Michigan 8 BOWLING GREEN 1 (Saturday)
 
FIRST PERIOD
A new BGSU Ice Arena record crowd of 5021 was PUMPED
for the first 1995-96 clash between these two CCHA titans.  Both
teams responded with fast paced action to begin the contest.
UM got on the board first, aboutthisfast into the game's first PP.
Matt Herr won a faceoff in the BGSU zone and Sean Ritchlin
made a nice play to leave the puck in the slot for John Madden,
who fired at Bob Petrie in the Falcon net.  Petrie made the save,
but the puck rebounded about three feet off the ice, above Petrie's
shoulder.  With Petrie on his knees (and not knowing for sure
where the puck was), Madden followed his own shot with a
swift baseball swing and deposited the puck over Petrie's
shoulder for the PP goal.  Less than two minutes later, UM's Mike
Legg made a nice individual move breaking in from the left
wing.  It looked like Legg would pass, but he pulled back and
caught Petrie off guard, sliding the puck under Petrie's outstretched
arm.  The teams then traded power play opportunities without
scoring.  At the 13:01 mark, with UM on their third PP, the Falcons
looked to be caught in a line change (they came close to clearing
the puck, but didn't) as four Michigan players broke in on Petrie
and defenseman Chad Ackerman.  After a couple of passes,
Warren Luhning snapped a shot past Petrie for a 3-0 Michigan
lead.  BGSU had another PP opportunity, and they desperately
needed to score to stop the bleeding, but late in the Michigan
penalty Ackerman was whistled for a checking from behind
major.  From my vantage point it looked to be a good call.
Following 30 seconds of 4-on-4 play, Michigan would have a
PP for approximately the final 4:30 of the first period.  The Blue
didn't waste the opportunity as Herr rifled a bullet from the high
slot past Petrie at 17:16 and defenseman Steven Halko stuffed
home a loose puck at 19:13 to give UM a 5-0 lead.  Michigan
officially finished the first period 4-for-6 with the man advantage.
(Nathan Boyle noted that the Wolverines scored "about 4 times"
on the major, but it was only twice as the first two PP markers
came prior to Ackerman's penalty.)
 
SECOND PERIOD
Jason Botterill scored at 6:26 and Matt Herr became the first
(and only) player to notch two goals when he gave Michigan
a 7-0 lead at 10:38.  That was all for Petrie, who faced 33 shots
in 30:38.  Dale Crombeen's PP tally at 14:21 put BGSU on the
board.  Michigan netminder Marty Turco was done following
a solid, 40-minute performance.
 
THIRD PERIOD
Bobby Hayes scored the game's final goal midway through,
the only shot of 17 to beat BGSU's Mike Savard.  Gregg Malicke
mopped up the final 20 minutes for UM, stopping 8 shots.  I
honesty paid about as much attention to the give-and-take
between the Michigan students and Freddy & Freida Falcon
at this point as I did the game, but I paid careful attention to
BGSU blueliner Kelly Perrault.  The best offensive defenseman
in the CCHA, arguably the country, I knew that in the past this
was the stage for Perrault to do something stupid.  I told the
folks that I was with to look for Perrault to get himself DQed
and, if he did, bonehead moves like that would likely keep him
off my All-CCHA team...because his explosive offense and
adequate defense otherwise warranted All-CCHA/All-America
selection.  Sure enough, Perrault pummeled Michigan freshman
Dale Rominski in the game's final minute.  C-YA!  The BGSU
crowd cheered with delight as Perrault clearly could claim a W
in the fisticuffs.  Kelly played to the crowd with some pugilistic
gestures as he was being escorted from the ice following his
DQ.  IMO, he's ready for the ECHL right now.  Perrault probably
doesn't give a rats-butt if he makes my All-CCHA team, but I
bet that BGSU coach Buddy Powers had something to say about
Kelly working his way out of the lineup for the Falcons' date with
Miami on Friday.  (In other boxing news, UM's Jason Botterill
managed to avoid any such incidents.  Botterill's numbers
currently stand at 10-8--18 with 67 penalty minutes in 11 games.)
 
Nathan Boyle writes (on Info-Hockey-L)...
>This is the second big game that BG has shut down after being scored on.
>The first being against W. Mich.  For the effort that was put out they
>should have called the game off after the first period.
 
I didn't get this feeling at all.  Nor did the fans (both UM and BGSU)
around me.  At times I was impressed with some of BGSU's
individual efforts to thwart UM scoring chances.  Overall, I didn't
think the Falcons rolled over and played dead.  Although it was
far from tension-filled excitement, the tally over the final forty
minutes was Michigan 3, Bowling Green 1.  Shots were 32-16 in
favor of the Wolverines.  (First period shots were 18-7 for game
totals of 50 and 23.)  As for the WMU game, I think BGSU outshot the
Broncos 52 to 20-something, hardly what I would call a shut down.
I was of the opinion that they were simply Marc Magliarditied,
something that has been happening around the CCHA this year.
 
WTOL TV (CBS-Toledo)
I was able to see some of the game on tape and my general
impression is exactly as it was last year, when WTOL televised
the BGSU-MSU contest.  Bartt Davis (normally on BGSU radio)
did a fine job with the play-by-play.  I'll take him any day.  WTOL
sports anchor Dan Cummings (sp?) left a LOT to be desired as
the color commentator, though.  I imagine that WTOL wouldn't
bother televising the occasional game if one of their own (i.e. DC)
wasn't part of the call.  Too bad.  I'd rather have Davis and Keith
Instone at the mikes. :-)
 
And, lose the roving reporter that tried to interview Powers
following the first period.  Michigan is undefeated in games
in which they score first!  What kind of dipstick information is
that?  I guess news of the Minnesota loss (in which Michigan
held a 1-0 lead after one) didn't reach Bowling Green.  (OK,
it's possible that one of the Sports Info staffs screwed up
the information, but having someone remotely familiar with
college hockey at the mike might have eliminated the error.)
 
Nonetheless, I suppose partially competent (the Davis
component) TV is better than no TV.
 
 
John Haeussler ([log in to unmask]) 11-3-0 / 8-2-0 CCHA
 
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