Friday, December 8, 2000

Friday, December 8, 2000, Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

First, Andy Burnes was dressed and ready to play in this game. Things got off to a bit of a slow start as both teams were trying to get a feel for the other, but it didn’t take Michigan long to make their first visit of the night to the sin bin. With 18:28 remaining in the first period Michigan was in the box and the Saints were on the power play. Michigan was able to kill this penalty off without taking any damage and they would get their first chance on the power play just seconds after their initial penalty expired. With 16:16 left in the period St. Lawrence was sent to the sin bin and Michigan found itself on their first power play of the game. The Saints had just about killed this penalty off when Michigan decided to give them some help and this had been a pretty good power play by Michigan. They kept up the pressure and got a couple of good shots off, they just couldn’t get the puck in the net. With four seconds left in the Michigan power play Hilbert picked up a penalty to end the power play and to put the Saints on the power play (in four seconds). With 13:12 left in the period, 53 seconds left in the Saints power play, St. Lawrence drew first blood as they got the puck past Blackburn. This was a strange little goal as Blackburn had the puck stopped with his blocker, but the puck rolled up and over the blocker and ended up in the net. No matter how it happened the Saints had the early lead in this game. However, the St. Lawrence lead was not to last for very long. Michigan was working the puck around the Saint zone when they slipped it over to Cammalleri out near the blue line. From there Mike took a shot that zipped past the Saint netminder to tie the game with 11:59 left to play in the first period. Assists on this goal went to Hilbert and Koch and on this goal the scoring streaks for Cammalleri and Hilbert extended to seven and eight games respectively. With 11:53 to go the Saints picked up another penalty to put Michigan on the power play and following that tying goal you had to think that Michigan would be all over the Saint goal. If you thought that you would have been wrong, as this power play was fairly poor compared to the first. The long and short of it is that the Saints killed the power play and the teams returned to even strength. In the final nine minutes of the period each team would get another power play opportunity, but neither team would be able to score. The first period came to an end with the score all tied up at one goal apiece. Michigan did hold a commanding lead in shots on goal with a 16 to 5 count.

For the first 8 ½ minutes of the second period both teams worked hard, but nobody really got any real advantage. They both skated up and down the ice working hard, but the other team would break up any real scoring threat before it could be realized. With 11:24 to go in the period things started to heat up when a scuffle broke out in front of the benches. It took a couple of minutes to get things sorted out, but eventually each team had two players apiece in the box with four minutes of penalty time each. These were all coincidental penalties so both teams would have skated with five players each, but one St. Lawrence player picked up an additional two minute penalty (probably the one that ignited the scuffle) that put Michigan on the power play. Michigan was working the puck fairly well on this power play when they got off four great shots in close to the goal, all in a row, with about 27 seconds left in the power play. I don’t know how, but the St. Lawrence goalie managed to turn them all away and the score remained tied. Just as this St. Lawrence penalty came to an end Matzka was called for a high stick, that I honestly don’t think happened. Whether it did or didn’t St. Lawrence was on the power play and Michigan was on the penalty kill. The Wolverines managed to kill this penalty off and when it expired we got all of our players out of the sin bin. With just under six minutes to go in the period Michigan would take the lead in this contest for good. Michigan made a nifty little move to get the puck in neutral ice, they pass it down into the Saint zone to Matzka, and Matzka fights his way in and gets a shot off. Since Matzka had a Saint draped all over him the shot didn’t have a lot on it and it was blocked, but the rebound was not covered and bounced right back out in front. With the puck in front of the goal and Matzka following his shot he was able to punch the puck in the net to get what proved to the game-winning goal. The lone assist on this Matzka goal went to Komisarek. With 1:50 to go in the period it appeared that Michigan would extend their lead when Langfeld got in all-alone on the Saint net with the puck and got off a great shot, but the netminder somehow managed to block it. You have to really feel for Langfeld, he has been working so hard and he gets these great scoring chances, but he just can’t buy a goal. Maybe Saturday night he can end his goal scoring drought – that would be good for him as he gets ready for the mid-season break. The second period came to an end with Michigan leading by a score of 2 to 1. Shots in this period were pretty even, but Michigan still held the edge in shots on goal with a 29 to 16 count.

The third period started with all kinds of action as Michigan almost scored their third goal of the contest in the first 45 seconds of the period. This scoring chance was turned away, but that would all change with about two minutes gone in the period. With 18:01 to go in the period Michigan won a face off in their own zone. They got the puck up out of their zone to Mink who made a great move to get the puck at center ice and skate it into the St. Lawrence zone. Of course where there is Mink there is Shouneyia; with both players skating in Mink passed over to Shouneyia who blasted the puck into the St. Lawrence goal to extend the Wolverine lead. Assists on this goal went to Mink and Ortmeyer. Both teams continued to skate hard for the next several minutes when, with 13:50 left in the period, Michigan would strike again. This time it was Jillson who brought the puck down the ice and into the Saint zone and right down to the net. Jillson got off a shot, that was blocked, but once again the rebound was not covered and Hilbert was right there to put the puck into the Saint net. Assists on this goal went to Jillson and Koch and St. Lawrence took a one-minute time out to settle themselves down as Michigan was suddenly ahead by three goals. With 12:16 left in the period Michigan went to the power play as Langfeld was dragged down as he was again breaking in clean on the St. Lawrence goal. Once again Michigan was unable to capitalize on the power play and St. Lawrence killed the penalty off. With 10:01 left in the period, just after the Michigan power play had ended, Michigan was working the puck around the St. Lawrence zone when suddenly Murray was all alone in front with the puck. Craig didn’t waste a lot of time as he took advantage of this situation, putting the puck in the net and giving Michigan the four goal lead. This was an unassisted goal for Craig. With 9:34 remaining in the period Michigan was once again on the penalty kill as they picked up another penalty. With 29 seconds left in this penalty Michigan picked up another penalty to give St. Lawrence a two-man advantage. This isn’t the type of thing you want to do when facing the nations best power play. Michigan escaped unscathed, as they were able to kill both of these penalties and retain their four-goal lead. Michigan would pick up two more penalties in this period, the first with exactly five minutes remaining and the second with exactly two minutes remaining. Michigan killed off the first of these penalties without giving up a shot on goal, while they gave up a couple of shots on the second. It was Blackburn who turned away the best Saint scoring chance on the second Saint power play as he had to dive across the crease to poke a puck away from the goal to hold St. Lawrence at one goal for the game. The game came to an end with Michigan winning by a 5 to 1 score. Again the shots on goal were pretty even for this period, but Michigan ended the game with the edge with a 39 to 26 count.

Some good things about tonight’s game. Michigan was able to hold the nations best power play pretty much in check, giving up just one of eight tries. Michigan got at least one goal from each of their four lines providing perhaps the most balanced scoring attack of the year. Blackburn once again had a great outing allowing just one goal in sixty minutes of play. Michigan won. Some bad things about tonight’s game. Michigan once again racked up way to many penalty minutes. Penalty minutes are not so hard to take when they are good penalties, but so many of these penalties were just plain stupid with players simply not controlling their emotions. We managed to kill off all but one of those St. Lawrence power plays, but with our defense so thin all that penalty killing has to take a toll. The Wolverines have to do a better job of staying out of the box on Saturday night so they don’t have to test their penalty kill so often. That thin defense I just mentioned allowed 26 shots to get through to Blackburn. They got Burnes back for this game which was good, but I think they are all getting just a little bit tired. It will be good to get to the break so we can heal and rest. The biggest question coming out of tonight’s game is of course what Michigan will do on Saturday night. After beating the Saint’s by four goals will they bring their "A" game or their "B" game to Saturday night’s game? If they bring the "B" game St. Lawrence could steal a win, if they bring their "A" game Michigan should complete the sweep. Let’s hope it’s "A" game for the Wolverines on Saturday night.

Week in Review

The CCHA continues to have three teams in the top ten of both polls while Ohio State joins the leaders in the USCHO poll and Northern Michigan was able to hold their position in the USA Today poll. For a conference that many in the East were trying to pass off as weak right from the start we aren’t doing to bad.

There isn’t a whole lot more to talk about on the national scene, except the World Junior Championships. OK so maybe it’s not so much national as regional, but I don’t know where else to put it so I’ll put it here. As expected both Andy Hilbert and Mike Komisarek have been placed on the National Junior team to play in the World Championships to be held December 26, 2000 through January 5, 2001. While nothing is certain yet Mike Cammalleri has been invited to try out for the Canadian National Junior team. While I wish him well it’s hard to judge what the Canadians will do. For two years they did not put Mike Comrie on their national team, even though he was one of the best performers in their try out camp in those two years. We’ll see how Cammalleri fairs when he gets his shot North York, Ontario. While I’m very happy for the two who have made and I hope Cammalleri makes it onto the Canadian team I also know the team will miss all of the players who make the trip to Moscow. Any player going to Moscow will miss the Great Lakes Invitational (GLI), would certainly miss the opening game of the second half on January 5th, and would be likely to miss the second game that weekend on the 7th. It’s possible I suppose, since the second game of that weekend was moved to Sunday (the 7th) they could all be back in time to play in that game. However, it’s an afternoon game and they will certainly be jet lagged. At this point in time I would say count out any player for that entire series. We will be without one of our defensemen, as if we needed to loose any more of them, for any reason and our top two scorers. It will definitely be a test for the team to see if they can overcome the loss of those players. I think they can, but some players will certainly have to step up.

The U.S. team has eighteen collegians playing for them and the CCHA leads the way with the most appointees. Goalie, Craig Kowalski, from Northern Michigan, the already mentioned Hilbert and Komisarek from Michigan, Connor Dunlop and Rob Globke from Notre Dame, along with David Steckel and R.J. Umberger from Ohio State are the CCHA players making the trip to Moscow. I’m sure we all wish them well and hope they bring a medal home for the United States.

The CCHA has extended their agreement with Olympia Entertainment by five years to keep the CCHA tournament at Joe Louis Arena. This will keep the season ending tournament at Joe Louis through the 2005 season. Joe Louis and Olympia have been heavily involved with the CCHA for at least twenty years and this continues the advantageous partnership for several more years.

Mike Cammalleri was named the offensive player of the week in the CCHA for his contributions against the Northern Michigan Wildcats. Mike was on the ice for six of Michigan’s eight goals and was +5 for the weekend. A much deserved honor for a deserving player. In the notable performers category Jeff Jillson once again made the list for his fine play against the Wildcats. Jeff was +3 for the weekend and was a big part in Michigan’s ability to kill off 9 out of 10 Northern power plays. Congratulations to both Mike and Jeff for these honors.

Western Michigan finally took a loss in the CCHA as the Miami Redhawks took a game from the Bronco’s last weekend. From a Michigan perspective this was a good thing. Western still has a couple of games in hand against the Wolverines and we only play them twice so we needed them to drop a game or two along the way. Things stayed pretty much the same at the top as Michigan State stayed in first place after taking three of four points. Michigan, after their own three of four point weekend, remained in second. Western Michigan, even with the one loss, was able to move into a tie for third with Northern. The rest of the standings stayed pretty much the same, but the big winner of last weekend was Lake State. The Lakers moved into a tie for seventh after sweeping the rapidly fading Irish from Notre Dame. I don’t know what is going on down in South Bend, but I never expected Notre Dame to do this poorly this year. They are probably the single biggest surprise and disappointment of the year so far.

There probably won’t be much time for a week in review next week as we play on Tuesday, but I wanted to mention that the last game Michigan will play before the break will be against the US NTDP (National Team Development Program – I think) under-18 team at Yost. This is the same team that beat MSU in the Spartans season opening exhibition. While I know the win against the Spartans was a combination of things and would have to be considered a one time win, I expect a good game from this team. I don’t think they will win, but they might catch Michigan thinking about some time off rather than taking this team seriously and that could hurt the Wolverines, because these young guys will come into Yost all pumped up and ready to play. For anyone coming to the game on Tuesday we will get a chance to see a couple of incoming Wolverines who are playing for this team. They are all forwards and they are Dwight Helminen, also from Brighton, Michigan, Eric Nystrom, and Jason Ryznar. They all have good point production so this should be an interesting introduction for these three young men to the Yost Ice Arena.

This weekend Michigan will be hosting the Fighting Saints from St. Lawrence. There are a few interesting facts about this weekend’s match up. First, Michigan senior and Captain, Geoff Koch, will step on the ice for the first time in five years with St. Lawrence forward Russ Bartlett. These two players were teammates for three years at Phillip Exeter Academy. While at Exeter these two players played a pivotal role in leading Exeter to a last minute victory over Kushing (perhaps the best prep team in the nation). A big game for the then teammates and for Exeter.

This will be the first time in thirty-eight years that Michigan has faced St. Lawrence on the ice in Ann Arbor. That game was played on December 6, 1952 and Michigan came out the victor by a score of 6 to 1. These two teams did play in the 1997 GLI and Michigan was once again the victor, this time by a score of 3 to 2. Between that last game in Ann Arbor and the GLI game Michigan played St. Lawrence one other time, on March 17, 1962. This was the NCAA tournament consolation game and again Michigan came out victorious by a score of 5 to 1. As a special note on this game Ron Mason was a member of that St. Lawrence team and it was also the last collegiate game for one Gordon "Red" Berenson from Michigan.

St. Lawrence is the fifth team from last year’s NCAA tournament field that Michigan has faced so far this season. So far Michigan has played North Dakota, Colgate, Michigan State, and Minnesota and has emerged with a record of 1-1-2 in those games. Coach Berenson’s record against the Saints is 1-0-0. Michigan’s special teams have been improving over the last couple of weeks, as has their goal tending. Over the last four games Blackburn has turned away 104 of 111 shots for a .937 save percentage. Jeff Jillson’s three-point weekend last weekend moved him into 15th place on the all time defenseman career scoring list. Mike Cammalleri has a five game scoring streak going while Andy Hilbert has a six game scoring streak. Mike Roemensky leads the team in plus/minus with +14 as we approach the mid-season break. In the last six road games Michigan’s penalty kill unit has turned away 32 of 34 power play chances for a .941 percent. Let’s hope they bring that kind of penalty kill to Yost this weekend as St. Lawrence brings the nations most potent power play in the country to Yost for this weekends games.

On the injury front we are still pretty banged up. I haven’t heard whether Wyzgowski has recovered from his high ankle sprain or not. Murray and Trainor have returned to action so we get our fourth line back. The defense continues to be the thin spot as Huntzicker and Fraser are definitely out until sometime in January (hopefully). Freshman Andy Burnes is the big question mark. While he as been healing fairly well from last weekends injury his playing status will be game time decision.

Now the specifics about why I think these two games against St. Lawrence are so important for Michigan to win. First, they are the last two regular season games for the Wolverines; the game against the US NTDP is an exhibition game. It would give Michigan the right momentum going into the break as they could go home with the taste of victory in their mouths, not defeat. Second, while they have no impact on conference standings, these two games could prove pivotal at NCAA tournament selection time. Given the way automatic bids are going to be given out this year come the middle of March somebody is going to end up staying at home that should probably be in the tournament. However, when the field is so small (only twelve teams) it’s hard for that not to happen. A pair of wins over a team like the Saints could go a long way to help Michigan’s power rating when selection time comes. The selection committee also looks to see how a team and that teams conference has done in non-conference play. By winning these two games Michigan can not only help themselves, but they can help the CCHA as well. Third, if memory serves me right Michigan has not lost a non-conference game all year. I want to see them end the regular season without a non-conference loss. It’s all about the wins and how they help to position the Wolverines for that NCAA tournament bid and seeding. We need these wins to push our case when that time comes. It should be an interesting two games against a good St. Lawrence team. Let’s see which Michigan team shows up on Friday and Saturday night, especially Saturday if they win easily on Friday.