan picked up another penalty to put North Dakota on the power play for almost the rest of the period. To make matters worse about one minute into this power play Michigan picked up their second penalty to give North Dakota a two-man advantage. It looked like Michigan was going to escape the period without suffering any damage when North Dakota struck with just 2.1 seconds remaining on the clock. This was a power play goal that drew North Dakota back to even with the Wolverines with each team laying claim to two goals. Michigan had really been buzzing in this period as they held a fairly large edge in shots on goal with an 18 to 11 count.

Both teams continued to skate wide open as the second period got under way and while it took a little bit longer than the first period the parade of players to the penalty box continued. Just 3:19 into the second period North Dakota picked up their first penalty of the period to put Michigan on the power play. Michigan worked the puck around the Sioux zone real good just missing a couple of perfect scoring chances. About 40 seconds into the power play Mark Kosick finally hit a shot to move Michigan back in the lead. The assists on this power play goal went to Cammalleri and Hilbert. This is where things really started to get ugly for the Wolverines. About five minutes into the period Michigan picked up another penalty, but they were able to kill it off. About midway through the period Michigan (actually J.J. Swistak) picked up their second consecutive penalty. Michigan had been buzzing the North Dakota goal quite heavily when Kollar appeared to move outside the crease where he ended up getting leveled. He hit the ice and stayed down for a minute or two, then got back up, shook it off, and went back between the posts. Like I said while it appeared he went out of the crease, making him fair game, Swistak was called for interference putting North Dakota back on the power play. With 1:16 left in this Michigan penalty the Wolverines picked up yet another penalty to give North Dakota a fairly long two-man power play advantage. This time Michigan was unable to kill the penalties off without taking on any damage as North Dakota scored on the power play to draw the game back to even at three goals apiece. This goal came while the first penalty was still being killed leaving North Dakota about 1:04 of power play time. Just 29 seconds later North Dakota scored the fourth power play goal of the night to move back into the lead. While this ended the current penalties Jillson was called for a penalty on or after the North Dakota goal to put North Dakota right back on the power play. This time Michigan was able to kill of the penalty and both teams traded some penalties as the period wound down. The period ended with the teams skating 4 on 4 and North Dakota holding a four to three lead. Michigan still held a large edge in shots on goal with a 34 to 24 count.

The third period started with both teams still skating 4 on 4 and the penalty train kept right on chugging. Just 39 seconds into the period Michigan picked up another penalty to give the Sioux a 4 on 3 skating advantage for about 51 seconds. Less than a minute later Michigan picked up another penalty. About 45 seconds after this Michigan picked up another penalty. The bottom line of all these penalties was a stretch of time where North Dakota was on the power play for about the first five minutes of the final period, sometimes with a one man and sometimes with a two-man advantage. After a couple minutes of penalty free play Michigan was whistled for yet another penalty putting North Dakota back on the power play. This time Michigan was unable to dodge the bullet and with just under ten minutes gone in the period North Dakota picked up their fifth power play goal of the night to take a two goal lead. Exactly three minutes later Michigan got back to within one shot when John Shouneyia got the puck past Kollar and there were still seven minutes to go in regulation time. Assists on this goal went to Scott Matzka and Mark Mink. The teams trade some penalties over the next few minutes including an absolutely ridiculous call against Dave Huntzicker for diving (a 10 minute misconduct penalty). With about five minutes to go in the period North Dakota picked up a penalty to put Michigan on the power play looking for that tying goal. About a minute into this power play North Dakota picked up picked up another penalty to give Michigan the two-man advantage. The long and short of it is that Michigan’s Mike Cammalleri scored the tying goal while on the power play with the lone assist going to Andy Hilbert. With just 3 ½ minutes to go in the contest it was all tied up at five goals apiece, but the action was not over yet. Michigan was still on the power play when matching penalties were called with 2:42 remaining in the period. These were coincidental penalties leaving the teams skating five on four. Roemensky just missed a shot that would have given Michigan the lead, but it was not to be. We are now one second away from both teams being at full strength and when they both reach full strength there will be 2:01 left in the game. Just as penalties were expiring Michigan again just missed on a great scoring chance. They didn’t take care of the puck very well though and North Dakota got a rush on the Michigan net. Blackburn came up with an outstanding save to keep the game tied. With just 1:37 left in the game Michigan was called for another penalty and with 39.8 seconds left Michigan picked up their second penalty to give North Dakota a two man advantage for the final 40 seconds of the game. While North Dakota looked for the winning shot Michigan was able to hold the Sioux at bay and the game ended with the score tied at five goals apiece. Michigan continued to hold their edge in shots on goal with a 44 to 35 count.

We moved to a five-minute sudden victory overtime period with the Michigan penalties and North Dakota power play carrying over into the overtime period. Michigan was able to kill off these penalties without suffering any damage. Both teams were called for matching penalties with 2:30 left in the overtime period and for the remainder of the overtime period both teams skated with four men on the ice. The overtime period came to an end with neither team being able to score the winning goal. Michigan ended the game with an even larger edge in shots on goal with a 49 to 36 count.

Like the previous nights games there was to be a shoot out to decide a winner, but both coaches agreed to skip the shootout and get out of the contest with a tie. This made sense as neither team fared very well in Friday’s shootout and certainly after a game like this one it would have been patently unfair to decide the outcome by way of a shootout.

I thought Michigan played a much better game Saturday night than they did Friday night. While I thought they skated well they obviously still have plenty to work on. They took to many penalties, although if referee Mark Wilkins never officiates another Michigan game in my lifetime it will be too soon. While some penalties were warranted, Wilkins seemed to think he was officiating a game in a no check league. A lot of the penalties called in this game were ridiculous and should never be called. If this is the best the CCHA has been able to come up with to fill referee openings this is going to be a long season. On another note Michigan finally got a little bit of life into their power play as they connected on 3 of 9 to move their season totals to 4 out of 21 changes for a 19% conversion rate. Better than their performance on Friday night, but they still need to work on their power play. They have more work to do on their penalty kill as all five of North Dakotas goals came while on the power play. Michigan ended the weekend killing just 70% of their opponent’s power play chances. This obviously has to get better. When skating five on five Michigan looked real good; their special teams play needs work. It was difficult to make any other observations because neither team was able to really get into the flow of things with all of the penalties called in this game. North Dakota was called for 12 penalties (23 minutes) while Michigan picked up 18 penalties (44 minutes). Not exactly the way you want to play the game.

I think Michigan got what they wanted out of the weekend. They have an idea of where they stand against the other top teams in the country and they know where they need work. Michigan travels to Alaska on Wednesday (10/11/2000) to prepare for the Johnson Nissan Classic in Anchorage next weekend.

Ice Breaker Tournament, Day two, Game 2, #9 New Hampshire vs. #16 Colgate

I did not stay for this game, maybe I should have, but I just didn’t. I have included a copy of an article from the Michigan hockey site to provide you an outline of this game.

The New Hampshire ice hockey team captured the championship of the 2000 Ice Breaker Cup, presented by Ameritech/SBC, at Yost Ice Arena Saturday night (Oct. 7) by defeating Colgate University 7-3. Colgate took the early lead before New Hampshire erupted for seven unanswered goals.

After the Wildcats battled back to tie the game at 2-2 in the second period, Lanny Gare started a string of five goals in the final period with the most interesting score of the weekend. As he was battling for the puck behind the Colgate net, the puck flipped over the top of the net, hit Red Raider goalie Jason Lefevre in the back of the head and rolled down his back into the net.

New Hampshire (1-0-1) scored again just over two minutes later on a two-on-one break when Darren Haydar passed around Colgate defender Steve Silversides to Gare, who beat Lefevre to put the Wildcats ahead 4-2. After Colin Hemingway gave New Hampshire a 5-2 lead, Lefevre was replaced in goal by David Cann. New Hamphire's David Busch scored twice after the goaltender change to push the Wildcat lead to 7-2. Colgate's Chad MacDonald added a late power-play goal to round out the score at 7-3.

Colgate (0-1-1) opened the scoring 12:01 into the first period on Scooter Smith's short-handed goal. With Tucker Veenis serving a cross-checking penalty, Smith skated into the Wildcat zone and fired a shot past New Hampshire goaltender Ty Conklin to give Colgate a 1-0 lead.

The Red Raiders increased their lead to 2-0 midway through the second period when Paul Kelly deflected Cory Murphy's shot from the right point past Conklin. New Hampshire cut the Red Raider lead to 2-1 on Haydar's power-play goal. With Matt Nicholson serving a two-minute holding penalty, Haydar deflected a shot from Garrett Stafford past Lefevre for his second goal of the season.

Colgate goalie Lefevre finished with 28 saves before being pulled in favor Cann, while New Hampshire's Conklin stopped 15 Red Raider shots before being relieved by Michael Ayers with 8:10 left in the game. Haydar earned game MVP honors for New Hampshire, while Smith was named MVP for the Colgate.