The Northern Michigan University Wildcats clamped a ferocious defense on
the speedy Pioneers of Denver University Friday night at Marquette's
Lakeview Arena, and the result was a 4-1 WCHA victory.
 
The 'Cats concentrated in particular on the Pioneers' league-leading
scorer Angelo Ricci, a sophomore center from Elgin, Illinois.  Ricci
showed why he attracted the attention early in the game when he got away
in a 4-on-4 situation, taking a short outlet pass from Denver goalie
Bryan Schoen in his own zone and skating all the way down the left side
of the rink with the puck before firing a low hard shot from the left
point area which NMU goalie Corwin Saurdiff couldn't prevent going by
his left leg.  The goal gave Denver a 1-0 lead at the 10:36 mark of the
first period.
 
However, Wildcat coach Rick Comley had assigned sophomore center Bill
MacGillivray to shadow Ricci, and MacGillivray completely shut down the
Denver star for the rest of the game.  I'm not sure, but both Rick
Comley (according to his postgame interview remarks) and I don't think
Ricci got off another shot.  It was a physical game, as had been
predicted by Wildcat Dave Huettl at the Blue Line luncheon yesterday;
Denver's speed is well known, and the Wildcats had known that they
needed to counter that with close defensive work.
 
Speaking of the luncheon, featured speaker Pioneer coach Frank Serratore
had the large crowd roaring with laughter several times.  He has a
future as a stand-up, if he ever tires of coaching.  One of his better
lines (especially for this crowd, of course) involved his behavior at
the Pioneers' last game in Marquette last year.  Serratore said a power
play came up, " . and I saw Drake,(Beattie, et al) heading over the
boards, and I just dropped my head down and closed my eyes.  One of my
assistants thought there was something wrong with me and asked if I was
OK . . I just said, 'Just tell me when it's over!'."  Serratore also
talked about the fact that the Colorado College program refused to share
its NMU game films with Denver (I have the feeling from comments at the
luncheon and later that CC coach Brad Butenow is not a big favorite
around the leage).  Said Serratore, "Heck, I love it!  For the first
time since I've been here we have teams asking for our films.  I say 'No
problem--we'll Fed Ex them on our number!' What a change!"  Denver's
first-place tie with Wisconsin coming in to the weekend was the subject
of much talk.
 
Back to the game.  The Wildcats evened the score at 16:36 of the first
when they executed a beautiful play.  Brent Riplinger moved up ice and
passed to Karson Kaebel as he was moving across the Denver blue line
down the right side.  Schoen moved to his left to face Kaebel, who slid
a perfect pass across to the slot to Don Ruoho who drilled it over the
goalie's right shoulder.
 
At 7:39 of the second period the Wildcats took advantage of a
five-minute power play opportunity created when a Pioneer smashed Steve
Woog into the boards and was called for checking from behind.  It took a
while, about three minutes of the penalty, but finally a hard shot by
Bryan Ganz following a feed from Riplinger was blocked by Schoen.  The
puck trickled through Schoen's pads and came out behind him in the
crease, where ever-opportunistic freshman forward Kyuin Shim who had sta
stationed himself, as usual, just to the goalies left, tapped it in for
the score.
 
The 2-1 score was maintained throughout the remainder of the second
period and most of the third, but there was a lot of exciting play.
Steve Woog came as close as you possibly can to making it 3-1 right at
the end of the second; he broke in on Schoen from the goalie's left
in the final seconds and let go a slap shot which saw the puck buried
in the net to Schoen's right.  However, the buzzer sounded and the
goal light turned green before the goal was scored.  A friend of mine
who was present commented, "We need goal judges with quicker reflexes;
or maybe some with more anticipation!" ;-)
 
At
15:19 the Wildcats got the pivotal fourth goal of the game for an im-
portant 3-1 lead.  That goal was a carbon copy of the first scored by
NMU, but was produced by a different set of players.  This time it was
Chad Dameworth passing to Kory Karlander at midice, with Korlander
taking it down the right side and passing off to Scott Smith who was
unmolested coming down the middle and flicked the puck past Schoen's
right side.
 
Serratore pulled Schoen with about 2:30 left, but the extra attacker
did not make a distance.  The missing goalie did, however, as Steve
Woog scored on the empty net at 19:28 to finish off the scoring.
Although it was an ENG, it was still a nice effort by Woog, who was
closely covered by a Pioneer and had a very small slice of the goal
as a target; he made the shot from about twenty feet out on the right.
 
Woog's goal was especially nice since his father Doug took advantage
of Minnesota's weekend off to come to Marquette and watch his son
play.  Doug was interviewed on the postgame radio show, and it was
neat to listen to another coach's perspective on a game.
 
Rick Comley was quoted in the Mining Journal as saying "We had a good,
solid effort tonight.  I think the two teams matched up real well.
They're definitely the fastest team we've played this year.  But, we
didn't give them any superior situations for them to take advantage
of.  I thought that MacGillivray did an excellent job playing against
Ricci."
 
Serratore evidently continued his humorous act during the postgame
inteview with the Mining Journal; he was quoted as saying, "Northern
accomplished their goals this evening.  They did a good job of
nullifying our speed.  This is the first time in three years that
Northern has had to check us, so we must be improving."
 
Both defenses did a good job; Saurdiff only had to make 19 saves
(although several were big-time, especially one on a short breakaway)
and Schoen turned back just 16.  As Comley noted in the radio postgame,
"We only got 20 shots on goal, but we got some quality ones."
 
Despite the physical play (by both teams, I might add), only eleven
penalties were called in the game, and there were only four power
play opportunities for each team (NMU, 1/4; DU, 0/4).
 
Signing off to listen to the continuing broadcast of the Wildcat
volleyball team's drive for the NCCA II national championship in
Portland!  (We're up 2-1 in the best-of-five quarterfinal, against
Northern Colorado!!!)
 
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                     *      Steve Christopher, NMU       *
                    *  More than Division I Hockey -      *
                   * First NCAA II Team to Ever Have Four *
                    * First Team Volleyball All Amerians! *
                     *        [log in to unmask]         *
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