Irish Sweep Wolverines

Saturday, February 28, 2004
Joyce Center, South Bend, Indiana

The Wolverines entered this weekend with a chance to lock up first place in the CCHA race. Instead, a lack luster performance on Friday and a strange game on Saturday, both of which were won by the Irish, have thrown the CCHA race wide open and left the Wolverines wondering what they have to do to win games on the road.

Michigan applied the pressure early and often in this contest, constantly keeping the Irish scrambling to protect their goal. Each team would trade penalties in the first, but it would be the Irish who would take advantage of the extra man in the first of many strange bounce goals in this game. Michigan was killing a penalty in the middle of the period and the Irish had the puck in the Michigan zone. An Irish player was simply looking to pass the puck through the crease, however, as it entered the crease it hit Michigan defender Jason Dest, redirecting at a sharp angle and into the goal. Notre Dame scored the games first goal on a redirected pass with just over eleven minutes to play in the period.

While Michigan would come close on a number of occasions that was all the scoring the first period would see as Notre Dame took their one to nothing lead into the first intermission. The Wolverines out shot the Irish in this period by a twelve to three margin.

Michigan got the game back to even just twenty seconds into the second period when Tambellini scored Michigan's first goal of the contest. Helminen had carried the puck into the Irish zone, but he got tied up as he approached the net, preventing him from getting off a shot. Tambellini was right their to take the puck and quickly lift a shot up over the Irish net minder to tie the game. Helminen and Werner each picked up an assist on the goal.

As the clock was moving under the eighteen minute mark the Wolverines would strike for the second time in this period and seemed to be off to the races. Little did they know that the rest of the game would fall into the strange category. There were a number of players in front of the Irish goal when Ebbett managed to get his stick on the puck and just jam it past the Irish net minder for Michigan's second goal and their only lead of the weekend. The lone assist was given to Ryznar.

While Michigan would keep tremendous pressure on the Irish goal for the remainder of this period it would be the Irish who would pick up the remainder of the periods goals. Their second goal of the game came with just over four minutes to play in the second period when a shot from the point once again deflected off a Michigan defender close to the net and skipped past Ruden.

Seconds later, with exactly four minutes left to play, the Irish would retake the lead with their second straight goal of the period from the face off that followed their game tying goal. The Irish controlled the puck from the face off, passed it into the Michigan zone, and snapped a quick shot that beat Ruden high to retake the lead.

The second period would come to an end with Notre Dame holding the three to two lead, despite being out shot by the Wolverines in the period eighteen to five. Michigan ended two periods of play with a thirty to eight advantage in shots on goal.

With just over thirteen minutes to play the Irish would once again get a goal off a strange deflection down in close to the goal to extend their lead to two goals. The Irish sent a shot down the slot that was going to be easily stopped when another Irish player managed to get just enough of his stick on the puck as it approached the goal to deflect it past Ruden at an angle he simply couldn't stop.

Michigan pulled Ruden with roughly three minutes left in the game and still trailing by two goals. With just 2:35 left to play in the game the Irish scored an empty net goal to seal the win.

There would be no further scoring and the game would come to an end with Notre Dame winning by a score of five to two. While the Irish had their best period of the game, tallying eight shots, the Wolverines ended the game with a forty-one to sixteen advantage in shots on goal.

The Wolverines had a chance this weekend to really make a statement about themselves as a team and the team as a playoff contender. Instead they made a different kind of statement, a statement clearly identifying their inability to compete on the road, even in situations where championships could have been won. While the Miami Redhawks were taking care of business the Wolverines were collapsing. The CCHA championship can still be won, but it has to be won on the road and the race is now wide open with three teams in position to claim the top spot. Michigan will have to sweep arch rival Michigan State on the road if it doesn't want to depend on any tie breakers for the title. The Spartans have to sweep the Wolverines if they want a share of first place. The Redhawks are only two points back and have to play their top rival, Ohio State. The final weekend of play should be interesting, but nowhere should it be more interesting than in the Michigan locker room as they try to figure out how they can win games when away from Yost.