Roger has pretty muched covered the Friday night action, but I'll add
a couple of comments.  Michigan did look good early and bad late, but
I'm not as optimistic as Roger is.  Michigan played well twice at LSSU
in November and were dominating in their 10-0 win over Western Michigan,
but haven't really shown up for the rest of the season.
 
Defenseman Aaron Ward, returning from a knee injury which had him miss
6 games, made his first and hopefully last appearance at right wing on
Friday.  Ward was a dominating defenseman as a freshman, an average
defenseman as a sophomore and is now a major headache as a junior.  The
defense has played better without him than with him, and he continues to
take one stupid penalty after another.  I hope that he's able to recover
from what has been a rough 15-18 months, because the 1990-91 Aaron Ward
could help bring this team to the top.
 
Friday's last shot that Roger spoke of rang of the post behind Shields at
about 20:00.5 -- i.e. it scared the hell out of me, but I don't think it
would have counted had it went in.
 
One final note -- At this point in the season, it looks as if Michigan
State forward Brian Smolinski is the cream of the CCHA.  He's the front
runner for CCHA Player Of The Year honors, and added to his already
impressive totals by hitting the net 4 times this weekend.  If Smolinski
continues to be the clear cut choice, I can only assume that Michigan's
David Oliver would then be named POTY!  :-)  (Sorry, Dwayne Norris.)
 
John H
U Mich