Redhawks Embarrass Wolverines

Friday, October 20, 2006
Yost Arena, Ann Arbor, Michigan

One team showed up to play, the Redhawks, the other team showed up and looked like a bunch of first year hockey players, the Wolverines. Not only did Michigan get schooled on their own ice by the visiting Redhawks, the Wolverines lost to a team they hadn't lost to at home in twelve years (November 18, 1994 was the last home loss to Miami, twenty wins ago). When it was finally over it was Miami four, Michigan one with that one goal coming late in the game when the contest was already well past decided.

The first period saw Michigan get four power play chances against Miami's two, all to no avail. The Michigan power play, like the rest of the game this night was impotent to say the least. The first period would come to an end with the score still tied at zero. However, the Redhawks had dominated the play, ending the first twenty minutes with a nine to seven advantage in shots on goal.

Michigan started the second period with a two man advantage (twelve seconds and 1:07 of penalty time remaining), but as with the first period they could muster no pressure with the extra attacker. In fact Michigan seemed even less interested in the game to start the second period, but the Redhawks came to play.

With just over nineteen minutes on the clock, twenty-two seconds remaining in the Michigan power play, the Redhawks got on the board by scoring their first of two short handed goals. The Redhawks attacked, even down a man, looking more like Michigan than Michigan. They got a man down in front of the net, an area that Michigan's defense seemed to vacate. He got off a point blank shot that Sauer was able to stop, but he didn't cover the rebound and couldn't recover fast enough to block the second Miami shot, leading to the Redhawks first goal of the period.

With the clock just under four minutes the Redhawks added to their lead when they got off a shot from between the face off circles that made it through a tangle of players in front of the Michigan net, ending up behind Sauer for the score.

With just over two minutes to play Michigan was sent to the penalty box putting Miami on the power play. With roughly a minute and a half to go, still over a minute in the Miami power play, the Redhawks struck for their third unanswered goal of the period. Several Redhawk players got in tight on the Michigan goal and they simply overwhelmed the Wolverines finally punching the puck home for the goal.

The second period would come to an end with Miami leading by a three to nothing score. Miami out shot the Wolverines fourteen to five in the period to end forty minutes of play with a twenty-three to twelve advantage in shots on goal.

Michigan spent most of the third period dodging bullets as Sauer made save after save, while the rest of the Wolverines stumbled and bumbled around the ice. With just over three minutes to play a bit of a scrum along the boards ended up seeing two Miami players in the penalty box, each with two minute minors, and one Wolverine in the box with a five minute major. For the next two minutes Michigan would be on the power play, then they would spend the rest of the game on the penalty kill.

With roughly two and a half minutes to play, still 1:13 and 4:13 left in the respective penalties, Miami would score their second short handed goal of the game. A Miami player forced a turn over in the neutral zone and headed into Michigans zone. Hunwick went to intercept, but the Miami player just bumped him out of the way and sailed past like he wasn't there. The Redhawk player continued to close on the zone, flying past and sticking puck behind Sauer for the fourth Miami goal of the game.

About one minute later Michigan would avoid the added embarrassment of being shut out at home when they final got a garbage goal past the Miami net minder. The Wolverines were still on the power play when Johnson fired off a shot from the left face off dot that beat the Miami goalie high to the wide side of the net. Hensick and Mitera each picked up an assist on the goal.

The game would finally come to an end with Miami beating Michigan by a score of four to one. Michigan somehow managed to out shoot Miami nine to eight in the period, but Miami ended the game with a thirty-one to twenty-one advantage in shots on goal.

It wasn't just that fact that Michigan lost last night that is so upsetting, its how they lost. They had played this same team the night before in a game that was much closer than the final score would indicate, then they don't show up for tonights game. Michigan was out hustled, out worked, and simply out played in every facet of the game. Conventional wisdom was that several players returned, rather than leave early, to come back and finish with a much better season than the one they had last year. Unfortunately right now it all looks like empty talk. What we witnessed last night was just a replay of last year. A Michigan team that hasn't yet played a full sixty minutes of hockey, utterly and completely unable to string together two nights of even mediocre hockey. If this is what we can expect of this rededicated Michigan hockey team, they and the fans had better prepare themselves for a long, long year of hockey because its going to be ugly.