First Commentary and then game statistics.
 
Disclaimer:  (These are unofficial and unsanctioned: I
and only I recorded these and am totally responsible for
any errors that may exist in the facts, the spelling of
names and the conclusions there from reached. In no way
does this commentary receive the official blessing or
support of the WCHA,  MTU, Bob {choose one} or my wife.
They are free to criticize me at any time and probably will.)
 
I am not certain how I want to characterize last night's  game.
MTU dominated the first period of play, had to penalty kill
the second period but still won the period, fell apart the
third and came to life and won the game in overtime.
It was a classic Chick Yackel called game. Folks who follow
the officiating in the WCHA will understand what I mean
without further embellishment.
 
The game started before the game. MTU's star goalie, Luciano
Caravaggio, has been diagnosed with "mono" and will miss
a minimum of three weeks and possibily the remainder of
the season. MTU's other two goalies, Pete Hamilton and Matt
Kucway, have a total of 29 minutes of play between them for
the season before this game. Travis Seale is still not able
to play because of a broken thumb suffered in stopping a
puck a few games ago. Brett Meyers has suffered a leg
injury in practice. Tim Harris pulled a hamstring. Thus MTU
is without several skill players entering the game.
 
Matt Kucway got the start in net. Boy, did he come through
when we needed him. After an evening of forty (some have
said 44) saves, I would say that this was the major surprise
of the game for MTU.
 
The first period was all MTU. Denver may or may not have
been on the ice although a fellow by the name of Gunther
did for jokes put a puck in our net.  Pat Mikesch and Brent
Peterson got a 2 on 1 breakaway after Brent intercepted
a errant pass. Pat took the feed from Brent and opened the
scoring with a shot over Mullin's glove side elbow at 3:44.
At 4:46, Denver reached the scoreboard on a powerplay goal
by Gunther who worked the puck of the wall and fired from
the point to beat Kucway along the ice on the glove.  MTU's
Liam Garvey, who hasn't played a lot this season due to
coaching decisions, fired a 98 MPH blast from the left wing
through Mullin's 5 hole. Fortunately, Jim Mullin wasn't in
the way or he might have been without a leg. Garvey is
reputed to have the hardest shot on the MTU team. Next Pat
Mikesch got his second goal on a powerplay effort at 14:31
when he put a 3rd rebound high over the blocker.  On the
next powerplay, Andre Savage fire a pin point pass to a
wide open and forgotten Randy Stevens at the right of the
net. Stevens put it into the open net as Mullin was still
on the opposite side.
 
In the 2nd, Garvey head manned a pass to Kryser who  gained
a breakway although a Denver player was on his back. Kryser
scored at 3:39.  This was too much for the Denver coach
who pulled Mullin and put in Walinheimo.  Denver then went
on to score at 5:00 on a powerplay when Hollingshead took
a pass across the slot and put the puck on the low left post.
Despite the constant penalty problems MTU had during the
2nd (they took 16 minutes of penalties in the 20 minute
period), MTU fended off Denver and scored again at 18:55
when Randy Stevens and Brent Peterson got a 2 on 1
breakaway.
 
The overuse of skill players in the 2nd period killing
penalties caught up with Tech in the 3rd as Tech seemed too
tired to take the puck away from Denver. As a result, the
period was played in MTU's zone with near disasterous
results. 28 seconds into the period, Elders backhanded a
shot under Kucway. Kucway fell on the puck. The officials
ruled it a score although Kucway claims the puck never
crossed the goal line.  At 9:26, after extreme pressure on
Tech, Ortiz got a back door goal when he moved from
behind the net and took an unexpected pass. At 2:17,
Walinheimo was pulled from the net giving Denver an extra
attacker.  This paid off at 18:09 when Elders beat Kucway
on the high glove side and at 19:03 when Elders again
flipped a puck over Kucway's stick. Elders got a third period
hat trick.
 
In the overtime, MTU realized that it had to dig deep and
did so. In five on five play, MTU outplayed Denver with
the exception of the 3rd period and demonstated
their skills in the overtime. Denver did not get a shot on
net. MTU finally ended the game at 3:40 when Pat Mikesch
completed a hat trick by collecting on a scrum in front
of Walinheimo after Walinheimo stopped a shot.
 
While MTU won, this is not the kind of game that I like.
There were far too many penalties called and the calls
were inconsistant, not only in penalties but also icing
and off sides. In one case, Walinheimo actually was holding
the puck after a save and several seconds of play when the
ref (this case Mark Thomas) decided the play was off sides.
In other cases, the play was clearly off sides and would not
be called. Same with icing. Players would quit skating on a
obvious icing call only to find that icing would be waved off
by the ref's for no reason. Yet, on other cases, a
puck would be touched in the appropriate neutral zone, and
be dumped in and get an icing call. Who is kidding who? I have
seen vast improvements in some of the WHCA official crews
(Buzzy Christiansen and Bob Ames, for example); others
continue to make the same mistakes game after game.
Many have said that the WCHA has the worst officiating
in hockey play today.  WCHA should take a lead from the
CCHA and go to a one man referee and a two man linesman
at least until they can improve the quality of the officiating.
 
The officials still are watching Prokopetz: he took ten
minutes worth of penalties. Fortunately, eight of those
minutes were also given to Denver, typically Jason's
friend, Paul Cook. It is hard to tell from radio if these are
penalties of action or reaction.  Hopefully, they were of
the former type and not the latter.
 
MTU now goes to 8-2-2 on the road and 13-10-3 overall.
 
MTU  4  2 0 1 - 7
DEN  1  1 4 0 - 6
 
Saves:
 
MTU Kucway  12  13  15  0  - 40
DEN Mullins     8    1
DEN Walinheimo    4     6  1 - 11
 
1st Period:
 
Scoring:
 
MTU P. Mikesch (B. Peterson, Stevens) 3:44
DEN  Gunther (McLean) 4:46 ppg
MTU  Garvey (unassisted) 9:58
MTU P. Mikesch (B. Peterson, Stevens) 14:31 ppg
MTU Stevens (Savage) 16:22 ppg
 
Penalties:
 
      MTU Roy interference 3:58
      DEN Elders hooking 5:40
      MTU Prokopetz 4 min rough 10:40
      MTU Perrett rough 10:40
      DEN McLean 4 min rough 10:40
      DEN Ortiz rough 10:40
      MTU Van Tighem high stick 11:33
      DEN Ritchie slashing 13:58
      DEN T. Smith roughing 16:22
      MTU Perrett crosscheck 18:03
      MTU Wright high stick 18:41
 
2nd Period:
 
MTU Kryser (Garvey) 3:39
DEN Hollingshead (Naylor, McMillan) 5:00 ppg
MTU B. Peterson (stenves, P. Mikesch) 18:55
 
Penalties:
 
     MTU Stevens high stick 4:12
     MTU Prokopetz  high stick 6:07
     MTU Prokopetz  roughing 6:07
     DEN Cook high stick 6:07
     DEN Cook roughing 6:07
     DEN Laaksonen holding 7:38
     MTU Dupont holding 7:38
     MTU Dupont roughing 7:38
     MTU Wright hooking 10:34
     DEN Cook hooking 13:08
     MTU Prokopetz charging 13:23
     MTU Perrett roughing 15:21
 
 
3rd Period:
 
DEN Elders (Ortiz, Ritchie) 00:28
DEN Ortiz( McMillan, Ritchie) 9:26
DEN Elder (Ritchie, Kennedy) 19:09 6 on 5
DEN Elder (Ortiz) 19:03 6 on 5
 
Penalties:
 
    MTU Jensen interference 3:47
    DEN Laaksonen high stick 4:57
    MTU K. Peterson roughing 13:05
    DEN Hollingshead roughing 13:05
    DEN Anderson roughing 14:33
    MTU Savage cross check 14:33
 
Overtime:
 
MTU P. Mikesch (B. Peterson, Wright)
 
Powerplay Efficiency:
 
MTU 2 for 5
DEN 2 for 10
 
Stars:
 
3rd: MTU Kucway
2nd: DEN Elders
1st: MTU P. Mikesch
 
 
Walt Olson
MTU