Well, it's Monday, so I've had a lot of time to cool off.
Unfortunately, I haven't.
 
MICHIGAN 3 Notre Dame 1 (Friday)
41:04 UM Botterill 24 (Morrison,Legg) pp
43:07 UM Berenzweig 6 (Bourke)
44:13 UND Dhadphale 5 (Simon,Borega)
53:44 UM Schock 4 (Morrison)
Saves:
  UND Eisler 20-13-11--44 (60:00)
  UM Turco 4-4-6--14 (60:00)
Attendance: 6478
 
Michigan could not solve the combination of Matt Eisler
(UND netminder) and John Kelly (CCHA referee).  Eisler
stood tall to all of the mild pressure UM could mount, and
he (or one of his defensemen) simply took the net off
whenever the pressure was more serious.  Kelly turned a
blind eye AT LEAST the first half dozen times.  He finally
made one call midway through the third period.  Shortly
thereafter, Brendan Morrison scored for UM but Eisler
had already dislodged the goal.  Kelly decided that one
call per game is enough.
 
Morrison's assist on Jason Botterill's goal was his 165th,
breaking Brian Wiseman's UM record.  Botterill quickly
retrieved the puck.  UND's goal was scored on a six-man
rush.  Yes, six-man rush.  No, they didn't pull their goaltender.
They simply added a sixth attacker.  You must remember,
this is the CCHA...and only a few of the linesmen can actually
count to seven.  Fwiw...it was nice to see Aniket Dhadphale
get the goal.  He's often a lone bright spot for the Irish.  He
isn't putting the puck in the net as often this year as he did
as a freshman in 1995-96, but he's still working hard.  He
did some tremendous penalty killing in the game, once
managing to singlehandedly tie up the puck in the UM zone
for a faceoff when three Wolverines were trying to move it
forward.
 
Michigan's final goal *looked* to be a deflection in front by
Botterill on Harold Schock's point shot, but apparently not.
 
Michigan outshot the Irish, 47-15.  A better indication of the
control of the game than the final score.
 
MICHIGAN 6 Notre Dame 1 (Saturday)
07:13 UM Morrison 22 (Herr,Legg) pp
18:36 UM Luhning 17 (Legg,Morrison) pp
19:35 UM Hayes 5 (Madden,Clark)
22:08 UM Legg 19 (Botterill,Luhning) pp
37:45 UM Morrison 23 (Madden,Legg) 4-on-3 pp
42:58 UM Herr 24 (Morrison,Peach)
47:18 UND Urick 13 (Hagkull,McCarthy)
Saves:
  UND Karr 12-13-8--33 (60:00)
  UM Malicke 7-4-4--15 (50:36) Daddario x-x-2--2 (9:24)
Attendance: 6590
 
Michigan took control early and coasted.  Morrison became
UM's all-time leading scorer (262 points) with his third period
assist on Matt Herr's goal.  The entire UM bench emptied onto
the ice to congratulate him.  I assumed this would be a delay
of game penalty, but apparently the zebras OK'ed it (in advance?).
 
John Edwards was the man wearing the orange armbands
on Saturday.  He was also wearing a half-shield.  As the game
went on, I came to realize that it really wasn't a half-shield...it
was one of those virtual reality games.  His body was skating
around Yost, but I think his mind was driving at Daytona.  He's
clueless, which put him one (small) step above Kelly on the
weekend.
 
Back to the game, Gregg Malicke earned his second win in
his third career start at UM (2-0-1) and Greg Daddario mopped
up, keeping his career-long shutout streak alive.
 
I assume Forrest Karr got the nod in the UND net because
Matt Eisler's shoulders were sore from repeatedly jamming
them into the underside of the crossbar on Friday.
 
WEEKEND CONCLUSIONS
Notre Dame was whistled for 28 minors.  Michigan was whistled
for 17 minors and one misconduct (on Botterill for pointing out to
Kelly that UND had AGAIN knocked the net off).  You would think
I'd be happy at the imbalance, but I'm not.  The officiating was
nothing short of terrible.  Several blatant calls were missed in both
directions...checks from behind, cross-checks, trips resulting in
scoring opportunities the other way.  Most noticeable was Kelly
and, to a lesser extent, Edwards allowing UND to continually take
their net off when Michigan mounted pressure in the offensive
zone.  It's hard to say which is a bigger embarrassment to the CCHA,
the officiating or Notre Dame.  I'll go with the officiating, because
it's a much more universal problem for the league's other nine teams.
 
What can I say about the Irish?  From what I can see, the only two
things Dave Poulin has taught his troops in two seasons at the helm
is how to f*ck around during faceoffs and how to take the net off
when the chips are down.  When done infrequently by a championship
team, this could be character or simply eccentric behavior.  When
done frequently by a piss-poor team it's simply being a punk.
Can you say, "club sport?"
 
 
John Haeussler ([log in to unmask])
Sure to not be making any new friends in South Bend (or the
CCHA office) with the above tirade.
 
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