Saturday, October 25, 2008
Agganis Arena, Boston, Massachusetts

The Wolverines traveled to Boston for what many thought would be a battle between two of the countries top teams. What it turned into was a schooling by the Terriers over the Wolverines, as Boston University simply crushed the Wolverines on their way to a seven to two victory.

The Terriers struck first in this game with just five minutes left in the opening period of play. They got off a shot that was blocked, but the rebound was not covered. A Terrier play got to the puck first, punching it back toward the goal. The puck rolled up Sauers arm, over his body, and ended up in the goal for the score.

With just over three minutes to play Michigan was whistled for a penalty putting the Terriers back on the power play. Hardly thirty seconds later Michigan was whistled for a second penalty putting them two men down for almost a minute and half. Michigan killed off the first penalty, but the Terriers got the puck past Sauer before the second penalty could be killed to give Boston a two goal lead.

The first period came to an end with the Terriers leading by a score of two to nothing. The Terriers held a twelve to seven advantage in shots on goal following the first period of play.

With about thirteen and a half minutes to play Michigan was once again the penalty box, putting the Terriers on the power play. This one didn't last long though as the Terriers used some great tic-tac-toe passing to create an wide open shot on the back side of the net for the Terriers second power play goal of the game.

With just under four minutes to play both teams lost a player to the penalties, leaving both teams skating with four men. As the clock neared the three minute mark Michigan was whistled for a second penalty to put the Terriers on the power play. Once again Boston wasted little time as they scored their third power play goal of the game barely twenty seconds into the power play chance. The Terriers passed the puck around the zone a couple of times, then blasted a shot from the point that beat Sauer top shelf for the score.

The second period would come to an end with the Terriers holding a solid four to nothing lead. The Terriers out shot Michigan eleven to six in the period to hold a solid twenty-three to thirteen advantage in shots on goal through forty minutes of play.

Michigan starts the period with Hogan in goal, replacing Sauer and they have moved Miller to the top line, replacing Hagelin.

The Terriers were whistled for a penalty just over a minute into the period to give Michigan their eighth power play chance of the game. Boston won the face off and moved the puck out of their zone, however, Michigan quickly moved the puck back into the Terrier zone down the right side. A quick pass over to Czarnik at the circle, followed by an even quicker wrist shot saw Michigan get their first goal of the game and Czarniks career first. Czarnik gets the power play goal, while Palushaj and Langlais each picked up assists on the goal.

With sixteen minutes to play Michigan is whistled for a penalty to put the Terriers back on the power play. The Wolverines had almost killed this penalty off, getting within ten seconds of ending the man advantage when the Terriers would strike for their fourth power play goal of the game. They passed the puck down in front of the goal where it was tipped past Hogan for the score.

With just over nine minutes to play Michigan was whistled for a penalty to put the Terriers back on the power play. Michigan was able to kill the penalty, but just seconds after the power play ended, before Michigan could get their fifth player into the action, the Terriers found a wide open back door for an easy goal to extend their lead to five goals.

With just over five minutes to play both teams saw a player make their way to the sin bin to leave each team skating with four men. Barely twenty seconds later, with just over four minutes to play, the Terriers were whistled for a penalty to give Michigan a four on three power play chance. Michigan applied some steady pressure, getting off several shots, all of which were blocked. Finally, with the clock closing on the three minute mark Caporusso got the puck past the Terrier goalie for the power play goal. Summers and Hagelin each picked up assists on the goal.

With the clock just under three minutes Michigan was whistled for a penalty to give the Terriers yet another power play. Once again the Terriers wasted little time with this man advantage moving the puck quickly into the Michigan zone. Just twenty-one seconds into the power play the Terriers had it behind Hogan for power play goal number five and a seven to two lead.

The game would come to an end with the Terriers winning by a score of seven to two. The Terriers out shot the Wolverines nine to five in the period to end the game with a thirty-two to seventeen advantage in shots on goal.

This trip to the East coast, the first regular season trip out East in nearly two decades turned into a disaster for Michigan as they pretty much failed in all phases of the game. Boston was better defensively, they were better offensively, they were better in goal, and they were better on special teams as they out skated and out worked Michigan as they dominated this game from start to finish.

Once again this experiment with the tighter rules proves to be just ruining the game as a total of thirty penalties were called in this game for a total of eighty-two minutes, twenty-two minutes more than there are actual minutes to play in the game. All that being said it was Michigan's poor special teams play that would decide this game. Michigan was only able to score twice on twelve power play chances (both of those scores coming in the third period when the game was already well in hand). You simply cannot have that many power play chances and come up with just two goals. On the other side they gave up five power play goals on just nine chances to the Terriers. Hopefully this Michigan team will review this game and take many lessons to heart that they can learn from a very good Terrier team.