Saturday, October 27, 2001

Saturday, October 27, 2001, Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The Michigan Wolverines look to gain a split and salvage something this weekend in their second game against the visiting Wildcats from Northern Michigan. The Wolverines lost a heart breaker last night against these same Wildcats as they saw a game slip away in the first minute of overtime after skating to zero to zero tie through sixty minutes of hockey. Michigan and it's young group of players will have to try and shrug off that devastating loss and get back on track in tonight's contest.

This didn't get off to a good start as Michigan mishandled the puck and found themselves out of position in the early going of this game giving the Wildcats a break away into the Michigan zone. Blackburn turned away the shot, but that certainly isn't the way Michigan was looking to start this contest. With 15:58 left to play in the first period it would again be bad puck handling that would lead to the first goal of the night for the Wildcats. Michigan mishandled the puck just inside their blue line where a Wildcat was in position to pounce. With Michigan's defense all behind him he skated in unmolested and blasted a shot past Blackburn to put the Wildcats ahead early in this game.

The Wolverines would get back to even with 11:30 left in the opening period when they won a face off to the left of the Northern goalie. Cammalleri was in to take the draw, which he won, getting the puck back to Mink. Mink let loose a wrist shot that got past the Wildcat netminder to give Michigan their first goal of the game. Cammalleri got the lone assist on this goal.

With less than ten minutes left in the period both teams had received penalties and were skating four men to the side. About one minute into this four on four stretch Northern once again got a clean break up the ice and once again Blackburn came up with terrific save to keep the score knotted at one goal apiece.

With 6:24 left in the period Michigan gets another penalty, another bad penalty, to put Northern on the power play. Just thirty seconds into the power play Northern gets a shot top shelf to beat Blackburn on his blocker side. The Northern power play goal stakes the Wildcats to their second lead of the period and game.

Both teams would get power play chances in the final five minutes of the period, but the first period came to an end with Northern leading by a score of two to one. Northern also held a slight edge in shots on goal with a twelve to ten count.

Northern started the second period with seven seconds of power play time, but the Wolverines were able to kill off the final seconds of this penalty. Michigan got back into the game in the early going of this period when some hard work by Moss led to Michigan's second goal of the game. With the puck behind the net Moss made a nice pass out front where Helminen chipped the puck into the net to tie the game. Assists on the goal went to Moss and Woodford.

With 16:52 left in the period Northern would be whistled for a penalty giving Michigan a power play opportunity shortly after their second goal. With 15:47 to go in the period and 56 seconds left in the power play Northern got called for their second penalty giving Michigan a lengthy two-man advantage. It took Michigan about thirty seconds to find the crack they were looking for to get their third goal of the game. Cammalleri received a nice cross-ice pass and put the puck past the Northern goalie for Michigan's third goal of the night, on the power play, with assists going to Komisarek and Ryznar.

With just over thirteen minutes left in the period Michigan once again mishandled the puck and Northern was once again right there to take advantage. With the numbers to their advantage the opportunistic Wildcats crashed the Michigan goal and got their third goal of the game to once again tie the game.

About one minute later Michigan took another penalty putting Northern back on the power play. Less than forty-five seconds into the power play Northern gets their fourth goal of the game to retake the lead for good. The second period came to an end with Northern leading by a score of four to three. Shots on goal were all even after two with each team having twenty-three.

With Michigan trying to make something happen they picked up another penalty with just over fifteen minutes to go in the game. Once again it wouldn't take long for the Wildcats to take advantage as they pick up their third power play goal of the game after using just 39 seconds of power play time. Michigan's defense and Blackburn seemed to be sleep walking during this power play as Northern simply skated circles around the Wolverines.

Both teams would take a number of penalties down the stretch, but neither team was able to take advantage of their power play chances. The Wolverines would increase the intensity of their play, but none of that would make a difference. The game came to an end with the Wildcats winning by a score of five to three. Michigan would end the game with a 38 to 27 advantage in shots on goal.

There isn't much to say about this game, other than to restate the obvious. Everything that Michigan needed to do tonight, they didn't. There defense didn't get better, it got worse. Their goaltending didn't get better, it got worse. Their goal special teams didn't get better, they got worse. While it would be nice to say that the Wolverines at least improved after Friday night's contest, that simply can't be said. The Wolverines seemed dazed and confused with nobody seemingly prepared to step up and lead this team on the ice.

Michigan completes the month of October two games under five hundred, steadily dropping in both the national rankings and the conference standings, and they've scored one less goal than they've given up. All in all it's perhaps the worst month of October in about a decade. Michigan has a lot of work to do and they need to do it fairly quickly, as things don’t get any easier in the month of November. They go to Alaska this weekend to play a Fairbanks team that is off too perhaps their best start in history. Then they have a week off, and then they have to go to Nebraska to take on the Mavericks who swept number one Michigan State this weekend. Whatever Michigan is going to do they need to do it fast or this season will slip away from them before they know it.