I'm hoping Justin Doherty or someone will put a more complete report
on this game out, but in the meantime:
 
Northern Michigan's Wildcats found themselves in a scoreless tie at
the end of one period in the 1st round WCHA playoff game on Marquette's
Lakeview Arena rink.  The first eight minutes or so featured almost
continuous NMU buzzing of the Michigan Tech net, but excellent work
by the Tech defenders in front of their own net broke up many "just-
before-the-shot" passes, and Tech goalie Geoff Sargent (sp?) made a
large number of fairly acrobatic saves.  The second half of the period
was pretty much played in the neutral zone.  Tech had two power plays
and NMU one in that period.
 
In the second period a slashing penalty on Tech defenseman Darcy
Martini (a real local favorite here, ;-) ) led to a Wildcat power
play goal--as I recall by Brent Riplinger (meant to bring the local
paper to work so I could give more details, but forgot).  Since my
seats are at the other end of the rink I really didn't see much of
what led to this goal.  Two other NMU goals followed later in the
period by, I believe, Dallas Drake and Mark Hadden.  The period
ended 3-0 NMU, and Rick Comley was quoted as saying that he thought
the Hadden goal was a real game breaker.
 
The third period was a lot of fun for 'Cat fans and probably pretty
dismal for our friends from up the road.  NMU poured in four quick
goals in the first six minutes or so of the period.  The Tech coach
called a time out after the sixth goal, but the seventh followed
almost immediately.  The first three goals in this burst were very
pretty examples of good passing around the Tech net, and most of
them resulted from getting rebounds or passes following a save and/or
a flop by Sargent, with the shooter ultimately having a good chunk  of
open net (for a moment).  (You can tell I *do* sit close to this end
of the rink.  Anyway, I didn't feel the goalie could have done very
much about those goals.  The seventh one, shortly after the time out,
was on a not-super-hard slap shot by Tony Szabo from a bit inside the
blue line, and that probably was not a good effort by Sargent.  He
*immediately* left the game--so fast that I suspected he pulled him-
self instead of getting a hook from Coach Brown--but maybe Brown can
jerk a player pretty quickly, or maybe there was a "one more goal  and
we're changing goalies" message given during the time out.
 
The new goalie didn't actually fare much better.  He gave up two more
goals.  One was a beautiful shorthanded breakaway by Joe Frederick
who came at least half the length of the rink and made the goal look
awfully easy.  (However, I'd be the first to admit I have no idea how
hard it is for a goalie with a player bearing down on him all alone.)
The final Wildcat goal--and this was typical of the way things seemed
to be going for Tech in the last period--was actually scored by a
Huskie, when an NMU pass from the corner bounced off a defenseman and
when into the net.  The goal was officially credited, of course, to a
Wildcat--perhaps Troy Johnson?---a hockey practice I continue to find
ridiculous.
 
With the score at 9-0 Wildcat freshman goalie Corwin Saurdiff lost his
shutout with less than three minutes to go.  But, it was on a 5-on-3
situation, and apparently involved a rebound.  I heard Saurdiff in a
postgame interview and he said he blocked a shot, then saw the Tech
player get the puck again (not that it was the same player, necessarily)
and "was hoping someone would get in the way and just slow down the
puck a bit, but it was behind me by the  time I was on my feet."  The
radio announcer said it was great shot, fast and just under the cross
bar; Rick Comley admitted "you don't stop very many of those."
 
We've been hoping the 'Cats were peaking at playoff time, and last
night's performance was certainly encouraging.  The scoring was very
widespread, and did *not* depend on the NMU "big guns"-although Dallas
Drake did have two goals.  Jim Hiller had no goals and just one assist,
I don't think Mark Beaufait had any points, and I know Scott Beattie
had none.  They all *played* very well, however, and in the postgame
radio show the announcer said he thought Beattie played superbly and
Rick Comley said it was Scott's best game since Christmas, even though
"he had nothing to show for it" (i.e. points--I know Rick didn't care
particularly about that, he was very pleased with Beatties' overall
work and enthusiasm).  The defense displayed by NMU was really out-
standing, at least by this year's Wildcat standards.  Saurdiff only
had to face 19 shots on goal.
 
Well, the Tech band was great . . . and it, and the cheerleaders, never
quit, no matter what the score was.  (Neither did the Huskie players,
BTW.  We have a *lot* of respect for Tech, and expect a very tough
game tonight.)  The Tech seating area where the band was is close to
where I sit and some of the fans in my section were acting quite
annoyed, but IMO that was simply a compliment to the Huskie musicians'
hard work and spirit--good for you guys!
 
My wife and I will be at the Northwoods Supper Club, probably in the
Cedars Room (the smaller "main" dining room to the right after you
pass the hostess' station) following tonight's (Saturday's) game.  It
would be great to meet any of you hockey-l folks from Marquette and
Houghton who choose to come by!
 
                      ***********************************
                     *      Steve Christopher, NMU       *
                    *  "Go 'Cats!''Going for two in '92!" *
                     *        [log in to unmask]         *
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