Much More Like It

The seniors had reason to celebrate on Senior Night once again
Photo: Bill Rapai

After the week-from-hell in January when the Wolverines lost three home games to Bowling Green and Alaska, I wrote the following:

At this point, all I think they can really do is try to nail down home ice in the first round of the CCHA Tournament and try to be playing their best hockey come mid-March, as that's the only way they're getting in the tournament. (Does anyone hear Jim Mora when I say that?) And honestly, I'd put more of an emphasis on the latter. Try different line combos, different defense pairings when they have the bodies, since Rutledge is theoretically your most talented goalie, make it known that he's getting a few starts without having to look over his shoulder to see if that can get rid of some of his yips. Bring in Greg Harden. Anything they can come up with. Outside of home ice in round one, these remaining games really don't matter. The at-large bid is gone. Mid-March is when this team will get a chance to play and salvage their season like the team from three years ago, and everything should be pointed toward that goal. Whatever it takes.

They gave Rutledge his shot, but after 11 goals allowed in 5 periods against Notre Dame (most definitely not all his fault, but still, 2+ goals per period ain't getting it done), they turned back to Steve Racine. Outside of that? Mission accomplished. With a sweep of the Buckeyes and a 5-point weekend against Ferris State, Michigan locked up the 7-seed in the CCHA Tournament and the home playoff series that comes with it. It's impossible to not think they're playing their best hockey of the year right now, having taken 5+ points in three of their last four series, and played Notre Dame tough in the other (though the score didn't indicate it).

The offense has turned it around in a big way, scoring 31 goals in a 7-game stretch beginning with the home game against Michigan State. They've averaged 4 goals per game over their last four series. The defense has improved as well, holding Ferris State to two goals on the weekend and keeping Ohio State to six.

Racine was the difference, and that is a great sign heading into the postseason.
Photo: Bill Rapai

The biggest reason for confidence heading into the CCHA Tournament, however, is the play of Racine. For maybe the first time all season, the Wolverines could say they had a goaltender win them a game. Red Berenson did, in fact, say as much after the Senior Night shootout win over the Ferris State Bulldogs. From the sound of it, he was spectacular early. He was certainly spectacular late, holding the Bulldogs off the board on a breakaway in the waning seconds of overtime that was aided by having seven players on the ice, and stopping all three Bulldogs in the shootout.

I only got to see one period of action against the Buckeyes last weekend (the second period of Friday night's game), but it was the best period of hockey I've seen Michigan play all season. Ohio had one brief segment where they pressured Michigan late in the period, but aside from that, the entire session was played in OSU's end of the ice. The Buckeyes aren't Miami, but they're a solid-enough team and Michigan took it to them on their home ice for large chunks of time.

During Friday night's win over Ferris, I commented that Michigan looks like a completely different team than they did even against the Irish. Confidence is a funny thing. People have speculated that the opening-night loss to RIT and some of the early-season struggles sent the team into a funk that they couldn't get out of. The team didn't have confidence in the goaltending, some of the scorers weren't scoring, and they had a hard time responding to adversity. It's amazing what a few good things happening can do.

On Friday night, the Wolverines jumped on top 2:40 into the game when Zach Hyman was able to knock home a shot. DeBlois added another goal before the midway point in the first period off a rebound from Copp's glorious chance. Ferris drew back within 1 on a fluky play when Moffie cross-checked a guy into the crease and he was allowed to stay there for pretty much as long as he wanted. Racine was impeded, but they played on and Ferris scored.

Even after that goal, however, there didn't seem to be the "Oh, here we go...." feeling that seemed to accompany every goal against this season. The Bulldogs managed 17 shots over the second and third period, but only had a couple of grade-A scoring chances. It was a pretty awesome defensive effort and Racine was there when they needed him, making a couple of big stops along the way while the game was still in doubt. He seemed calm and comfortable in the crease, which is also something that hasn't been a common site this year.

Moffatt helped Michigan regain their two-goal lead off a great saucer pass from PDG. He took it off his skate, pulled the puck to his right and was able to tuck it past Motte as he was falling to the ice. Moffatt doesn't score a ton of goals, but they always seem to be worthy of the highlight-reel. Lee Moffie closed out the scoring on a play that seemed to indicate that maybe, just maybe, the bounces are starting to go Michigan's way. He flipped a shot from the point that skipped off the ice and eluded Motte.

That is a very smart Bulldog! Your cup will not protect you from a TROUBA-OMB! Also, hockey players are amazing.
Photo: Bill Rapai

On Saturday, it wasn't just the final regular season game for the seniors, it was the final regular season game for Michigan as a member of the CCHA. This one was a true goaltenders' duel. Racine (24 saves) and Motte (35 saves) were the #1 and #2 stars of the game. Both allowed just a single goal in regulation, but it was Treais getting the better of Motte in the shootout for the bonus point to the Wolverines. That point gave Michigan the #7 seed, which means they'll host Northern Michigan instead of Bowling Green next weekend. Possibly more importantly, however, the extra point means the Wolverines would get either Notre Dame (if Alaska beats FYS) or WMU (if FYS upsets Alaska) should they advance to the second round. If they were the 8-seed, they would have needed an upset to avoid a trip to Oxford.

Home ice wasn't even a certainty late in the game, however. Ferris State needed to win the game outright (not in a shootout) to host their second-round series against the Buckeyes, so they pulled their goalie in sudden-death overtime and it darn-near worked as Racine had to stop a breakaway opportunity with about 15 seconds left in the extra session.

Senior Kevin Lynch came through in his final regular season game at Yost
Photo: Bill Rapai

Kevin Lynch scored the lone goal for the Wolverines as Andrew Copp continued his stellar play by finding Lynch all alone in the slot. Ferris evened the game on a shot that deflected in off a Wolverine midway through the game. Then the goalies would pitch shutouts the rest of the way, though both had a little help. Motte was added by the post and a video review that never conclusively showed if a Copp/Selman shot made it over the line. Racine was aided by a Bulldog blocking his teammate's shot that was headed for the back of the net. Both goalies made plenty of saves to keep the game tied, however, possibly none better than the save Racine made right before he had a little help from his Bulldog friend.

In the shootout, Treais snapped one past Motte's glove and that was enough for the extra point. Travis Ouellette had to have at least 4 breakaways in the game, including the one in the shootout, and he was denied on all of them. I don't know if I've ever seen an opposing player have so many great chances in a highlight reel and not bury any of them, but Racine was fantastic. Even the ones he didn't have to stop because the opposing player shot wide, he left nothing to shoot at.

Another dramatic Senior Night comes to an end. And so, too, does Michigan's regular season tenure in the CCHA.
Photo: Bill Rapai

So now Northern Michigan will come to town for a best-of-3 series this weekend. Michigan played The Northerns twice this year, coming from 4-1 down in the third period to win 5-4 in a shootout after Treais tied the game with less than a second left and falling 4-3 the next night.

Maybe Michigan doesn't go into the CCHA Tournament as the favorite, but they're certainly in the conversation. Northern will present a challenge. Should Michigan advance, they're going to have to go on the road and win 2 of 3 against a good hockey team who is still fighting for their tournament lives, be it Notre Dame or Western Michigan. Then, should they advance again, they have two must-win games at the Joe.

It won't be easy. They squashed their margin for error a couple of months ago. But whereas a month ago pretty much all Michigan fans would have agreed that they had a chance in the CCHA Tournament the same way that Lloyd Christmas still had a chance with Mary Swanson, now the outlook is much brighter. The offense is clicking, the defense is getting healthy, they're getting quality play in net, their confidence is brimming, and they look like a Michigan hockey team is supposed to look.

Win six games like the 2010 team did from this very seed, and the struggles through November, December, and January don't matter anymore. Michigan still gets to play playoff hockey. It just becomes must-win a little sooner this year than in most year's past. They have a chance to salvage this, and if they keep playing like they have the past two weekends, they just might pull it off.

Michigan Splits with Bowling Green, Finishes Second in CCHA

This weekend the Wolverines needed to sweep Bowling Green and have Western Michigan sweep Ferris in order to earn a share of the CCHA Championship. They got neither. On Friday night, the Falcons scored twice in the last seven minutes of regulation to down the Wolverines 3-2. It didn't matter from the CCHA Championship perspective as the Ferris State Bulldogs took WMU to a shootout to earn the one point that they needed to clinch the title.

On Saturday, the Wolverines rebounded with a tougher-than-the-score 3-0 victory. That was enough to tie WMU for second in the conference. Michigan gets the #2 seed via their one-win edge in conference wins over Western.

What does that mean? Michigan will have a bye in the first round of the CCHA Tournament and will then play one of the following teams in a best of three at Yost: LSSU, Notre Dame, Ohio, or Alaska. If all the home teams win in the first round, it will be LSSU.

The matchups in round one are:
Bowling Green at NMU
Alaska at LSSU
Ohio at Notre Dame

We know FYS will travel to Miami in round 2.

On Friday night, the Wolverines got off to a quick start, with Phil Di Giuseppe scoring just 38 seconds into the contest to give Michigan a 1-0 lead. Bennett got the puck up ice to Treais who slid it over to PDG. The lead was short-lived, however, as Chad Sumison scored his first of the year just six seconds later.

David Wohlberg knocked in the rebound from a Bennett shot to put the Wolverines back on top at the 4:58 mark of the first period, but once again the Falcons had an answer. Cameron Wojtala beat Hunwick over the blocker with about six minutes left in the opening frame. Moffie may have screened Hunwick on that one.

Late in the second, Brown worked it down low to Wohlberg who sent a centering pass in front that Guptill was able to tip home for his team-leading 16th goal of the year.

Adam Berkle tied things up for BGSU with just under seven minutes left in regulation. Cameron Sinclair put a shot on net and Hunwick left the rebound. Berkle jumped on it and got it past a diving Hunwick to make it 3-3. That's one that Hunwick would want back. The initial shot didn't seem particularly difficult.

The game seemed headed for overtime, but with just over a minute remaining Bryce Williamson picked Jon Merrill's pocket as he was bringing the puck out of the zone. Williamson turned around and sent one over Hunwick's glove for the game-winner.

It was a rough night for Moffie and Merrill, who were each -3. Pateryn and Bennett were +3 in the game.

If you're so inclined to watch the highlights, here they are:

On Saturday, it seems the goalies were the stars of the show. Hunwick and Andrew Hammond were the first and second stars of the game, which ended in a 3-0 Michigan victory.

The game was tied 0-0 after two periods, despite a 31-15 shot edge for Michigan and eleven power plays between the two teams. The Wolverine penalty killers again did their job, surrendering just five shots on the seven BGSU power plays through two. At one point, power plays were 6-1 in BGSU's favor. In one stretch the Wolverines killed five straight BGSU power plays without surrendering a single shot on goal.

Granted the CCHA officiating is, in large part, incompetent, but this is an alarming trend where Michigan ends up spending significantly more time in the box than their less-talented opponent. (I didn't see either of these games, so I have no idea as to the quality of these calls or if it was more Gongshow.)

After going 0-for-3 on faceoffs the night before, Alex Guptill won a big one five minutes into the third. He drew it back to David Wohlberg who let a shot go that somehow found its way past Hammond.

A few minutes later, Kevin Lynch gave the Wolverines a two goal lead. He won a draw back to the point. The shot deflected around and Moffatt got a stick on it. The puck sat just to Hammond's right and Lynch found it before anyone else, diving head-first toward the net and knocking it home.

Michigan would add an ENG from Mac Bennett for the final margin of victory. Hunwick made 22 stops for his 10th career shutout. Hammond stopped 46 Michigan shots in the loss.

AJ Treais put ten shots on net in the game. Kevin Lynch had seven of his own. Only Hyman, Travis Lynch, Rohrkemper, and Sparks were not a plus on the night. All the other Wolverines were on the ice for one of the Michigan goals.

Highlights are here.

As MGoBlog predicted, a split wasn't too damaging in the PWR. The Wolverines sit 2nd in the RPI, .01 behind BC, and rank third in the PWR behind Minnesota-Duluth and BC. If the tournament started today, North Dakota and Merrimack would be the last two teams in. Cornell would be the first team out, closely followed by 4 CCHA teams (WMU, Ohio, Notre Dame, and LSSU).

Tory Krug and TJ Tynan tied for the CCHA Scoring Title. Reilly Smith's 18 goals were good for the conference crown in that category (by 5). Alex Guptill was tied for 2nd in goals and tied for 6th in points.

Connor Knapp led the CCHA in GAA (1.41 to Hunwick's 1.93) and save percentage (.945 to Hunwick's .937), but also only played half the minutes that Hunwick did. Hunwick was second in GAA, Save %, and minutes played. He led the conference in shutouts with 5.

Wolverines, Spartans Split Late-Season Series

Michigan and Michigan State split a pair of 3-2 contests in their late-season series. The Spartans won at Munn on Friday night, while the Wolverines rebounded in overtime at the Joe on Saturday.

Friday night's game was wide-open early on. There were only 2-3 stoppages in the first nine minutes. Michigan State held a 10-8 edge in shots, but the teams went into the intermission 0-0. In the first frame, the best sequence was a 4-on-2 for Michigan State that was broken up by Hyman. That led to a 3-on-2 the other way for the Wolverines and Sparks had a good chance that was denied by Yanakeff.

Early in the second, Mike Chiasson had to hook Merrifield after he split the defense. The Spartans kept the puck in the Michigan end for a good 1:50 of that power play, but outside of a chance by Krug, the PKers kept the Spartans at bay.

Just after the Spartan power play ended, DiGiuseppe and Treais came in 2-on-1. PDG got it over to Treais and he buried it to give Michigan a 1-0 lead.

Michigan nearly made it 2-0 moments after another Spartan power play. Sinelli was sprung on a breakaway and got denied by Yanakeff.

Kevin Lynch actually did make it 2-0 midway through the period. Moffie got deep into the zone to dig a puck loose. He got it to Lynch and Lynch was able to sneak it underneath Yanakeff.

The Spartans responded in a big way just a couple of minutes later. FYS won a faceoff in the Michigan end. They tried to center it through the slot, but no one was home. The puck bounced back to Torey Krug at the point and he ripped one past Hunwick. Merrifield would hit the post before the end of the period, but it remained 2-1 Michigan after two.

The third period was a reminder of how wildly inconsistent CCHA officiating can be. The officials had really let them play for the first two periods and I was actually thinking how well-officiated the game had been. The third was characterized by weak calls all around. The Spartans capitalized on the ones in their favor. Michigan didn't, when an awful call gave them a late chance to tie the game.

Just 27 seconds into the third period, PDG was called for roughing on what was a completely-clean hit. Initially it looked like a possible hit from behind, but he clearly got him shoulder to shoulder. It was a hard hit, but completely legal. Not sure how they got roughing out of that. It was just another example of an alarming trend in college hockey where any hard hit is liable to get you sent to the box, if not ejected. This one was a game-changer.

It took the Spartans just under a minute to tie the game. Hunwick was run into, no call. Play continued, the puck got back to Krug at the point and he ripped another one past Hunwick to tie the game.

The Spartans momentum continued and Hunwick was forced to make a good stop on Buttery. FYS went back on the power play after a soft offensive-zone trip on DeBlois. He tapped the guy on the shin pads and he went down like he was shot.

That one came back to bite Michigan as well. Krug walked through the defense and got the puck to Berry by the back door. He had an empty net to shoot at and made it 3-2 Spartans.

You knew Michigan was going to get one opportunity with the man advantage to tie things back up after three Spartan power plays in the third, and that chance came with about 4 minutes left. Brett Perlini was called for elbowing on as poor of a call as you'll see all year. There was absolutely nothing wrong with that hit. The announcers described it well, saying that he was "winding up that elbow" as he went in for the check, but he didn't use it. They anticipated what was going to happen.

Unlike the Spartans, however, Michigan wasn't able to capitalize on a poor call in their favor. They only had one decent chance on the power play, PDG centered to Moffatt in front. The Wolverines got Hunwick out with about a minute left in regulation, but didn't have anything resembling a chance and the Spartans got the victory.

The next night at the Joe, Michigan was able to rebound from the loss. It wasn't easy, however. Both teams swapped periods of dominance. Michigan State had the edge in play through a large chunk of the third period, but Shawn Hunwick was fantastic. Michigan scored on a fluky goal in OT to get the victory.

Out of the gate, Michigan controlled the play. Clare had the first really good chance of the game as the late man on a 3-on-2. Treais got it to him with PDG driving the net. Yanakeff made a good collarbone save.

Hunwick made his first big stop of the game on Walrod, and Perlini sent the rebound off the side of the net.

Michigan took a 1-0 lead at the 12:12 mark of the first. PDG sent a behind-the-back pass to Glendening and Glendening found Treais in the slot. Yanakeff made the first stop but Treais corralled his own rebound and was able to tuck it into the net.

The next five minutes were much more back-and-forth. Walrod hit the post.

Early in the second period, Wohlberg turned it over, leading to a 2-on-1 for the Spartans. Bennett played it absolutely perfect and broke the play up without them getting a shot away.

Hunwick then made a great stop on Wolfe, but Wolfe got his revenge moments later off a pass from Walrod to make it 1-1.

Hyman ran into Yanakeff and knocked him over. The CCHA showed that they are willing to call goalie interference after all, and sent him off. Weird. I thought goalies were fair game...maybe that's just when Sergott is reffing.

On the power play, Perlini got the puck by the side of the net on the goal line. Hunwick cheated a little bit and crouched low. Perlini got a great shot away--put it right up over him and the Spartans had themselves a 2-1 lead.

Moments later, Hunwick made a game-changing stop on a Perlini breakaway. The would've made it 3-1 Michigan State. Instead, we got a TV timeout and a chance to calm things down a little bit. Right out of the TV timeout, Glendening fed Treais just inside the blueline. Treais ripped a wrist-shot from the top of the circle top-shelf, far side. He got it past Yanakeff's blocker to the tie the game at 2.

The teams would trade opportunities for the remainder of the second period. Michigan State nearly got back on top but Hunwick stopped Sorenson on a 2-on-1 and then the Spartans hit the post.

Late in the period, Guptill had himself a breakaway. He made a great move and when he got the shot away, it looked like it was destined for the back of the net, but Yanakeff got his blocker down and somehow kept it out. Jake Chelios was sent off for elbowing with about a minute left in the first. Merrill had a couple of keeps at the blueline, but nothing much came of it. Walrod had a great pass breakup to keep Guptill from being in all alone again in the waning seconds.

The first 16-or-so minutes of the third were as bad as Michigan has looked since before the GLI, but their Hobey Baker-candidate goaltending saved their bacon time and time again. Moffie made a good play to break up a potential Merrifield goal. Hunwick stopped a 2-on-1. Moffie turned it over and Michigan State had several good chances, but nothing really got through. Hunwick made a great little right pad save on Berry, and then Moffatt was called for hooking after another Moffie turnover.

Even though the PK struggled this weekend, they had a big, big kill there. Some good work by K. Lynch and DeBlois.

Mac Bennett then had a horrid turnover and Hunwick was right there to rob Trevor Nill and deny him a potential game-winner. Pateryn then rushed the puck and rung one off the post. The rebound came out to Bennett and he had the entire net to shoot at. He went high and may have caught iron as well.

Shots were 14-11 FYS in the final frame, but neither team was able to break the 2-2 tie and the game headed to overtime, just like the last time they met at the Joe.

And just like the previous overtime game at Joe Louis, it was the Wolverines coming out on top. Hunwick stopped Nill on a tough backhander and Wohlberg hit Guptill on a shot after a nifty little toe-drag around the defense.

Kevin Lynch just missed being the overtime hero once again off a feed from Travis Lynch, but Yanakeff was there. The puck came out to center and DeBlois dumped it back in. Crandall bent down to stop the bouncing puck, but somehow it got through his legs. Kevin Lynch had cycled back into the offensive zone and was right there to pounce on it. He fired it past a surprised Yanakeff and the Wolverines were victorious!

That was certainly not the gold standard for victories. There were way too many odd-man rushes allowed, the defense turned the puck over way too much, and the top line wasn't as effective as they need to be. But Hunwick was there when they needed him and they were able to gut out a victory to keep themselves in the CCHA title hunt.

Ferris State swept Notre Dame this weekend, so they lead Michigan by 6 points (and WMU by 5) with two weekends to play. Ferris and Western play each other the last weekend of the season, so it's probably unlikely that Michigan wins the conference title even if they sweep NMU and BGSU, but there's a chance, and they should certainly be able to get second place.

In the PWR, the Wolverines currently sit in 4th, though they're second in the RPI. Ferris State is tops in both at the moment. Nine CCHA teams rank in the top 20 of the PWR at the moment. Six would make the tournament if it started today. Miami is the last team in. Notre Dame (!), second-place Western Michigan (!) and LSSU would be three of the first five teams out.

Next weekend, the Wolverines have Northern Michigan at Yost, and again, both games will be on TV. The Big Ten Network will have Friday night's game. Saturday's game will air on FSN Detroit as part of Hockey Day in Michigan. Note the odd 5:05 EST start time on the Saturday game.

Lastly, vote for Shawn Hunwick for Hobey! He's 14% behind the lead right now, but there have only been 76,000 votes cast, so it only works out to about 10,000 votes. It seriously takes 2 seconds and you don't have to register for anything.

Michigan 3, Miami 0

If it wasn't already there, I'd like to think that Shawn Hunwick thrust his name right into the thick of the Hobey conversation with another sparkling performance--this one a 29-stop gem that led the Wolverines to a sweep of Miami. Lee Moffie scored twice, Chris Brown added as pretty of a goal as you'll see all season, and the CCHA officials peed down their legs once again. All in a day's work.

If you don't like 5-on-5 hockey, you loved the first period of this game. Of the first 14 minutes, ten of them were played with one team up a man. Usually it was Miami. Pateryn, Hyman, Brown, and Wohlberg were all called for infractions in the first 12 minutes of the game (and Miami got whistled for too many men).

The RedHawks weren't able to generate a shot on their first power play of the game. On the second, Hunwick made a sparkling stop on either Vogelhuber or Murphy, sprawling to the ice and somehow managing to keep the puck out of the net. While shorthanded, Kevin Lynch started a Michigan rush with a great breakout pass that led to a 3-on-1 for the Wolverines. Glendening went cross-ice to Moffie who sniped one past Connor Knapp to give the Wolverines a 1-0 lead.

Miami nearly tied it up right away, but Hunwick made a great stop on Murphy. The penalty killers kept up their good work. Brown hit a player from behind and the RedHawks managed two shots and nothing more. Then Wohlberg threw a shot toward the net after the whistle, got violently cross-checked in the back by Weber, a scrum ensued and an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Wohlberg ended up being the difference there. Once again, the Wolverine PK was stellar, holding Miami without a shot and managing two of their own.

So after the first 13:50 of the game, the RedHawks had had nearly eight full minutes of power play time. In that 7:57 span with Miami up a man, shots were 5-5 and goals were 1-0 in favor of the Wolverines. That is some penalty killing!

Hyman nearly scored on a wraparound shot that bounced around in between Knapp's legs, but stayed out. The period ended with Michigan leading 1-0.

Early in the second, Vogelhuber was called for hitting Wohlberg from behind. Michigan's best chance on the PP was Guptill backdoor, but neither team was credited with a shot on goal during that power play. Just six seconds after the penalty ended, however, Moffie was at the right point and went down low to Moffatt. Moffatt sent it to Treais in the middle of the ice, who laid a pass perfectly for Moffie who was cruising into the slot. He buried it for his second of the night, and Michigan led 2-0. Really, really pretty play there.

Hyman set up Moffatt for a good look and Knapp made a great save. Then Hyman fed Sparks, who rung one off the post.

Pateryn was called for high-sticking late in the period, but Michigan held the RedHawks to one shot, and took a 2-0 lead into the second intermission. The Wolverine penalty killers had to come up big again in the third, this time on a bench minor for too many men. They held Miami without a shot on a power play that was abbreviated when Brian Paulazzo hooked Kevin Clare. Clare went hard into the boards very awkwardly, but luckily he was okay.

That power play led to the turning point in the game. Jon Merrill took a slapshot and broke his stick. While he went to the bench to get a new one, Miami was able to break the puck out and spring Matt Tomassoni on a breakaway. Hunwick made a nice save and Moffie was able to clear the puck away as it inched toward the goal line. After play continued for a couple of minutes, there was finally a stoppage and Brian Hill reviewed the play. The replay showed that it was about as close as it could possibly get. We didn't have access to the overhead look, but it appeared that Moffie cleared the puck out when it sat right on the goal line. It was probably more over the goal line than not, but you couldn't see any white space. Hill waived the goal off and Blasi, who was able to see the replay on the Megatron, went bonkers.

After Blasi's rant, Hill went back into the penalty box for another look. The commentators commended him for taking another look to make sure he got it right. I feel the exact opposite. Going back to take another look completely undermined his credibility. All it said was, "I didn't do a good enough job the first time and I'm not confident in my ruling." If the video was inconclusive, it was inconclusive and it's no goal. If it showed the puck in the net, call it a goal. If it didn't, call it no goal. You already made the decision that there was no angle that showed the puck in the net. Tell Blasi to STFU and let's play.

Shockingly, no new video evidence surfaced from the last time he stepped into the penalty box, and Hill again ruled it no goal. I have a feeling the roof would have blown off of Yost if he had changed his mind after being argued into taking another look. Even if the puck did go in, we're still about 499 missed calls against Miami in our favor away from making up for the hose-job in Fort Wayne. Just saying. But that puck wasn't in the net. I whole-heartedly support a verification line. Or lasers.

Michigan then iced the game on as pretty of a goal as you'll see this season. Brown took a pass from Wohlberg and brought it into the zone one-against-two. He puck the puck through Will Weber's legs, stepped around him, and ripped it past Knapp. Brown Tebowed. Weber broke his stick over the net, much to the delight of the Children of Yost who had serenaded him with "Weber sucks" for much of the game after his fairly dirty play this weekend.

Then all hell broke loose. Spinell planted Bennett with hands to the face and was ejected for contact to the head. Almost immediately afterwards (like, 20 seconds), Pateryn was ejected for contact to the head. The RedHawks pulled their goalie down by 3, and after a defenseman made a save on Travis Lynch, Reilly Smith was called for charging.

The Wolverines got another shot on goal and Alex Guptill took a light poke at the goalie after the save. Three RedHawk players went after him and Guptill slashed at one. A melee ensued that resulted in Chris Brown and Will Weber dropping the gloves. When the penalties were sorted out, both Brown and Weber were given DQs for fighting, Guptill was called for slashing, and four other players were given roughing minors. We were treated to some rare 3-on-3 hockey, and the game ended with a 3-0 Michigan win.

After the game, Red Berenson opened his press conference by instruction reports to not ask him about the officiating. He later criticized Blasi for not controlling his players, and suggested that Miami took some liberties, knowing that they've got a pair of games against the worst team in the country next weekend.

All in all, it was what I've come to expect when Keith Sergott is officiating a series. There will be dangerous plays that go uncalled, wildly inconsistent officiating, a couple periods that are almost entirely power plays, and he'll ultimately completely lose control. Luckily we got out of this one without anyone being assaulted. Add in Hill's complete unprofessionalism by allowing a coach to badger him into re-evaluating a judgment ruling that he had already made, and you've got a duo that really doesn't need to be calling any more important games this year. Or ever. There's a reason that things blow up every time Sergott is around. He can't handle heated rivalries and he shouldn't be calling these type of games.

The wins, combined with OSU's continued struggles, and surprising losses by Notre Dame (to BGSU) and WMU (to Alaska), jumped the Wolverines up into 3rd in the conference. They now sit just 3 points behind CCHA-leading Ferris State and just one point behind Western Michigan. The top 8 in the conference are separated by a mere 6 points, though Miami and Ohio have played two more games than everyone else (they both have 36).

It was also a very good weekend for the Wolverines in the PWR. Minnesota-Duluth plummeted after a loss to Alaska-Anchorage and the Wolverines moved into a tie for second behind BU. They edge out the surprising UMass-Lowell (who now has the best record in college hockey) in the RPI tie-breaker.

Miami is in 18th in the PWR. Good.

Lost in the fisticuffs was the fact that Red Berenson moved into 5th place all by himself on the all-time wins list.

Hunwick moved into 4th place in the history of the program with his ninth-career shutout. He also now ranks second nationally in wins, is fifth in save percentage, and ninth in goals-against. Hobey. Seriously.

Of the eight guys in front of him in GAA, four come from minor conferences (Union, Niagara, RIT, Quinnipiac), and he's played twice as many minutes as Knapp and CJ Motte. Only Douglas Carr from UML and Kent Patterson from Minnesota are from major conferences, have played around as many minutes, and have a better GAA. And Patterson is only .01 ahead.

The four guys ahead of him in save percentage play for Niagara, Union, RIT, and Robert Morris. And none of them are within 225 saves of him.

The PK gave up 6 shots on 6 Miami power plays. Once again, the RedHawks spent more than a half-period's worth of time (11:05) on the power play and came away with -1 goals to show for it. Michigan has now killed 31 of 32 penalties since Jon Merrill has returned, and, with the short-handed goal, is actually net-even when killing off penalties over the last eight games. They're up to 16th now, and are within .7% of cracking the top ten, which is remarkable.

The Wolverines will now head to East Lansing to take on FYS in a road/Joe series. Chris Brown will have to sit Friday night due to his suspension. BTN and Fox Sports Detroit will carry the games.

Thoughts on the Big Ten Hockey Conference

By now, I'm sure everyone has heard that the Big Ten will form a hockey conference for the 2013-14 season. I'm really mixed how I feel about this.

On the one hand, you've got added exposure for the sport, Michigan will play Wisconsin and Minnesota more often (which I love), State is going to get destroyed, I won't have to hear about how great the WCHA is all the time, and it opens the game up to further expansion.

On the other hand, it would be a tragedy if teams like Bowling Green, Lake State, Michigan Tech, etc. struggled to survive in a BTHC world, there's the thought that we'll lose out on some traditional rivalries, etc.

The Big Ten is a name, and a well-recognized one to boot. It adds a little extra credibility that maybe you don't get with the "Central Collegiate Hockey Association". The fact that these teams can now play for a "Big Ten Championship" is kind of cool. But the real exposure is going to come in the form of the Big Ten Network. Brian posted a ton of links, one of which mentioned that they were committing to "at least 40 games" per season. That's huge for the fans, because we'll get to see our team a lot more. It's also huge for recruiting to be able to tell a kid that he'll play on national TV 10-15 times per season minimum. Plus, as my buddy Kevin texted me when it was announced: "HD, yo!"

Additionally, the selfish part of me is really excited to get to play Wisconsin and Minnesota more often. Quite honestly, I hate Minnesota more than I hate any other team in the country. I'd absolutely take a win over Minnesota over a win against FYS any day. Living in Madison, I've grown to hate the Badgers as well. The BTHC won't start until after I'm likely living back in Michigan, but still, four games a year against these teams instead of one? Big fan. Especially if the Gophers keep sucking. (Yes, I know they killed us this year.) And it'll be a good opportunity to get back out to Madison and visit after I move back home eventually. Tie it in to the Michigan road weekend? That's good times.

State will keep getting destroyed. That's fun too. If you didn't hear, they hired the former commish of the CCHA, Tom Anastos as their new head coach. He's never been a head coach outside of U-M Dearborn's club team and hasn't coached period in 20-or-so years. MGoBlog is pointing and laughing. Spartan fans are "absolutely crushed". I kind of wonder how they're going to recruit, having been as bad as they've been for the last few years. Now they're bringing in a guy with no track record of developing players, putting guys into the NHL, or, you know, coaching. At least they'll have the Big Ten Network recruiting bump.

The other thing is that it opens the sport up to further expansion. As it is right now, Atlantic Hockey has 12 teams, the CCHA has 11, the WCHA has 12, Hockey East has 10, and the EZAC has 12. Where are you going to put anyone? The CCHA could take one, and Hockey East could take a couple if they really wanted to.

After B1G hockey comes about, the WCHA will be back down to 10, the CCHA will have 8, and the Big Ten will have 6. That's at least eight spots that are open for non-Big Ten teams (including Hockey East taking two) and that's a good thing.

I agree with Brian that there will probably be some realignment. This is a completely uneducated opinion, but back when we went through this with Omaha, Bemidji, and Huntsville, I thought that the two Alaska schools should end up in the same conference for a lot of reasons and I'm sticking to that now. You lose the Minnesota/Wisconsin/Michigan draw (I have a hard time believing that OSU or FYS are drawing crowds) but you could add some additional importance to a rivalry series, teams from the conference could just go up for 2 weeks at a time and knock out both of them, and you'd lower the number of teams that have to make the trek up to Alaska in the first place. (I did the math on that awhile back.)

Again, completely uneducated opinion, but I could see Tech in the CCHA or NMU back in the WCHA. There have been rumblings about Notre Dame flirting with Hockey East or Miami going to the WCHA. This is going to get interesting.

I agree with the points that MGoBlog made about the conferences being okay. Denver and NoDak are the teams to beat in the WCHA more often than not. CC and Omaha are both solid. Duluth is usually pretty good. St. Cloud is pretty good. They're still alright. The CCHA is alright as long as Miami and Notre Dame stay in the conference and stay good. The smaller schools lose the Michigan gate, but Michigan'll still end up playing them sometimes, given that a 20-game conference schedule means 16-or-so non-conference games.

My enthusiasm drops significantly if it results in some of the smaller schools dropping their program, but it doesn't seem that that's the plan for any of them--at least not yet. Also, despite what they're currently saying, I bet we see Iowa go D-1 in hockey at some point. There are so many USHL teams there....they could recruit. People in the state clearly are at least aware of hockey. I think it makes a lot of sense.

Right now, though, my immediate reaction was a positive one: More games on TV, more games in HD, more games against Minnesota and Wisconsin, at least some semblance of a recruiting bump, more exposure for this awesome sport. I know my team is one of the "haves" in this scenario, but I see a lot to like.

Michigan 5, Miami 2: NMU Next

I had to DVR the game due to my own hockey game tonight, and as soon as I pulled up the menu, I swore. My recording, which I had extended by 90 minutes and then set the timer for the show after that and extended it another 90 minutes (I wasn't taking chances with our game or the NMU game going to OT) had resulted in a 2 1/2 hour recording of our hockey game, an hour and a half gap, and then another recording. Combine that with the knowledge that the NMU game had, in fact, gone to OT, and I knew I wasn't going to see everything. "Well," I jokingly said to my buddy, "maybe we'll be ahead by so many goals that it won't matter."

Unbelievably, that was the case. The Wolverines, playing with newfound confidence, played quite possibly their best all-around game of the season, scoring once in the first, once in the second, and three times in the third en route to a 5-2 win. Despite it being a 2-1 game heading to the third, aside from a few minutes early on and a couple minutes after Miami cut Michigan's lead to one, I never felt like the game was slipping from our grasp.

The defense was great, the goaltending was even better, and Michigan scored in a variety of ways.

First let's talk about the best story in college hockey--Shawn Hunwick. He made some huge stops throughout the contest, showing that, yes, the team is playing well in front of him, but that there's a reason for it. He's stopping pucks. He's not giving up the soft goal every night. He's battling, he's making saves, and the team has rallied behind him. The defense is diving to block shots, they're back-checking like crazy. They're playing the type of hockey you'd expect to see out of a Michigan team. But Hunwick. The one that will make the highlight reel was the stick save diving to his right, but he had a couple of pad saves that were every bit as good.

The defense helped out, blocking shots, clearing pucks, and there were a couple of great individual efforts by our forwards coming back to help. Two that I remember in particular: In the second period, Hagelin had one that saved a goal. In the third--I believe when it was still a game--Brian Lebler got on his horse to get back and break up a fantastic scoring chance.

The goals: Tristin Llewellyn put a blast through to put the Wolverines up 1-0. In the second period, with the score the same, Michigan scored one of the prettiest goals you'll ever see. Miami went for a line change and Luke Glendening made a hit to keep the puck in at the blueline. He took his man out of the play and that, combined with the RedHawks change, led to a 4 on 1 for the Wolverines in the Miami zone. Treais to Kampfer to Treais to Moffie and the puck was in the back of the net and the Wolverines had a 2-0 lead.

Miami would close within one on a 4-on-4 situation that was created by what I thought was a pretty weak embellishment call on David Wohlberg, which wiped out a would-be power play. Miami had numbers coming down into the Michigan end. Moffie got back to even it up, but Langlais slid to try and knock the puck away from Wingels. Wingels stepped around him and put a laser up under the bar.

In the third, the floodgates opened. Hagelin passed one to Matt Rust in the slot. It hit him and deflected to the far post where Kevin Lynch was waiting to slam it home. Then Brian Lebler got a great tip on a shot by Rust before Lynch capitalized on a rebound. Miami added a late power play goal, but it didn't matter. 5-2 Michigan final.

Hagelin and Rust each had three assists in the game, and Steve Kampfer was +3 on the night, which makes him a pretty incredible +23 in his CCHA Tournament career, and +13 in this year's edition, if I did that math right.

Hagelin has points in 15 of his last 16 games. Game One against LSSU is the only game since the end of January where he hasn't had a point. He has 4-14--18 in that span.

So now the Wolverines get the Northern Michigan Wildcats. The teams split a series at Yost in February with NMU winning Friday night 3-1 (with an ENG) and Michigan coming back on Saturday with a 5-4 victory. In that 3-1 loss, the Wolverines outshot the Wildcats 39-21. Check out the snarkiness in this post from the loss in the Friday night game. That was exactly 1 month ago. My how things change.

So, a quick NMU preview since it's 3 in the morning here:
They beat Ferris State 5-4 in overtime to make it to the CCHA Championship Game. That was a strange one. I watched most of the game, and NMU dominated the early portion but Ferris was leading. The NMU came back with 3 goals in 1:02 to take a 3-1 lead, got up 4-2 early in the third, and gave up back-to-back goals about a minute apart for the game to be tied, then won it fairly early in OT.

I know Brian Stewart has been up and down a lot this year. He made some stops, but I wouldn't consider this an "up" game for him. The second goal came on a harmless-looking wrap-around but Stewart lost his post. The third goal was on par with the worst goals Hogan has given up this year. It, too, was harmless. A little wrist-shot from the blueline that beat him. He did make 35 saves in the win, however.

The Wildcats are led by Hobey-finalist Mark Olver, who has 19-29--48 in 37 games. Ray Kaunisto (17) and tonight's hero Greger Hanson (16) also have put up some goals. They have five guys with 4+ PPGs on the season. They also have two-time CCHA Best Offensive Defenseman Erik Gustafsson, who has 3-28--31 on the season. They have 5 30-point scorers and 8 20-point scorers.

Stewart is 18-9-7 on the season with a 2.41/.926. In his last 10 games, he's given up 0 or 1 goal on six occasions, and more than 2 just three times. Not surprisingly, he's won nine of his last 10 starts. He has faced a LOT of rubber. Since the start of February, he's made 43, 51, 17, 22, 38, 27, 27, 33, 32, 30, 35 saves. The 17 and 22 were against a terrible WMU team.

NMU is 20-11-8 on the season (13-9-6-3 in the CCHA). They have been just 8-7-5 away from home, however. Below .500 on the road, and a couple wins at neutral sites. They really weren't having a great season, but like Michigan, they're peaking at the right time. They haven't scored fewer than two goals in a game since January 12th, a span of 17 games. They've also scored 42 goals in the 11 games since the start of February.

Quick numbers:
Offense: 22nd (3.08 gpg)--Don't look now, but Michigan is actually 12th in that category.
Defense: 12th (2.51 gpg)
Power Play: 10th (20.5%)
Penalty Kill: 17th (84.3%)
Combined Special Teams is a very strange stat, but they've actually got the top-ranked special teams in the country, based on success rate.

Northern seems to be pretty solidly in the tournament based on a couple scenarios I ran. Even with them losing tomorrow, I still see them in 9th or 10th in the PWR. They're looking for their first CCHA Tournament Championship since 1981, but the Wolverines need this win to make the NCAAs. It's amazing that after the frustrating season Michigan has had, they're one win away from making the NCAA Tournament and, quite honestly, being a team that no one will want to play in the first round.

Get it done, boys.

On to the Joe!

It was March 13, 2010
That they came to bury Michigan, all dressed in maize and blue
The words were said, the prayers were read and everybody cried
But when they closed the coffin there was someone else inside
Oh they came to bury Michigan, but Michigan wasn't dead
And when the game was over it was someone else instead
Twenty Michigan Wolverines put on the skates of black
And as the students sang The Victors
To the Joe, we're headed back!

Well, well, well. The Michigan Wolverines are headed back to the Joe! Playing on the road without their starting goalie and without their captain, Michigan won two games in a row in East Lansing for the first time since 1975.

I didn't get to see Friday's game, which is a shame because it sounds like it was complete and utter domination. Michigan scored four times in the first 20:21 to build a lead that the Spartans couldn't come close to overcoming.

Hagelin and Wohlberg each scored breakaway (or partial breakaway) goals and then Louie Caporusso scored what a lot of people described as arguably the best goal of the season--and what a beauty it was! Steve Kampfer put one through a Chris Brown screen to give the Wolverines a 4-0 lead. FYS would score a fluky goal before the Wolverines took advantage of a miscue by Ann Arborite Drew Palmisano and finished out the scoring. The pair of goals gave Caporusso 10 in his last 10.

Tonight started off the same way. Rust and Treais scored 21 seconds apart to chase Palmisano and give Michigan a 2-0 lead. The Spartans came back with 3 power play goals in the last five minutes of first period, including one with just 0.7 seconds left in the first period. The first two were on a 5 on 3 (and subsequent 5 on 4) when Chad Langlais and Tristin Llewellyn took penalties a minute apart. Llewellyn went back into the box at 19:39 and the Spartans scored again 20 seconds later.

Ben Winnett tied the game back up with a PPG of his own on a really nice shot, and Chris Brown jammed a puck in during a goalmouth scramble to put the Wolverines ahead for good.

The Wolverines outshot FYS 44-21 on the night, including an incredible 16-1 margin in the second period.

In a small bit of karma, Corey Tropp did not play in Game 2 after stepping on a puck in warmups. Fiddlesticks! 

The line of the night came from one of my buddies after Palmisano got pulled. I gave him the old "Did you know Drew Palmisano is from Ann Arbor?" text, to which he replied, "Now he's from the MSU bench!"

There's a really cool video up on MGoBlue of the team celebrating in the locker room after the game. Red commented that the Wolverines have been to the Joe something like 20 straight years, but they've never had to battle in a situation like that.

They should be really proud of themselves. In a season of completely uninspired hockey at points, they got it together and took out the CCHA's #2 team on their home ice. Our fans should be proud as well. The chanting was audible and it by and large embarrassed the Michigan State fans that were there. The Spartans love to reminisce about taking over Crisler back at the end of the Ellerbe-era, but the Wolverine fans took over Munn during a playoff series. Great work, everyone who was there.

Now it's on to the Joe where we will take on the Miami University RedHawks, who knocked out OSU 2-1 tonight. We've also climbed up the Pairwise rankings to the bubble. To be safely in, we still need to win this thing, but who knows, maybe there's a scenario that exists where we could still get in as an at-large. It's enough to make me really wish we hadn't blown a few of those games earlier in the season, though.

CCHA Denies Alabama-Huntsville

First off, a correction to yesterday's post: A reader commented that Wohlberg actually missed the USA camp, and that's backed up by him not being listed on the stat sheet from the three intrasquad scrimmages. So, assuming he was injured, I guess there's still a chance we could be without him at the GLI. I have to believe he's the type of guy USA would want on the WJC team, especially after the year he had last year.

Now on to the surprising news of the day: The CCHA has denied Alabama-Huntsville's application for membership in the league. As the linked article points out, I'm not sure the CCHA's reasoning holds water. The Chargers have a 6,600 seat arena, and Huntsville is no further than Omaha was. I'd love to know what the true story is....and what the plan is moving forward. It's hard to believe the conference would be happy sticking with 11 teams.

Hopefully UAH can find a spot in one of the other conferences. I really hate the thought of another NCAA program folding, especially when there's a spot open in one of the major conferences. I had assumed that UAH to the CCHA was a forgone conclusion after UNO announced they were WCHA-bound. Sticking with 11 doesn't make much sense....

....Unless the conference knows something we don't about the future of the Bowling Green program and they didn't want to go up to 12 only to be back down to 11 a year later. But BGSU just got $4 million for arena improvements, so that doesn't make much sense either. No matter what it's going to be a sad day for college hockey if the UAH program ultimately folds because the CCHA didn't make the decision to save them. We don't need this sport to shrink.....

A Couple of Interesting Links

First up is a great article in the New England Hockey Journal about 2010 commits Mac Bennett and Derek Deblois. They're both cited as being great skaters. DeBlois came in with the reputation of being a scorer but it sounds like he really made his mark on the forecheck and on the boards.

Bennett? Well:
Bennett’s skating is his hallmark, with the kind of speed and east-west agility that some players can only dream about. When at the top of his game, Bennett is like an untamed colt, using his powerful mobility and offensive instincts to push defenses back on their heels and lead the attack.

Western College Hockey has a draft profile on Bennett.

Next is a nice find by Goon about the ongoing saga of how the conferences will end up being aligned. Finally something that makes sense! Straight from the horse's mouth (the AD), the University of Alaska is now exploring the possibility of joining the WCHA. It sounds like we should be hearing more about this story fairly soon as the Chancellor was briefed on May 27.

It really does make sense on a lot of levels. As it is, seven CCHA teams make the trip to Alaska every season. This past year, 7 of the other 9 WCHA schools made the trip up there. So out of the conferences affected by the Alaskan teams, 14 out of the 20 schools had to go up there for conference regular season games. If you get them both in the same conference, you'd cut that number in half. It really wouldn't be that bad. You'd have one two-week trip to Alaska two out of every three years. It makes a lot more sense than what we've got going on right now. Alaska gets a natural rival in conference, UAH gets to keep their program.

For the record, I'm not only behind this move because it would put both Alaskan teams in the WCHA. I'd be just fine if the WCHA took Huntsville (or UNO) and we ended up with Anchorage. It makes a ton of sense to get those two schools in the same conference.

CCHA Championship: Notre Dame 5, Michigan 2

To quote the Boom Goes the Dynamite guy, Michigan started out well, but ended up doing poorly.

The teams were kind of feeling each other out in the early going. Not a ton going on for the first few minutes. Each team had a shortened PP. Hogan made one brilliant stop with the right pad through traffic.

Michigan then started to carry the play a little bit. Kampfer rushed the puck up and threw one on net. He nearly got a bounce off the Michigan player crashing the net. The puck ended up landing on the top of the cage.

Mitera set up Wohlberg, who had an empty net. It would've been a really tough shot to pull the trigger on, and he fanned. He had a lot of net to shoot at though. Notre Dame came back and Mitera broke up a good scoring chance. Deeth followed and Hogan made another really nice stop.

Michigan got on the board first on a goal by Luke Glendening, who now actually has more goals in his freshman season than Robbie Czarnik. He got to a puck in the slot and threw one through traffic. It deflected off the Notre Dame defenseman and eluded Pearce. Glendening has turned into a really nice player for us. He has 6-4--10 this year and has scored four at the Joe.

The first period ended with Michigan up 1-0 despite being outshot 11-9 and outchanced 6-4.

The Irish started the second on the power play and Hagelin darn near potted one shorthanded. The puck took a huge bounce off the end boards and Pearce was out of his net to play it. It came to Hagelin and the defenseman broke it up.

Notre Dame won a faceoff and took a shot toward the net. Wohlberg blocked it and it went right to Miller. Wohlberg shot up ice and Miller hit him with the homerun pass. Wohlberg walked in all alone and sniped one off the post and in. 2-0 Michigan.

Kampfer made another nice play. He thought about going behind the net to corral a loose puck, but he didn't think he'd get there so he went to the slot instead and broke up the centering pass from the Irish player that ended up getting to the puck.

Hagelin then used his speed to create another chance. He was entering the zone with speed and everyone else was kind of standing still. He threw a pass to himself off the boards and ran it down behind the net. He got it to Palushaj who centered it for Rust. Rust had a couple pops at it from inside the crease.

Regan had a couple chances right on the doorstop and Hogan stoned him. Notre Dame ended up on another power play, which was negated by Wohlberg creating a chance shorthanded and getting hauled down.

Notre Dame closed within one on a nice goal by Billy Maday. He got around Czarnik and then beautifully dangled around Burlon. Ruth was in front of the net and Hogan expected a pass. Maday flipped one through him and in. It looked like it hit Burlon on the way through. Great move though.

Hogan then followed that up with a couple nice saves, one on Ridderwall who was breaking in and another on a bouncing puck that would've gone right to an Irish player if he didn't get a piece of it.

Rust was called for kind of a blah penalty with 15 seconds left in the second period. He tugged the guy but probably not enough to send him flying the way he went down (though to be fair, Caporusso helped one a couple minutes earlier). Shockingly Beezer didn't have any comment about that one. Notre Dame would tie the game on that power play. Notre Dame won a draw and Ridderwall tipped in a shot from the point.

And just like that it was 3-2. Ben Ryan got around Langlais, who tried to hit him and missed. Mitera couldn't really step out on him unless he wanted to be the biggest screen in the world, so Ryan was able to walk in and put one far side, twenty seconds after the Irish had tied the game.

Turnbull tried to enter the zone and got hauled down. Good thing we're calling meaningless penalties at the end of periods, but not that. Then Palushaj went off for goalie interference and he really wasn't happy about it. He said he got pushed. Fox Sports only showed the overhead cam and it didn't show much other than Palushaj hitting Pearce. He didn't have a real natural skating motion going there, but there was no replay to confirm if he did get a shove. Wouldn't shock me. This was pretty much the Wisconsin game all over again, just without 10,000 yahoos going "Buhhhhhh, buh-buh-buh buh buh" the whole effing game.

Hagelin just missed during the short-handed opportunity. Then after we killed it off, Czarnik had a breakaway from the top of the circle in. Pearce poke-checked him and Czarnik didn't get off a great shot. He deked himself in a little too deep there. Needed to just do what Wohlberg did and snipe one.

Pearce then absolutely robbed Brian Lebler. He made three saves in quick succession on Lebler, who was open in the slot. Forehand, then the backhand, then on the forehand again. The last one was the best save. He got a piece of it as it was on its way by him. I'm not sure he saw it, but he got the blocker on it. He followed it up with a fourth save right after.

Ridderwall came right down and made it 4-2. That was the turning point of the game right there. Pearce makes three or four great saves and Hogan lets one in that he probably needs to stop if we're going to win a championship. Ridderwall is a pain in the ass.

After another lame Michigan PP, Minella beats Hogan from the top of the circle off a beautiful feed. We were taking some chances and gave up an odd-man rush. Four unanswered for Notre Dame in the third period.

That about did it. 5-2 Notre Dame final. Gotta give Notre Dame a lot of credit. I had the lead to this story all written in my head about how Michigan had answered the question as to who was the better team. They were all over the Irish and looked to be on their way to a fairly dominant win. I didn't know how the Irish would react to being down a couple goals, but they responded with a lot of heart. That's a darn good hockey team. I still think we're better, but Notre Dame is going to be a tough, tough out. We can't see them until the championship, as we'll be the #4 seed, so we'd be paired up with #1 BU's bracket in the semifinals, if we make it that far.

The difference in the game was that every time Michigan had a chance to bury the Irish or tie the game back up, Pearce made a timely save. Hogan didn't tonight. He had some really, really great stops in the first two periods, but it wasn't there in the third. He didn't make the saves he needed to make tonight. None of the goals were shake-your-head awful, but after the saves Pearce made on Lebler, you can't let them come down and give up that goal to Ridderwall.

Michigan will be fine. It's probably a good thing that they aren't going into the tournament thinking that their poop doesn't stink. As long as Hogie doesn't let this one get to him, we'll be fine.

I would imagine that we're either getting Air Force or Princeton in the first round. We'll find out tomorrow at 11:30 Eastern on ESPN2.

MSU Student did his final Bracketology and went with the Vermont/Princeton switch. Our region in his bracket is:
4) Michigan
5) Yale
9) Vermont
14) Air Force

He's usually really good at this stuff. I still think it makes more sense to just flip the #12 and #13 seeds (along with the #9 and #10 for hosting reasons) rather than flipping #15 and 16, and moving all the #3 seeds, and forcing the top 2 seed to play the top 3 seed. I know they don't really want to move teams outside of their bands, but would it hurt bracket integrity move to have the #4 play the #12 and the #5 play the #13 (instead of vice-versa) more than it hurts to not reward the #1 overall seed, and force the top 2-seed to play the top 3-seed?

CHN put out their final Bracketology and came up with the same thing: Us against Air Force, Yale against Vermont. They say that the committee absolutely believes that the teams can't be moved out of their bands. So if that's the case, I'm pretty confident that'll be the bracket we have.

BU clearly gets the shaft in his bracket. They have to play OSU instead of Bemidji State, and then they'd get the winner of NoDak and a host UNH team. If it plays out the way he thinks it will, I'm fine with that. Air Force still scares me a little bit for the same reasons I thought they'd beat Miami last year (real good goalie, top-notch scorer) but if you're a contender for a title that's a game that you have to win. Then we get some other Eastern teams, which is fine with me. And, OMG, Michigan as a #1 seed would have to go play a host school!!!!!!!! Zonks! REVENGE FOR 1998!!!!

The field by conference:
CCHA: Four
Hockey East: Four
ECAC: Three
WCHA: Three
Atlantic: One
CHA: One

Five Things to Know About Notre Dame: CCHA Championship Edition

Right, so the game's in like three hours and there's a pretty decent chance that eight people will read this before the game, so I'm not going into full-on preview mode. Here's a quickie though:

1) Notre Dame comes in at 30-5-3 overall and 24-4-3-3 in the CCHA. They've lost just twice since opening their season at 2-3 with losses to Denver and two to Miami. Since then, Michigan and OSU are the only teams to knock them off--though Michigan was very close to sweeping them at the end of January and likely would have with remotely competent officiating.

2) Their offense is a surprising 9th in the country at 3.39 goals per game, but they've had an interesting go of it. Check these numbers out: 5 and 1, 5 and 2, 4 and 1, 9 and 5, 4 and 1, 1 and 3. Those are their weekend goal totals (Friday then Saturday) since late January. The Michigan series was the only time they scored more goals on Saturday than they did on Friday. And that was kick-aided. I don't know if that means that teams figure them out as the weekend goes on, if they think that Billy Sauer is playing for them on Saturday nights, if they get worn out, or if it's just a fluky thing that actually doesn't mean anything. And it may mean even less than that since we're only playing them once. I just thought it was interesting.

3) Clearly what makes this team go is their defense and goaltending. They have as good of a defense corps as any team in the country and they rank #1 in scoring defense at just 1.63 goals per game. Jordan Pearce has a 1.60/.934 and is 29-5-3 with a nation-leading 8 shutouts. I've said it before and I'll go ahead and say it again. I know he's got a great defense in front of him, but those are damn impressive numbers. If I had a Hobey vote, I'm not so sure that he wouldn't have gotten mine. I have no clue how he's not a finalist.

4) They're led offensively by senior Erik Condra, with a 13-25--38 line. Christian Hanson (Hey! Did you know that he's the son of the guy from Slapshot??!) leads the team with 16 goals, though he's massively cooled off and has just 3 in his last 16 contests. Calle Ridderwall has 15, with 11 of those on the PP. Billy Maday has 15 as well. They also get a pretty decent amount of offense from their blueliners. They've got three guys with 20+ points on the season: Ian Cole, Kyle Lawson and Brett Blatchford.

5) They're one of the least-penalized teams in the country at just 13.2 minutes per game. They have the top-ranked power play at 23.6% (and have allowed just 3 SHGs) and they've got the second-ranked penalty kill at 89.5%. It's interesting (to me) that of the top 16 penalty killing teams in the country, only FYS had no shot at making the tournament. Everyone else was in the mix, either via their record or by performing in the conference tournament. By the way, Michigan's penalty kill has risen all the way up to #5 nationally. Far cry from where they were at the start of the year.

It's a shame that there isn't more riding on this game. Notre Dame pretty much has the trip to Grand Rapids sewn up, and Michigan will likely end up the #4 overall seed regardless of what happens. It should be a pretty entertaining hockey game, though. It's always fun to see two top teams do battle and these are two of the three best teams in the country. It wouldn't shock me a bit if this isn't the last time these clubs see each other this season.

More Postseason Accolades

Louie Caporusso was named one of the ten finalists for the Hobey Baker Award. Caporusso has 23-23--46 on the season.

The other finalists are Matt Gilroy (BU), Colin Wilson (BU), Jacques Lamoureux (Air Force), Ocho Cinco (Alaska), Zane Kalemba (Princeton), Brad Thiessen (Northeastern), Viktor Stalberg (Vermont), Jamie McBain (Wisconsin), and David McIntyre (Colgate). Shockingly absent was Jeff Lerg.

I tried to guess the ten before I looked and I had Caporusso, Wilson, Lamoureux, Johnson, and McBain right. I also had Bryan Leitch, Ryan Stoa, Brock Bradford, Jordan Pearce, and Chay Genoway on my list. I like my list better. I guess the voters don't think Eastern hockey is (BU-aside) as big of a joke as I kind of think it is. Though I did screw up by not having anyone from the EZAC on my list. Pearce is a glaring omission from the real list, in my opinion. Then again, I'm sure the voters from outside CCHA country weren't inclined to vote for a guy who wasn't All-Conference.

So does Louie has a shot? I wouldn't normally think so, but it's really wide open this year. Lamoureux probably doesn't have a chance, and he definitely won't if Air Force doesn't make the NCAAs. Wilson is next on the list in terms of points, but Caporusso is only three behind him, and he had nine more goals. Assuming Lamoureux doesn't get it, Caporusso is the leading goal scorer amongst the finalists. If he has a good CCHA Tourney and does well in the Regional, he might have a chance.

Realistically, they're not giving it to Kalemba, McIntyre, Thiessen, or Stalberg. As great as Johnson has been, they're probably not giving it to a goalie that's 14-14 on the season. That leaves Caporusso, Gilroy, Wilson, Lamoureux and McBain. If Wisconsin and Air Force miss the tourney, you can probably cut McBain and Lamoureux as well. And really, I don't see them giving it to Jamie McBain anyway. That leaves Gilroy, Wilson, and Caporusso. Gilroy is such a great story, I could easily see him winning it. I still think it's pretty wide open at this point, though, and Caporusso probably makes the Hobey Hat Trick with a strong showing the rest of the way. And if the BU guys steal votes from each other, you never know. Pretty weak year for Hobey candidates though. And the guy who I kind of thought would win it (Pearce) isn't even a finalist.

In other news tonight, David Wohlberg was named CCHA Rookie of the Year and Tim Miller was named Best Defensive Forward at the CCHA Awards Banquet. Ocho Cinco was named CCHA Player of the Year, which is well deserved.

BGSU to Drop Hockey?

There are rumors swirling that BGSU could announce the death of their hockey program as soon as two weeks from now.

I'd sure hate to see that. It's never good to see any school drop hockey, let alone a former national champion who has put a decent number of guys into the NHL. They've fallen on hard times, but I'd hate to see the Falcons go.

Of course, that would be an easy way of solving the "Where does Alabama-Huntsville play?" dilemma.

Here's hoping that we get to see those ugly jerseys and thunderstick-wielding fans for many years to come!

Save BGSU Hockey on Facebook. Whether it'll help or not, I don't know. But it's worth showing support to one of the "little guys" in our conference (and I don't mean that in a derogatory way).

Hockey Links!

I may not have a lot of content, but I sure do have a bunch of interesting links to pass along!

HSR and MGoBlog break down the PWR rankings and comment on how the screw-jobs against OSU and ND might come into play.

Brian takes a look at people who are better at their jobs than Kevin Langseth is at his. I would include my Dish Network installer on that list. Douche.

The Ann Arbor News gives us some fantastic news: Mark Mitera is expected to play this weekend against Ferris State. Talk about a boost heading into the postseason. It'll be interesting to see how the team handles the "letter" situation. I gotta believe Mitera and Summers both wear C's.

Also, according to the Ann Arbor News, Piotrowski said the the officials determined that it was Vaughan's skate that created the contact with the puck. Clearly that was the wrong decision being that the goal has been credited to Severyn and OSU's official site even says the puck went in off Severyn's skate. Great group you got there, Pio.

MHNet's take on Saturday's game made me laugh. Very fitting, and a commercial that I always thought was funny.

WCH weighs in as well. I'm not sure I completely agree that all goals off skates should be allowed to count--I don't think you really want to encourage guys to start trying to kick the puck--but I 100% believe that unless there's a distinct kicking motion, the goal should count. If you're skilled enough to turn your skate and deflect it in, more power to you. It's really not that hard to figure out if a guy kicked the puck. Especially if you let them look at more than one replay that may or may not even have the puck in the frame when it's propelled toward the net. I can't say I remember ever being pissed at the NHL over a call when the puck was kicked into the net. They might be good at screwing things up when the goalie is pushed into the goal. They might not be able to get calls in the crease correct (especially when we play Anaheim). But I don't remember ever complaining too much about kicked pucks. Then again, the NCAA refs are incompetent enough that even with what essentially amounts to a no-tolerance policy on goals going in off the skate, they're still getting it wrong at an alarming rate, so maybe we shouldn't be putting trust in them to get judgement calls correct.

Dwight Helminen was involved in a scary incident over the weekend. The Albany River Rats' bus crashed, sending several team members/employees to the hospital. Ex SCSU Huskie Casey Borer broke his neck (thankfully it sounds like he'll be able to resume his career) and told his story to the Times Union. He was sleeping and woke up while he was flying through the air. Borer said Helminen was cut up in the crash. It doesn't sound like Dewey was seriously hurt though. Thank God everyone was (relatively) okay.

Jeff Lerg is about to become the all-time save king in NCAA hockey. With the way they inflate his shot totals at Munn, I'm shocked this didn't happen by his sophomore season. Regardless, congrats to him. At least something good has come out of the fact that his team can't play defense.

Last, but certainly not least, Mike Spath talked with Red Berenson about the calls Saturday night and Red is more than slightly upset about it.

He also took about five minutes to rip the hell out of the replay system and the CCHA officials. He's very aware of what the two games (ND and OSU) could end up costing his team in the long run. But while he wants to see wholesale changes to the replay system he doesn't know that it will change because enough programs (ones that don't get TV often) probably wouldn't benefit from introducing new technology.

Spath said he'll post some quotes in the near future. That should be a really good read.

Some people might view it as sour grapes, but I'm glad Red is speaking out about this stuff. The more attention drawn to what jokes the officials and the replay system are, the better the chance that something will be done about it. The conference deserves all the negative pub it gets for this one. In Michigan games alone, their officials have inexcusably stuffed up four goal calls in the last month. With the benefit of video review, albeit a flawed video review system. This goes so far and beyond missing blatant penalties, or failing to DQ someone for an attack that would eventually get him kicked off his team. These are calls directly awarding goals scored by illegal means and disallowing perfectly legit goals. It's happening way too often. It's cost Michigan two games against Teams Under Consideration and it needs to be fixed. I don't want to hear about a $50,000 replay system. All it takes is a freaking cable TV jack, a cable TV subscription, a coax cable, and a TV for the officials to get a better view than what they've got now. Hell, I don't even have that in my condo right now and I still had a better view of Severyn's kick in than what the officials apparently saw. I had a laptop, an internet connection, a Slingbox, and more than half a brain--unlike the numskulls working the game.

Edit: Oh, I meant to pass this along awhile ago. A reader wrote in with the details of what must be the ultimate place to get your Michigan jersey personalized. The hockey team gets their jerseys made at Exclusive Pro Sports in Rockford, IL and they'll do jerseys for fans as well. They've got a huge database of the lettering styles and colors. And I guess it's only like $65 plus postage to get it done (and that was for 3-colored numbers).

Also, if anyone has a team photo from this year that would be suitable for printing into a decent size (I'd guess at least 8 x 10) could you let me know? A reader wrote in looking for one. All I could find online was a tiny one from the GLI.

Edit #2: Also, Andy Baggot reported a few days ago that "All signs continue to point to the Wisconsin Badgers men's hockey team hosting Michigan in an outdoor game at Camp Randall Stadium in February of 2010." The announcement has been pushed back to March, but they don't anticipate anything jeopardizing the game. Nice to hear, since it seemed like this game fell off the face of the earth. Tickets are reported to be around $15 for the game. Bargain.

This is Getting Absurd

Since our Dish Network installation was an epic fail, I didn't get to see any of the game tonight. I returned from moving boxes just in time to fire up Slingbox and see a grainy shot of the game-winning goal. My immediate reaction was, "Wow. He totally kicked that in." Keep in mind, this is seeing a replay for a split-second on a grainy picture. The text message I got immediately after confirmed it. The thread at The Wolverine was further confirmation.

And yet somehow Langseth managed to stuff it up again. For the second time in about a month, Michigan lost a hockey game 3-2 when they had a goal waived off due to a premature whistle, and the opponent had a kicked-in goal allowed. That's pretty impressive, Pio.

This really is the worst replay system ever. I didn't think it was possible, but it seems like CCHA refs get replay rulings correct less frequently than their Big Ten Football counterparts. They're handicapped by the fact that they aren't allowed to use all the angles at their disposal, but how do you keep missing the puck getting kicked in in the first place?

That's all I saw of the game. I guess the defense had some major lapses and Hogie gave up some soft rebounds. Failing to score on a 2-minute 5-on-3 probably didn't help matters either.

So in splitting with OSU, we lose the ability to control our own destiny for second place heading into the final weekend of the season. Miami got another shootout point (awesome), so they're two ahead with two games to play. Without looking into the numbers, we still seem to be in really good shape to be a top seed in the NCAA Tournament.

At some point, I'll actually be able to start seeing games again...

Finally Some Hockey Content!

The CCHA announced today that, as expected, they will be adding the shootout to conference games beginning this year. If the game is tied after regulation, the teams will play the 5-minute, 5-on-5 overtime as usual. If a winner isn't decided, there will be a three-man shootout. If necessary, it will continue on with other players from the bench until someone wins.

The winner of the game (in regulation, shootout, or overtime) will receive two points. A shootout loss gets a team one point, but unlike the NHL, they do not receive a point for an overtime loss. Basically you can look forward to less-talented teams playing for the shootout once it gets to overtime. If a team wants to attempt to hang on for dear life for five minutes against us, I'm ok with that...

Games decided in a shootout will count as ties in the national standings, which I like. Also, for non-conference games hosted by CCHA teams, the shootout is allowed but the opponent has to agree to it. Those games, too, would only count as ties in the national standings, so there's no real point beyond deciding an artificial winner.

I'm mixed on the addition of shootouts. I like them in the NHL because they're exciting as hell and there are a possible 164 points during the regular season, so a few extra aren't going to make a huge difference. In the CCHA there are only 56 points available and last year a .500 record earned Ferris State the #5 overall seed. It's easy to see how being good in shootouts could give a team a significant boost in the conference standings.

My preferred method would have been a 10-minute 4-on-4 overtime, and if it's tied after that, it's tied. I bet you would get a winner more often than not and it doesn't really deviate too much from the game as a whole. That said, shootouts are really exciting and there's no chance I'd turn one off. I'm just not sure they have a place in a 28-game season.

So, who stands to gain the most from an opportunity to earn an extra point? Over the past 3 seasons, here is the list of ties per CCHA team:
1. Nebraska-Omaha: 14
1. LSSU: 14
3. Alaska: 13
3. Ferris: 13
3. MSU: 13
6. Notre Dame: 11
7. OSU: 10
7. Michigan: 10
9. WMU: 8
10. Miami: 7
11. NMU: 6
12. BGSU: 3

I haven't got the foggiest clue where the CCHA got their numbers from. In the press release, they claim there were 31 tied games in 2007-08, 26 the year before, and 33 the year before that. I've got 19 (38 ties total in the standings), 16, and 26. But whatever.

The team who looks to be hurt the worst by this is Bowling Green. The teams they tend to finish around in the standings (Ferris, UNO, LSSU, Alaska) tie a lot more often than they do, thus their peers will have more opportunities to gain extra points in the standings. We're talking ten over three years, or three to four extra opportunities a season, but in the middle of the CCHA, two, three, four extra points could make a big difference. I'm actually really surprised by the low number out of Bowling Green.

The top-dogs are all fairly equal. If the trends continue, MSU could gain slightly relative to Miami, but it's not going to make a huge difference at the top of the standings, I don't think.

It could make it a little tougher for Northern Michigan to crack the top four, as they don't tie very often and I would expect the top dogs to win shootouts more often than not. It might put them at a handicap of a point or two relative to the top teams in the conference if the trends over the past few years continue.