Since it's so much easier "playing" the game from my seat in the stands, here
are my observations on the first 2 games of Michigan-Notre Dame.
 
1.Give credit to ND for playing a style of hockey that Michigan does not know
how to handle or react to.  ND is hitting the crap out of anything that moves
on the ice for UM.  I keep wondering when UM is going to start hitting them
back.  ND is playing a very tight defense in front of the net and invariably
when UM passes the puck out front, a ND player is the only one there to
receive the puck.
 
2.On Friday night, UM players wanted to pass the puck to someone else and let
them shoot it instead of taking a shot.  The most common yell (besides some
variation of suck aimed at ND) was SHOOT THE PUCK.  I can't tell you how many
passes were made into double-teamed men instead of shooting the puck.  It was
very frustrating.
 
3. Turco needs to play the half-dozen games of his career and he's not doing
that (the first 2 periods of Friday night were below par for Marty and the
breakaway goal on Saturday night needs to be stopped).  I know it's unfair to
put that much pressure on him, but he knew that a year ago when he decided to
come back.  That said, ND only scored one goal in 79 minutes of play on
Saturday despite outshooting UM all night long.  ND did not score in the third
period on Friday night either and that means only one goal for ND in over 100
minutes.
 
4.On Saturday night, UM put on their maize uniforms and came out playing hard.
ON a defensive lapse during a power play, ND got a breakaway and scored in the
first period.  This seemed to take some steam out of UM for quite some time.
The steam came back with 6.6 seconds left in the second period on goal by
Billy Muckalt after a series of nifty passes.  The crowd went berserk, the
team went into the locker room fired up and came back and played dominant
hockey the whole 3rd period and OT.  UM had many many chances to win the game
during these 2 periods and ND only had one blitz during this whole time (they
scored but it was waved off because ND was sitting on Marty in the blue).  The
team and crowd celebrated like it was the championship game.  ONE MORE GAME to
go and it's just as BIG.
 
5.Anyone who heard or wondered if Hayes goal was a goal or not --- I was
camcording the sequence and the puck hit the top inside of the net and came
down on the line.  It was a goal.
 
6.  Just seconds before this goal, UM committed what I considered 2 fouls (one
offsetting).  Crozier or Rominski (I only saw part of their number on the
ground) played the alligator funky on the ice with ND player and some other UM
player slashed some ND player who had fallen to the ice.  Coach Poulin (sp??)
went berserk after the refs and gave them a heated escort off the ice.  My
feeling was that ND had been mugging us all night long and we returned the
favor in those last seconds.  If UM somehow jumps out to some big lead, I look
for ND to participate in a lot of dirty hitting - hey it would be their last
game, what do they have to lose...
 
Steve Bartley will be at tonight's game...
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.