Some info and some venting...
 
STATUS OF JOHN MADDEN FOR MAINE
A thank you to Jeff W for stepping in and clearing up
any confusion.  To my knowledge, Madden was
assessed a game misconduct on Saturday, not a
game disqualification.  However, as Brad pointed
out, THE MICHIGAN DAILY has Madden as being out
for the Maine game.  Again, to my knowledge, this
is not the case.  Madden is eligible to play versus
Maine on Thursday.  And shame on you, Brad, for
paying attention to the DAILY. :-)  They made more
mistakes in their hockey coverage than UM did on
the ice, and that was DAMN hard to do this weekend.
 
FORWARD SITUATION FOR MAINE
It's fairly clear that Brendan Morrison (knee injury)
isn't available this week.  It's absolutely clear that Matt
Herr (DQ on Saturday) isn't available this week.  That
leaves UM with 12 forwards for the Maine game, assuming
Justin Clark is in the lineup.  I don't believe that Clark, a
freshman yet to make his debut, is 100% healthy...but he's
close.  If Clark isn't in the lineup, I assume that Michigan
would dress 7 defensemen, 2 of which (Chris Fox and
Mark Sakala) have some experience at forward, as
opposed to dressing a walk-on as the 12th forward.
(That said, see comments on the defense below.)
 
WHAT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY (WMU 7 at UM 2)
Not only did Western Michigan outplay the Wolverines in
every aspect of the game in their CCHA opener, but it
was the weakest performance I've ever witnessed from
a Michigan team.  I was so upset with the lack of effort by
some of the Wolverines that I left Yost Arena before the
game ended.  You can point fingers at several members
of the Blue, but the one that really caught my eye was
defenseman Mark Sakala.  He didn't play the game in
full health, which is the only thing keeping me from saying
that I never hope to see him in a Michigan uniform again.
His lack of effort left me speechless.  I purposely didn't
access Hockey-L on Friday night because I felt that I
would say something I would come to regret, but it's now
60+ hours later and I'm still fuming mad at Sakala's
performance.  Most of the Wolverines had bad games,
but I did see effort in *some* of them.
 
WHAT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY (UM 3 at WMU 2)
Mark Magliarditi cemented his selection to the CCHA All-
Rookie team in goal, and established himself as a front-
runner for Rookie-of-the-Year.  He made 31 saves in
Friday's rout, then turned aside 42 on Saturday...keeping
the Broncos in the game.  Unlike the previous night, Michigan
was the better team.  The Blue outshot WMU, 45-21,  but
struggled to finish anything on Magliarditi.  UM's power play
was uncharacteristically anemic (1-12 on the weekend,
2-20 on the season), often not even producing a quality
chance, but otherwise Magliarditi stood on his head and
nearly sent Michigan home pointless on the weekend.
He stopped 73 of 78 over the two-game set, and looked
better than Brian Renfrew ever did between the pipes.  Watch
out for the Broncos...if this was a reasonable indication, they
have the goaltending they need to get back to the NCAA
tourney this season.  As for the Blue, most of them played
better than they did on Friday.  (Sakala didn't dress on
Saturday.)  Blake Sloan was HUGE, including a pair of goals
and rock solid defense throughout.  I'd be remiss if I didn't
add that fourth line forward John Arnold was the only UMer
that worked his butt off in both games.
 
Hopefully, come late March, I'll be able to look back at
this weekend and chuckle.
 
 
John H - U Mich (2-1-0/1-1-0 CCHA)
 
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