Gophers Annihilate Wolverines

Saturday, November 25, 2006
Mariucci Arena, Minneapolis, Minnesota

While it didn't seem like the Wolverines were playing that badly, at least in the early going of this game, the Gophers could do no wrong and once they got rolling the puck went into the Michigan net on a regular basis. After a while it seemed that Gophers would simply look at the puck and it would start toward the Michigan goal all on its own. When it was finally all over it was Gophers eight, Wolverines two.

With just over nine minutes to play Minnesota was whistled for their first penalty putting Michigan on the power play for the first time. Hardly thirty seconds into the power play when Minnesota intercepted a pass in their own zone. They flipped the puck high and out of the zone, while another Minnesota player took off after the puck. Getting to the puck first Minnesota broke into the Michigan zone all alone, closed on the goal, and buried it in the back of the net for the short handed goal.

With just over one minute to play Michigan had another pass intercepted while inside the Minnesota zone. This time they just tipped the pass enough to send it out of the zone, but the Minnesota player burst after the puck and broke free into the Michigan zone. Just like their earlier break away goal they just skated in on Sauer and buried the puck to go up by two goals with barely a minute left in the opening period.

The first period would end with Minnesota holding a two to nothing lead. The Gophers also held a fifteen to eight advantage in shots on goal.

With the clock just under the sixteen minute mark of the second period Minnesota got their third goal of the game off a strange play that was a microcosm of the game. The puck was shot from the right point and Sauer moved to easily guide it past the net. However, another Gopher player redirected the puck as it passed the face off dot, slipping it behind Sauer before he could react to the pucks new direction and the Wolverines were in a deeper hole.

With just over eight minutes to play in the period the Wolverines were whistled for a penalty putting Minnesota back on the power play. Michigan would get about its only break of the game when a Gopher skater stumbled while traveling along the Michigan blue line. Hensick was able to scoop up the puck and break into the Minnesota zone all on his own. He kept his body between a chasing Gopher player and the puck, swept around the goalie and tucked the puck into the net for the score. The short handed goal was scored as unassisted.

The second period would come to an end with the Gophers leading by a three to one margin, but the Wolverines were still down by just two goals. Minnesota out shot the Wolverines in the second period nineteen to five to take a thirty-four to thirteen advantage in shots on goal into the second intermission.

With roughly sixteen and a half minutes to play the Gophers added their fourth goal of the game when two skaters worked into the Michigan zone. The Gophers O'Brien received a pass as he skated through the left face off circle and quickly got off a one timer that beat Sauer top shelf for the score.

With roughly thirteen and a half minutes to play Michigan would once again pull within two goals when Porter put his own shot into the Gopher net over the goalies shoulder. Rohlfs got the puck to Hensick at center ice and Hensick carried it into the Gopher zone. When the opening presented itself he passed th puck to Porter stationed just left of the goal and Porter finished the play off with the score. Hensick and Rohlfs got the two assists on the goal.

The Gophers would get the final onslaught of goals started with about twelve and half minutes to play when they scored their fifth goal of the game, only to score their sixth goal of the game twenty-three seconds later with the clock still showing over twelve minutes to play.

The Gophers would end the scoring over another short span of time, this time scoring two short handed goals to finish off the Wolverines. Minnesota was whistled for a penalty with just over five minutes left to play in the game. They would score their first short handed goal with just over four minutes to play, notching their second short handed goal just twenty-one seconds later, with the clock just under the four minute mark.

The final score was Minnesota eight, Michigan two. Minnesota out shot the Wolverines eighteen to eleven in the final period to finish the game with a fifty-two to twenty-four advantage in shots on goal.

Not much good to say about this game as Michigan was in the game through two periods even though they probably hadn't skated their best game. Then in the final twenty minutes of play the Gophers just hammered the Wolverines to walk away with the lop sided victory. It could have been the fatigue of the last nine days schedule finally taking its toll, and that would seem to be plausible considering the Wolverines total break down in the third period. However, it may just be that Minnesota is that much better than Michigan as they are clearly a team that is rolling right now. The Gophers do very little wrong and take advantage of every mistake an opponent makes. They have now won five straight over the Wolverines and given the apparent talent gap between the two teams it may be another five years before Michigan ever finds itself on the winning side of one of these games.

For now the Wolverines need to learn what they can from this game and this weekend and then move on and refocus for the finish of the seasons first half. Certainly they can't be to happy after giving up five short handed goals in two games, four of them against the Gophers. However, they have to like the fact that they battled back against Wisconsin and got a hard fought road win. Then of course there was the total destruction at the hands of the Gophers to balance that. The important thing now is to take care of business against Western this coming weekend, and then the Irish the following weekend. If they can get four wins out of those four games the Wolverines will be in great position to make a solid run through the second half of the season.