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Saturday, November 11, 2000
Saturday, November 11, 2000, Ewigleben Arena, Big Rapids, Michigan
After a physical game last night in Ann Arbor the Wolverines and Bulldogs tangle again tonight to decide the season series between these two teams. You can probably expect the Bulldogs to come out full of fire after the game last night in Ann Arbor, so the Wolverines have to come ready to play. This is the second and final time these two teams will meet during the regular season. That fact, coupled with the fact that this is a team we should beat, I put this game in the must win column. We need to keep pace in what is shaping up to be a very tight CCHA race. Actually right now Western Michigan remains in the drivers seat in the CCHA as they were only one point down going into the weekend, but have played one less conference game than the current conference leaders. Expect another bruiser tonight; let’s hope things go Michigan’s way. Remember that Michigan will play without Huntzicker and Ortmeyer who got game disqualification’s after fighting in last night’s game.
I had some difficulty getting back from the football game in time to catch the opening face off, so I pick up the game with about 8:00 minutes left in the first period and the score at 2 to nothing in favor of Ferris. The shots on goal are only four to three in favor of Ferris so we would seem to be having some trouble in goal tonight. There is a third goal for Ferris as the Bulldogs get a simple backhand shot past Blackburn to take a commanding lead with about six minutes left in the first period. It may be time to put Blackburn on the bench, he really seems to be off his game tonight (at least for the couple minutes I’ve heard). That makes things a little less hard to take as the Wolverines get that last goal back about 15 or 20 seconds after the third Ferris goal. Craig Murray notches the goal for the Wolverines with the lone assist going to Burnes. Let’s see if that ignites a little fire under the Wolverines. Michigan gets called for a penalty (4:17 left in the period) as it looked like Ferris was going to get in clean on Blackburn. It was a good penalty, but Michigan needs to kill this one off. Now I just hear that the first two Bulldog goals were short handed; that makes the goals Ferris has even worse, where the heck is our penalty kill tonight. Michigan kills off the penalty without giving up any more goals and we are again at full strength. We move under one minute to go in the first period still down by two goals. Ferris just sends a shot wide of the Michigan goal as they look to extend their lead late in this period. The period comes to an end with Ferris leading Michigan by a score of 3 to 1. The shots on goal in this period favor Ferris with a 7 to 6 count.
We are back underway and I would expect that Michigan would look to pick up the pace of this game. They certainly have the speed and they need to use that advantage in this game. Michigan has managed to keep the puck in the Ferris zone for the first couple of minutes, forcing several face-offs in the Bulldog zone. Ferris picks up a penalty to give Michigan the first power play chance of this period with just over 16 minutes to go in the second period. Michigan getting some pressure on the Ferris goal and now there is a delay penalty coming up against Ferris. Michigan will skate with a two-man advantage for 46 seconds; this is the opportunity Michigan needs to really get back into this game. Matzka gets off a good shot, but it goes over the cross bar. The two-man advantage is over, but Michigan remains on the power play. Now Hilbert gets called for interference ending the Michigan power play (about 20 second’s left in their power play), leaving FSU with an upcoming power play opportunity. So a golden opportunity is gone for the Wolverines as they continue to trail by two goals. I just cannot believe this, where is our defense tonight. Ferris gets another shot past Blackburn on special teams and now the Ferris lead is three goals. The shot was deflected, but we simply cannot give up goals like this. A pair of penalties are handed out as tempers begin to flare again between these two teams. We skate four on four for two minutes with just over thirteen minutes to go in this second period. Michigan gets called for tripping putting Ferris back on the power play. This is the last thing we need considering the poor play of our special teams in this game. Michigan is able to kill off the penalty and we are back to full strength, but we still trail by three goals. Kosick gets off a shot that goes just wide of the post. Ferris brings it back down the ice, they get Blackburn out of position, and Ferris scores their fifth goal of the night. It’s time for Blackburn to come out of this game, he has been terrible. There is the move as O’Malley comes into the game, let’s see if he can do a better job between the posts. We are down to the final 4 minutes and 20 seconds of this period trailing by four goals. Michigan not mounting much of an attack considering the number of goals they need to get back into this game. Finally, Michigan gets a little bit back, as Mink is able to slip the puck past the Bulldog netminder to take a little chip out of the Ferris lead. This goal came with just 1:05 left in the period with the assists going to Shouneyia and Roemensky. The second period comes to an end with Ferris leading Michigan by a score of 5 to 2. Michigan has taken the lead in shots on goal with a 16 to 12 count.
Things are looking awfully bleak as we start the third period, let’s see if Michigan can turn it up a couple of notches and pull this game out of the fire. We are back underway in the final period of this game and you would think the Wolverines would look to score quickly in this period. It’s really proving a difficult thing for me to keep track of what is going on in this game as I cannot maintain a connection to the internet broadcast (this is mighty frustrating). I missed several minutes of the game and as I finally got a broadcast back there was a delay of game penalty called against Ferris. This gives Michigan a two-man advantage for 26 seconds. Michigan was working the puck down toward the FSU zone when Komisarek gave the puck away and Ferris got a clean break on O’Malley. O’Malley blocks the shot and then Michigan turns it back around and goes back into the FSU zone. Murray gets off a shot that is blocked, but Mink is right there to stuff the puck back into the net. This was a power play goal with assists going to Murray and Komisarek. Michigan playing with a little more zip right now as they have the Ferris lead down to two goals with 14:10 left in the game. Ferris got a goal, but the goal is waved off as Michigan gets called for a penalty instead. The net left the moorings negating the goal, but Michigan has to kill off another penalty and they still need two goals just to tie the game. With time running out in the Michigan penalty Matzka purposely knocks the net off the moorings and he gets called for delay of game. This gives FSU a two-man advantage for 23 seconds. If Michigan can survive this they will still have to kill off 1:37 of power play time. The two-man advantage is over and Michigan now looks to kill off the remainder of the delay of game penalty as we move into the final ten minutes of this game. FSU just banged one off the post and luckily the puck bounced away from the net and into the corner. Michigan kills off that penalty and we are now back to full strength. We have a face off to the right of O’Malley with just 7:48 left in the game. We move under the seven-minute mark still looking for two goals and not getting any kind of offensive pressure. There are now less than four minutes left in this game and Michigan is still down by two. With 1:39 left in the game Michigan has pulled their goalie, as they still need two goals just to force overtime. Michigan gets one of the two goals they need as they just slip the puck under the FSU goalie and into the net. Hilbert gets the goal with the assist going to Matzka. With 1:08 to go Michigan needs just one goal to force overtime as they continue to play with their goalie on the bench. It looked like Michigan got the tying goal, but the net came off the moorings and Michigan still trails by one with 41 seconds to go in regulation. Another stop by the FSU netminder as Michigan continues to attack the FSU net. FSU gets enough control of the puck to send it down into the Michigan zone, but icing is called and the face off returns to the FSU zone. The face off comes to the right of the FSU goal with 13 seconds left in regulation. The game comes to an end with Ferris taking the win by a score of 5 to 4. Now the teams decide to have themselves a fight and more DQ’s will be handed out after this game.
What a stupid way to end a game. We will now loose several players for next Friday’s game as we host Alaska-Fairbanks in a two game series at Yost. Michigan put next Friday’s game at risk because they couldn’t control their emotions after a game was over. This was also a game in which the Wolverines played absolutely horribly. That’s Michigan’s second loss in three games and we are now chasing Michigan State who will take over sole possession of first place in the conference. I don’t know what was wrong with this team tonight – they seemed to be out of it right from the start. They got close at the end, but close doesn’t count. The Wolverines will probably find themselves out of the top five in the national polls for the first time this year, something I didn’t think would happen. I just have to hope that the poor play by the Wolverines was a fluke and they will get back on track next week. We have the word on the game disqualifications and Michigan will loose Komisarek, Wyzgowski, and O’Malley. This could have been worse since Komisarek is really the only player of these three that sees regular playing time. Who will the fighters be in next week’s contest? Join us at Yost next week to find out, until then C-ya.
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