The Northern Michigan Wildcats closed their home season with resounding
success Saturday night, finishing a sweep of their first-round WCHA
playoff series with Denver University with a 7-0 victory over the
Pioneers.  The 'Cats now advance to the "hemiquarterfinals" of the WCHA
playoffs to play also-victorious Michigan Tech in St. Paul Civic Arena
on Thursday evening.
 
From a Wildcat fan perspective, this was the perfect game.  The contest
was close and in doubt through the first two periods, then broken wide
open in the third period by five NMU goals.  Sophomore goaltender Corwin
Saurdiff recorded his first career shutout, with great help from his
teammates who protected him and swept away rebounds all evening.  The
Wildcat penalty-killing teams continued their amazing second-half
performance, allowing no power play goals by the Pioneers and scoring
two shorthanded goals themselves.  Brent Riplinger extended his
second-place WCHA record goal-scoring-game streak to fourteen, Greg
Hadden extended his point-scoring-game streak to seventeen, and best of
all Joe Frederick, on his final ever Lakeview Arena shift set the NCAA
Division I shorthanded goal career record in the game's penultimate
minute.  Riplinger's "shooting average" for this series was amazing; in
Friday night's opener he got his goal with only two shots; last night he
only took the one which resulted in a score.
 
The Wildcats appeared extremely fired up for this game.  In the first
period both teams played outstanding defense most of the time, and there
were only eleven shots on goal between them.  However, a two-minute span
in the middle of the period saw the 'Cats storm the Pioneer net and
Denver goalie Bryan Schoen, who was outstanding much of the night, was
victimized with close-in NMU opportunities resulting in two Wildcat
goals.  The first came at 9:39 when Riplinger flipped the puck from
behind the net to Hadden, who one-timed it past Schoen's left shoulder.
At 11:28 Scott Smith picked up a Geoff Simpson rebound to Schoen's left,
deked him, and switched to his backhand to put the puck neatly behind
him in the left side of the goal.  As the TV commentators noted, it was
very reminiscent of the critical goal Smith scored against Minnesota in
NMU's last Mariucci Arena appearance when they came away with a 7-0 win
over the Gophers.  Saurdiff, although called up to make only five saves
in the period, earned his start with one of them, a clean block of a
good breakaway attempt at a shorthanded goal by a Pioneer. The crusher
for the entire game may well have come near the end of the period, when
penalties on two Wildcats on the same play gave the Pioneers a
two-minute 5-3 advantage; they failed to get a single shot on goal
during that situation.  Denver coach Frank Serratore was later to tell
the Mining Journal, "It broke our back.  That was a situation we had to
capitalize on."
 
The
second period featured lots of fast skating and amazing goaltending by
Schoen, who kept his team in the game with 14 saves.  Saurdiff was
not tested greatly again, warding off just 7 shots.
 
At 7:05 Riplinger scored his goal on a rush down the right side which he
finished with a slap shot from the faceoff circle that Schoen couldn't
react to.  From there the roof started to cave in.  About a minute later
Troy Johnson deflected a Dave Huettl shot from just in front of the goal
to make it 4-0.  Then at 9:08 Hadden stole a pass and scored on a
breakaway for a 5-0 lead.  At that point Serratore pulled Schoen, a
tough way for the senior to end his final appearance, especially with
his stalwart efforts for most of the night.
                                       Replacement goalie (Jeff?) Burns
actually fared much worse, facing only two shots and seeing them both
score.  At 12:58 Geoff Simpson got an interception and broke in all
alone with a shot from right in front to make it 6-0.  Several minutes
then passed with no more Wildcat opportunities, until a Denver power
play found Frederick picking off a pass and streaking in on Burns to
slide in the record-setting shorthander at 18:47.  Frederick was
obviously ecstatic with the goal, and so were his teammates and coaches.
 
About the time of Frederick's goal the Wildcat faithful in Section 1
unfurled a large banner saying something to the effect of "NMU Wildcats
- On to Lakeview West!" in reference to advancing to the final rounds of
the WCHA playoffs in St. Paul Civic Arena, an ice sheet on which the
team has great success the past several years.
In the postgame interview Rick Comley was obviously exultant about the
almost unbelievable turnaround made by his team since its dismal 0-4
start, including a 20-2 crushing at the hands of Wisconsin in the second
weekend series, and having only one win in its first ten games.  (A joke
recounted during a recent interview with Rick which circulated in
Marquette early in the season was,  "How does Rick Comley count to ten?
'One, seven, and two!") Rick stated last night that this year's team
right now is playing as well as his great 90-91 and 91-92 clubs.
 
Comley and the other Wildcats stressed last night that Thursday's
opponents, the Michigan Tech Huskies, are just as hot as they are, and
that the teams know each other to the last detail, so no one on the team
or among the fans is making any predictions about the result in St.
Paul.  But, as Comley said a couple of times recently, "After the
Wisconsin series in October, who thought we'd even be going to St.
Paul?"
 
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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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