Michigan 4 NOTRE DAME 1 (Friday)
Arguably closer than the score indicates. The Irish hung with
Michigan for better than two periods. UND seemed to out-anticipate
the Wolverines early. The Irish goal came on such a play. While
skating toward his own net in the defensive zone, Brendan Morrison
tried a dipsy-doodle back-pass, attempting to spring one of his
wingers. Instead, UND defenseman Garry Gruber stepped up from the
blue line and buried a shot over Marty Turco and just under the
crossbar. Where did this great shot come from?! I met Hockey-L-
ers Phil and Deb Bennett at the game and Phil assures me that
Gruber actually has that kind of shooting prowess. Damn fine
stuff. Gruber is by far the best defensman on the Irish roster,
which is otherwise weak by CCHA standards. He must have played 35
minutes or more versus the Wolverines.
Michigan put the game away with a couple of goals midway through
the third period, at which point referee Roger Graff lost what
control he did have over the game. One incident that stands out
came late in the third period. After a few questionable non-calls
on the Irish, Graff's arm went up for a retaliation penalty on
Morrison. As play continued (Notre Dame was in possession), a UND
player proceeded to run Turco in the Michigan net, which resulted
in a whistle and a skirmish in the far corner behind the UM goal.
As soon as a crowd assembled in the corner, two players shot from
the UND bench and joined the fracas. One of them was presumably
replacing goaltender Matt Eisler, who was going to the bench on the
delayed penalty call. What about the other? Michigan captain
Steven Halko went over the boards, but stayed at the UM bench until
order was restored and he could get his say in with Graff. So,
Notre Dame had 7-on-5 advantage in the skirmish. Did anyone else
notice this?
My other bone of contention is that on several occasions the UND
center pulled the skates out (with his stick) from underneath the
Michigan center as they entered the faceoff circle. Each occasion
resulted in cheers from the crowd and the UND center being tossed
from the faceoff, but never a penalty. Why, Roger?
(venting=on)
Little did I know what an understatement it would be when I said
earlier in the season that the Irish would be easier to dislike
under Dave Poulin than they were under Ric Schafer. I point the
finger at Poulin for most of the crap that went on during this
game. He's attempting to build the Notre Dame program through
intimidation tactics. That didn't work for Jerry Welsh in
Columbus. The vindictive side of me is looking forward to the day
when someone pulls Poulin's legs out and drops him on his can.
(venting=off)
On the bright side, the JACC has the best hot chocolate in the
CCHA, which is not an insignificant detail during hockey season.
Michigan 12 ILLINOIS at CHICAGO 0 (Saturday)
Arguably not as close as the score indicates. The more disciplined
1995-96 version of the Flames entered a time warp and reverted to
their old ways. However, I wouldn't describe them as chumpy in
this case. They simply took far too many bad penalties, time and
time again handing the game to Michigan's power play. To his
credit, referee Steve Piotrowski kept calling them. Pi had a great
game, and not because most of the calls went in Michigan's favor.
He set the tone immediately by calling an interference penalty on
each team within the games' first few shifts. The crackdown on
obstruction fouls throughout the game made it a test of skating,
and Michigan simply skated circles around UIC.
And, what does Larry Pedrie have against Paul Spencer? He left
Spencer in for all 12 goals. Ouch.
As for the tallies, there were too many pretty plays to describe,
and many more that didn't result in goals. UM defenseman and
Chicago area native Blake Sloan notched five assists. Matt Herr
had a hat trick while Jason Botterill and Dale Rominski each scored
twice. Freshman defenseman Bubba Berenzweig, also a Chicago area
product, notched his third goal. Bubba has been on a goal-every-
other-weekend pace since breaking Michigan's streak of 217
consecutive games without getting a goal from a player wearing #3.
(Michigan actually had a #3 dressed in 142 of those games.) In
celebration of Bubba's "hometown" twine tickler, we went to a
nearby ice cream parlor and had a Hubba-Bubba. (Five scoops of ice
cream and a bunch of other fattening stuff that will be around my
mid-section long after Bubba gets goal number four.)
Kevin Hilton has been snake-bit in the goal scoring department,
including twice failing to convert from point blank range versus
UIC, but his six assists on the weekend increased his lead in the
CCHA scoring race, both conference (five point lead) and overall
(three point lead).
UIC did have a few grade A scoring opportunities, including a pair
of unobstructed breakaways which were both turned aside by Turco,
but for the most part the pressure in this game was applied by the
Wolverines. UIC scoring leader Tony Kolozsy spent as much time in
the box (four or five minors) as he did on the ice, which didn't
help their cause. Gregg Malicke mopped up the final 20 minutes in
net for the Blue, finishing the third Turco(40)-Malicke(20) shutout
of the season and Michigan's sixth shutout overall. (Two by Turco,
one by Turco-Daddario.)
I asked for a Larry Pedrie bobbin'-head doll at the souvenir shop
and the woman looked at me like she didn't know who Larry Pedrie
was. It would be gratifying to wake up in the morning, pop Larry
on top of his noggin and watch his neck spring up and down. :-)
(I might prefer a Dave Poulin bobbin'-head, actually.)
As the Litin's mentioned, it was great to see UIC take JJ O'Connor
(the Chicago area youth paralyzed in a game earlier this season)
from the bench to the lockeroom and back to the bench each period.
Hopefully the collection boxes in the concourse were full by the
end of the evening. I really felt for JJ early in the second
period when Michigan's Jason Botterill was sent awkwardly in the
boards and lay somewhat motionless on the ice. That couldn't have
been easy for JJ to watch. After a minute and a half or two,
Botterill was back on his skates and able to make it to the UM
bench.
Now, some partially-biased plugs for Michigan defensemen following
a weekend in which the Blue allowed only one goal in two road
games. Everyone who knows me is aware that I think Steven Halko is
one of the finest defensemen in the country. Halko's resume
includes the following:
1992-93 Honorable Mention CCHA All-Rookie
1993-94 Honorable Mention All-CCHA
1993-94 third in voting for CCHA Defensive Defenseman of the Year
1994-95 Second Team All-CCHA
1994-95 CCHA Defensive Defenseman of the Year
Halko is once again quietly having a spectacular season. Is some
consideration for All-America honors unreasonable? (Statistical
note: Halko currently stands at +100 in his Michigan career.)
Junior Blake Sloan is also deserving of another step on the
recognition ladder. His resume includes:
1993-94 CCHA All-Rookie (leading vote getter among defensemen)
1994-95 Honorable Mention All-CCHA
This year, Sloan's 5-20--25 represents the highest totals in goals
and points for a Michigan defenseman since Patrick Neaton
registered 10-18--28 in 1992-93. In 22 CCHA games, Sloan has 4-18-
-22 and is +32. (He's +36 overall.)
Freshman Bubba Berenzweig is Michigan's only legitimate CCHA All-
Rookie candidate. Winger Greg Crozier is deserving of honorable
mention status, but there are others staking bigger claims to being
All-Rookie. If I had to pick an All-Rookie team right now, I'd
take the following (with CCHA stats):
TEAM GP G A PTS +/-
F Tony Kolozsy UIC 24 13 12 25 -6
F Randy Robitaille Miami 24 11 20 31 4
F Mike York MSU 24 10 18 28 10
D Bubba Berenzweig UM 24 3 4 7 12 0 PIM
D Chris Bogas MSU 24 0 15 15 20
G Marc Magliarditi WMU 24 17-5-2 2.18 92.0
UAF's Jeff Trembecky (11-9--20) is another forward worthy of
consideration. Other defensemen include:
TEAM GP G A PTS +/-
Joe Corvo WMU 25 2 10 12 10
Benoit Cotnoir UND 22 3 8 11 3
Dan Harrison OSU 21 4 10 14 -7
Jeff Kozakowski MSU 25 4 8 12 6
Bubba doesn't have the offensive numbers to match some of the
above, but he has shown tremendous improvement in his own zone and
has yet to take a penalty while playing solid defense and getting
plenty of ice time (he's Halko's partner) since day one. Bubba has
shown offensive flashes and has point-a-game potential in his
Michigan future. He might be challenging that this season if he
played in a system that asked for a greater offensive contribution
from the defensemen.
Lastly, I can't talk about Michigan's defense without mentioning
junior Harold Schock. The 5'9"-180 pound Sloan is Michigan's most
"rugged" defender, but the 5'10"-182 pound Schock isn't far behind.
Harold is somewhat of a folk hero in my section at Yost, and his
consistency speaks for itself:
YEAR GP G A PTS PIM +/-
1993-94 41 3 14 17 42 30
1994-95 37 2 16 18 42 29
1995-96 30 3 13 16 48 29
TOTALS 108 8 43 51 132 88
John H ([log in to unmask])
Don't look past Kevin Hilton when looking to Brendan Morrison and
Jason Botterill as All-CCHA, All-America and Hobey Baker Memorial
Award candidates among the Michigan forwards. And, yes, I *do*
work for a living. I typed this up at home last night. :-)
GO BLUE!
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
|
