Wolverines Sink Lakers

Thursday, January 31, 2002
Taffy Abel Arena, Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan

Michigan goes into this weekend of action with their backs to the wall as they fight for the CCHA title and a place in the NCAA tournament. That loss to Bowling Green last weekend hurt the Wolverines badly from an NCAA point of view as Michigan is now a bubble team for the NCAA tournament. If a couple of breaks go against Michigan they could easily find themselves out of the NCAA tournament for the first time in a decade.

Michigan goes on the road and ventures into the land of the Lakers for the first of two against last place Lake Superior. The Wolverines can hardly afford another loss to a team this far down in the standings, it might well remove any chance for an at large NCAA bid. Michigan hasn't won at Taffy Abel since 1997 and the Lakers, like most CCHA teams, always seem to play better than their record indicates they are when the Wolverines come knocking. The second game of this weekend series will be played Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena.

Michigan got off to an early start in this game as they brought they brought pressure early and often. Michigan also took an early trip to the penalty box as Henderson was in the sin bin with just two and half minutes gone in the contest. While trying to get the puck out of their zone and into the Michigan zone Shouneyia intercepted a pass and skated into the Laker zone. Coming down the right side of the ice Shouneyia let a shot fly that sailed into the net over the Laker goal tenders left shoulder. The short handed goal was tallied in unassisted form and gave Michigan the early lead.

Each team would get some power play chances in the rest of the opening period, but by and large the defenses rose to the occasion for both teams. No further goals were scored in this period as the first came to an end with Michigan holding a one to nothing lead. There weren't a lot of shots on goal in this period, but Michigan had the largest portion of those shots as they ended the period with a ten to four advantage.

The second period was another one for defenses as neither team put many shots on goal, but the Wolverines did come away with another goal. This time Michigan was on the power play trying to work the puck up the ice to the Laker zone. With Burnes attempting to pass around a Laker defenseman the puck hit a Laker skate and bounced right onto Gajic's stick. Gajic received the puck at the blue line and like Shouneyia skated into the Laker zone down the right side of the ice. Making a move on a defenseman Gajic got in close when he blasted the puck between the goalie and the post for the second Wolverine goal of the game. The lone assist went to Werner.

Again each team would see a power play chance before the end of the period, but no further goals would be scored. The second period came to an end with Michigan holding the two to nothing lead. There were even fewer shots taken in this period. While the Lakers actually out shot the Wolverines in the period six to five, Michigan still held the overall lead with a fifteen to ten count.

The third period would see Michigan break things wide open, but not before it looked like Lake State would get an early goal. Early in the third period Michigan gave up the puck leading to a Laker break away. Blackburn came up with a huge save, but he did not cover the puck and it lay in the crease. It looked like the Lakers would get the puck into a wide open net, but Werner got back in time to tie up the Laker closing on the puck.

The close call seemed to work as a wake up call for Michigan as they would score their third goal of the game barely two minutes after that close call. Working on the power play Komisarek let one of his shots go that bounced off the Laker goalie and onto the stick of Nystrom. Nystrom, seeing that he didn't have a good look, slipped the puck over to Ortmeyer who chipped it into the net from the left side of the crease. The power play goal went to Ortmeyer with assists going to Nystrom and Komisarek.

Almost three minutes later (2:55 later) Michigan would strike again and this time it would be Nystrom who would tally the goal. Receiving a pass from Werner, Nystrom got to the bottom of the left face off circle. From there Nystrom took a shot that beat the Laker goalie who was not yet back in position after tracking Werner. Assists on the Nystrom goal went to Werner and Shouneyia.

Komisarek would bring the scoring to an end with barely two minutes left in the contest. This time Komisarek would let a slap shot go from just inside the blue line that would slide under the net minders pads and into the net. The assists on this goal went to Ortmeyer and Werner. The game would come to an end with Michigan winning by a score of five to nothing. Michigan would end the contest with a twenty-five to fifteen advantage in shots on goal.

Well for tonight at least Michigan has won a game that they were supposed to win and have moved to within two points of first place (of course Michigan State now has a game in hand on the Wolverines). The shut out was Blackburns twelfth, leaving him just three short of the Michigan record. Michigan heads back down to Ann Arbor to prepare for Saturday night's game against these same Lakers in Joe Louis Arena.