Michigan 4, Miami 2

Hockey's a funny game sometimes. Michigan looked like poop on a stick for two solid weeks and then hangs four goals on the number one team in the country during a six-minute span in the first period. That was a great performance out of the Maize and Blue. Through two periods, I was willing to call it the best defensive performance I've seen out of a Michigan hockey team. Ever. They held the high-powered Miami offense to eight shots on goal in the first two periods combined.

Mark Mitera, who struggled badly last Friday, was incredible tonight. He didn't let anyone get near the Michigan net for most of the game, but especially in the first period when the game was still in doubt.

Chad Kolarik had a pair of assists, but was at his best in our own end, blocking shots and doing a very nice job of killing penalties. And there were a lot. Kevin Porter, Louie Caporusso, Carl Hagelin...pretty much everyone deserves credit for their defensive play tonight. Summers, Kampfer, Vaughan, Langlais, Llewellyn...all great work tonight. As I said above, that was as solid of an all-around game as I've seen in a long time. Miami did absolutely nothing against this team 5 on 5. They had 10 shots the entire game that didn't come on the power play and maybe one was a good scoring chance.

Porter had the kind of hockey game that reminds you why he's the best player in the country. A goal on a partial breakaway, he was the #2 star on the night, and he was solid as hell defensively. It's really not fair that a guy as gifted as he is on the offensive end can be that solid in his own end too. There's no way they can screw him out of the Hobey...right? Leading scorer in the country, one of the absolute best defensive forwards in the country, and the best player on what is arguably the best team.

Travis Turnbull has turned into one hell of a hockey player. He's having the kind of year that I expected out of Tim Miller. He's always doing good things out there, it doesn't matter which end of the ice the puck is at. He's never going to get the headlines--apart from when he wins the GLI--but he's a key cog on this team.

The book on Aaron Palushaj coming in was that he is a very craft player in tight quarters, and he showed why once again tonight. He got left alone in front of the net, stopped the pass with his skate, and then quick-as-a-cat snapped off a shot into the corner of the net.

The story of the game was obviously the huge first period, but the Michigan defense was spectacular. Miami's got some damn good forwards, but Michigan contained them and did it while playing their own game. I can't even begin to capture how well the defensemen played tonight. All six of them deserve a pat on the back.

And, as tends to be the case when he does our games, I have to bitch about Matt Shegos. How the league continues to let him do games of this magnitude, I'll never know. He was brutal tonight and he was brutal both ways. Depending on my mood, I may do a "Upon Further Review" of this weekend's games during the week, but I'd be really curious to see how many of these so-called penalties were actually legit. Off the top of my head:
-The checking from behind call against Lebler and the charging call against Jones (I believe, there was also one on Steffes around that time) the player clearly turned his back at the last second.
-The five-minute major on Vaughan I also thought the guy turned, but I could see calling that one a two minute penalty.
-The charge against Lebler was an absolute crap call that could have completely turned the game. The defenseman hit him, the goalie was well out of his crease, and Lebler barely hit him and Zatkoff flopped in a way that Hasek would've made Hasek proud. Then we ignore Sauer getting slashed at well after the puck was covered, but that's cool.
-The late hook against Llewellyn was questionable as well. And Mitera better have said something pretty bad to draw a ten-minute misconduct at that stage of the game.
Oh there were more. I'm just having a hard time differentiating between the hooks and holds. He did make one call that was absolutely outstanding however. Miami had a 5 on 3 and Chad Kolarik had lost his stick. He went to grab it and Andy Miele knocked it away from him. That was going to lead to a RedHawk having a wide open shooting lane, but Shegos made the call. I about dropped dead of shock.

I guess my opinion is that you've got the #1 and #2 teams in the country. They're great offensively, they're great defensively. Let the players decide the game. The knee to knee stuff, which got called twice, absolutely. But by and large, let the players play. There's a reason that our games with MSU typically have the least amount of power plays awarded. The refs generally realize that it's two talented teams and you have to let them decide the hockey game.

The weird thing is that Shegos typically does let the players decide it. Over the past five years, he's called less penalties in our games than any other ref that we've had more than a couple times. But I think at one point he started reffing the score and trying to keep control of the game, and he almost allowed Miami to get back into the contest because of it. To be fair, Michigan took a couple of bonehead penalties, most notably Miller's checking-from-behind infraction but there were a couple of abysmal calls.

Reading Red's post-game quotes, he wasn't thrilled with Shegos either.

Sauer was good when he had to be. Hard to fault him on either goal. The first was a lucky bounce of Jones's face/chest and the second was a breakdown by the defense and a great individual effort. I'd have to look at the tape to make sure it was on net, but if it was, Sauer's stop in the opening minute of the game was huge. If Miami scores there, the crowd goes bezerk and it's very probably a different hockey game.

The only real downers of the night were that Michigan's power play wasn't great (1-9 with just six shots on goal) and we let Miami get back into the game late, which gives them some confidence heading into tomorrow. But if Michigan plays that well defensively again, they'll get another W. There's no team in the country that could hang with the Wolverines when they play like that.

The "Whew" moment of the night came when Steve Kampfer returned to the ice after looking to be in some serious pain. We'd have a major issue if any of the defensemen were lost for a significant period of time. Kevin Quick, you're really an idiot.

For Miami, I was really impressed with the speed of Ryan Jones. There were a few times that he just left our guy in the dust, and Michigan is a fast team. I thought Miele had some nice opportunities--they called his name an awful lot. Though he took that really bad interference penalty when they had a 5 on 3. And how pretty was that goal by Palmer? He went right through three of the four guys we had on the ice--that'd be Kolarik, Hagelin, and either Llewellyn or Summers. Gorgeous goal.

As a happy bonus to our win, Michigan State and Notre Dame lost tonight (as well as Miami, obviously) so it was as good of a night in the points department as it could have been. If we get a W tomorrow night, simply splitting against MSU should give us the CCHA title.

One last point: What did Miami do on faceoffs without Nathan Davis all year? There were 70 draws in the game tonight and he took 35 of them. Rust got shelled on faceoffs tonight (5 of 20).

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow night's game. It's important for Michigan to not be remotely satisfied with two points. They can put themselves firmly in the driver's seat for the CCHA title as well as the #1 overall seed with a win tomorrow. If they come out with the same effort and intensity, especially in the defensive end, they can make this a four-point weekend. I fully expect to take Miami's best shot in the first period tomorrow and it'll be key to get off to a good start.

Know Your Opponent: Miami

For the biggest college hockey weekend of the season, we're bringing back the "Interview a fan of the opposing team" feature. The interviewee this weekend is a 2003 graduate of Miami, who currently lives in Cleveland. However, he grew up in Ann Arbor, and has followed both Michigan and Miami closely since he started college.

1) First off, how geeked are you for this weekend? 1 vs. 2. The two highest-scoring and best defensive teams in the nation. The top 2 goal-scorers in the country, 4 of the top 6. The two top goalies in the country. And very possibly a CCHA title on the line. You gonna get down there for the games or do you prefer to keep your right arm and your first born?

For some reason I always get really nervous for Miami vs. Michigan games. In any sport. This is a huge weekend for the Miami program. I don't think it'll make a huge difference THIS season, but that's because I think they'll spilt. The CCHA tournament will be just as big for NCAA seeding. It's huge for the program because it's got so much national exposure. It's important for Miami to show that they're for real as a program. It would be pretty disappointing to get all this hype and to get swept or only 1 point. (Signed, Nebraska-Omaha -ed.) It will be interesting to see how much their success, or lack thereof, this weekend will affect the program in the future. I don't think Michigan is as likely to notice a peak or valley in their program's trajectory based on this series. They've been around too long for that.

I'm not going to the games but I'm hoping to watch as much of them as I can. They're on tv in Cleveland (for most home games) and some bars will have it on. Like I said, I get really nervous and part of me doesn't want to watch the games, because I'll be really tense. If they're great games, I may try to get a copy of them.

2) So who has impressed you the most thusfar this season? Obviously you've got a lot of players to pick from. Biggest surprise? Any disappointments, beyond Davis being out so long?

I think the freshmen have surprised me the most and probably Justin Mercier. None of the freshmen were VERY highly thought of. Just going by the INCH recruiting rankings, not many Miami players made their lists, but a few of the freshmen show up among the nation's scoring leaders. I think that's a product of how well the team is playing and not necessarily the freshmen. There are freshmen sprinkled in with the veterans and all the lines are contributing.

Miami doesn't get a lot of big time scorers (besides Miele I guess), but all the guys they bring in can score. I kinda wonder sometimes how they score so much if they don't have many great individual scorers, but they are because they are playing as a team. All their goals come from hard work, teamwork and skill. The coaching staff seem to be bringing in the right guys for the system.

The scorers that Miami has brought in are all small, like Camper and Miele. Those guys aren't likely to bolt for the pros, so it's a good recruiting strategy. I think it's similar to what Boston College does.

It's almost impossible to pick a disappointment on a team doing this well. If I had to pick one, it would be Justin Vaive, but it's probably because I expected more because he came from the USTNDP. I think he'll turn out to be a great player, but I guess I expected more this season. I hope Miami continues to get NTDP guys. It seemed like they were getting one a year. They don't have anyone coming in next year. All the guys have had success.

One guy I like to watch is defenseman Alec Martinez. He's got a great wrist shot and he makes it look so easy. Also, defenseman Kevin Roeder is a big hitter who's only 5'9". Two years ago in the NCAA tournament he knocked BC's Brian Boyle (a very large man) on his butt early on in the game and sent a message. Of course, Cory Schneider had a message of his own and that was, "Your team will never score on me."

3) Speaking of Davis, I've heard he's coming back this weekend. Is that the general school of thought? Is he supposed to be 100% apart from the rust, or is this just a series that he refuses to miss?

I've heard he's playing. I just hope it's not too early.

I'm guessing that they were playing it cautiously. With the team doing so well, there's no need to bring him back early. I think he's gotta be right at 100% besides the rust. He probably won't be on the top line, but I really don't know. Miami runs all lines close to the same. I'm curious how much he'll show up on special teams. Maybe he can play on a line that matches up with Michigan's top line. He's a great defensive player, so it's possible.

4) As if Miami wasn't scoring enough goals already, they get Davis back in the near future (or possibly this weekend), and add a guy who was on pace to break the USHL goal record in Andy Miele. Not a bad time to get the needed test scores! How is he fitting in? Have you seen him play--is there a scouting report on this guy?

Yeah, this move kind of says that the coaches are really serious about a national championship run this season. Maybe it also says something about Davis' condition. Fans were kind of concerned about giving up a half year of eligibility and messing with the team chemistry, but I trust the coaches to do what's right.

Miele plays around the net and likes to mix it up. A good comparison might be Brett Sterling, formerly of Colorado College, in that they're small and like to be around the net and score. Miele racked up some penalty minutes as well in the USHL.

5) Are you at all surprised that it's pretty much been Zatkoff all the way this year? I know Effinger struggled some last year, but he was really strong the season before. Is this just a case of a guy playing too well for the other, obviously qualified goalie to see minutes?

There's gotta be a pretty discernible difference for Zatkoff to play this much more than Effinger. But, I wonder if the coaches want to go into the playoffs with a hot number 1 goalie and not a 2-goalie system.

Miami's had some odd goaltending situations in the past. David Burleigh who came in 1999-2000 started all 4 yours pretty much. But, I think his save percentage was barely .900. They also had a guy named David Bowen who played for the NTDP but never started regularly. After him they brought in Steve Hartley (who had been drafted! by the Avs I think) and Brandon Crawford-West. BCW was pretty old and raw but had some success. Hartley didn't. Here's what Hartley's doing now. (Hartley may not have done well, but I bet he made damn sure to have a legal stick every night! -ed.) The Miami Hawk Talk boards also mentioned BCW was back in school but not playing hockey. Then Zatkoff and Effinger split time in 2005-06 and each had great records and stats. I really don't know how good they are, because Miami stresses team defense so much. We'll have to wait till they get to the pros.

If Zatkoff leaves after this season, Miami will have 2 freshmen fighting for playing time next season. One's from the EJHL and the other from the NAHL. They're probably among the top 2 goalies in their respective leagues. One's old and one's in his draft year currently. I think they'll do well in college. You can follow their seasons here.

6) Not so much a question as a comment: I was a huge fan of Justin Mercier's when he played for USA. Then he had to go to Miami and get drafted by the Avs. Regardless, I'm happy to see him having a breakout season. To turn this into a question: Anything you can share about his progress as a player? Do you think we'll see him for the Avs someday?

I'm curious to see how well Miami players do in the pros. Andy Greene seemed to step right in. There aren't many that seemed to have the talent, besides him and maybe Marty Guerin. I think there are a lot of guys on the current team who could make an impact. Mercier is certainly one of them. He's got good size, he plays defense, he can score. One thing you gotta like about the Avs is that they draft a lot of college players. (Absolutely...I've been saying for the past couple years that they understand the new NHL and will reap the benefits of picking those college kids. Hopefully the Wings come around on that. College is the new Europe. -ed.) I know nothing about the Minnesota Wild, but I gotta think they'll want Ryan Jones playing for them soon. Nate Davis would've seemed like a sure thing before the injury. None of these guys are real flight risks, except maybe Zatkoff.

7) With Miami having last change, what will Blasi do when Michigan throws Porter/Kolarik out there? Are we going to see strength vs. strength or do they have a checking line they'll throw out there? Or will they simply look to get the right d-pairing against them--and who would that be?

That's a great question. All the forwards play good defense so I would guess that the top 3 lines will match up on UM's top line. I can't imagine Miami's 4th line being matched up with UM's top line.

Miami's defense lines are pretty well balanced too. Ganzak and LoVerde balance experience and youth and offense skills and a stay at home defenseman. Martinez and Roeder are both really solid.

8) I know you've followed Michigan in the past. Have you gotten to see us play much this year? If so, do you feel there's any area where Michigan might be able to attack Miami with some success--and vice-versa, where do you think the RedHawks have the advantage? What are the keys to beating Miami--not too many teams have managed it?

I watched a fair amount of the Notre Dame/Miami game where ND won. When Miami shot pucks on net from outside, they didn't have anyone screening. Miami's forwards were trying to get in front of the net, but couldn't get there before the shot came and the defensemen were getting pressured and had to get rid of the puck. A lot of Miami's goals seem to come when there's traffic in front. When they didn't have traffic, they couldn't score. I think teams have to have the size and speed to do that to Miami. Notre Dame could and Michigan can too. I don't know what MSU's problem was.

Miami seemed to give up a ton of one on none opportunities last season, but not so many this season. I know Michigan loves the long passes. Miami forechecks well so I don't know if those will come as easy.

Miami goes through an occasional scoring drought. If UM plays good D and gets some odd man rushes, they can easily win.

9) I have to ask, simply because I can't let this weekend go by without joking about this article: Miami hockey dynasty. Your thoughts?

What is a college hockey "dynasty" anyways? Does North Dakota have one? What about Denver or BC? I think if we could ranked the programs based on their success in the past 10 years, Miami isn't in the top 10. But I think Miami is a consistent top 15 program right now. I think next year, they will still be a good team and challenge for a NCAA berth. That's all you can really ask for because of the movement of players to the NHL and because of the single elimination tournament.

One thing about the article I agree with is that a top program needs a good long term coach. Miami has that now.

If Miami stays among the top 4 in the CCHA and in the top 10-15 in college hockey for the next few years, I think you have to put them among the best programs. They haven't won a NCAA championship, but a bunch of teams haven't won one for a long time. Maine, UNH, BU, CC, Cornell. Michigan is going on 10 years. It's been awhile for North Dakota. Before last season, MSU hadn't won one in ages. Miami doesn't have the history that these teams do, but they are making history, BABY! I was there when they swept #1 MSU at home in 1999-2000! (then tanked the rest of the season) I started the "overrated" chants!

Dynasty is just the wrong word for college hockey. There is no program that I would currently call a dynasty (Michigan might be the closest), but there are powerhouses, and Miami is building a powerhouse. If they continue what they're doing, they will be a powerhouse. By powerhouse I mean consistent top 15 teams and in the tournament every year. If they win a national championship, then I'd say they're there among the other powerhouses, just without all the history.

The readers are probably all sick of hearing about Miami and its TEAM concept. But, Blasi has everyone drinking the kool-aid. Miami doesn't get a single high draft pick, yet they are one of the best teams of the past few years. I think they recruit a great mix of players. Some of the guys are older which definitely helps, but a lot come before their 20th birthday. This year's freshmen all have great playing experience either for the NTDP or in the USHL where they were all big contributors on their team. Their young scorers are too small to be NHL prospects. But, there are some great finds in these classes. Brian Kaufman practically came out of nowhere. The NAHL goalie they have coming in next year sounds like a good pick up. They've found their main recruiting bases in Detroit, Ohio and Chicago, but have expanded east to get some good players. They have a couple Minnesotans too. They're getting less Canadians than they used to, but I think they'll always get some Canadians.

I'm a little worried that Miami is recruiting higher end players for the future and that they may go pro early or just mess up recruiting when they decide to play in major junior or something. I see Miami being considered by a lot of the young guys listed on the WCH blog. It's a double edged sword that Michigan has been cut with a lot recently. I like my team with 4 year players that develop. Otherwise it's just like watching a junior team where there's so much turnover every year. I hope Miami avoids that.

For a Michigan vs Miami perspective, when I used to go to Michigan/Miami games, Michigan played with more of an attitude than Miami. One reason is because they were better than Miami, but that's a good attribute for a team to have and I think Miami's got an attitude now. They're not going to be pushed around. I don't think they'll be an easy victory for many teams in the future.

But Dynasty? No, Miami hockey is not a dynasty, but they are building a powerhouse.

Great answer. I'd be inclined to agree that no one really has a dynasty in college hockey right now. Mainly I just laugh at the word choice there--your choice would probably have been better. There's no denying that Miami has a great program right now, but they haven't had any success in the tournament (which I fully expect to change this year). It'd be great for the conference if Miami has the staying power to be a threat in the CCHA year in and year out. We've seen a lot of teams rise toward the top for a year or two (Ferris, OSU, Western) and then fall hard. The first goal should be to be consistently in the battle for a first-round bye, and to keep making the tournament, sometimes winning some games. Then we can talk about dynasties or whatever. With Blasi locked up long-term, a new arena, and some really good young players, they should have the opportunity to remain at the top of the conference for awhile. And winning breeds winning. The better they do, the more they'll be able to sell themselves to guys in the future. -ed.

10) Finally, any last thoughts on the RedHawks or the matchup this weekend? I'm usually fairly anti-prediction, but if you'd like to offer them up for the weekend, you're more than welcome!

I'm predicting a split, and would be happy with it. If Miami took 3 or 4 points, I'd be pretty pumped. I'm keeping an even head like Blasi would want me to. This weekend is not the ultimate goal of the team. This weekend is a big weekend for the regular season championship and seeding if they took 3 or 4 points, so it would behoove Miami to play well. If Miami got swept and went on to win a National Championship, I wouldn't care about the sweep obviously. It's a long season. You might call it a marathon, not a sprint.

I really enjoyed that. Thanks again to my interviewee! This should be a great, great weekend of hockey. I'm looking forward to it.

Also, I just received an email from the same person who was interviewed above. He said that he's heard that Carter Camper, Miami's second-leading scorer (13-20--33 in 27 games) will miss tonight's contest. Nathan Davis will be back and will play on Ryan Jones's line in Camper's stead.

Other links to look at today:
Peabody from Michigan Against the World previews this weekend's games. I'm not nearly as confident as he is. And, uh, no offense, but based on track record (the whole 2007 National Champs shirt thing), I wish he wasn't so confident.

M-Victors on last Friday's game. I really suck at putting saved blog links into my media roundup.

Varsity Blue has highlights of Saturday's game from WOLV-TV.

The Wolverine preview.

Media Roundup: Pair of Ties with NMU

16 inches of snow in Madison means you get a lot more blogging out of me. Media roundup today, a unique perspective on the Michigan/Miami series tomorrow or Friday, along with 10 Things if I have time and can dig up enough interesting stuff that isn't mentioned in the preview.

Here's what the media had to say in the aftermath of Michigan's disappointing weekend on and off the ice:

The Michigan Side:
Official game stories and highlights from Friday and Saturday. You definitely can't accuse Chad Kolarik of sugar-coating his thoughts. This was the first time in the history of the program that Michigan has tied three games in a row. You know what wasn't helpful? Our top line going 8 for 30 on faceoffs Saturday night. It's a lot harder to do what they do when they don't have the puck.

From the Ann Arbor News:
Friday's and Saturday's game stories. Red was much happier about the effort Saturday, but it's hard to be thrilled about the outcome of the weekend.

The distractions of Quick's dismissal and the Miami series could've contributed to the outcomes. Red can't apparently comment on why Quick was kicked off the team beyond that it was bad, but let's face it, even if he could say, he wouldn't. I'd be shocked if it doesn't end up leaking at some point.

From the, "Ya think?" file: U-M needs to play much better against Miami

An article about the guy who really has an opportunity here, Tristin Llewellyn. He agrees with me that his weekend against MSU was his best so far. He mentioned earlier in the season that he's been taking skating lessons, and I could be crazy, but I swear they're paying off. I couldn't see last weekend's games, but he looked like he was skating better against MSU. I'm curious to see him this weekend, but I have confidence that he's going to do just fine. The problem would come in if someone else gets hurt, sick, or, well, kicked off the team.

From The Michigan Daily:
Liveblogs of Friday and Saturday night if you care to relive either of the games. Yup, there were a lot of penalties. The sense that I get is that a few of them were even deserved! Wildcat Matt Siddall not only had to be restrained from jumping on to the ice to go after Tim Miller, he got a rare five-minute major for head-butting. Somewhere Sean Avery is nodding his head in approval. By the way, how is it that head-butting doesn't carry an automatic game misconduct with it?

An article about the impact of Quick's dismissal on the team. It's always the quiet ones. Red indicated that he'd go with 5 D if he had to, but that there'd be issues if two defensemen were missing from the lineup. This article also includes a "That probably wasn't necessary" comment about Eric Elmblad, but our coach speaks his mind. BTW, I just realized that I've spelled his name without the first "L" pretty much every time I've typed it, including in his preview. Sorry bout that Eric. That was a lazy mistake.

Red doesn't think we respected NMU as much as they probably deserved.

The team as a whole probably took too many penalties, but the freshmen got a little chat about it.

The Michigan of the first 24 games is going to have to show up if they're to beat Miami. Nate also reads between the lines a little bit on the Kevin Quick situation.

As Falcons30 pointed out, indications are that Quick has joined the Des Moines Buccaneers. We'll probably have to wait until Saturday to find out for sure though. He's not listed on the team website as of yet.

The NMU Side:
Michigan apparently gets "all the calls and favoritism" in the CCHA. See why I was compelled to create a database and write an enormous piece debunking this myth? Perhaps getting outshot 44-24 has something to do with the whopping 8-6 discrepancy in power plays? You're lucky Pio retired....

I guess like fan, like head coach. Those two points were big for NMU in their search for home ice in the first round.

Jared Knight Highlights

2010 commitment Jared Knight returned from a knee injury in a big way over the weekend. Knight had a hat trick in his first game back, a 6-1 win over Belle Tire.

The A-Train Hockey Vlog has the highlights, if you're interested in seeing a future Wolverine in action. Knight is #12. Also, I didn't see Moffatt in any of the highlights, but he's #9. Stewart Higgins, #19, who is committed to Maine, looks like a good player. He was all over the highlight reel in this one.

Anyway, enjoy.

Weekend Recap: Pair of Ties With NMU

Well a lot has changed since I published that "10 Things to Know" last weekend. Now we're talking about distractions, regrouping, penalties (again), blown points, second place, no games in hand, a lack of depth on the blue line, and a hole in the locker room.

The ties against Northern Michigan were kind of overshadowed by the dismissal of Kevin Quick. There's no sugarcoating it, it's a loss to this hockey team. As I said before, he wasn't great as of late, but he was playing on the top pairing for the #2 hockey team in the country. This is a huge opportunity for Tristin Llewellyn, and to his credit, it appears that he's running with it. I thought he played two strong games filling in for Scooter Vaughan against Spartina, and it sounded as if he played well Friday night (though it's hard enough making accurate judgments about players watching on TV, let alone listening to the game). The other silver lining is that it hopefully will lead to Brandon Burlon signing his LOI and becoming a Wolverine next season. Not that that helps this edition of the Michigan hockey team.

Friday's game was just a giant frustration. Missed opportunities, penalties and turnovers were the story of the night. The first NMU goal came off a turnover by Mark Mitera deep in our end. The second was a short-handed goal where the puck was knocked away from Langlais. And the tying goal for NMU came on a 5 on 3 when Turnbull and Mitera took penalties just a handful of seconds apart. In the meantime, Michigan put 44 shots on cage and managed just three goals. They had a power play for the final 1:56 of overtime, but couldn't put one past Brian Stewart.

It sounded as if the top line had a really strong game. They combined for 2 goals, 3 assists and 17 shots on goal. When they weren't notching goals, they were creating scoring chances. Early on in the game, they caused some havoc in the NMU end and Stewart made two excellent stops on Pacioretty and Langlais. Not more than a few minutes later, Kolarik had a short handed breakaway, which he was stoned on. It sounded as if in a few other cases, they had the right idea and the passes just weren't connecting.

Mitera struggled again. Mike Spath called it "potentially [his] worst game of the year". He has been a little off lately. Not to say that in most cases he's been bad or anything, but he's clearly not playing the way that he was at the start of the season. We need to get him back up around that level, where he was a potential/likely All-American. It's a grind, and it doesn't shock me he's had a couple down games--or that he had one Friday, considering his defense partner was kicked off the team earlier in the day. Whether that had anything to do with it, I don't know, but I highly doubt it helped.

A guy that seemed to have a very up-and-down game on Friday was Langlais. He had some very nice-sounding plays, a couple of good chances, and set up Michigan's second goal, but also had a turnover that led to NMU's second goal and a couple of others that he got away with.

Saturday night was equally disappointing. Michigan led a two-goal lead slip away and failed to get the victory, despite yet another late power play. Hagelin, Caporusso and Kolarik tallied goals, but it wasn't enough. Hagelin's goal was off a nice breakout. Mitera fed Palushaj who sprung the Swede on a partial breakaway. Caporusso's goal was a vicious wrister off a cross-ice feed from Mitera. Kolarik's goal was off a lot of hard work from Kevin Porter and Max Pacioretty to retain control of the puck. Porter won the puck in the corner and Patch was able to use his size to fend off a defender and leave the puck for Chad.

Bryan Hogan got the start and wasn't great--he gave up a goal on a wrist shot from center ice--but it sounded as if Red was happy with his play overall.

Tim Miller couldn't be more snakebitten. He had literally 99% of the net to shoot at after a shot deflected onto his stick and he somehow put it over the cross-bar. He's getting frustrated--nearly shattered his stick on the way back to the bench--and it's hard not to feel for the kid. I haven't played hockey for very long, but it's amazing how sometimes the puck just won't go in the back of the net no matter what you do. I have no doubt that if he could just get one, he'd become a dangerous guy on the offensive end, but it seems like this is just multiplying. He's not going to get a whole lot of chances like the ones he missed against MSU in OT and NMU the last two weekends. The good news, however, is that he is getting chances--and we haven't always been able to say that this year.

Caporusso had a few chances to win it in regulation and he just couldn't find the handle on what would've been his best chance. Hagelin had a couple of chances in OT as well. He got stopped streaking in on the left wing off a tip from Miller, and he was simply unlucky on the rebound. He was behind the net, Stewart was out of position having just made the stop, and Hagelin tried to throw the puck off him and into the net. Had he hit Stewart's right pad, it probably would've worked, but the puck went five-hole and out into the slot.

Kevin Quick No Longer a Wolverine

No details yet, but Mike Spath just dropped the bombshell from Yost that Kevin Quick is no longer a member of the Wolverines due to a violation of team rules. If any more details are made available--it wouldn't shock me if Red won't disclose what happened--I'm sure The Wolverine, The Daily, or the Ann Arbor News will have them for us.

This is a big blow to the team. Quick had a rough weekend against MSU but he had been solid most of the year and was clearly a talented player who had a bright future. We now also have a problem with depth. We're ok right now, but if anyone gets hurt, we could be in a bit of a pickle.

I guess this answers the question of where Brandon Burlon's scholarship money will come from and maybe too if Greg Pateryn will in fact show up in 2008.

This development also pretty much kills the chances that we'll see Chris Summers at forward again before the end of the season.

Quick's Michigan career ends with 2 goals and 2 assists in 21 games. He was +8 and had 12 PIMs.

10 Things to Know About Northern Michigan

I'm kind of bummed. Here I thought I was going to have a preview that I could go Mike Holmgren on and just mail it in. We're playing a team we've already played this year, the preview is easy...include what I said before, change some numbers, talk about the games we played earlier in the year, done. No digging through stats, looking at rosters, etc. But we played them before I started writing the "10 Things" feature, so I guess I've got some work to do.

So here are 10 things to know about the NMU Wildcats:

1) We swept them up in Marquette 3-1 and 4-3. The Saturday night game featured NMU inexplicably switching goalies midway through the third period, Michigan taking a 5-minute major late in regulation, blowing a lead with under a minute to go, and then Chad Kolarik scoring short-handed to prevent the game from even making it to OT. Steve McInchak went buck with the whistle--6 1/2 minutes was the longest span without a call in the Saturday game. On Friday night, Michigan came from 1-0 down late in the second period to net two PPGs and a tally by Carl Hagelin. The defense held NMU to something like 14 shots. Our power play was strong, going 4/14 on the weekend. We gave up 2 PPGs, both on Saturday. NMU kind of smoked us on faceoffs.

2) As The Wolverine indicates, NMU is 7-5-0 in conference since that 0-6-0 start against Michigan, MSU and Miami (they lost the 7th conference game to WMU as well, but split the weekend) to rise to 8th in the CCHA. Despite struggling at home (3-8-1) they're 6-6-0 on the road. Perhaps they aren't a team built to play on the big ice?

3) NMU has played three goalies this year. Derek Janzen has only started one game (a loss at MSU) since he was yanked against Michigan and one of his relief efforts involved giving up four goals on eight shots. I doubt we'll see him. Freshman Reid Ellingson hasn't put up great numbers, but he's handled himself well on several occasions, giving up just three to Miami, and five goals combined in two games against LSSU and one against BGSU. He's 4-4-0 on the year, including a loss to WMU where he gave up 3 goals on 4 shots. Walt Kyle praised Brian Stewart for his play against Michigan in the Friday game earlier in the season and he's gotten the bulk of the work. He's 6-10-1 with a 2.83, .902. Not awful. My guess is we'll see him tonight, and if he plays well, he starts tomorrow. If not, we see Ellingson.

4) They're a young team. 9 of the top 11 scorers are either freshmen or sophomores. They're led, however, by junior Nick Sirota with 12-10--22 in 25 games. Olver (remix) is the closest thing they've got to a point a game player, with 19 points in 21 games, which is good for 11th in the country amongst freshmen. They also have the son of ex-NHLer Garth Butcher, Matt, who is having a nice season at forward.

5) NMU is one of the teams we've had a distinct PP advantage over the past few years. We're +23 in PPOs over the past 14 games, and there have been just two occasions where we've had less PPOs than them. That's perhaps skewed somewhat, because we had Piotrowski for 9 of the 14 games and all of the games at Yost. In the five games he didn't do (four by McInchak, one by Shegos), we're merely +3.

6) Michigan has dominated NMU (PDF link) as of late, winning 9 of the last 11, but NMU has fared pretty well at Yost, winning 10 of the 23 games that have been played there in the series.

7) NMU's offense hasn't been very potent this year, ranking just 46th in the NCAA and 8th in the CCHA at 2.35 goals per game (2.56 in conference). The defense is 37th in the country at 2.92 goals per game.

8) That 46th rank on offense matches their PP ranking, scoring on just 13.3% of their PPs. The NMU PK has been atrocious at just 72.9% (and below 70% in conference) which is 57th in the country. Just Alabama-Huntsville and LSSU have worse penalty kills. They have managed six shorties, of which Sirota has three. Michigan has a big special teams advantage in this matchup. If those units are on, we should win without much trouble.

9) Porter and Kolarik have both scored a point a game or better against the Wildcats in their careers to lead the Wolverines (Palushaj, Caporusso and Hagelin have also scored a ppg or better in their young careers against NMU). Naurato has 3 goals and five points in six games, and Timmy Miller has 6 points in 9 games, so maybe this is the week he gets off the schnide. Despite the troubles early in his career with, well, pretty much everyone, NMU has been a team that Sauer has owned. He boasts a 7-1-0 mark with a 2.02 goals against and a .918 save percentage.

10) Since we last saw them, they split with WMU and BGSU, swept LSSU, split with Alaska and Tech, lost to Dartmouth, beat Sacred Heart, split with ND and Ferris, got swept by Wayne State, and got smoked by the NTDP. Things like the split against ND, the way they made things tough on us, and their conference record as of late make me feel they're a dangerous team. But then I see the sweep at the hands of Wayne State and I'm not as worried. This is a team we should take four points from. It's a classic trap weekend, in between MSU and Miami, but I have confidence they'll have the team ready to go.