Wolverines Survive Irish

Friday, November 22, 2002
Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Both teams would hit the ice flying in this contest with the defenses dominating play in the early going. With almost five minutes gone in the period each team had only mustered one shot. Michigan would get the first break in the game when the Irish were whistled for a penalty putting the Wolverines on the power play. Just as it looked like the man advantage would end with the Wolverines doing no damage Tambellini got loose down the right side of the ice, starting a rush that would lead to the games first goal. Carrying the puck up the ice Tambellini seemed to lose control of it, but it bounced right to Shouneyia, positioned right in front of the Irish goal. With his back to the goal, Shouneyia flipped a back hand shot at the net that just beat the Irish net minder for the games first goal. This power play score was recorded as an unassisted goal.

The remainder of the period would see both teams battle up and down the ice, with each team getting power play opportunities. It looked like the period would come to an end with Michigan holding onto the one goal lead, but that would all change with just ten seconds left to play. With a delay penalty to be called Michigan pulled their goal tender for the extra attacker. The Wolverines worked the puck over to the goalies left, around the top of the circle. From there Ebbett let a shot fly that beat the goalie for the Wolverines second unassisted goal. The period would come to an end with the Wolverines holding a two to nothing lead. Michigan held a very slight edge in shots on goal with a seven to six count.

About a minute and a half into the second stanza it looked like Notre Dame would get within one, but Montoya came up with a fantastic save to hold the Michigan lead at two. With just over seventeen minutes to play in the period the Wolverines would strike for the third time in this game. Martens took a huge shot from the point that was blocked, but the rebound was not covered. The puck bounced to the goalies left where Woodford was once again in perfect position to put the puck into the open net. Woodford gets the goal, Martens gets the assist.

Barely thirty seconds later Michigan would be whistled for a penalty putting the Irish on the power play. The Wolverines would kill this one off and get a power play of their own with just under fourteen minutes to play. Michigan would be unable to take advantage of this power play and with about ten and half minutes to play they would once again put the Irish on the power play. With thirty seconds left in the Irish power play a second Michigan penalty would give the Irish a two man advantage and extend their power play time. Michigan killed off the first penalty to get one man back and with 1:29 left in the second penalty an Irish player would jam Montoya leading to a mini brawl around the Wolverine net. When all was said and done Michigan had two players sent to the sin bin, while the Irish lost three. That ended the Irish power play and set Michigan up for a short power play of their own. All of these penalties would be killed off with no goals scored.

With about three and half minutes to play in the period some sloppy puck handling would lead to Notre Dames first goal of the game. Turning the puck over near the right boards the Irish would pick it up and flip it to the net. The shot, while nothing special, sailed past Montoya who seemed not to see the puck, and gave Notre Dame their first goal of the contest.

Less than thirty seconds later Michigan would return the favor. Off the face off that followed the Notre Dame goal, Michigan charged into the Irish zone to the left of the Irish goal. From there Mink seemed to just flip the puck toward the net, but the puck would beat the Irish goalie to the wide side to put Michigan back on top by three. Assists on this goal went to Helminen and Richmond.

The second period would end with Michigan winning by a score of four to one. The Irish would end the second period leading in shots on goal with a twenty-one to nineteen count.

The Irish really brought the heat at the start of the final period, while Michigan seemed to be going through the motions. With less than a minute played in the period all that pressure paid off and the Irish had their second goal of the game with plenty of time left. Montoya had stopped several shots, but getting no help from his defense the Irish finally got a shot off that he couldn't stop to cut the lead to two.

With just under eleven minutes to play Michigan would put the Irish back on the power play, but would again successfully kill the penalty off. A bit of excitement would ensue with about seven and half minutes to play when Michigan would be awarded a penalty shot. Getting control of the puck in the neutral zone Gajic would get loose on a clean break. To stop the real scoring threat an Irish defender would drag Gajic to the ice resulting in a penalty. Michigan elected to take the penalty shot and Gajic was given the chance to get his goal. Moving up the ice Gajic would move to the back hand, but Cey would pin the puck with his leg and no goal would be scored.

With under three minutes to play in the game and Notre Dame looking for two goals the Wolverines did what they could to help the Irish cause by getting whistled for yet another penalty, putting the Irish on the power play. The Irish also called a time out at this time to plan strategy. With Cey looking to head to the bench the penalty kill stepped up big, keeping the puck in or near the Irish zone for much of the power play, keeping the Irish goal tender on the ice. Finally with just 1:27 left in the game (twenty-seven seconds in the power play) the Irish got their goal tender off the ice to gain a two man advantage. It looked like Michigan would get an empty net goal as Ebbett got control of the puck and headed into the Irish zone but the play was called off side. The penalty would be killed off, but the Irish would keep their goalie off the ice. Michigan would get several chances at the empty net, but they either went wide or were blocked by defenders. Through it all no more goals would be scored and the game would end with Michigan winning by a score of four to two. The Irish really took it to the Wolverines in the third period and ended the game with a thirty-seven to twenty-four advantage in shots on goal.

Well Michigan got the win, but it can only be called an ugly win. While they played a decent first period the Wolverines seemed to go consistently down hill in the second and third periods. The second period was marred by so many penalties that at one time there were five or six players in each penalty box at the same time. There were two brawls, the second one resulting in all players on the ice going to the sin bin. The defense was sloppy with the puck and often out of position. The offense missed several chances at open nets and never seemed to get any kind of rhythm going. The only high point of this game was the play of Montoya who is the sole reason Michigan was able to win the game. These two teams face off again tomorrow night and one can only assume that a much different Michigan team will take the ice.