Michigan Advances to GLI Championship

Saturday, December 28, 2002
Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan

After a lengthy layoff the Wolverines finally return to the ice today as they play in the second of two semi-final games at the 38th Annual Great Lakes Invitational (GLI). After finishing the first half of the year on a down note by being swept by Northern Michigan the Wolverines will be looking to jump start the second half of their season with their first GLI championship in several years. With the initial game over it's already known that Michigan will face Boston University, the second non-Michigan team to make the finals in two years, should the Wolverines win their game today. That would be a great match up for college hockey in general as the second half of the season gets underway.

Michigan will be short three players going into this years contest, perhaps bringing its strongest team to the tournament since it last won. Helminen and Nystrom are out playing at the World Juniors and Woodford is out with an injury. Other than that the defensive core is intact, the goal tender is with the team, and despite losing its scoring leader (Helminen) they still bring plenty of offensive fire power. This would be a great place for Tambellini to break out and kick start his second half. The same can be said for a number of other players like Shouneyia, Moss, Ortmeyer, Kaleniecki, and others. Only time will tell if this batch of Wolverines will do what last years senior class never did - win the GLI.

Michigan was bringing the pressure early in this game, more by keeping the puck in the Huskie zone and hard checking, than through shots on goal. Even with the lopsided play in the Huskie zone it would be Michigan Tech who would get the first break of the game. Somehow the Huskies came out of a tangle at center ice behind the Michigan defense with the puck. While the defense did catch up the Huskies still got off a great shot, but Montoya came up with an equally big save to keep the game score less.

With just over thirteen minutes to play in the period the Huskies would get whistled for the games first penalty, putting Michigan on the power play. While the Wolverines would get glorious scoring chances on this power play they were unable to connect on either one and the game remained score less.

As the clock reached the midpoint of the period Michigan was beginning to see some shots at the Huskie goal. With just under nine minutes to play each team lost a player to the sin bin creating a four on four situation. With just over eight minutes left to play (1:27 in the matching penalties) the Wolverines would take advantage of that extra skating room. Gaining control of the puck at center ice Ortmeyer passed ahead to Shouneyia who broke slightly to his left heading for the blue line. As soon as he got the puck to Shouneyia, Ortmeyer broke for the net. As both players crossed the blue line Ortmeyer was suddenly all alone behind the defense. Shouneyia slid the puck ahead to Ortmeyer who blasted the puck top shelf for the games first goal. Ortmeyer picked up the goal, while Shouneyia got the lone assist.

With just over four minutes to play Michigan would get whistled for a penalty that would give Michigan Tech their first power play of the game. Michigan would kill this power play off and as the clock began to wind Michigan started to see some great scoring chances. With just over one minute to play Michigan got loose on a four on one break, but the Huskie goalie came up with a huge save to end the scoring chance. With just over thirty-five seconds to play the Huskie goalie again came up with an unbelievable save to stop what looked to be a sure Michigan goal.

With both teams wheeling up and down the ice taking shots at the opponents goalie and all thoughts of defense gone out the window the Huskies would make Michigan pay. With just twenty-three seconds left in the period that lack of defense allowed the Huskies to get down tight to the Michigan goal where they would finally chip one past Montoya to tie the game. While the Huskies almost got a second goal in the final seconds the first period would come to an end with the score all tied at one goal each. Michigan held a slight edge in shots on goal with a ten to nine count.

With just under sixteen minutes to play in the second period Michigan Tech would take the lead on a strange little goal. The puck was behind the Michigan net and both teams were fighting for control. Martens attempted to send the puck around the boards, but it hit a Huskie player and bounced up into the air. Getting just enough stick on the puck a Huskie player directed it behind Montoya where it dropped to the ice, behind the goal line for their first lead of the game.

Following the goal Michigan Tech really put some pressure on the Michigan goal, but the Wolverines weathered the storm and play continued up and down the ice. With just over fourteen minutes to play it would be the Wolverines getting the pressure on the goal, but the Huskie goalie was everywhere stopping every Wolverine scoring chance. With just over twelve minutes to play in period Michigan would get whistled for a penalty putting the Huskies on the power play. Michigan would kill this penalty off, while the Huskies continued to lead.

Just seconds after the Huskie power play ended a scrum erupted around the Michigan net. While both teams lost players to the sin bin, it was the Huskies who collected one additional minor penalty to give Michigan a power play. Barely forty seconds into the power play (1:21 of power play time left) Michigan would tie the game with a timely power play goal. The Wolverines had been applying pressure through this entire power play, getting off several shots that were blocked. Michigan took a big shot from out front of the net which was blocked, but the rebound dribbled off to the goalies right. Getting control of the puck slightly behind the goal Ortmeyer tapped it forward, banking it off the back of the goalies leg and into the net to tie the game at two goals each. Assists on the goal went to Richmond and Shouneyia.

With just under six minutes to play it would once again be the power play that would put the Wolverines back in the lead. Ortmeyer would gain control of the puck and would carry it up the ice into the Huskie zone. As the defense collapsed toward him Ortmeyer dropped a pass back to Tambellini. Tambellini faked a shot and skated around the Huskie defender. Taking a shot from an extreme angle Tambellini somehow got the puck in past the goalie on the short side to once again put Michigan in front. The assists on this goal went to Ortmeyer and Rodgers.

Michigan would get whistled for a penalty with just over two minutes to play to give Michigan Tech a late power play chance. Michigan would kill off this penalty and weather a late flurry by the Huskies to end the second period with a three to two lead. The Wolverines extended their lead in shots on goal ending the period with a twenty-one to fourteen edge in that category.

Both teams had been moving the puck up and down the ice when it looked like Michigan had scored their fourth goal of the game with just under sixteen minutes to play. However, the goal was waved off; after review it was determined that the net was off the posts and therefore no goal was recorded. On the up side the Huskies had been whistled for a penalty putting Michigan on the power play. Working the puck very well around the Michigan Tech zone the Wolverines would once again make the Huskies pay while on the power play. Setting up a picture perfect back door play Michigan got the puck to Rodgers who slid it into the wide open net. Assists on this goal went to Ortmeyer and Shouneyia.

With just over thirteen minutes to play in the period Michigan would be whistled for a penalty putting Michigan Tech on the power play, but the Wolverines would kill it off. The next big play came with just over eight minutes to play when Michigan Tech would get off what looked to be a sure score. Somehow Montoya came up off the ice and moved to the left to come up with a huge save, holding the Michigan lead.

The next few minutes would see each team getting called for multiple penalties. First Michigan was on the power play, then a penalty evened things up at four players to a side. Then some additional Michigan penalties and we would eventually see Michigan Tech skating with a four on three advantage. Michigan would get back to four on four, then kill of a short five on four, finally killing off all penalties and getting back to even strength.

With 3:02 to play Michigan Tech would be whistled for a penalty putting Michigan on the power play. With just two seconds ticked off the clock the Huskies would get hit with their second penalty giving Michigan a two man advantage for 1:58. With 1:23 left in the two man advantage the Wolverines would get the puck out front to Ebbett who would send it high on the glove side to score Michigan's fifth goal of the game. It was once again some great passing that would setup the Michigan score. Assists on the goal went to Gajic and Richmond.

With twenty-seven seconds left in the period Michigan Tech would score their final goal of the game, sneaking one past Montoya. However, when the final horn sounded it was the Wolverines who had won the game by a score of five to three. The shots on goal were tightened by the Huskies in the final period, but Michigan ended the game with a twenty-seven to twenty-two advantage.

Not a bad game for the Wolverines to start the second half of the season. They got off to a bit of a sluggish start, but seemed to get stronger and crisper as the game went on. The power play was in rare form as the Wolverines scored four of their five goals with the extra man. The penalty kill was also back in top form, shutting down all of the Michigan Tech power play attempts. At one point in the game the Huskies had been held to one shot in four power play chances. That sets up a game between the Wolverines and the Terriers from Boston University for the Great Lakes Invitational Championship tomorrow at 5:00 PM. This will be the first meeting between these two teams since Boston University knocked Michigan out of the Frozen Four back in 1997.