Friday: MICHIGAN 4 Bowling Green 3 OT
Michigan cruised to a 2-0 lead before Keith Instone arrived.
Once Keith was "in the house", the Falcons were the better
team.  Overall, the teams played fairly even and, befittingly,
the game went to OT.  Bowling Green had the first quality
chance in OT, but failed to get a shot off.  At 1:57, Mike Legg
redirected a Peter Bourke pass, beating Will Clarke and
sending over 7000 home happy.  It was refreshing to see
the third defensive pair of Bourke and Big Al Sinclair on the
ice in OT for the winning goal.  Usually, in a close game,
Coach Berenson will shorten the bench to four defensemen
midway through the third period, if not sooner.  However, on
this night the top pair of Steven Halko and Blake Sloan
struggled to some extent...including a few lapses that led
directly to BGSU goals and/or quality chances.  Bourke and
Sinclair earned the opportunity and made the most of it.
 
The officiating, namely referee Jeff Shell, was almost as bad
what was displayed at LSSU the previous weekend.  It was
a tough night for Shell, period.  First, the fans were all over him
for the lack of calls against BGSU.  As Eric Rickin mentioned,
they once even broke into a chorus of "We want Shegos!",
which was unexpected and humorous.  Worse (from his
perspective), Shell was injured at least twice.  In the first
period, Michigan Mike Knuble ran a BGSU player hard into
the boards.  Unfortunately for Shell, his head was perfectly
placed between the two players and one of the posts holding
up the glass...and he took the brunt of the check right on the
noggin.  He staggered, but managed to stay on his feet and
continue without assistance.  In the third period, following a
whistle in the Bowling Green zone, it was Knuble again...this
time inadvertently (I presume) catching Shell near the ankles
with his stick and literally taking Shell's feet out from under
him.  This time, Shell did not get up.  He was attended to by
the UM trainer and was able to continue, albeit with a VERY
sore tailbone.  For anyone who has ever unexpectedly hit
the ice butt bone first, you can relate.  Ouch!
 
I spoke with a Michigan player regarding the officiating
after the game, and he impressed me considerably.  He
seemed quite annoyed that UM, as a whole, did not adjust
to the officials very well.  In a nutshell (no pun intended), many
things were not being called any BGSU took greater advantage
of the lax officiating.  No fault to BGSU...if you can mug someone
and get away with it, you might as well keep doing it.  But UM
should have recognized this and played accordingly.  Adjusting
to the officials is a skill, and BGSU certainly won this round.
The Michigan player felt that some of the Falcon's scoring
chances could have been averted with a tug here, a trip there,
etc...things that BGSU was getting away with in the other
direction.  Rather than complain to the officials about the lack
of calls (which UM did), they presumably could have taken the
same liberties that BGSU was taking.  This is an interesting
perspective to the game, and one I support (from the player's
view).  Hopefully, the next time this occurs, the player will be
able to convince his teammates that they're going about the
situation wrong.  Time will tell.
 
Saturday: Michigan 9 NOTRE DAME 3 (Auburn Hills MI)
I admit, I wimped out in the snow and stayed home to get
some work done.  Al Loges went the distance in goal for
UM, improving his record to 2-1-0.  Is was the first time in
his career that freshman Marty Turco did not see action.
(Turco had appeared in the first 21 games, and had
started 19 straight.)
 
I did catch some of the MSU at BGSU game on WTOL-TV
(CBS Toledo 11).  I thought that Bart(?) Davis, usually on BG
radio, did an all right job with play-by-play but Toledo 11 sports
anchor Dan Cummins was horrible on color.  Give Davis a
bonus just for putting up with Cummins all night.  Dan...please
read the hockey scores during your newscast, but don't pretend
to understand the game.  Davis would often say things like, "...
and BG ices the puck.  They can do that because they're
shorthanded."  I think this was for Cummins benefit as much
as the viewers.
 
The game has been well discussed on Hockey-L, but I'll add
one thing.  From what I could see on TV, Brian Holzinger (BGSU)
owned Anson Carter (MSU) on faceoffs all night...something
that doesn't show up in the boxscore.  In fact, 'Zinger beat
Anson on the draw for the Falcon's first goal (drawn straight
back to Brett Punchard who beat Mike Buzak for his third goal
of the weekend).
 
 
John H
U Mich