Since my copies of the list digest have not included descriptions of
either of the Northern Michigan-Minnesota-Duluth games played this
weekend in Marquette (only a statistical summary from a Duluth fan on
Friday's game, and a score report from him on Saturday's), I thought I'd
offer a few comments.  (I was at the Friday game, and watched the
delayed rebroadcast of Saturday's.)
 
Friday night ended up being a terrific lift for Wildcat fans, and no
doubt a real letdown for Bulldog followers.  The 'Cats came from WAY
back to win, overcoming 3-0 and 4-1 UMD leads.
 
The beginning of the game seemed a repeat of the problems NMU has
experiences early this year, especially in last weekend's disastrous
series against Michigan Tech.  Wildcat defenseman Steve Hamilton was
assessed a five-minute major penalty for checking from behind midway
through the first period.  The Bulldogs took full advantage of this,
scoring three goals on this one penalty's power play.  (Oddly, for a
brief period in the middle of the major, UMD had a 5-3 advantage, but
did not score during that time.) Northern got on the board near the end
of the period to make it 3-1 and provide some hope for its fans.
However, the second period saw the Bulldogs score quickly, in a
short-handed situation on a breakaway.  Rick Comley replaced his goalie,
a freshman who had a good outing in a win over St. Cloud State two weeks
ago, with sophomore Dieter Kochan.  Kochan shut out the Bulldogs the
rest of the way.  (After the game Comley said he was not that displeased
with the starting goalie's play, but he felt he had to make a change to
shake up the way the game was going.)
 
Northern scored twice in the second period to end it on the short end of
a 4-3 score.  In the third period Greg Hadden tied the game about midway
through it with a pretty spin move and a one-timer from the lower part
of the left wing faceoff circle.  Several minutes later Jason Hehr
scored the game-winner during a power play on a very hard shot from the
blue line which went through a crowd of players in the front of the
goal.  I'm not sure the UMD goalie ever saw the puck (or maybe even the
shot).  The thing Comley seemed to like best about the entire game was
the way the Wildcats completely dominated play in the final two and a
half minutes of the game.  The Bulldogs never came close to having a
chance to pull their goalie; the puck was in the UMD end nearly the
entire final two minutes.
 
NMU, which had been absolutely horrible on special-team play so far this
season (around 6th in the WCHA in power play success, and dead last in
penalty-killing), turned it around quite a bit in this game (after the
three goals it yielded during the first period major.  The 'Cats killed
all penalties in the final two periods, and scored four of their five
goals on power plays.
 
In Saturday's contest it was NMU who established leads and UMD who
played catchup--quite successfully most of the time.  Northern scored
the first two goals in the first period, both on power plays.  UMD
scored once also and the period ended 2-1 NMU.  As I recall UMD
outscored Northern 2-1 in the second period to leave it tied at 3-3
going into the third.  NMU took the lead midway through the final period
on a quickwrist shot by Brent Riplinger from a scramble about 15 feet to
the far left of the UMD goalie; I replayed that goal several times in
super-slow and stop motion, and never could get an exact picture of what
happend, but it appeared the shot, which came in at a pretty extreme
angle, cauth the back of the goalie's left knee and richocheted into the
net.  But afew minutes later Rusty Fitzgerald scored for UMD on a nice
rush down ice and the regulation play ended with the score 4-4.
 
In the overtime UMD almost won it in the first minute, when a Bulldog
broke in cleanly on Kochan and got a shot at point-blank range, but
Dieter stoned him, as they say.  About a minute later Kory Karlander
redirected a shot taken during a good NMU attack (looked kind of like a
power play) and it got by the goalies left leg for the winner.
 
In this game also NMU's special teams play was much improved, especially
on offense; I believe the Wildcats had four power play goals, I'm
certain they had at least three.  However, once again they also gave up
a shorthanded goal, scored by the same player who did it the night
before--Joe Ceccarelli (sp?).
 
Rick Comley was quoted as saying many positive things emerged from the
weekend (in addition to the four precious WCHA standings points!): much
better penalty killing, power plays, and goal tending.
 
Final comment--so much for comparative performances.  Last week Michigan
Tech humiliated Northern, while Minnesota-Duluth was taking 3 out of 4
points from Wisconsin on the Badgers' home ice.  Then this weekend
Wisconsin sweeps Tech in Houghton, while the 'Cats take two from the
Bulldogs.  Guess that's what makes sports interesting!
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 *  Steve Christopher, NMU    [log in to unmask]    GO 'CATS!!!         *
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