Northern Michigan 7, Denver 3
 
This was a rather strange game.  From the perspective of Wildcat fans
inattendance Saturday evening at Lakeview Arena, the mood went from
eager anticipation to impatience, to gloom, to excitement, to final,
gleeful celebration.
 
The Wildcats' successful tactic of the previous evening had involved
assigning Bill MacGilivray to shadow league scoring leader Angelo Ricci
of the Pioneers.  On the very first shift Denver got control of the puck
after a brief NMU rush off the opening faceoff and moved into the
Wildcat zone.  Ricci shot down the left side ahead of MacGilivray, who
grabbed at him and brought him down.  Fifteen seconds into the game we
had an interference penalty as a result, and a Pioneer power play.
Twenty-two seconds later it was 1-0 Denver, and Ricci--naturally--was
the scorer.  Less than five minutes later the Pioneers scored on another
power play for a 2-0 lead.  The Wildcats provided some spark to the
crowd shortly thereafter by getting on the board with a Mike Harding
goal on yes, another power play--this one a 5-on-3 situation which NMU
capitalized on within seconds of the second penalty.  The first period
ended 2-1, Denver.  Actually, it felt like the 'Cats had dominated the
period after the early powe plays; most of the play was in the
Denver end.  But the Wildcats exhibited terrrible shooting skills and
despite numerous excellent opportunities put very few shots on the goal.
This was significant, since both Rick Comley in his postgame radio
interview, and Dave Siyak(?), the former NMU player doing the color
commentary on the tape-delay TV broadcast noted that the Pioneers'
freshman goalie Chris Burns looked vulnerable.  Burns went down on
almost every shot and gave up quite a few rebounds.
 
          Early in the second period the Pioneers took a 3-1 lead.  This
one made Wildcat goalie Corwin Saurdiff look rather bad.  While the
first two Denver goals involved rebounds and scrambles around the net
during power plays, the third one was put in by Denver's McLean past
Saurdiff's right shoulder, and he didn't seem to either be able to react
to it, or else see it.  (Although the TV replay didn't indicate any way
in which he might have been screened.)  About halfway through the second
period, however, the Wildcats completely took over the game.  The
results of their efforts were frustrated at first, as despite beginning
to pepper Burns and the goal area in general, they were credited with no
goals for a long time.  I put it that way because two NMU goals were
disallowed by the official, who had prematurely blown his whistle.
 
Finally, at 16:41 Jason Hehr capped off a 3-on-2 breakout with Greg
Hadden and Harding by faking Burns and putting in a nice waist-high
shot.  The real turning point came at the very end of the period.  The
'Cats were on a power play and set up one last time with five seconds
left; Hehr got th puck to Hadden down low on the goalie's left, and Greg
carefully slid it to Brent Riplinger right in front just in time for
Brent to slip it under Burns as time expired.  The goal was officially
scored as occurring at 20:00, and tied the score at 3-3.  Needless to sa
say, that brought the crowd to its feet in a roaring ovation as the
teams left the ice.  Comley was to say after the game, "That was a very
emotional goal.  It gave our team a lot of momentum.  It was almost like
an overtime goal."
 
The third period was the best, by far, Wildcat fans have seen in
Marquette this year from their team, and Comley said in the postgame
interview it was their best of the season.  The offensive pressure NMU
put on Denver was almost unbelievably intense.  Even short-handed
situations looked like Wildcat power plays.  The go-ahead goal was
scored by Harding early in the period, and three more followed.  Given
my recent remarks about cheap assists, I need to say about this goal
that the goalie Saurdiff was given an assist on this one, it was richly
deserved.  Denver had sent a clearing pass down the ice, and
anticipating an icing call went into a rather leisurely line change.
Saurdiff alertly stopped the puck before it could cross the goal line
and passed it half the length of the rink to Harding who thus was able
to break in on Burns without interference from most of the Pioneers. Dan
Ruoho made it 5-3 with a great individual effort at 5:38 as he got
control of the puck behind the Denver goal line, kept it while fighting
off several Pioneers as he skated behind the net, then stretched out and
stuffed a wraparound shot past Burns as he (Ruoho) was being knocked
down.  Geoff Simpson and MacGillivray scored the last two goals.  There
were several other excellent scoring opportunities as well; Burns did
make a large number of saves, and some shots went wide or high.
 
In this game the Wildcats shifted from assigning MacGillivray as Ricci's
constant shadow to making it whatever center was on the ice at the same
time as Angelo.  Ricci had more freedom of movement and got off more
shots, but following the initial goal which he scored and assisting on
the second Denver power play, he was not involved in any more scoring.
 
The result of the weekend sweep of Denver was Norhtern's record
improving to .500 in the WCHA, at 5-5-2.  They gained four points on
previously tied for the lead Denver over the weekend, and four on idle
Minnesota.  At this writing I don't know the result of the Saturday
Wisconsin-North Dakota game, but the Fighting Sioux Friday victory over
the Badgers means the 'Cats gained at least two points on them as well.
The WCHA standings are going to look tighter on Monday.
 
The four-game winning streak gives NMU some great momentum.  However,
they now go back on the road for four straight league games in Fargo and
Duluth.  Those will be real tests.  The good news is that Rick Comley
says Joe Frederick will probably play at Duluth.  The month ends for NMU
with participation in the Great Lakes Invitational, which we're looking
forward to watching on PASS.
 
Summary:
 
First period
 
1.  DU, Ricci (12) (Kenady, Koch) ppg, 0:37
 
2.  DU, Konawalchuk (5) (McMillan, Ricci) ppg, 6:11
 
3.  NMU, Harding (4) (Hehr, Carpenter) ppg, 7:23
 
Second period
 
4.  DU, McLean (2) (DeCorby, O'Leary)
 
5.  NMU, Hehr (2) (Hadden, Harding), 16:41
 
6.  NMU, Riplinger (5) (Harding, Hehr), ppg, 20:00
 
Third period
 
7.  NMU, Harding (5) (Carpenter, Saurdiff)
 
8.  NMU, Ruoho (5) (unassisted), 5:38
 
9.  NMU, Simpson (3) (unassisted)
 
10. NMU, MacGillivray (2) (Ganz, Simpson), 15:44
 
 
Power play opportunities: NMU 6, Du 5
 
Penalties: NMU 6, DU 7
 
Goalie saves: NMU, 22 (Saurdiff, 10-6-6); DU 34 (Burns, 6-13-15)
 
And the volleyball team won to advance to the Division II Final Four in
Portland as well!  Go 'Cats!!!
                      ***********************************
                     *      Steve Christopher, NMU       *
                    *  More than Division I Hockey -      *
                     First NCAA II Team to Ever Have Four *
                    * FIRST TEAM Volleyball All-Americans!*
                     *        [log in to unmask]         *
                      ***********************************