MICHIGAN 5 Miami 2 (Friday)
1ST: Only one penalty is called, on UM's Blake Sloan, and
Miami capitalizes on a Marc Tropper blast from below the left
circle.  Michigan dominated play early, but Trevor Prior held
his ground in the MU goal.  MU 1 UM 0.
2ND: Tropper gets his second from about 80 feet out.  I swear
he faked a dump-in and at the last second drilled a shot on
goal that caught Marty Turco napping.  At that point, both goals
had been scored by #9...but it wasn't Michigan and Brendan
Morrison with the 2-0 lead.  Morrison did get the Wolverines
on board with a PP goal a few minutes later, though.  MU 2 UM 1.
3RD: Morrison tied the game early in the period.  It looked to
be a dual between the two #9's, Morrison and Tropper.  UM
took a 3-2 lead when Greg Crozier did some nice corner work
and fed Sean Ritchlin who buried it past Prior.  Later in the
period, Matt Herr and John Madden added the insurance.
UM 5 MU 2.
 
MICHIGAN 3 Miami 0 (Saturday)
1ST: Madden gets UM on the board early on a play that was
largely made by Crozier digging the puck out of the corner and
alluding the defense before dishing to Madden.  Six minutes
later, Herr gets his team-leading 23rd goal.  Miami is held to
2 shots on goal.  UM 2 MU 0.
2ND: Michigan takes more shots, but both teams get a couple
of good chances.  Turco's goaltending and Sloan's defense
keep Miami off the board.  Adam Lord makes 15 saves to keep
MU in the game.  UM 2 MU 0.
3RD: Miami turns it up a notch, but Turco and the UM team
defense (forwards included) respond.  Bill Muckalt's empty
netter seals it.  UM 3 MU 0.
 
GENERAL COMMENTS
Miami looked better than I expected, particularly their defense
and goaltending.  Adam Lord played a better game on Saturday
than Trevor Prior did on Friday.  UM buzzed the net on Friday,
but put most of the shots right into Prior's chest.  Lord was more
active between the pipes, and was playing to keep his team in
the game rather than protect a lead.  Miami's offense was nothing
to right home about...possibly an extension of their defensive
effort.  The speed of Vitali Andreev and moves of Randy Robitaille
created some opportunities, but Michigan's defense kept MU
under wraps for the most part.  Robitaille (17-25--42) was held
scoreless over the weekend.  Tim Leahy had a golden opportunity
to bring Miami closer late in Friday's game, but missed an open
net.  Banger and goal scorer Adam Copeland was non-existent
except for taking several dumb penalties.  On a weekend were
Michigan had 9 power play opportunities, Copeland was responsible
for 4 of them.  He was finally tossed (coincidental minor, no DQ)
for mixing it up after the empty-netter on Saturday.
 
Aside from the 80-footer, Turco looked poised and confident in
the UM net.  He stopped 36 of 38 over the weekend.  He hung
tough on a few goal mouth scrambles to earn the shutout on
Saturday.  Hopefully this is the springboard for a strong stretch
drive by Marty.
 
Stat Note: Bill Muckalt's empty net goal on Saturday was the
138th point of his career, passing...ta da, Red Berenson on UM's
all-time scoring list.  Congratulations, Billy!  A junior, and still
somewhat overshadowed by the senior class, Muckalt finds
himself climbing up several of UM's all-time lists.  Assuming
he'll return for his senior season (PLEASE!), Muckalt should
join the 100-goal and 200-point clubs.  With 65-83--138 and two
months remaining in his junior year, Billy conceivably could
streak to 2nd on UM's all-time goal scoring list, a spot currently
held by Dave Debol with 112.  I hope Muckalt returns for his
senior season and has his year in the spotlight, which he
deserves.
 
Some final thoughts on Miami...I'm very interested in seeing
how they finish the season.  They're currently riding a four-game
losing streak, but have the *potential* to stay in the CCHA race
and secure an NCAA bid.  If they do, watch out.  Some valuable
post season experience should make Miami, which is comprised
predominantly of juniors, one of the favorites in the CCHA in 1997-98.
And, during one four-on-four occurrence this past weekend, MU
had Andreev and Robitaille on the ice as the two forwards.  It was
the first time in recent memory that I didn't feel Michigan had a
decided advantage on the four-on-four.
 
Btw...the games were refereed by Mark and Matt Shegos,
respectively.  I'd give each a B or B+ for their performance.
I was upset at Matt for allowing Miami to continually harass
Brendan Morrison shift after shift, but Matt also turned the
other cheek and allowed Brendan to get in some retaliatory
shots of his own.  Granted, I'd prefer to see him make some
of the original calls, but at least Michigan didn't go a man down
as a result of Morrison getting mugged.  This hasn't always
been the case.
 
 
John Haeussler ([log in to unmask])
Univ of Michigan
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.