Northern Michigan hockey returned to Marquette's Lakeview Arena Friday
night for the first time in nearly a month, and the 3,000+ fans in
attendance were treated to a highly entertaining, if somewhat ragged
game which saw the Wildcats post an 8-4 WCHA victory over St. Cloud
State University. (The announced attendance was 3,903, but I'm certain
that was PAID, not actual; a lot of season ticket holders fail to show
up for at least some games, and I saw what I felt were a surprising
number of empty seats last night. Presuming Lakeview has 4,200 seats,
I'd estimate the actual attendance at about 3,500.)
The day was kicked off with a high-intensity Blue Line luncheon which
drew the second-largest crowd in memory, some 450. The big attraction
was the presence of former NMU stars and now Detroit Red Wing members
Dallas Drake and Jim Hiller. Drake and Hiller brought Red Wing teammate
Sheldon Kennedy with them, and they were driven up from Detroit by
former defenseman Lou Mellone. The mood at the event was enthusiastic
and upbeat, to say the least. Huskie coach Craig Dahl noted the
presence on his team of league-leading scorer Fred Knipscheer, who he
pointed out is as good a person as he is a hockey player. When Wildcat
coach Rick Comley had his turn at the microphone, one of his comments
was, "Craig said to watch for Knipscheer. I can tell you that wherever
you see him, you'll see MacGillivray!" That brought a good laugh and
round of applause from the crowd, which has seen theeffectiveness with
which sophomore center Bill MacGillivray has shadowed WCHA stars Ricco
Zetti of Denver and Craig Johnson of North Dakota. My favorite line,
though, was when Comley,while commenting on how pleased everyone
is--especially the two players--that Drake and Hiller are reunited on a
single team, now in the NHL, said "I still think the Red Wings ought to
buy out Scott Beattie's Italian contract." I continue to believe Beattie
at least deserves a good look by the NHL, and it sounds like Rick does
too.
On to the game.
Most notable from the perspective of NMU followers was the continuation
of the Wildcats' suddenly-emerging offensive firepower. Over the last
four games the 'Cats have amassed approximately 160 shots on goal, and
30 of them have found the net. Senior winger Joe Frederick accounted
for half of the NMU scores, raising his season goal total to 15.
Frederick has only played in about a dozen games this year due to two
different injuries, so his ppg numbers have to be pretty good. The
unusual thing about Freddie's goals last night, in addition to how many
of them there were, was that they all came in even-handed situations.
"Short-handed Joe" didn't get many changes for shgs last night, as
Northern only had three power plays.
The other noteworthy plus for NMU was its continued success in shutting
down the opposition's leading scorers. Knipscheer was held to one
assist and no goals (although MacGillivray was not assigned to cover him
for the entire game).
Although NMU played aggressively in the first couple of minutes of the
first period, St. Cloud actually dominated play during most of that
stanza. The Huskies scored first when Greg Hagen intercepted freshman
goalie Paul Taylor's attempted clearing pass up the slot, knocked it
down with his hand and fired it past the desperately scrambling Taylor
at 4:18. The 'Cats evened it at 9:12 when Troy Johnson won a faceoff in
the circle to the left of Huskie goalie Dave Stone, drew the puck back
to Frederick at the top of the circle who pulled the trigger on a
blistering slap shot past Stone. Later in the period St. Cloud had two
clean breakaways, both of which were smothered by Taylor. One of the
Huskies stoned by Taylor was Knipscheer. It looked as if the period
would end in a 1-1 tie, but the Huskies suddenly mounted a heavy assault
in the Wildcat end in the last fifteen seconds, and Tony Gruba scored
during a scramble in front of the net at 19:55.
A friend who was using my other ticket decided to go for coffee near the
end of the break between periods. Big mistake--he was in line under the
stands while the score went from 2-1 St. Cloud to 3-2 Northern Michigan
in the first minute of the second period. Frederick was again
responsible, scoring at 00:15 from a scramble in front, then putting in
his third goal of the night at 00:51 on a breakaway which Stone couldn't
stop. For the first time in my admittedly brief association with NMU
hockey, I saw a hat thrown on the Lakeview ice. (Of course, this was
the first opportunity for the fans to celebrate a hat trick all this
season, but that certainly wasn't the case the previous two years!
And there was just one hat thrown.)
(Hockey-L trivia aside: I can't recall how we settled the debate last
year about what is a "natural" hat trick. Since Frederick's goals all
came in even-handed situations, does it qualify?)
Scott Smith made it 4-2 at 9:46 when he put in a rebound off a
shot by Kory Karlander at the end of a two on one breakaway. Just when
the crowd was staring to rock'n'roll, though, the Huskies retaliated
less than thirty seconds later when Hultgren scored on a shot over
Taylor's shoulder at 10:15. NMU defensman Garrett MacDonald returned
the favor at 14:03 with a shot from the medium slot area. That was
enough for Dahl to pull Stone from goal. It was Stone's first game
experience all this year, although he is a senior with significant
experience from other seasons, and he beat the Wildcats more than once
during them. Regular goalie Grant Sjerven was inserted and was
immediately greeted by a goal off the stick of Brent Riplinger 24
seconds later on a rebound which found Sjerven out of position following
the initial save. This made it 6-3 and once again a rout was in the
air, but in just four seconds St. Cloud's Greg Hagen took a nice long
pass from Gruba and beat Taylor to the top of the net, so the period
ended 6-4. Seven goals in one period--plenty to keep the crowd
entertained.
The final period was quite different, and toward the end deteriorated
into a penalty-filled wrestling match as frustrations and reactions to
them flared on both teams. The win was sealed by NMU at 18:34 when
Frederick got his fourth goal of the game on a shot from the deep slot,
and MacGillivray finished the scoring with a similar play 23 seconds
later. A fight broke out in the final minute, and although the initial
altercation was setled fairly quickly without much in the way of serious
banging, it spread to another spot on the ice where Wildcat Greg Hadden
and Huskie defensman Ferrazano(?) got into something that the officials
failed to find amusing. The two players locked up but didn't drop their
sticks and the result, as they circled on the ice, was the officials not
being able to get them apart for several seconds as they had to watch
for sticks whizzing by their heads. The Huskie even dropped his gloves
and resumed punching Hadden, who returned the blows but kept his gloves
on. Both players received game disqualifications which will keep them
from dressing for tonight's rematch. It was a shame, and NMU will miss
Hadden, who is both a defensive and an offensive spark plug.
The Huskies were missing some players due to injuries in recent weeks,
and Dahl noted at the luncheon that their entire first line has the flu
and were in bed at mid-day yesterday. Given that, Rick Comley and the
radio announcers, as well as the Wildcats interviewed after the game,
were not very pleased with NMU's play and said that to complete a sweep
of the series tonight the level of play on the 'Cats' part will have to
be elevated.
St. Cloud 2 2 0 4
No. Mich 1 5 2 8
Power play opportunities: NMU, 0/3; St. Cloud, 0/4
Goalie saves: NMU, 23 (Taylor, 7-5-11); St. Cloud, 34 (Stone, 9-11-x),
Sjerven, x-4-10).
Taylor made a number of great saves in goal for the Wildcats, but he did
surrender four goals, so I'm expecting Comley to start Corwin Saurdiff
tonight. Comley indicated in his Blue Line remarks that the competition
between the two goalies, and the level of performance, in practice has
been terrific. In fairness to Saurdiff (and to Taylor, who noted this
in his own remarks yesterday), the 'Cats have scored 7, 12 and 8 goals
in his three starts. In Saurdiff's last three, only one of which he
won, they scored 5, 3 and 3.
The win FINALLY brought the Wildcats' WCHA record to the .500 mark, at
10-10-3, the first time it's been that high all year. Comley said for
the last two months that he was hoping the team would be in a position
to make a move when the schedule finally turned in NMU's favor, and that
is the case, as although they entered the weekend tied for sixth, they
were only four points out of third with seven of their last ten games to
be played at home, where they're now 8-1-2. Last night's game was the
first step in what the 'Cats must do if they're to now take advantage of
staying alive for the first two-thirds of the season. St. Cloud is big,
fast, strong and aggressive, and they're not intimidated in Lakeview,
coming in here with the best road record in the WCHA (now 7-5). The
Wildcats need an excellent effort tonight to make the weekend a success
and continue their hoped-for climb through the standings.
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* Steve Christopher, NMU [log in to unmask] * * * * *
* NCAA Division I Hockey National Champions 1990-91 * GO * *
* NCAA Division I Hockey Final Eight 1991-92 * *
* WCHA League Champions 1990-91 * 'CATS! * *
* WCHA Playoff Champions 1988-89/1990-91/1991-92 . . . * * * * *
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