This first paragraph was also the first paragraph to my comments about OSU and
MSU.  Skip it if you read the other post) I first want to say that there just
couldn't have been two better back-to-back college hockey games.  If you're a
fan of the game, you pray for nights like this.  The first game was a rematch
of MSU-OSU CCHA championship game from a week before.  That game went into
double OT, this one went single OT with underdog OSU winning.  The second game
featured the national champs vs. underdog (but at home ice) Michigan.
Michigan scored with 2:57 to go to takes its first lead of the game and hung
on to UND final 2 minute flurry.
 
Michigan came out skating and buzzing, put 5 shots on goal in the first few
minutes and then UND scored on their first shot.  UND would score later in the
first period and you could almost hear a pin drop in the arena from the
Michigan fans.  Boy were there some long faces all over the arena.  One of my
sayings is that it's a long game - one minute or even one period does make up
the entire game.  Some teams play better after one period.  Some teams lose
their legs in the third.  That's why you play 60.  I wrote after the first
period that Turco was not at his peak which he has to be if Michigan is going
to win.  Both of the first 2 goals were stoppable (sp?) as long as Turco was
standing on his head.
 
The second period was a total embarrassment to college hockey and the referee
of this game needs to be disciplined by the NCAA.  38 minutes of penalties
were called, 28 to Michigan and 10 to UND.  There was NO fighting, just
horrible reffing.  My friend next to me commented that even when the ref makes
a call in our favor, he still s..cks.  This was after he whistled the play
dead in front of Turco and UND was shooting left and right at him.  The puck
was about 2 or 3 feet in front of Turco, he was struggling to get the puck, to
stop the puck, UND looked like they were going to score, the ref can't find
the puck and whistles the play dead.  On another shot by UND, Turco made a
great stop.  When I looked at the ref, he was starting the point to the net
for a score and pulled his hand back when he realized Turco had it.
 
For most of the second period, Michigan had to with 2 of our centers out of
commission.  One of centers was kicked out of the game in the first, another
(our 2nd leading scorer) would sit for a 10 minute misconduct, and another
player (our 4th scorer) would sit for 10.  There was no flow of game for
either team in the second.  Someone said that it took over an hour to play
that period and this was a game that didn't start until sometime around 9:45
or 10PM.  Michigan scored shorthanded and you could start to see the tide
turn.  UND would score only once in the second with a half-period of power
play.  UM would score twice to make it 3-2.  You could sense that this was
going to be UM's game.
 
Maybe someone talked to the ref in between the second and third, because he
put his whistle away and let the game go on.  UM tied the game in the third
and then scored the go-ahead winning goal with 2:54 to go.  It was the longest
3 minutes of the season, but Michigan came close to getting an open netter
twice and UND came close to scoring once or twice.
 
Even at the end of the game, the ref couldn't figure out if the game was over
or not.  He had to go over and talk to the timer.  It really didn't matter
because the puck was in the UND zone at that time.  At first UM jumped all
over the ice and was celebrating.  Then it stopped because of the ref and it
looked like he was going to call UM for too many men on the ice (the
celebration after the clock had run out the first time) Captain Matt Herr had
to talk to the ref and finally turned around to his team and threw his arms up
in the air.  The real celebration was on.  By the way, Herr had 4 points ( a
hand in every goal).  The senior stepped up big time.
 
Steve Bartley
 
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