Broncos Buck Wolverines

Saturday, January 11, 2003
Lawson Ice Arena, Kalamazoo, Michigan

A fairly uneventful first period suddenly turned sour for the Wolverines with just over six minutes to play when the Broncos looked to be simply dumping the puck toward the net. Taking the shot from near the blue line, the little floater sailed past everyone, including Montoya, and a harmless looking shot suddenly gave the Bronco's their first goal of the game.

The Wolverines would be whistled for a penalty with just forty seconds left in the first giving Western a power play chance, but the period would end with Western leading by a score of one to nothing. Michigan would hold a slight edge in shots on goal with an eight to three count.

The Bronco's started the second period with 1:21 of power play time, but the Wolverines killed that off without suffering any more damage. With about eighteen and a half minutes to play Michigan would get it back to even. In a wild rush up the ice Michigan drove right down the slot, getting within shooting distance, and blasting a shot past the Bronco goalie. The quick goal was scored by Woodford with the lone assist going to Shouneyia.

With just under eighteen minutes to play Michigan would once again be whistled for a penalty, giving the Bronco's a second power play. However, that power play ended just twenty-four seconds later when the Bronco's were whistled for a penalty of their own, leaving the teams skating with four men each. With just over thirteen minutes left in the period Western would be whistled for a penalty giving Michigan a full power play. It looked like Michigan would score on this when Ebbett got a look at a wide open net, but he fanned on the shot and the scoring chance was gone.

With just under eleven minutes to play Michigan would get yet another power play chance as the Bronco's were once again sent to the sin bin. However, once again the Wolverines would be unable to take advantage of the extra man. Things would change seconds after the power play ended when Michigan would have the puck near the top of the circle to the Western goalies left. From there Ebbett took a shot, that didn't look like much to begin with, but it ended up in the goal and Michigan had their first lead of the game. The lone assist on this goal went to Moss.

The second period would come to an end with Michigan holding a two to one lead. The Wolverines also extended their lead in shots on goal having a twenty-two to eight advantage in this category through two periods of play.

With just eighteen minutes to play in the final period Western was whistled for a penalty that put Michigan on the power play early in the period. Working the puck around the Bronco zone with some good passing the Wolverines finally got the shot they were looking for and as a nice cross crease pass for the back door shot led to Michigan's third goal of the game. The goal was scored by Rodgers with assists going to Shouneyia and Helminen.

With just over eleven minutes left to play the Bronco's scored what can only be called one of the softest goals of the season. Slapping the puck toward the Michigan goal from near the red line, the puck floated right past Montoya and into the net for the most unlikely of goals. Suddenly the Bronco's were within one, their fans were fired up, and the Bronco's had new life.

With just under eight minutes to play a poorly handled defensive hand off by Michigan left a Bronco all alone with a perfect shot at the goal. Winding up the unmolested Bronco slammed a shot past Montoya over his left shoulder and the game was tied.

With just under seven minutes to play a number of penalties were called sending one Bronco and two Wolverines to their respective penalty boxes. The end result was a Bronco power play. The Wolverines killed off the penalty, but it wouldn't be long before the Bronco's put the final nail in the Wolverine coffin.

With just under four minutes left to play there was a face off to the right of Montoya. The Bronco's gained control of the puck and a single player circled around, and came right to the Michigan net. Not wanting to take any chances this Bronco simply overpowered Montoya, shoving both him and the puck into the goal for their third straight goal in about seven minutes of play.

With just 1:26 to play in the game a face off was coming in the Western end and Michigan called time out. Coming back onto the ice Montoya stayed on the bench to give Michigan the extra attacker. Even with the extra man Michigan was unable to get anything set up as the Western players were all over the Wolverines. With just seventeen seconds to play the face off was coming in the Michigan end so Montoya was brought back out. The Bronco's called a time out to catch their breath and plan strategy for the final seconds of the game. The puck was dropped, but Michigan would do nothing with it. The third period came to an end with the Bronco's winning by a score of four to three. The Wolverines ended the game with a twenty-nine to twenty-five advantage in shots on goal.

Once again the Wolverines fold in the third period and let another game, that was all but won, slip away from them allowing three unanswered goals in the third period. This was certainly a team loss. Playing perhaps his worst game of the season Montoya allowed in two soft goals, one of which fired up the home team and the home crowd and started the final blitz that doomed the Wolverines. However, he wasn't the only player that didn't play very well in this game, it was, as already stated, a team effort. Michigan didn't play very well in the first, managing just eight shots on goal. Certainly some of that was due to the Bronco's who seemed more intent on hitting Wolverines than looking for any kind of scoring chance in the first period. Their one goal in that period was one of those two soft goals already mentioned.

The second period was the Wolverines best as they came out and played their brand of hockey for twenty minutes, shutting down the Bronco's and scoring two goals to go into the third with a lead. The first eight or nine minutes of the third period were also played well by Michigan, but after that goal from the red line (a shot that any goalie no matter who he is has to stop) the Wolverines just unraveled. They didn't take care of the puck, they didn't finish their checks, and they simply got man handled by the Bronco's. In the final ten minutes of this game it looked like the Bronco's were playing stationary opponents as they out hit, out hustled, out skated, and just plain out played the Wolverines. Once again Michigan let a third period lead slip through their fingers, turning what should have been a win into a loss.

This loss will undoubtedly cost the Wolverines in the Pairwise rankings and the regular polls when they come out next week, as Michigan seems intent on working their way to bubble status for the NCAA tournament. This loss also hurt the Wolverines in the CCHA race as they no longer control their destiny. They must now wait and hope that some other team can knock off the front runners. The best Michigan can do now, even if they win the remainder of their games, is end the season tied for the lead. Frankly right now, the way this team is playing, their ability to win the remainder of their games have to be placed somewhere between slim and none. Michigan has a week off to think about what might have been, again. They had better use this time to figure out just what is wrong with this team or the month of February will see them fade away.