Michigan Stakes Claim To First Place

Friday, March 1, 2002
Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Michigan goes into this, the final weekend of the regular season, tied with Michigan State atop the CCHA standings. The Wolverines have a home and home series against Western Michigan, a team that is looking to lock up home ice for the first round of the CCHA tournament. Over in East Lansing the Spartans will have a home and home series against Ferris State. While the Bulldogs probably have less to play for they do seem to have a habit of giving Michigan State problems. Of course Western Michigan also has a habit of giving Michigan problems, especially on their home ice. Will one of these teams falter this weekend or will we still be tied at the end of the weekend? If they are still tied they will be co-champions in the conference, but a tie breaker will be used to determine the number one seed in the CCHA tournament. While Michigan currently holds that tie breaker, its probable that Michigan State will have the tie breaker before the weekends end. One final weekend of nail biting CCHA action and all of our questions will be answered.

Both teams came out of the gate looking to establish the tone of the game. Michigan got a little over zealous in their attempts as they were whistled for a penalty just over one minute into the game giving the Broncos the first power play chance of the night. As has been the case for most of the second half of the season the Wolverine penalty kill was too tough and the penalty was killed off.

Since the Wolverines accounted for the first penalty of the game, it seemed only fitting that they get the first goal of the game, which they did shortly after they had killed off that initial penalty. Just as they killed the penalty Michigan got the puck out of their zone, quickly moving it up the ice. A pass across the ice to Cammalleri just missed and it looked like the puck might slide out of the Bronco zone, but Werner was there to keep it in the zone. Werner made a great pass down in close to Henderson who was all alone in front of the net. Wasting no time Henderson put the puck in the net and Michigan was up one to nothing.

The Broncos would get called for their first penalty of the night near the midpoint of the period and they would also kill their penalty off. Michigan was hit with their second penalty of the period witih just 1:34 left in the period. With 22.9 seconds left the Bronco's were hit with their second penalty to end their power play and set Michigan up for a power play of their own early in the second period. The first period would come to an end with Michigan leading by a one to nothing score. The Wolverines also had the edge in shots on goal with an eleven to six count.

The teams would start the second period skating four men to a side for twenty six seconds. At that time Michigan would get a power play for 1:18. Neither team was able to score during this time and all the penalties were killed off.

While they didn't score on the power play the Wolverines would once again get on the board early in this period. With exactly sixteen minutes left in the period Michigan would score their second goal of the game to get a little breathing room. After putting all kinds of pressure on the Bronco goal, missing on several scoring chances Michigan would swing around behind the Bronco goal with the puck. From their they passed the puck out front where a shot was taken. The puck was partially blocked and it did a little hop over the goalies head, actually hitting him. With the puck laying in the crease Mink got there to poke it over the line and extend the Wolverine lead. The lone assist on this goal went to Ryznar.

With just under sixteen minutes to play, seconds after Michigan scored their second goal, a series of penalties would be called. First the Broncos would be called, then each team would lose a player leaving each team skating with four men. With fifty four seconds left in this pair of penalties the Broncos would pick up a second to put Michigan on the power play. With just seconds to go before all the penalties would be killed off the Broncos would score a short handed goal to back within one.

With just over eight minutes to go in the period Michigan would pick up another penalty putting Western on the power play. Just as the Wolverines got this penalty killed off the would be called for another penalty to extend the Bronco power play. Michigan would get these killed off and would get a power play of their own with just three minutes left to play. Unfortunately Western was able to kill this penalty off and the period came to an end with Michigan leading by a score of two to one. The Wolverines ended the second period with a very large advantage in shots on goal as they had outshot the Broncos twenty eight to ten through two periods.

With things getting tense the third period got under way with both teams moving up and down the ice with abandon. The hitting also seemed to go up a notch as this period got started as Western tried to put bodies on bodies and create mistakes. However, it would once again be Michigan who would find twine in the early going of this period. With about fifteen and a half minutes to play in regulation time Western was taking a shot from the Michigan blue line. Helminen was right there and got his body in front of the shot blocking it. The puck took a nice bounce that allowed Helminen to pick it up and skate it into the Western zone. Charging down the boards on the press box side of the arena Helminen dropped a pass back and over to Woodford who got the puck past the Bronco netminder.

The action would continue up and down the ice with neither team picking up a penalty or another score, but the action was really starting to get chippy. With 7:39 left in the period Western would once again put the Wolverines on the power play. Working the puck around the Bronco zone looking for a good shot, Michigan would find it. Just twenty eight seconds into the power play Michigan got the puck out to the blue line to a waiting Komisarek. As Komisarek got the puck an alley seemed to open for him that left him with a clean shot on goal with the goalie nicely screened. Komisarek let fly a booming shot that flew into the Bronco net untouched, bouncing back out on its own it had so much speed. The assists on this goal went to Cammalleri and Shouneyia.

Michigan would again get called for back to back penalties, picking up their second just as they got the first penalty killed off. Taking just twenty three seconds of their second straight power play the Broncos scored a power play goal to cut Michigans lead to two. With 1:43 left in the game each team had a player called for a double minor, however, the Broncos picked up an extra one to put Michigan on the power play. With 1:25 left Western would take thier time out to decide strategy. As they returned to the ice they kept their goalie on the bench to get back to even strength. Michigan would get a couple of shots at the open net, but would miss both of them. The game would come to an end with Michigan winning by a score of four to two. The Wolverines ended up with a forty two to twenty one advantage in shots on goal.

Michigan took care of business on their first night of this home and home series with Western. Tomorrow they will do it all again, but this time over in Kalamazoo. The Wolverines pretty much dominated the play in this game, giving Western very few good scoring opportunities. While the Wolverines have had trouble playing at Western in recent years they go into tomorrow nights game as the first place team in the CCHA (by virtue of Michigan States loss to Ferris this evening). If the Wolverines want to finish the year in sole possession of first place in the CCHA all they have to do is win one final game and the title is thiers, only theirs.