The home team's attempted shot total is 72, the visitors' only 27.
Shots on goal show the home guys with 37 and the guests with 13. A
ho-hum laugher, right?
WRONG! The Northern Michigan University Wildcats and their fans had to
be thinking that the 'Cats' amazing home success at Lakeview Arena was
going to suffer a rare blemish Friday night when visiting University of
Minnesota-Duluth took an early 3-0 lead and held it until the final
minute of the second period. The Bulldogs still held the 3-1 lead with
the final period more than half over.
Then a quiet Lakeview Arena went from wakefulness to exuberance to
roaring ecstasy as the Wildcats scored three goals in the space of a
minute and thirty-five seconds and went from a 3-1 deficit to a 4-3
advantage at the 14:40 mark.
This score should probably be presented as "Northern Michigan 4, Taras
Lendzyk 3." The UMD goaltender was unbelievable, making many saves on
shots from point-blank range. It was hard to believe the score was 3-0
UMD at the end of the first period, with the saves being annonced as 6
for NMU's Paul Taylor and 16 for Lendzyk. The UMD goalie continued his
heroics in the second period, stopping 9 more Wildcat shots while Taylor
only had to deal with 5 from the Bulldogs.
Northern's attack was really excellent, but Lendzyk just stopped
everything until Steve Carpenter took a shot from the left wing faceoff
circle at 19:12 and it deflected off Kory Karlander's skate into the
goal. That probably gave the Wildcats a much-needed lift to take into
the locker room and then back out onto the ice for the final period.
Although the Bulldogs' attack was virtually nonexistent in comparison to
the Cats', UMD got three outstanding chances at Taylor in the first
period and made good on all of them. At 6:32 Joe Ciccarello slipped
behind the NMU defense and took a perfect pass from Hanson right in
front of Taylor; he slipped the puck past Paul's stick into the right
corner of the net. Less than four minutes later UMD's "big" line of
Chris Marinucci, Rusty Fitzgerald and Federenko got its first of two sco
scores. Federenko was wiped out on a huge check at midice, but got the
puck ahead to Miller, who slipped it to Marinucci walking in alone on
Taylor. He scored without great difficulty through the goalie's legs to
make it 2-0 at 10:07. Then at 17:24 UMD made it 3-0 when Fitzgerald
took a good pass from Marinucci and again got in alone one Taylor and
beat him for the final Bulldog score.
Between the usual Thanksgiving attrition in the crowd (although there
were more there than many expected; I'd say that of a paid crowd of
4,100+ there may have been about 3,500 present), the lack of the
Northern Sound Machine band (although the Gwinn High School Jazz Band
did a good job), and the early UMD lead, it was REAL quiet in Lakeview
until the third period, and things didn't start to approach seminormal
decibel levels until Brent Riplinger got the third period explosion
started at 13:05.
The Wildcats had failed to capitalize on a series of power play
opportunities, including a 47-second 5-on-3, at the end of the second
period and the beginning of the third. (Karlander's deflection of
Carpenter's shot for the first NMU goal occurred in a brief interval
between power plays.) They then withstood nearly four minutes of UMD
advantages midway through the first half of the third period. Finally,
during a sustained attack on the Bulldog net Greg Hadden took the puck
behind the UMD net and passed it out to Riplinger in the slot. Brent
lifted a nice wrist shot over Lendzyk to make it 3-2. Just 28 playing
seconds later in a similar situation Darcy Dallas and Hadden combined to
get the puck to Carpenter in a scrum out front and Steve's quick shot
lined past Lendzyk at waist level to tie the game at 13:33. Freshman
Dean Seymour capped the rally with his sixth goal of the season when he
got the puck in yet another scrimmage out front, missed on his first
attempt, spun around and fired again and got the low shot past Lendzyk.
At this point Bulldog coach Frank Sertich called a time out, and you can
imagine the sound level in the building.
The Bulldogs pulled Lendzyk for the final minute and had three faceoffs
in the Wildcat end, but Cats won all three faceoffs and Taylor was not
seriously tested during the six-man attack.
Wheweee! That was FUN!! And, a heartbreaking loss for the Bulldog fans,
of course. A whole chartered busload of them have come to Marquette for
the weekend.
You could tell from Rick Comley's postgame radio interview comments that
he was very pleased with his team's efforts. It also sounded like he
was begining to think the 'Cats might not ever solve Lendzyk, and was
extremely happy that they did. (Gee, what a surprise, right?!) ;-)
Can I take credit for the Wildcat win? As the third period was about to
begin I thought "I haven't had much of a look at any of the goals so
far." (My seats are in the end that NMU attacks in the first and third
periods.) "I want to see three goals this period, all right down here in
front of me!" Not bad, huh? :-)
It was really great to see nearly the entire Wildcat team healthy and
playing for the first time. Bryan Ganz, Riplinger, Carpenter, Chad
Damewoth are all back and in the thick of things. Only Steve Hamilton,
whose preseason injury has kept him out of everything still remains on
the sidelines.
Rematch at 7:00 EST tonight.
Power play opportunities: UMD 0/2; NMU 0/4
Penalties: UMD 6/20; NMU 3/6
Goalie saves: UMD, 33 (Lendzyk, 16-9-8); NMU, 10 (Taylor, 3-5-2)
Attendance: 4,109
**********************************************************************
* Steve Christopher, NMU [log in to unmask] - GO CATS! * * * * *
* NCAA Division I Hockey National Champions 1990-91 * "WE'VE * *
* NCAA Division I Hockey Final Eight 1991-92 * ONLY * *
* NCAA Division I Hockey Final Eight 1992-93 * JUST * *
* WCHA League Champions 1990-91 * BEGUN"* *
* WCHA Playoff Champions 1988-89/1990-91/1991-92 * * * * *
**********************************************************************
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