Michigan (34-9-3) 0 0 1 - 1
Boston University (26-10-2) 3 0 1 - 4
BU completely dominated an obviously intimidated Michigan team in the
first period tonight, opening up a 3-0 lead on route to a 4-1 win, giving
the Terriers a 1-0 lead in their best-of-three series. While the second
and third periods were played pretty evenly after Michigan got their
jitters out, it was the first period that cost them. Tomorrow night's
second game should be a good one.
Walter Brown Arena had an SRO crowd tonight and it will be the same
tomorrow. Officials were the same as last week's UAA-BC series:
referee Shepherd from the WCHA and Demers & Earle from the ECAC.
Goalies were Scott Cashman for BU and backup Chris "Flash" Gordon for UM.
BU roared out right from the opening faceoff and simply outskated
the Wolverines for much of the period. A bad Michigan line change
with Aaron "Hospital" Ward in the penalty box helped BU get on the board
first at 7:04. After UM dumped the puck in, Cashman quickly sent it right
back to center ice, where Petteri Koskimaki redirected it to David
Tomlinson at the UM blue line. He went in alone and beat Gordon for his
27th goal, a PPG.
Next, there was a possible two-goal swing when Michigan couldn't capitalize
on a great chance, but BU came right back and did. Mike "Hamburger" Helber
stole the puck from BU's Scott Lachance and fed Denny Felsner, who shot
it over the crossbar. Then BU's David Sacco robbed Mark "Remember When"
Ouimet at the point, went in alone, faked and beat Gordon for his 18th goal
and a 2-0 lead at 12:15.
Just 1:39 later, there was another such two-goal swing. Felsner shot the
puck just wide, then BU's feared Red Line cranked up and blitzed their way
down the ice. Shawn McEachern carried the puck up the right wing and
passed in front to Keith Tkachuk, who knocked it by the diving Gordon for
#17 and a 3-0 lead. I thought Amonte was also in on the play, but he did
not get an assist. McEachern now has 32-45--77 on the year.
Michigan started to play more physical to slow down the quicker Terriers.
It worked for the rest of the game, as BU was held to only Tom Dion's
empty-netter with 39 seconds left. But the Wolverines themselves were
also unable to generate many scoring chances. BU outshot UM 16-6 in
the first period, but combined over the final two periods, UM had the
edge 15-14 (for the game, BU 31-20). UM broke the shutout with 2:44 left.
Coach Red Berenson had pulled Gordon with three minutes left down three
goals - interesting since I had read an article stating that the optimum
time to pull the goalie was with three minutes left in the game (contrary
to what usually happens). It paid off. David Roberts and Ouimet were
battling for the puck in front of Cashman, and Ouimet slid it over to Don
Stone who shot it by the Terrier goalie for his 21st goal. Gordon
returned to the net for about a minute and then came out again at about
18:14, but Dion nailed the empty-netter at 19:21.
Michigan needs to keep up the style it played over the final two periods,
especially their strong forecheck which gave BU a bit of trouble. The
Terriers appeared to be off to a rout early on, but when the real Michigan
team showed up, BU began to have more trouble pressuring Gordon. Both
goalies played pretty well, but I expect we'll still see UM's Shields and
BU's Bradley tomorrow.
Other notes:
Jack Parker spent the game in the BU radio booth. Kap suggested that he
should have done in-between period interviews that could have been picked
up in the BU locker room ("I really think we need to pressure the points a
little more, Bob..."). We didn't see him in the press box in between
periods, which made me wonder if he was disguising himself as the BU
Terrier and slipping into the locker room. Anyway, both Maine and BU
won tonight with their coaches suspended. Maybe this should happen
more often.
During the game, when the score of the Maine-Minnesota game was announced
with Maine ahead, there was a pretty good ovation given the Black Bears.
Not only that, Clarkson got a big cheer when it was announced they were
leading LSSU. I thought the Maine & Clarkson people would like to
know that. The only score that was booed was NMU over UAA; BU fans
were not about to root against any team which had just beaten BC!
The message that Adam mentioned from Parker to the BU fans in the Daily
Free Press was printed up and a copy was left on each seat in the arena.
It urged the fans to shun rude language while thanking them for their
support. To their credit, they abided by Parker's request, even when
BU was hit with a questionable delay of game call. That was the first
game I had been to in a while at BU where I did not hear the famous
"Bullsh*t" chant.
The Wolverines had a pretty good fan showing tonight. I'd guess the
crowd numbered about 4,000, with some 400-500 UM fans.
Michigan dressed only three seniors; their combined stats are 21-40--61.
Wow. No matter what they do this season, look out next year.
Congrats to Clarkson, Maine, BU, and NMU fans. Will three Eastern teams
make the Final Four for a second straight year? We'll know soon, maybe
in 24 hours.
- mike
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