Saturday, November 4, 2000

Saturday, November 4, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

While Michigan did not get any player of the week honors two Wolverines did get tabbed as notable performers. Josh Blackburn received the notable performer honor for allowing only three goals in five periods of play against Miami while Andy Hilbert was noted for his six-point weekend (1 goal and 2 assists each night). This point explosion by Hilbert also moved him into the point lead on the Wolverine squad.

While we play just one game this weekend it’s another important one. I think it’s safe to say that MSU will end the year well above .500 and probably in the top ten nationally. Wins over teams like this are extremely important late in the year when the power rankings come out. This is also a cluster game and it is the only time the Spartans will come to Yost this season. As I’ve said numerous times already in this short season, and will continue to say all year, it is very important that Michigan win their home games. It’s going to be tough enough out on the road without having problems winning when at home. This is also an opportunity for Michigan to get a little distance, small though it might be, between themselves and Michigan State in the conference standings. The way Western is playing right now it’s also important that we not give any ground to the Bronco’s. Since the Bronco’s are not in our cluster this year we play them only twice and we hold a slim one point lead over those Bronco’s going into this weekend’s action. While the Bronco’s can’t gain any ground this weekend they will have a game in hand on the Wolverines after the weekend. It’s important that we keep collecting points and not open the door, even a crack, for the Bronco’s. Think of this scenario, Western continues to play this good all year while Michigan stumbles at some point along the way. The Bronco’s win the regular season championship by a point and then Nebraska-Omaha wins the CCHA tournament. While I don’t believe this scenario will play out, when you look at things at this early point in the season it’s not that far out of the realm of possibility. With the way that the NCAA tournament bids are going to be handed out this year the CCHA may get only two teams in the tournament. If this scenario were to play out and the CCHA only gets two teams it could come to pass that neither the Wolverines or Spartans make it to the NCAA tournament. It’s a strange thing to contemplate, especially as a Wolverine fan because I think this team is extremely good, but I go through this what if example for a reason. As I stated last week I believe this stretch of games, from last weekend up to Thanksgiving, is critical for Michigan. In this period of time they play six of seven games at home and in my opinion they must win all of these games. These points could prove to be more important at the end of the season than we might realize right now. In short, there are no, I repeat NO, easy games in the CCHA this year. The team must realize that, they must play like that, and they must win their home games.

It’s going to be a heck of a game this weekend and I think it will be close (I’m personally thinking a 2-1 Michigan win). It’s looking more and more like Josh Blackburn will play in this weekend’s contest. He seems to be recovering well from that slight shoulder injury that he suffered last weekend. I have not heard yet whether Captain Geoff Koch will return to the line up or not. Michigan State is having some problems scoring goals and they continue to depend on their defense to win games. This should come as no surprise as this really has been the strength of their team for several years now. I don’t necessarily like the Spartan style of play as they tend to trap, clutch, and grab to slow the pace of the game down and I expect they will attempt to play that way this weekend. It wins them games, but it can lead to some nerve-racking games, as the scores tend to be low and close. Michigan will of course look to utilize their speed to beat the Spartan trap. The balance of the Wolverines across all four lines should also help. Michigan State can’t just stop one or maybe two lines and shut Michigan down. All four lines are capable of scoring and all four lines have scored this year. With that said it could be special teams that win this game. The power play has started to come around for Michigan and the penalty kill has improved. Michigan needs to continue to improve on special teams and do all they can to play their game. Michigan is probably the faster of the two teams and that speed may just be the biggest factor of all in this game. It can help them break the trap and it can wear the opposition down as the game goes on. Well I think that’s about it for my weekly look at the past week and a preview of this weekend – game information to come after we play.

One final note – it’s a Maize Out at Yost this weekend for the game against the Spartans – wear your Maize to the game. Until Saturday, C-ya!

The anticipation was over and it was time to play some hockey as the Wolverines and Spartans took to the ice in Yost on Saturday evening. This game started out pretty much the way you would have expected; Michigan trying to skate and Michigan State playing their clutch and grab trap at center ice. Needless to say the shots were a little slow in coming, but they finally did come. There was still 16:36 left in the first period when Michigan picked up the first penalty of the game to give the Spartans the first power play chance of the game. There had been no score on this power play when, with 1:03 left in the penalty, a pair of coincidental minors were handed out leaving MSU on the power play. All of these penalties were killed off with no damage and the score remained tied at zero. With 13:16 left in the period the Spartans picked up a penalty to give Michigan their first power play chance of the night, but this too would end with no scores. After this power play was over the teams continued to battle back and forth, one looking for a mistake by the other. With 6:01 left in the period MSU got hit with another penalty to put the Wolverines back on the power play. This power play was almost over (4 seconds left) when Michigan was hit with a penalty. The teams skated four on four for four seconds (how do you like all those four’s?) and then MSU went to the power play (this penalty proved to be the fatal one). Michigan had killed off half the MSU power play when the Spartans managed to get a shot past Blackburn to take the lead. Blackburn was somewhat screened and the puck just floated in over this left shoulder. This was vintage MSU; they are getting outplayed, they continue to delay, and then one little mistake and they are right their to take advantage. With 1:12 left in the period MSU picks up another penalty and Michigan gets the late period power play, looking to get back to even with the Spartans. There were just 19.9 seconds left in the period when Michigan was called for a penalty, ending their power play, and setting MSU up to start the second period on the power play. This was a strange one; the only Michigan player in the vicinity where the official was looking when the penalty was called was Cammalleri, but they put Jillson into the sin bin. Jillson was no where near the place where the penalty was called – I hadn’t been tracking him at that point, but he might have been going into the bench at the time the penalty was called. The first period came to an end with MSU holding the 1 to nothing lead while Michigan had a solid lead in shots on goal with a 12 to 4 count.

Michigan State started the second on the power play, but this didn’t last long as the Spartans picked up an early period penalty to end their power play. The teams skated four on four for forty-eight seconds and then Michigan got a fifty-three second power play. With 18:52 left in the period Michigan got called for a penalty ending their power play and putting MSU back on the power play. The end result of all of these early second period penalties was no goals – all killed off. With 14:46 left in the period a pair of penalties were handed out when the teams mixed it up to the left of Blackburn. Then with 13:14 left in the period Matzka pulled one of the stupidest moves I’ve seen in a while as he took a swing (small swing though it might have been) at the head of a Spartan. This was right out in the middle of the ice for the entire crowd and all three officials to see. This put MSU on the power play, skating four on three, then they moved to a five on four power play. We did kill off all of these penalties, but that was such a stupid thing to have done I still can’t believe he did it. You expect more, no you demand more, from your team captains. With just under ten minutes to go in the period everyone in the stands thought Michigan was going to get a power play chance when Shouneyia got absolutely mugged trying to take a shot, but there was no call. About thirty seconds after that MSU did get called for a penalty and Michigan was back on the power play really needing to convert on one of these power play chances. Alas yet another power play expired with the Wolverines failing to convert. The battle continued until there was 5:28 left in the period when Andy Hilbert got called for a penalty. This, like the Matzka penalty, simply did not have to happen. Play was stopped and Hilbert gave a Spartan a little shove down by the Michigan net. It wasn’t much of a shove, but it was right out in the open and the Wolverines were again in the sin bin giving the Spartans yet another power play opportunity. Michigan was able to kill this one off and the second period came to an end with the Spartans clinging to their one to nothing lead. Michigan extended their lead in shots on goal as they ended the period with a 26 to 11 advantage.

Well there really isn’t much to say about the third period. MSU was playing with the lead and ran their trap to perfection. With 12:44 to go in the period there were a pair of matching penalties handed out and the teams skated four on four for two minutes. Other than that it was just Michigan trying, as they had all day, to get through the MSU defense and more importantly find a little crack in Miller’s goaltending. Michigan pulled Blackburn with 1:06 left in the period, but the extra attacker proved to be no advantage (as it had not the entire game). The game came to an end with Michigan State winning by a score of one to nothing. Michigan ended the game with a 32 to 13 advantage in shots on goal.

This was a truly aggravating game to watch and I find MSU to be a fairly aggravating team to watch anyway. They run that trap and do everything they can to slow down the pace of the game. They simply will not skate with you; they play hockey’s version of the North Carolina four corners game that Dean Smith made so famous in basketball. It’s ugly, it’s aggravating, it’s just plain mind numbing, but it does get the Spartans a lot of wins. I thought Michigan played a pretty good game, both defensively and offensively. They worked hard all night long, but they made the one little mistake early in the game and that’s not the way to beat Michigan State. To beat MSU you have to get ahead of them, if you let them get ahead of you (as we did tonight) they will just play that trap until the game comes to an end. We all knew that Michigan had to get that first loss sometime, but this one was a hard one to take. They played well and they gave it up to the Spartans – makes it hurt twice as much. We’ll have to wait until Tuesday to see how this affects us in the polls. A lot of other teams lost this weekend so it’s going to be interesting to see how the voters move teams around. It doesn’t mean all that much right now in November, but it gives us fans things to talk about in the early part of the season. Perhaps the worst part of this loss was that it was on our ice, we didn’t defend home ice and that will make things tougher down the road. With that said the Wolverines have to forget about this one, it’s in the books. They have to get back on track and prepare for a two game weekend, next week, against the Bulldogs from Ferris State. Ferris, like every other team in the CCHA, always gives Michigan their best game.

Before signing off for the week I have to tip my hat to the single player who won this game for MSU (as much as it pains me to do it). Michigan State won this game because of their goalie Ryan Miller. While Blackburn is a pretty darn good goalie, Miller may just be the best goalie in the country right now. Michigan sent 32 shots his way and he stopped every single one of them and some of those shots were fantastic, point blank, scoring opportunities. Miller simply stood on his head – sitting in the stands you couldn’t help but look for the clear Plexiglas across the Spartan goal. I still haven’t figured out how he made some of the stops he made. So great game to the Wolverines, greater game to Miller. Until next week, C-ya.