Falcons Bury Wolverines

Friday, January 25, 2002
Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Michigan goes into this weekend trailing first place Michigan State by just two points in the CCHA. Each team has played an equal number of conference games and each team has just ten conference games left. Needless to say every game, for each team, is a must win. If the Spartans stumble Michigan catches them, if Michigan stumbles it will all but put the conference title out of reach. That's the setting as the Wolverines enter this weekends series against Bowling Green.

The Wolverines start the game with another new lineup as they start Werner with Komisarek on the defense, along with Ryznar, Gajic, and Shouneyia at the forward positions (the other lines were changed up as well). That's the third different set of lines in the last three games.

Right from the opening face off the Wolverines were appeared to be playing in a fog while the Falcons played like a team with nothing to lose and everything to gain by handing Michigan an unexpected loss. The Wolverines continued to miss passes, mishandle the puck while on defense, and generally get outplayed for basically the entire first period. It looked like they might actually get out of the period without giving up a goal, however, Bowling Green had other ideas. With just over one minute left in the period the Falcons broke out of their zone, danced around our defense, and punched the puck into the Michigan net to go up by a goal. The first period ended with Bowling Green leading by a score of one to nothing. Michigan held a slight edge in shots on goal with an eleven to ten count.

As the second period started it looked like Michigan was playing with a bit more enthusiasm, but they continued to mishandle the puck. That consistency cost them dearly with just one minute fifteen seconds ticked off the clock in the second. Taking the puck away from the Wolverine defense near the Michigan blue line a Falcon found himself looking down a wide open alley to the Michigan goal. He wound up and sent a shot flying, low to the ice, that sailed through Blackburns five hole to give the Falcons a two to nothing lead. Blackburn never came close to stopping the puck that had to be clearly visible the whole time it closed on the goal, there just weren't any players between the puck and Blackburn (from either team).

Just when it looked like things couldn't get any worse Komisarek got whistled for an absolutely ridiculous penalty as he hit a Falcon player considerably after the whistle had blown on a play. With just under sixteen minutes still to play and down by two goals the Wolverines were back on the penalty kill. As it turns out this turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The penalty kill for Michigan really controlled the puck during this Bowling Green power play. In many ways they generated more offense on this penalty kill than they had on their own power plays. Chasing after the puck deep in the Bowling Green zone Michigan finally got on the scoreboard as Werner got a shot past the Falcon goalie, cutting the lead to one. The lone assist on this goal went to Mink.

The teams worked the puck up and down the ice for the remainder of the period, with each team getting called for penalties. With just over one minute to play in the period each team lost a man to penalties leaving the teams skating with four men each. Just as the period was coming to a close it looked like Michigan was going to tie the game when they had two point blank shots at an open Bowling Green net, but on both occasions they missed the shots. The second period came to an end with Bowling Green still in the lead by a score of two to one. The shots on goal were now even with each team notching twenty three.

Once again it would be Bowling Green that would start the period with a bang as they simply overpowered the defense and got an easy shot past Blackburn just one minute and two seconds into the third period. Blackburn never had a chance of stopping the shot as the defense seemed to melt away in front of him.

Over the next ten to twelve minutes Michigan would get called for a couple of penalties and Bowling Green would be called for another. Bowling Green picked up their second penalty of the game with about six and a half minutes to play, giving Michigan another power play opportunity. This power play, like all the other power plays during the game, came up short leaving the Wolverines down by two. However, just after this power play expired Burnes got the puck to the left of the Falcon net minder and got a shot into the Bowling Green net to once again cut the Falcon lead to one. The assists on this goal went to Moss and Helminen.

With 1:40 left to play and a face off in the Falcon zone Michigan called a time out and ended up pulling Blackburn to get the extra attacker on the ice. Even with the extra man Michigan was unable to mount any kind of real scoring threat as Bowling Green smothered every attack they mounted. Michigan dodged a couple of bullets to keep the Falcons from scoring into an empty net, but in the end it was another turn over by the Wolverines that sealed their fate. With just under forty seconds left to play Michigan turned the puck over near their blue line and the chase was on. A Falcon skater out hustled Michigan to get to the puck first, guiding it into the empty Michigan net to seal the win. The game came to an end with Bowling Green winning by a score of four to two. Bowling Green ended up with a one shot edge in shots on goal with a thirty four to thirty three count.

There really aren't many words to describe just how poorly Michigan played in this game. Their defense was non-existent, constantly turned the puck over creating odd man rushes by the Falcons, and was consistently out played. Even with that it was two defensemen who scored Michigan's only two goals. The power play was, to be kind, pathetic. Michigan never came close to scoring a power play goal, even with the eight opportunities they had. Some of the forwards came close to scoring goals, but were always just a bit wide or a bit high. The passing was poor all the way around. About the only thing that worked well for the Wolverines in this game was the penalty kill as they have now killed off thirty-four consecutive power plays. However, that is small consolation as they are now four points behind Michigan State, who defeated the Buckeyes in East Lansing.

Again words escape me to explain how a team that was in a dog fight for the conference title could come out and play so poorly on their home ice. While they aren't eliminated from winning the conference, they have all but handed the conference title to the Spartans in a gift wrapped box. They now need the Spartans to lose two games to tie for the title and the Spartans must lose three games (thirty percent of their remaining conference games) for Michigan to win the title out right. Of course Michigan must also win every single game they have left. If Michigan continues to play like this they most certainly will not win every game, they could in fact have a hard time winning another game if they continue to play like this. Michigan has now played four straight games at home with the potential of giving them eight conference points. The Wolverines have managed to pick up just three. Michigan and Bowling Green will go at it again tomorrow night and hopefully this time the Michigan Hockey team will show up.