To complete my post of last night, hopefully before my 8:00 Feedback Controls
class that I have to teach,
 
John Nash gave an outstanding wrap up of the game.
 
Saves:
 
MTU Ram    18  8  6 - 31
NMU Kochan  3 10  6 - 17
 
Penalties:
 
   MTU 10 for 20 min
   NMU  5 for 10 min
 
Powerplays:
 
   MTU 0 of 5
   NMU 1 of 8
 
At 16:50 in the first period Figgy (Figliomeni) at the red line passed off to
Jason Wright an the far left side.  Jason skated down near the glass to the
side the circle and slapped a shot through the 5 hole.  Garvey took a stupid
slashing penalty on Kochan with 15 seconds left in the first period to give
Northern a powerplay opportunity at the beginning of the second period.
 
At 1:09 into the second period, Hadden skated from the back of the net attempting
a wrap around on Ram which did not go. In doing so he collided with Ram taking
him out of the net. Dallas Green standing about fifteen away at the right edge
of the slot had a rebound and an empty net. A no questions asked shot gives
Northern its sole score for the evening. A little over a minute later (2:16),
Pat Mikesch put a wrist shot through the 5 hole from about 20 feet to the right
of Kochan. As John Nash stated, this broke Northern's back. The very pro-NMU
Prime TV announcers stated that Northern developed an attitude of "Why shoot
at Jamie Ram? He stops everything, anyway." At 6:44, Pat Mikesch tries a wrap
roght of Kochan. Seeing it blocked, he passed off to Randy Stevens who only
two feet off the left of the crease. Randy took an easy scoring shot. For the
next eight minutes of the second period, MTU played penalty killing hockey, at
times being 2 men down. Northern could not capitalize on MTU mistakes which
clearly put MTU in control of the game.
 
At 10:59 in the 3rd period, Northern attempted to clear the puck along the
right boards from its zone. Hanchuk pinched down at the point stopping the
puck and passed off to Mitch Lane who was in the slot and scoreed easily.
The last score was created when Northern pulled its goalie with 1:47 left in
the 3rd period on a holding call on MTU's Kirby Perrault. THis gave NMU a
2 man advantage but to no avail. Randy Stevens intercepted a NMU miscue in
the MTU zone and streaked down on the empty net to finish the game's scoring
at 19:04.
 
Well, we have done ok against the cats (Tigers and Wildcats). Now we must
face the much improved Gophers.  After the season we've had, we take the games
one at a time. Without using any puns, we are clearly the underdogs. Minnesota
is a good team and should be well rested. MTU has a great goalie but he has
played four games in less than a week. Can we keep it up? Tonight we will know
the answer. We have already accomplished far more than anyone expected so
everything is frosting on the cake at this point.
 
Walt Olson
MTU