Wolverines Bring Falcons Back To Earth

Friday, December 10, 2004
Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

The Wolverines saw the visiting Falcons fly to a three to nothing lead after twenty minutes of play only to come snarling back to tie the game in the second and put the win in the bank during the third. A game of big momentum shifts saw both teams at their best and their worst. In the end once the momentum turned to the Wolverines they never looked back.

Bowling Green got on the board fairly early in the period when they got a quick shot that beat Montoya to the wide side of the net with just over fifteen minutes still left to play. The puck had been pinned against the boards when it suddenly popped out right onto a Falcon players stick. A quick wrist shot later and Bowling Green had a sudden one goal lead.

Just as the clock moved under fourteen minutes the Falcons were whistled for a penalty, putting Michigan on the power play. Just when you thought the Wolverines might get the game even a poor bit of puck handling at the Michigan blue line led to Bowling Greens second goal of the game, this one short handed. Michigan turned the puck over at their blue line, allowing a Bowling Green player to skate in unchallenged. As he closed with the Michigan net he fired a shot that beat Montoya over his glove. With just over twelve minutes to play in the period the Falcons were flying high with a two to nothing lead.

With just over nine minutes to play the Falcons would get their third goal of the period off a tipped shot. A fairly innocent shot from near the blue line was coming straight down the slot and looked like it was going to be easily turned away, but just as it got to the crease it was deflected by another Falcon and slid through the five hole for their third goal of the game.

The first period would come to an end with Bowling Green leading Michigan by a score of three to nothing. Even though the Wolverines had out shot the Falcons fourteen to nine in the first period.

Both teams were whistled for penalties in the opening 1:03 of the second period, but both penalties would be successfully killed off. It was Bowling Green penalty with just over sixteen minutes to play that would finally see Michigan get on the board. Skating with the extra man and moving the puck well Michigan had missed on two or three grade A scoring chances on this power play. Finally, with just twenty-seven seconds left in the man advantage Kaleniecki blistered a shot from between the circles that beat the Falcon net minder for Michigan's first score of the game. Assists on the power play goal went to Gajic and Rogers.

With just over twelve minutes to play the Falcons would once again put Michigan on the power play and once again Michigan would make them pay. Michigan had been having trouble getting any kind of flow going on this power play and finally they just pushed the puck to the net. While the first shot and several others were blocked the puck kept bouncing around in front of the net. Finally, Hunwick would find the puck and punch it into the net to cut the Bowling Green lead to one. Assists went to Kolarik and Tambellini.

The clock had just moved under the eleven minute when mark when Michigan would strike for the third time in the period to tie the game. With this sudden out burst of goal scoring Michigan had the Falcons scrambling all over the ice trying to keep up. As Michigan crossed into the Bowling Green zone a quick pass from left to right across the ice got the puck to a wide open Gajic who gave the Falcon goalie a little fake allowing him to stuff the puck past the far post. The lone assist went to Ebbett. The Falcons took a time out at this time to regroup.

After scoring that third goal Michigan seemed to lose a little something and the Falcons got a number of great scoring chances in the final half of the second period. While they came close Bowling Green was unable to get another shot past Montoya and the second period ended with the score all tied at three goals each. Bowling Green out shot Michigan eleven to ten in the period, but Michigan continued to hold a slight edge in shots on goal with a twenty-four to twenty count.

The third period started with both teams skating four on four for forty-eight seconds. Neither team was able to do much with the extra ice, but just as the clock moved below the nineteen minute mark Hensick would put the Wolverines ahead for good. The puck took a strange little bounce at the Bowling Green blue line and ended up on the stick of Hensick and he flashed into the Falcon zone. He came down the right slot, closed with the goal, quickly cut to the left, and then fired a back hand top shelf that beat the net minder. Brown picked up the lone assist.

With just over seventeen minutes to play in the period Michigan would get some breathing room when Hunwick scored his second goal of the night. With the early goal Michigan was putting some big pressure on the Falcon net, just missing on a couple of up close shots. The puck was passed back out to Hunwick who had pinched down to the top of the left circle. As the puck neared him he wound up and sent a smashing slap shot through a screen and into the net for Michigan's fifth goal of the game. Tambellini and Nystrom each picked up an assist.

Michigan would score their sixth goal of the game with about thirteen and half minutes left to play in the period when a harmless looking dump in suddenly turned to disaster for Bowling Green. The puck was at center ice when a Michigan player lifted it high in the air toward the Falcon zone, just looking to get it into their zone. Unfortunately for Bowling Green the puck dropped behind the last defender and ended up right on Porters stick. Porter charged to the net and slid a back hand shot through the five hole for the score. Rogers and Hensick each picked up an assist.

With just over six minutes to play and and the game well in hand Noah Ruden came in to replace Montoya in goal, picking up some game time experience in preparation for the upcoming GLI tournament.

As the clock moved under the five minute mark it would once again be Hensick coming up with a score to give Michigan even more breathing room. Ryznar passed him the puck near the Falcon blue line and TJ headed into the Falcon zone. A Falcon defender met him at the top of the circles, but TJ made an incredible move to leave the defender behind him and closed with the Falcon goal without further interference. As he closed on the goal he banged the puck through the five hole for goal number seven. Ryznar got the lone assist.

With just over three minutes to play Bowling Green would put Michigan on the power play one last time and one last time Michigan would make them pay. With just over one minute to go in the man advantage Hunwick had the puck near the Falcon blue line. Once again he would up and slapped a shot through a number of players that just squeezed into the top corner of the goal for his hat trick. Rogers and Gajic each picked up an assist on the power play goal.

The game would come to an end with Michigan winning by a score of eight to three. The Wolverines ended the night with a thirty-eight to twenty-three advantage in shots on goal.

After getting bombed in the first period, a period where it didn't look like Michigan was playing that badly, at least for most of the period, the Wolverines found themselves on the wrong end of a three to nothing score. However, they didn't despair, coming out in the second a reeling off three straight goals to tie the game. They did seem to tire or just slow down after getting the game back to even. That coupled with a couple of Michigan penalties saw the Falcons get some great scoring chances in the last half of the second period, but this time Montoya turned them all away. Another five goals in the third period (eight unanswered goals in all) led to the final score. Michigan takes on these same Falcons in the last game of the first half, this time at Bowling Green. They will need a much more consistent and focused effort on the road if they want to get the final two points available to them in this seasons first half.