The Northern Michigan University Wildcats opened their first-round WCHA
playoff series with the Denver University Pioneers with a 5-3 home ice
win at Marquette's Lakeview Arena.  The game was not a sellout; several
hundred seats were left untaken (Lakeview's listed seating capacity is
4,105; the attendance announced for Friday was 3,601.) The game WAS a
hard-fought playoff contest, however.  Although for a while it appeared
that NMU would have an easy time of it, it ended up being tense for all
but the last of the final 27 minutes.
 
The Wildcats started out with great energy and immediately got a number
of excellent scoring chances as they were in the Denver end of the rink
for most of the first half of the first period.  Pioneer goalie Bryan
Schoen was very strong, and Rick Comley also noted later that the
Wildcats were often "slapping at the puck instead of shooting it."
Despite the excellent overall offense of Northern, Denver took the first
lead with a rush down the right side.  I was just shouting out
congratulations to one of the 'Cat defenders for wiping out the Pioneer
puck carrier when the light went on over the NMU goal.  Turned out the
"wipee" had passed off just before being checked, and the recipient of
the pass had a nearly wide open net to NMU goalie Paul Taylor's right.
That quieted the Lakeview crowd, at 11:15.
 
However, 39 seconds later it got real noisy when Joe Frederick took a
pass from Jason Hehr near the Pioneer blue line and went in on a
one-on-one situation.  Frederick did a beautiful job of offering the
puck to the defenseman, then taking it back and skating around him; five
feet in front of Schoen he hesitated until he got a bit of movement,
then slid the puck into the left corner of the net.  Three and a half
minutes later NMU took the lead on a power play goal by Bryan Ganz, who
knocked in a rebound from a shot by Kory Karlander from right in front.
Then at 15:18 Goeff Simpson anticipated a pass as Denver started a power
play rush and intercepted the puck just inside the Pioneer blue line;
Simpson took two or three steps, stopped, and let go a carefully aimed,
not too hard shot that went over Schoen's left shoulder to make it 3-1
with the shorthanded goal.
 
Maybe it looked too easy at that point; anyway the Pioneers clearly
dominated the first half of the second period.  Their efforts were
rewarded, first at 7:09 when DeCorby picked up a rebound in the middle
slot area and flipped it over Taylor to make it 3-2; then at 12:56 when
Elders scored on a similar play to tie it.  Fortunately for the Wildcats
and their fans, NMU's Ganz broke the tie less than a minute later when a
shot of his own resulted in a rebound which Korlander picked up and
passed back to him; Ganz's second try bounced off the right goal post
and into the net to make it 4-3.
 
It remained a 4-3 game throught nearly all of the remaining time.
Finally, just as Denver was preparing to pull Schoen, Brent Riplinger
got a breakaway when Greg Hadden sent him a nice pass at mid-ice.
Riplinger took it in and flipped the puck overSchoen from right in front
to make it 5-3.  NMU was called for a penalty at that point, so with
the goalie pulled the Pioneers had a 6-on-4 situation, but Denver was
not able to put it in.  Riplinger's goal came at 19:10; he had had only
a couple of shots previously all night.  Its significance (in addition
to icing the game, most important, of course) was that it kept alive
Brent's consecutive game goal scoring streak, which is now up to 14, and
second in WCHA history.  Anyone know how it ranks nationally?  We know
the WCHA record of 18 is held by former Wildcat Gary Emmons.
 
One other scoring note--Joe Frederick continues to match the number of
games he's played with the number of goals he's scored, 23 each.
According to the list of national leaders in the game program, that
average would put him in second place in the country, but he wasn't
listed.  There must be a criterion for the number of games played in
order for that kind of record to be counted.
 
In the postgame interviews both Comley and the Wildcats indicated it was
a tough game, just as anticipated, and that they were satisfied with
their overall efforts, particularly not losing their poise when they
lost the two-goal lead.  They all indicated they expect the Pioneers to
play even better tonight now that they have had some rest and a skate on
the Lakeview ice, and that NMU will have to improve last night's effort
to get another win as a result.
 
NMU did not shadow Pioneer star sophomore Angelo Ricci in this game,
although the coaches and players talked about Ricci a lot before and
after the game.  Even so, Ricci contributed only a single assist to the
scoring.  Although he is fifth in the WCHA in scoring, I'm under the
impression his points have increased much more slowly in the second half
of the season.  Comley said that "Our last three or four games, we've
just gone out and played our game without keying on a particular
individual."  Comley also noted that Corwin Saurdiff would be in goal
for tonight's rematch.  That's no suprise; Taylor played extremely well,
but Saurdiff has been playing equally well in recent weeks, and the two
have been alternated in every weekend series played in the past couple
of months.  (Rick Comley told me last week, prior to the
Minnesota-Duluth series, that he felt it had become obvious that Taylor
is a much better goaltender on the road, and Saurdiff is much better at
home, but he evidently doesn't feel the differences are great enough to
influence who plays where/when.  In the two home series since then, both
have been very good, and each has allowed three goals in his starts (2
for Taylor so far, one for Saurdiff).
 
The Wildcat special teams were definitely the difference, as they scored
two power play goals and one shorthander.  Northern's penalty-killing
has been truly remarkable in the latter part of the season; in the last
95 penalties it's been called upon to kill, the team has actually
outscored the opposition, getting 11 shorthanded goals and killing
something like 92% of the penalties.  The Wildcats have also quietly
moved from being a team woefully unable to score to the third-highest
scoring team in the WCHA, just behind second place, in fact (not
counting the results of last night's contests).
 
Northern Michigan's season record is now 17-16-4.  Anyone recall when it
was 1-7-2?  Denver's record is now 19-16-2.
 
Scoring:
 
First Period
 
1.  DU, O'Leary (5) (Hall, Smith), 11:15
 
2.  NMU, Frederick (23) (Hehr, MacDonald), 11:54
 
3.  NMU, Ganz (11) (Karlander, Simpson), ppg
 
4.  NMU, Simpson (7) (unassisted), shg, 15:18
 
Second Period
 
5.  DU, DeCorby (5) (O'Leary), 7:09
 
6.  DU, Elders (19) (Smith, Ricci), 12:56
 
7.  NMU, Ganz (12) (Karlander ), ppg, 13:29
 
Third Period
 
8.  Riplinger (Hadden), 19:10
 
Power play opportunities: NMU, 2/8; DU, 0/5
 
Penalties: NMU, 8; DU, 8
 
Goalie saves: NMU, 20 (Taylor, 11-5-4); DU, 26 (Schoen, 11-6-9)
 
Attendance: 3,601
 
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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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