Union 6, Michigan 3 - At Least Hagelin is Sweet

Photo credit: Bill Rapai

Yup, it gets worse. Michigan extended their losing streak to four games--and their winless streak to six--by falling to Union at Yost by a 6-3 margin. Union jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first period and a 4-0 lead early in the second. Michigan drew back to within two on goals by PDG and Wohlberg, but Union scored the next two. Guptill popped one in late.

From what I understand, it was a pretty impressive performance if you are impressed by the other team getting breakaway after breakaway. It sounded like an all-around poor performance and Union made them pay.

The silver lining--maybe--is that up next is a trip to Alaska. I know in the past, Red has said that he likes that trip because it's a good opportunity for team bonding. Maybe that's what they need. Get away for a little while, go see the pipeline, go curling, have some fun. Then get out on the ice and hopefully get back on the winning track. There's still plenty of time to fix this. It would sure be nice to see #24 back in the lineup at some point. It sounds like they could use him....

On the bright side, Carl Hagelin doesn't look like he wants to go back to the AHL anytime soon. Our super-Swede now has 1-2--3 in three NHL games. (There's still about 6 minutes left in his game tonight.) He added an assist against the Penguins tonight on a pretty drop pass. Ranger fans are impressed. Blueshirt Banter had his first-career goal as the highlight of the week. He had some nice things to say--including that his speed is unbelievable. Larry Brooks had an article about Hagelin as well. John Tortorella said that "he's not only playing fast, he's playing smart". Sounds like the Hagelin we know! Bork bork bork.

Top 50 BCHL Players, Hagelin

The BCHL ran a poll where fans could vote on the top 50 players in league history. Jeff Tambellini, Brendan Morrison, and Bill Muckalt all made the cut. Eric Nystrom's father Bob also made the cut. There are some other names of note on the list if you're a Wings fan.

Carl Hagelin did in fact make his NHL debut last night. The Rangers defeated Washington 6-3 and Hagelin got on the scoresheet with an assist, a shot on goal, and a +1 rating in 10 1/2 minutes of ice-time. The Rangers were back on the ice today and Hagelin notched his first career goal, 3 shots, and a +1 rating in almost 11 minutes of ice-time. Bork bork bork!

Michigan fell 4-1 to Northeastern last night in a game where--from the sound of it--it was probably a good thing that we didn't have streaming video. After a Travis Lynch goal to open the scoring, Northeastern put four past Shawn Hunwick. I don't really care to watch the highlights, but from following the game on Twitter, it sounded like there wasn't a whole helluva lot of defense to be had. Lots of breakaways. Apparently Northeastern soundly outplayed Michigan, despite the Wolverines holding a 34-22 shot advantage.

Michigan tries to get back in the win column tomorrow afternoon against Union.

Wiseman, Muckalt, Hyman, and More

Now that the AHL Playoffs are finally over, Michigan has officially announced Brian Wiseman as the new assistant to Red Berenson. He replaces Mel Pearson who took the Michigan Tech head coaching job after much debate.

Wiseman was most recently an assistant with the Houston Aeros of the AHL, who just fell to Binghamton Senators in the Calder Cup Finals. He played for four years under Red Berenson, racking up 248 points. He remains 3rd on Michigan's all-time scoring list.

He also has experience as an assistant with Princeton and was the video coordinator for the Dallas Stars. From 2005-10 he wasn't actually working in hockey, instead working as an account manager for an oil supplier. He said that he would have stayed in that job, but he didn't want Michigan State trying to hire him away to be their head coach after Anastos gets fired.*

When the job was originally open, Bill Muckalt was one of the names mentioned as a potential replacement for Pearson. As it turns out, he didn't replace Pearson. He joined him. Muckalt was named as an assistant at Michigan Tech, coaching under Pearson. Muckalt was a head coach in the NAHL and WSHL. He was also Head Coach of the Eastern Michigan club team. Can I make another Tom Anastos joke in the same article? No. Alright, fine.

In other news, Zach Hyman was honored with the BJ Monro award by the OHA. This award is given to the OHA's top professional prospect. Mike Cammalleri and Nathan Horton are previous winners of the award. Hyman's jersey will also be displayed in the Hockey Hall of Fame during July.

Brandon Burlon has officially signed with the New Jersey Devils and won't be returning to school. I think the writing was probably on the wall after Mike Chiasson committed. Burlon denied that the decision to leave him as a scratch for the National Championship Game had anything to do with his decision. It sounds like he got "the speech" from Red about not leaving, but he indicated that he intends to finish his degree.

Best of luck to Brandon! I don't think it was unreasonable for him to head to the pros. I wish he had come back for his senior season, but this shouldn't be a shocker to anyone, and I don't think it's a head-scratcher either. He's a talented kid and I think he can probably play in the NHL. The Devils have struggled, so now is probably a good time to head that way. Just so long as he doesn't go trying to bring any of his teammates (Merrill, Wohlberg) along with him!

More stuff I haven't commented on!

Louie Caporusso did end up signing with Ottawa. While Caporusso never quite got back to the level (offensively) that he reached during his sophomore season, he did give us four very-good seasons and I think he became a much better all-around player by the end of his career. I mean, he ended up being a freaking penalty killer! He'll likely end up joining the Binghamton Senators, who just won the AHL Championship. Again, it would be great to see the Love Guru in the League someday. I'm really going to miss Louie.

Carl Hagelin was given the Big Ten's Medal of Honor for his success in the classroom and on the ice. The New York Rangers site just did a profile of him for their "20 Prospects in 20 Days" series.

"He's an elite skater," Jeff Gorton, the Rangers' Assistant Director, Player Personnel, said of Hagelin. "He's evolved from maybe what people thought of as a role-type player to a guy that's shown some skill and been very productive at the college level with speed and tenacity.”

It was a really great article (and a really LONG article!). There are quotes from Carl and all sorts of people in the Rangers organization. And it turns out we've been saying his name incorrectly all along. Whoops! Sorry about that, Carl. That kid is going to make everyone who loves Michigan hockey proud. What a find he was...

NHL.com has a feature about the two top-ranked goalies named Gibson. John is the top-ranked, and Chris is the second-ranked heading into the Draft, which is in a couple of weeks.

*He didn't actually say that.

A Senior Night Sweep

Thanks to Bill for the photo, as always

Last Wednesday, Casandra Pagni from The Michigan Daily wrote the following:

Michigan hockey seniors Scooter Vaughan, Louie Caporusso, Chad Langlais and Matt Rust were in unanimous agreement on Wednesday.

The topic? Their most memorable moment playing at Yost Ice Arena.

Their answer? They all agreed that the one game they each would never forget came three years ago when Caporusso scored the game-winning goal with just 20.3 seconds left to propel then-No. 2 Michigan over then-No. 8 Notre Dame.

I suspect, if the question was asked again, that some of them may have a different favorite memory. Carl Hagelin certainly would.

What better way to spend senior night than by doing what Carl Hagelin did--scoring the game tying goal with 39 seconds left in regulation and then scoring the game-winner in overtime with 2 seconds to play? The win sent the seniors out in dramatic fashion, all but locked up a tournament bid for these Wolverines (we now sit 6th in the PWR after being on the bubble earlier in the week), and kept Michigan's CCHA Championship hopes alive.

It was a stunning end to a game in which, quite honestly, Michigan didn't play all that well. They fell behind 1-0 just 43 seconds into the game on a beautiful tip by Dane Walters. Michigan tied the game up when David Wohlberg broke the power play futility streak by banking one in off Jerry Kuhn, but then gave up a pair of breakaway goals over the next five minutes. Chad Langlais was able to slip one through a Chris Brown screen to make it 3-2 headed to intermission.

In the second period, the Broncos outshot Michigan 13-6, but Kevin Lynch's short-handed tally was the lone goal of the period. Hunwick made a stop and Lynch took it end to end. Wohlberg was with him and drove the front of the net, cutting right in front of the goalie. Lynch toe-dragged around the defenseman and got off a nice wrister, five-hole to tie the game at three.

Late in the third, however, it looked like the comeback would be for naught. WMU scored on a shot from the point with Caporusso in the box early in the third period. Michigan had managed ten shots in the frame, but nothing of any great consequence. Shawn Hunwick went to the bench with 1 1/2 minutes left in regulation and that set the stage for something spectacular.

Carl Hagelin took a shot from the top of the circle which tipped the defenseman on the way through and made Kuhn look really bad as it deflected through his legs with 40 seconds to play. Kuhn reacted by going all Blades of Steel on us--goalie stick and trapper over the head, then slam the stick to the ice.

Glendening nearly won it a few seconds later, but we had overtime. In the OT, Hunwick made a pair of dynamite saves--a glove stop on a rising shot and then he stoned Max Campbell a few seconds later. There was a brief moment of panic as Greg Pateryn nearly put one into his own net. Michigan went on the power play with 30 seconds left--one of those calls that was a penalty by the book, but you're pissed if it gets called against your team. After a WMU clear, it looked like Western Michigan would get their NCAA-record 11th tie and would head to their 10th shootout on the season. In fact, my notes read like this:

On the power play, Merrill got one shot away but that's all she wr-SCOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

With just a couple of seconds left in overtime, Hagelin took a shot from out by the blueline that may have touched the defenseman on the way through--if it did, it didn't move very much--but it eluded Jerry Kuhn's glove and the Wolverines had themselves an incredible win on Senior Night. Yost erupted, the team went crazy, WMU's coach flipped out Blasi-style about the last penalty.

As the crowd honored the seniors after the game, the Swedish flag that has flown at Yost for three seasons was tossed over the glass to Hagelin. The students had passed it around throughout the game, autographing it and writing thank yous and words of encouragement to our Super Swede.

Moments like that are what make me really miss being around Ann Arbor and make me really miss going to games at Yost.

Our Texan is back to form! (Thanks again to Bill)

Hunwick was shaky at times this weekend--there were some rebounds sneaking out behind him and shots popping out of the glove--but he rebounded from a tough start (3 goals on 5 shots in the first period--a beautiful tip and two breakaways) to be a difference-maker. He stopped all 13 WMU shots in the second period and committed robbery during the overtime. Michigan hung him out an awful lot on Saturday. Definitely not his best weekend overall.

Friday's game was a great start and then got more exciting than it should have after Western never stopped working.

Western hit the post in the early going and then went on a power play as Scooter Vaughan was sent off. Michigan's PK did a great job and then Greg Pateryn hit Vaughan right out of the penalty box. Vaughan came in on a 2-on-1 with Glendening, opted to take the shot, and sniped one short-side like he's been doing it for years. That's 11 on the season for Scooter, and it gave the Wolverines a 1-0 lead.

Pateryn then got a shot through traffic. The rebound kicked onto the stick of Kevin Lynch who popped it in for his first goal in 18 games. That play could potentially have as big of an impact on Michigan's season as Carl Hagelin's winner the next night. Michigan has struggled to find goal-scorers at times this year and Lynch is a guy that can provide some of that secondary scoring. He had 6 goals in the first 14 games this season before going into a massive slump. That goal was the first of three on the weekend for him, and he was noticeably great the whole weekend. If they can keep him going, Chris Brown going, that's a big help as we head into the NCAAs.

Early in the second, Greg Pateryn figured that he had assisted on a couple of goals, might as well score one too. Truth be told, he'd have assisted on his own goal if that was allowed, because he created the play as well. He intercepted a pass just outside the blueline and made a great play throwing the puck into the zone to open ice. That got him onside and let him drive to the net. Rust picked up the puck, made a great cross-ice pass, and Pateryn tipped it in.

Just 15 seconds later, Pateryn took a shot from the point that Chris Brown tipped past Kuhn to give Michigan a 4-0 lead. That was 4 points in the first 24 minutes of the hockey game for a guy that had ten points on the season coming in.

Western changed goalies and was a completely different team after that. They made it 4-1 on a well-placed shot by Dane Walters. He took the shot from the top of the circle and put it right up under the bar. Four minutes later, they made it 4-2 on a bouncing puck that found its way through traffic. Hunwick made the initial shot, but Balisy was left alone to knock in the rebound.

WMU actually outshot Michigan 17-8 in that second period. Most of those came after the goalie change.

Michigan regained a three-goal margin as Derek DeBlois threw one high off the glass from his own zone and sprung Lynch and Winnett on a 2-on-1. Lynch ripped one far-side, top-corner. Not a minute later, though, WMU closed back to 5-3. The defense left Campbell alone in the middle of the ice, and he deflected in a pass from the sideboards.

Western pulled the goalie with a couple of minutes left and Glendening put one into the empty cage to ice it. That was actually a really nice play. Vaughan got the puck to open ice and Glendening made sure he was a step over center before taking a shot at the net. How many times does someone get over-anxious and it ends up resulting in an icing?

I'd love to know the last time Michigan went through a game without a single power play. That was interesting.

Overall thoughts on the weekend:

-Lynch and Brown have stepped it up. The puck is starting to go in for both of them (they combined for 4-2--6 and +4 on the weekend) and they were both throwing their weight around. They both wrecked a couple of people--enough that I got to make a "Chris Brown is hitting people like....Chris Brown" joke.

-Western Michigan is for real. It's unbelievable what Blashill has done in one year with that program. He's got them on the tournament bubble, possibly in line for a first-round bye in the CCHA Tournament, and they really don't have a ton of talent just yet. Campbell and Balisy are studs, but this is largely the same group that went 4-17-7 in the CCHA last year. They've got some speed, and they never quit. That team gets after you the whole weekend. They're going to be a B to play against moving forward. It's actually really nice to see. Western hit a homerun with that hire.

-Attention NHL Network: I love that you showed our game on tape delay. What I don't love is that you left the score of our game on the ticker while you were showing our game. Luckily I've seen this movie before and had my fiancee look to see if it was on there. When she laughed and confirmed that it was, she rigged up a notebook to block that part of the screen. This is common sense stuff and every network does it. Especially if you're airing a game for the first time, take the score off the ticker so you don't ruin the result for everyone tuning in to see it.

-Pretty solid special teams this weekend. The PK was 6 for 7, scored a shortie, and only gave up 5 shots. They were fantastic on Friday night. WMU only had 1 shot on three power plays. The power play was 2/4 with 7 shots on the weekend. They might not have been "pretty" power play goals--Wohlberg threw one off the goalie and Hagelin scored from the blueline--but hey, they got the job done.

-Props to Wohlberg and Brown for great backchecks this weekend. On Friday night, Brown got back to keep JJ Crew from a sure goal. Saturday, Wohlberg had a pair of dandies.

-Underrated play of the weekend goes to Lee Moffie for his check in overtime. Michigan was on the power play with about 30 seconds left. Western got the puck out and was skating it into the Michigan zone with maybe 15 seconds to go. Moffie stepped up and absolutely planted the guy. That gave Michigan possession and they were able to reset. Good breakout, Moffie dropped it to Hagelin at the point and everyone in the building had another magical moment to remember.

Notre Dame swept Ferris at Ferris so we head into the final weekend of the regular season 1 point behind the Irish. The results this weekend eliminate Miami from contention for the CCHA title and lock them into 3rd place in the conference. They could tie Michigan for second, but the Wolverines would get the edge via the "Conference Wins" tie-breaker. The Wolverines head up to Northern while the Irish have a home-and-home with Western. Northern has climbed up the standings to 5th in the CCHA.

Having a Seat Over There: John Gibson and Brennan Serville

(More from MGoBlog and MHNet)

We have our stud goalie commit!

Michigan picked up a pair of commitments this week: US NTDP goalie John Gibson and Stouffville defenseman Brennan Serville.

Not to dimish Serville's commitment in any way, because he sounds like a pretty darn good player as well, but Gibson is the guy that should have Wolverines fans jumping for joy. A former OSU-verbal, Gibson is one of the top goalies in his age group and that blue-chippah that we've been waiting for since Jack Campbell decided to head for the OHL.

Kyle Woodlief from Red Line had Gibson as the #31 prospect in the upcoming draft, and said that he is one of the biggest risers on his draft board.

“His improvement has been dramatic over the course of the past 18 months,” said Woodlief of Gibson, who stands 6-foot-3, 185 pounds. “He was always a taller kid who didn’t have great lateral agility or quickness because he had grown length wise, but his body hadn’t really grown into that. As he has grown into his frame and gotten stronger in the lower half of the body, he is much quicker and more nimble on his feet.”

HT to MGoBlog for this one: One of the writers for ESPN.com had Gibson as one of three goalies who could potentially be a first-round pick. 

Some scouts thought that Gibson (6-foot-2, 205 pounds) was in and out at the NHL Research and Development camp this summer, but he has looked very solid in showings subsequently. He gets high marks for his agility in the crease and he goes post to post very well. With Campbell last year and John Gibson this winter, it just might be that the USDT is becoming what Quebec was for many years -- the leading hothouse for goaltending prospects.

Central Scouting had him as the top goalie in the USHL in their preliminary rankings.

The Hockey News liked how he looked at the NHL R&D camp:

Another American who looked good at the R&D camp, Gibson has a great new-school NHL frame at 6-foot-3, 200 pounds. He moves fairly quickly for a goalie his size and considering he was handicapped by rule changes and in facing the best offensive players his age group, fared well. Draft eligible in 2011.

So far this season, Gibson is 6-6-2 with a 2.89/.917, which is very, very good. He made 44 stops in the NTDP's 3-0 loss to the Wolverines earlier this year. He was 3-0-0 in the World Under 17 Hockey Challenge with a 1.33/.957, including a win in the championship game.

Brian made a good point that it's probably unlikely that he's headed for the OHL after flipping his commit midway through the season. It's also exceedingly rare for goalies to head for the pros at such a young age, so the chances are probably pretty good that he'll be in maize and blue for at least a couple of seasons.

He won't have to be "the man" right away, with Hunwick proving that he's a more-than-capable goalie at the NCAA level, but I'm sure Gibson will see icetime-aplenty next year. This is a huge pickup for the program, and taking him from Ohio State makes it that much better. The much-needed goalie spot has been filled.

Also committing to the Wolverines was former Canisius commitment Brennan Serville. From MHNet:

Serville plays for Stouffville of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, the same league that the likes of Louie Caporusso and Brandon Burlon came from.  The 6’3, 180 pound defenseman has eight assists in 17 games this season.  He had 3-12-15 in 43 games last season.  A former Canisius commit, USHR says Serville is “a great skating defenseman with size who is good on the breakout, has good hands and sees the ice well.”

Good size, good speed. He now has 2-10--12 in 20 games. He's currently riding a four game point streak where he has 2 goals and 5 assists. He was selected to play for Canada East in the World Junior A Challenge despite missing the evaluation camp and only playing 9 games to the point of the team being selected. Canada East won a silver medal and Serville played in all five games, but didn't register a point. He's projected as a 3rd-5th round pick in the Draft.

We're scheduled to have six defensemen coming back next year (in addition to Serville and Michael Szuma coming in), so provided that no one leaves and Jon Merrill doesn't run for President or something, we'll be in really good shape on the blueline.

Here's an article on Serville from back when he committed to Canisius. And Stouffville sure likes him.

There was a very interesting article in the Windsor Star that seems really premature, but is surely fun to think about for those of us that root for the Wings and Wolverines: Bob Duff says that he has heard rumblings that the Rangers will not sign Carl Hagelin after the seasons and that he could be headed for Motown:

Currently the property of the New York Rangers, who selected the 5-11, 176-pound left-winger from Sodertalje, Sweden with the 168^th pick of the 2007 National Hockey League entry draft, word around the NHL is that the Rangers won't be signing Hagelin, who would then become a free agent Aug. 15, 2011. “I wouldn't be surprised to see Detroit sign him,” said one NHL scout at Saturday's game.

That would be awesome. Ranger blogs aren't buying it, however. The Prospect Park says:

If Carl Hagelin does not sign with the New York Rangers, it would be because Hagelin did not want to sign not because the Rangers did not want to sign him. We know that last summer that the Rangers made a serious attempt to sign Hagelin and get him to leave school early.

Hagelin (who had been named captain of Michigan's hockey team) turned them down, whether it was because he wanted his degree or he wanted to win the Hobey Baker this year we can not confirm. But what we do know is that the Rangers tried to sign him and that they will try again as soon as Michigan's season ends.
...
The Rangers do want Carl Hagelin end of story, if he does not sign it will be because of Hagelin not because of the Rangers.

Canyon of Blueshirts points out that just a few weeks ago, Glen Sather mentioned Hagelin as a prospect who has an opportunity to be a good player.

This report doesn't seem to pass the smell test. There's a direct, positive quote from Sather about Hagelin from just a few weeks ago, and it seems pretty early to have made up your mind that you're not going to make an effort to sign one of the better prospects in your organization. That being said, it sure is nice to think about. It'd be nice to finally have a Wolverine back in a Wings jersey. And I wouldn't have to stop yelling "Bork, bork, bork!" at every opportunity. Dinky doooooooo!