Friday, November 17, 2000

Friday, November 17, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The first thing I noticed in tonight’s game were more line changes and the fact that Brad Fraser was back in the lineup for the first time this year. Other than that I don’t know if it was the coaches or the players themselves, but the Wolverines we saw take the ice tonight were a far different team than the one that played last Saturday night. In the first five minutes of this game UM had several decent changes to notch a score, but they were unable to get the puck past the UAF netminder. While both teams continued to move the puck up and down the ice we made it through almost the next five minutes without any significant changes. However, with 10:34 left in the period UAF was called for the first penalty of the game to put UM on the power play. Michigan was applying all kinds of pressure in the first half of this period when at even strength so going the crowd was feeling good going to the power play. Just fifteen seconds into the power play Michigan made the Nannooks pay as they put up a goal to take the lead. The initial shot by the Wolverines was blocked, but the rebound dropped right down in the crease, the goalie didn’t see it, and Shouneyia was right there to pop it into the net. Assists on this goal went to Mink and Hilbert. Play continued up and down the ice when, with 5:48 left in the period, UM picked up their first penalty of the game to put UAF on the power play. Michigan killed this penalty off in pretty good fashion, but UAF did have one good chance when Blackburn got pulled out of position, but he recovered enough to end the scoring chance. With about 2:15 left in the period there was a face off in the UM zone. Michigan won the face off and broke it out of our zone with some nice passing. Koch got the puck to Hilbert, Hilbert got it to Cammalleri, and Cammalleri got the puck in the net. This whole set of passes and the goal was a real pretty thing to watch. With 1:24 left in the period UM was called for a penalty putting UAF on the power play late in the period. Also at this time Huntzicker went down on the ice grabbing his knee; I believe it was the same knee he had rebuilt in the off season – we’ll have to wait and see what is up with David. With just 27.6 seconds left in the period UAF was called for a penalty. This killed their power play and set Michigan up for a power play early in the second period. The period came to an end with Michigan holding the 2 to nothing lead. Michigan also had a big lead in shots on goal with a 19 to 9 count.

The second period starts with 36 seconds of four on four hockey, which is skated off, and now Michigan has 56 seconds of power play time. This time the Wolverines are unable to pick up a goal and both teams skated at full strength. With 16:03 left in the period UM is called for a penalty putting UAF on the power play. Again the Nannooks come close, as there was a scramble of bodies in front of the goal. Somehow out of the mass of bodies Blackburn gets on top of the puck to keep UAF off the board with just 2 seconds left in their power play. Whew that was a close one. The action continued up and down the ice until there was 7:53 left in the period when UM got called for another penalty. The Wolverines were able to kill this one off and shortly following the end of the UAF power play the Nannooks picked up a penalty of their own to put Michigan back on the power play. This was a particular nasty hit and in fact the UAF player was hit with a double minor giving UM four minutes of power play time. With 3:46 left in the period and only 17 seconds left in the first penalty Michigan came up with another power play goal to extend their lead. This was another strange one in front of the net. Michigan got a shot off and again the rebound came out in front. Then UM poked at hit, blocked, poked at it, blocked, finally poked it into the net. The puck seemed to bounce around in the crease for 30 seconds before Michigan finally got it into the net. The goal went to Shouneyia and the assists went to Mink and Hilbert. Michigan now has two minutes of power play time left. It looked like the period would come to an end with no further scoring, but with 29.6 seconds left in the period Michigan struck again. Michigan got the puck around center ice and got it up to a breaking Trainor. Trainor brought the puck in, passed it through the crease to Kautz, and Kautz put the puck in the net. This was the first career goal for Kautz and the assists went to Trainor and Blackburn. Tempers begin to flare just a little bit as matching penalties were called with 26.1 seconds left in the period. Both teams will skate four on four to finish this period. While the Wolverines didn’t skate nearly as good in this period as they did in the first they managed to score two goals. The period comes to an end with Michigan holding the 4 to nothing lead. However, UAF tightened up the shots on goal count, but Michigan still holds the lead with a 28 to 20 count.

The third period starts with the teams skating four on four for the first 1:34 of the period. With 17:37 left in the period UM gets called for a penalty off the delay. With 1:28 left in the UAF power play Michigan comes up with a short handed goal to extend their lead. Matzka took the puck up out of the zone all the way down the ice and got off a shot. The UAF netminder stopped the shot, but didn’t cover the rebound and Caption Geoff Koch was right there to poke the puck into the net. With 15:17 left in the period and Michigan just working the puck around the UAF zone Cammalleri went top shelf and put the puck in the net to move Michigan’s lead to six goals. The assists on this goal went to Hilbert and Vancik. That was enough for the UAF coaching staff as they change goalies. With 13:39 left in the period UAF gets called for a penalty (off the delay). UAF is able to kill off the penalty without suffering any more damage, but Michigan continues to apply a lot of pressure in this period. With 9:59 left in the period Michigan drew a little more blood from the Nannooks. Kosick passed the puck up the ice to Ortmeyer who broke into the UAF zone. Ortmeyer got off a shot that was blocked, but with great effort and determination Ortmeyer followed his own shot, picked up the rebound, and punched the puck into the net and the official butt kickin’ was on. Assists on this goal went to Kosick and Jillson. With 4:58 left in the period UAF is called for another penalty as they begin to loose their cool just a little. Then with 1:30 left in the power play UAF picks up their second penalty giving Michigan a two-man advantage for 1:30. With 38 seconds left in the first penalty Michigan’s Ortmeyer scores his second goal of the night with assists going to Langfeld and Kosick. With 2:38 left in the period matching penalties were handed out. There were no more goals scored in this period and the game comes to an end with Michigan winning 8 to nothing. Michigan simply dominated the third period to extend their lead in shots on goal to 51 to 23 (that’s a 25 to 3 differential in the third period).

Well this game went the way it was supposed to go. Now it remains to be seen if Michigan can keep the same level of intensity on Saturday night. Last weekend after winning on Friday and in a fairly dominant fashion they had a big letdown on Saturday. They must guard against that this weekend. Right now it looks like Huntzicker will miss about six weeks with the knee injury he suffered in the second period. I guess it’s a real good thing that we got Fraser back tonight because we are going to need him. Michigan played a real good first period, a so-so second period, and really played a great third period. Let’s hope the Wolverines put three periods of solid hockey together on Saturday night and put the wood to the Nannooks again. Until tomorrow night, C-ya!

The weekly review

Michigan’s loss last weekend not only cost them a little bit in the national polls, but it also cost them their position in first place of the CCHA. That position now belongs only to the Spartans of Michigan State after they swept the third team sitting in first place, Northern Michigan. Michigan is in second place; just two points behind the Spartans and both teams have played the same number of games. The team that is really sitting quite nicely in the CCHA right now is Western Michigan. While it is true that they are five points out of first, they have only played four CCHA games while the leaders have played seven. If the Bronco’s can win those three games in hand they could move into first place in the conference. The two best match ups in the conference this weekend are between Lake Superior/Northern Michigan and Michigan State/Western Michigan. The Lakers and Wildcats have a long running rivalry up in the North country and this weekend should provide some spirited play. Lake Superior will be trying to move up in the conference standings and the Wildcats are trying to stay in the race after dropping two games last weekend. This weekend we are going to get an idea if this Bronco team is for real. They play only one game this weekend and that one is at Michigan State. This game will pit the conferences most potent offense against the conferences best defense. Western remains the only team with an unblemished conference record, it remains to be seen if they can remain unbeaten at Munn. History is not on their side, but they have certainly been playing good hockey in the early going of this season.

One Wolverine received a notable performance mention after last weekend’s contests. That was Mike Roemensky who finished plus four for the weekend. Mike also picked up a point or two as he provided some assists on goals from last weekend’s games.

In recruiting news Michigan has received signed letters of intent from nine recruits that will make up next year’s freshman class. At this point this class is looking very good and assistant coach Billy Powers describes this class as one of the "top three classes" he has seen come to Michigan in his eight years with the program. The early signing period ended this past week and coach Berenson has indicated that he doesn’t remember ever having this many players committed and signed coming out of the early signing period. Things certainly look good for the maize and blue for the next several years. This class includes Jason Bacashihua (Dearborn Heights, MI), one of the top goalie prospects in the country. There are five forwards coming in with this class and three of them come from the US Under-18 National Team Development Program. This is the same program that brought us Andy Hilbert and Mike Komisarek. The forwards are Jason Ryznar (Anchorage, Alaska), a power forward. Dwight Helminen (Brighton, MI), known for his offensive firepower and his strong play on the defensive end of the ice. Eric Nystrom (Syosset, NY), who has been compared to this years captain Geoff Koch. These three came from the US development team. The other two forwards, Milan Gajic (Burnaby, British Columbia) and Michael Woodford (Westford, MA), are a little older and are expected to provide solid play. Defensmen coming in are Brandon Rogers (Rochester, NY), Reilly Olson (Grand Praire, Alberta), and Eric Werner (Grosse Pointe Woods, MI). Both Olsen and Werner are considered offensive-defensmen and Werner has been compared to Blake Sloan. The coaches are still expecting to pick up one or two more recruits to shore up some of the team depth that has been hit by the early departures of Van Ryn and Comrie.

That gets us to this weekends games against the Nannooks of Alaska-Fairbanks. Like most of the other CCHA teams we have played so far this year these will be the only two games of the year between these two teams (baring playoff appearances). This is certainly a team that Michigan should beat on both nights. We will be without the services of Wyzgowski, O’Malley, and Komisarek as they sit out their disqualifications from the Saturday night brawl in Big Rapids. The only one of these three that has seen significant ice time is Komisarek and we should see no major drop off with him out of the line up. This, like most weekend series over the last several weekends, is a must win series for the Wolverines (at least in my opinion). As we saw last weekend, winning on the road, even against teams we should beat, is not always a given. These two games are on home ice and that is certainly a situation that we don’t want to let slip away. I hope the coaches got all over this team for their poor showing last Saturday night and I really do expect to see some highly motivated Wolverines for two complete nights of hockey. If Michigan sweeps the weekend they can technically take over first place in the CCHA, but they will have played one more game thank MSU as the Spartans play just once this weekend. Forgetting the impact on conference position Michigan simply must beat this team. These are games that they cannot afford to give away if they want to seriously contend for the conference championship this year. If Michigan doesn’t come ready to play both nights they could drop one or both of these games. The Nannooks took a game from the Wolverines last year up in Alaska so they know they can do it. It will be up to Michigan to squelch any possibility of Nannook momentum early and often. Well I guess that’s about it for the weekly review, its time now to prepare for the game.