Thursday, October 19, 2006

Michigan vs. Miami, Game One

Solid effort by Michigan tonight. Some quick thoughts:

-It didn't show up on the scoresheet tonight, but TJ Hensick was passing as well as I've seen him. He could've had 3 or 4 assists in the first period alone. He fed Porter in the slot a couple of times, who in true Porter form, missed the net. He also had a couple of great passes to Rohlfs, one of which ended up in the net in the second period.

-We were down 1-0 after the first, but Michigan had about 5 great scoring chances (despite only having about that many shots). Porter missed two point blank chances, Johnson had two slappers from the top of the circle. Hensick was just dealing, and Michigan wasn't finishing.

-I like Rohlfs an awful lot.

-The Tim Cook at right wing experiment may not end up working out, but he was decent tonight. I think they invoked the Shawn Crable "See the puck? Go get it" strategy. There was nothing positional about how Cookie was playing. He just went and found the man with the puck on the forecheck and hit him.

-Kolarik had a 3 on 1 in the third period, and simply decided to wind up and take a slapshot which ended up going way wide. From that point on, he was a man possessed. If there has ever been a player complete an unassisted natural hattrick in a single period, I would like to know about it. He pretty much ended that game. Part of me would like to see him on Hensick's line, since Chad can finish when they get him the puck in the slot.

-Effinger gave up 5 goals on 19 shots, but he really didn't play that badly. Miami hung him out to dry an awful lot. Just off the top of my head, I would say all but maybe one goal were either breakaways or odd man rushes. Can't do a whole lot about that.

-Sauer was inconsistent. He made some great saves tonight, but--at least from watching without the benefit of replay--I would say the first and third goals needed to be stopped.

-Hunwick was real good in the first period. He had a couple of huge hits. He took a bad penalty seconds after we made it 1-1 though. Can't have your senior captain doing that.

-McInchak was brutal tonight. I didn't like the diving call right off the bad. First off, it was Lebler not Cogliano. Secondly, I don't know how many times a guy is going to take himself out of the play by diving when he's trying to catch up to Cogliano and make it an odd-man rush. The next penalty called on Michigan was a dive however. They both should've gone for that one. That was the tip of the iceberg. I hate that guy.

-Haha, Sparty lost to USA again. 3 times in 5 years if I'm not mistaken.

That's all I've got for tonight. Miami really needs to cut down the odd man rushes tomorrow if they're going to have any shot at winning in Yost for the first time in forever.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Palmer played for two years in the USA NTDP in Ann Arbor. He then played for two years in Nebraska before coming into Miami as a freshman this year. When he was with USA, he stayed with the Home penalty box attendant as a billet.

Scott

Packer487 said...

Colin,

We're back over in section 17 this year, right behind the visiting bench.

Most games (unfortunately not tonight, so it's my friend's fault if we lose--she borrowed my jersey) I'll have my USA Jack Johnson throwback on. If you ever see me walking around, come say hey.

Anonymous said...

Great recap of last night. Couple other thoughts. First two Miami goals were REAL soft by Sauer. JJ is certainly trying real hard to stay out of the box, he must be a plus 8-9, and I like your idea of Kolarik with TJ.

Anonymous said...

Colin-the guy to pick on is #25, Ganzak?, he was a minus 5 last night and supposed to be their "great" dman.

Anonymous said...

Absolutely! Where was TJ, Kolarik, Porter tonight? Hunwick and Summers were terrible. I think that into almost 5-6 games, Summers is a bust. Kampfer isn't far behind. Put Cook back on D, put JJ with Mitera and ask the forwards to show up every night. Rolphs, for his size, it's embarassing to see him get blasted. Fardig was the best forward tonight, JJ the best D.

Anonymous said...

This is my fault. I subbed into the band for the first time this year. Consider the last two games I was at before Friday -- the CCHA semis vs MSU and the North Dakota Debacle.

Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is proof. I won't come to any more games for a while.