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.
Showing posts with label shawn hunwick. Show all posts
Showing posts with label shawn hunwick. Show all posts
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Friday, April 08, 2011
This is How It Feels: Michigan 2, North Dakota 0
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This is how it feels to have the goalie that makes opposing fans do...well...that.
Sioux fans are going to think about this game--this season--for the next decade as the one that got away. This is going to be their 1997. The year their team was near unbeatable during the year, actually unbeatable for the 2 1/2 months heading into the tournament, and that damn tiny walk-on goalie slammed the door on them. They're going to be the ones talking in their sleep, saying "F*** Michigan. All they've got is a goalie" the way a friend of mine did about the Spartans after a loss to the Miller-era squad.
North Dakota is an unbelievable hockey team. That was an onslaught for the last forty minutes of the game. After a pretty even first period, especially considering the Sioux had a pair of power plays, North Dakota just absolutely dominated the second and third periods, outshooting Michigan 26-10 down the stretch.
It's so cliche, but this was a true team victory. It sounds funny to say in a game where Michigan got outshot 40-20, but the defense was pretty darn good. Hunwick had to make 7 or 8 dandies, and you would clearly put this in the category of the goaltender stealing a game, but the sticks were active, guys back-checked like crazy and for the most part they kept the Sioux from getting those second and third chances with everyone running around. They played a really darn good game against a team with unbelievable depth. Guys like Carl Hagelin and Louie Caporusso didn't do much in the offensive end, but they were earning their scholarships in their own end of the ice. Matt Rust was a beast. That was one of the only things that Barry Melrose got right the entire night.
And leave it to maybe the most under-appreciated player on the team to score the game-winning goal. Ben Winnett. Gotta admit, never been a fan. Probably get down on him more than I ought to. But despite the fact that he never turned into the scoring threat offensively that we all kind of expected with him coming out of the BCHL and all, he has turned into a really strong defensive player--and he probably doesn't get enough credit for that. Tonight he's one of the heroes. Jon Merrill's shot from the point hit the post and came back out to Winnett. The puck hopped over his stick--I'll admit, I groaned--but it caromed around and Winnett corralled it to the goalie's left. He had nothing but the net to shoot at and he buried it.
Amazingly, that was all Michigan needed. In the middle of the second period, I was thinking that they really needed to turn the tables a little bit because there's no way that could keep up for another 30 minutes, but it did. North Dakota threw everything they had at Michigan and #31 just kept stopping them. The defense kept dumping it out and getting off the ice when they could. It's hard to describe how exhausting this game was to watch. It was like 40 minutes of watching CC's power play. The teams could have switched ends halfway through the third period and North Dakota would have had a clean sheet of ice to work with.
But then it was Carl Hagelin blocking a shot, Michigan rushing the puck up ice and making the extra pass, Scooter Vaughan popping it into the empty net, and we're playing Saturday night for the National freaking CHAMPIONSHIP!
The opponent? Minnesota-Duluth, who defeated Notre Dame 4-3 earlier today. More on them tomorrow.
Michigan's defense was at its absolute best during the four North Dakota power plays that resulted in just five shots on goal. No single power play had more than two shots in the two minutes. On the power play that I really thought was going to do us in--when Michigan was called for too many men on the ice--they clamped down and held the Sioux to one shot on goal. The two power plays early in the game resulted in just three shots. Amazingly, the Sioux offense was probably better when they weren't up a man.
Hunwick stole the show, though. He just barely got a glove on a shot from Matt Frattin from the circles after an awful giveaway, but it was enough to knock it wide. He bailed out Treais after another blind pass to the middle of the ice went awry. He went post-to-post to stop Gregoire after he got in around the defense. He stoned Genoway on what was a great scoring chance. The "Pony Express" line put an unreal twenty shots on goal and Hunwick turned away all of them. Despite all the shots, they ended up with no points and were a combined -6 on the night.
This was a team that hadn't scored fewer than three goals in a game in 2 1/2 months. And despite Gary Thorne using the s-word a good five times in the first minute of the third period, they didn't put a single puck past Hunwick. Not bad for the fourth-best goaltender in the CCHA. Scooter Vaughan called him the best goalie in the nation and it's hard to argue at this point. He's kind of going John Curry on everybody.
I figured if the Wolverines were to win, Hunwick would need to be the best player on the ice and it'd have to be a low scoring game. I wasn't counting on a performance like that, however. After being a run-and-gun team for so much of the last decade, it's really impressive to see Michigan completely transform into a defense-first team who is just doing what it takes to win hockey games. And it's nice to finally be on the right-end of one of these performances.
The complete sweep of the WCHA is in play. Time for a road trip to hopefully see the Wolverines bring home National Championship #10.
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