Wolverines-Irish Battle to Tie

Friday, January 4, 2002
Joyce Center, South Bend, Indiana

The Wolverines return to CCHA play this weekend with a two game road trip to South Bend to take on the Fighting Irish of Notre Dame. Michigan opens the second half of the season ranked number eight in both major polls. The Pairwise rankings also made their first appearance of the season this week and Michigan is also ranked number eight in that poll. With the Spartans playing out of conference this weekend Michigan could end up in first place with a sweep of the Irish, but the Spartans will have a game in hand on the Wolverines after this weekend. With four players still in Europe playing at the World Junior Championships the Wolverines will have their backs to the wall as they battle for those all important points in CCHA conference play.

Josh Blackburn is back in goal for the Wolverines as action gets under way in this game. The Irish carry the play to the Wolverines in the early going of this game, but so far Michigan has turned away any scoring threat. Through the first half of the first period it has been a defensive struggle as both teams look for that little advantage over the other.

With just over ten minutes left in the first period the Irish take the first penalty of the game putting Michigan on the power play. While Michigan comes close during this power play the Irish are able to kill off the penalty and the score remains tied at zero. The Irish would get their first chance on the power play with just over seven minutes left in the period when Michigan would hook an Irish skater to the ice to end a break away scoring threat. The Wolverines were on the brink of killing off the Irish power play when Notre Dame picked up their second penalty of the period. With just twenty-five seconds left in the Notre Dame power play Michigan got a short-handed break away and they were hooked to the ice to end the threat. However, the penalty ended the Irish power play and set Michigan up for their second power play of the period.

As Michigan moved to the power play the action seemed to move into the Irish zone. Much of the play took place there and a clearing attempt by the Irish led to the Wolverines first goal of the night. With Notre Dame trying to punch the puck out of their zone up through the center of the ice, Craig Murray made a great play to keep the puck in the Irish zone. With the puck on his stick he spun around and let a shot fly toward the Irish net. The initial shot was stopped, but Shouneyia was in perfect position to put back the easy rebound shot for the first Wolverine goal. Assists on the power play goal went to Murray and Werner, leaving Michigan one for two on the power play.

It looked like the period would come to a peaceful end, but with just under two minutes left to play Michigan turned the puck over in their own zone. Even though the Irish got off a couple of great shots, Blackburn came up with some equally great saves to hold the Wolverine lead. Michigan would apply some great pressure in the closing minute of the period, but the first period would end with Michigan holding the one to nothing lead. The Irish would end the period with a slim seven to six advantage in shots on goal.

The second period started much the same as the first had - with all the action taking place in the Michigan zone. Michigan didn't help their cause any when they took the first penalty of the period with only 1:40 gone in the period. With about ten seconds left in this Notre Dame power play the Irish would get called for another power play ending penalty and set Michigan up for their third power play of the game. Through all of this no goals were scored and both teams returned to full strength. Michigan would pick up another penalty with just over thirteen minutes left to play in the period, but they were able to kill this penalty off. While the Wolverines killed the penalty off, the Irish came awfully close to scoring as most of this power play was spent in the Wolverine zone.

As the action continued up and down the ice time began to run out in this period and like the first period that's when the action really started to take place. With just over five minutes left in the period Michigan would come up with their second goal of the night on a break away. Michigan would get a pass up the ice to allow the breaking Wolverine a clean charge at the Irish net. The initial shot was blocked and the first trailing Wolverine was dropped to the ice before he could get a crack at the puck, but Woodford, trailing behind was right there to put the rebound into the net. The assists on this goal went to Moss and Gajic.

With just over three minutes to play the Irish would get a gift as Blackburn left the net to play the puck. Skating off to his right Blackburn got the puck and sent it up the boards, trying to clear the zone. However, he didn't send it with any authority and the first player to get to it was an Irish skater. He got control of the puck and slid an easy cross ice pass to a wide open Inman who put the puck into a wide open net. That was the final goal of the period as Michigan went into the second intermission with a two to one lead. The Wolverines had also taken a slight edge in shots on goal with an eighteen to fifteen count.

The first five minutes of the final period flew by as both teams took turns moving the puck up and down the ice. The first break of the period would come with just over twelve minutes left to play as Notre Dame picked up a penalty putting Michigan on the power play. With the all freshman power play unit on the ice Michigan was moving the puck extremely well around the Notre Dame zone. With just over eleven minutes left to play in the period Michigan's Rodgers would get his first collegiate goal to give the Wolverines a two goal lead. The assists on this goal went to Gajic and Woodford.

It would take the Irish barely three minutes to get that goal back. With some serious pressure in the Michigan zone the Irish slid a nice pass right across the top of the crease to Inman who chipped in his second easy goal of the night. Both teams would play some intense hockey over the next several minutes with penalties taken by both teams, close shots being made by both teams, but neither team coming up with a goal until the clock moved under the six minute mark. With just under six minutes to play Notre Dame brought the puck out of their zone and with some smart passing blew into the Michigan zone where they got off a great shot that beat Blackburn clean to tie the game.

The action would continue up and down the ice in the final minutes of the period, but regulation time would come to an end with the game all tied at three goals each.

The action in the sudden victory overtime period was fast and furious with both teams getting chances to score, but neither team able to come up with the game winner. The game would come to an end still tied at three goals each.

With a lot riding on this weekends games for both teams as far as the CCHA is concerned it was somewhat disappointing to see Michigan give away a two goal, third period lead to end up with a tie. However, given the fact that four of our top players are still in Europe attending the World Junior Championships Michigan has to be content with the tie with one game yet to play this weekend. Make no mistake the Wolverines need to come away with a win tomorrow night, but a tie in this game is much better than a loss. It gets us one point closer to Michigan State and we can still come out of this weekend tied for first place in the CCHA with a win tomorrow (even though the Spartans will have a game in hand after this weekend). Michigan is getting great contributions from the freshmen right now and if that can continue for the rest of the year this team is going to be a force to be reckoned with once they get back to full strength.