The NMU Wildcats picked up four points on WCHA rival  St. Cloud State by
sweeping the visiting Huskies this weekend, completing the
accomplishment with a 6-2 win Saturday night.  The wins also allowed
Northern to gain 4 points on idle Michigan Tech, and NMU, SCSU and MTU
are now all tied for fourth place in the WCHA with 25 points.
 
The first period of last night's game featured lots of good defensive
play, including the goal tending.  In fact, the entire game was much
tighter defensively than Friday's 8-4 Wildcat win which featured 42
shots on goal by NMU.  In the rematch the 'Cats only had 23 SOGs, but
they made them count (and seemed to play somewhat protectively through a
good bit of the final period, which they entered with a 4-goal lead).
 
The crowd was larger and the hockey was even better than it had been the
previous night (Rick Comley admitted that his review of Friday's
videotape indicated the Wildcats had played better than he had thought,
with the exception of committing too many turnovers and major
penalties).
 
The first period featured lots of fast skating and few good offensive
chances, with the few that occurred being turned back by the goalies,
and in one case, the crossbar.  The Wildcats thought they'd scored late
in the period on a shelf shot by Bryan Ganz, but neither the goal judge
nor the referees saw the puck catch twine.  The TV replays were
inconclusive (and were reviewed at that point), as I can testify from
watching the game rebroadcast later.  The puck clearly hit the underside
of the crossbar; whether it came down in the scoring area was impossible
to see, and it bounced off Huskie goalie Grant Sjerven after being
deflected by the bar; the replay showed no movement whatsoever of the
net when the puck made contact.
 
However, just as had been the case the night before, NMU began scoring
quickly in the second period, and was up 4-0 by the eight-minute mark.
Ferris State transfer Justin George got his first goal as a Wildcat on a
great individual effort in front of the St. Cloud net; he was pushed
away from the goal by a Huskie and got off a backhand slider as he was
falling backwards that got by Sjerven's glove.  22 seconds later Mike
Harding found a loose puck by Sjerven's left skate after a pass from
Steve Carpenter and put it in for a 2-0 lead.  Less than three minutes
later Joe Frederick took the puck behind the Huskie net and stuffed a
wraparound past Sjerven's left leg.  A minute and nineteen seconds
later  Brent Riplinger     blasted a long slap shot from the right wing
point past Sjerven, who didn't even move until the puck was in the net.
After that the period settled down and there was no more scoring.
 
The third period saw a lot of penalties called, especially on the
Wildcats.  They did a lot of penalty-killing, and as usual did it very
well, as the scoring summary below indicates.  NMU has one of the best
penalty-killing records in the country, which, unfortunately,
"complements" what must be one of the worst power-play scoring records.
The Huskies opened the scoring in the third with their first goal, a ppg
by Fred Knipscheer, his only goal of the weekend, at 9:32.  NMU's Dan
Ruoho answered that at 9:55 with a screamer which glanced off the left
post and into the net.  Frederick completed the Wildcat scoring at 11:39
on a pretty breakaway which he finished by sliding the puck between
Sjerven's knees at 11:39.  Marc Gagnon of the Huskies finished all
scoring at 15:21 with an unassisted goal.
 
Corwin Saurdiff played in goal for NMU and was very impressive.  In
particular, he showed great concentration on the puck, following it
right into his glove or stick no matter how easy the save.  Saurdiff has
had problems in recent games with such plays, giving up a number of very
soft goals while making many difficult saves.  It was good to see him
play so well.  He really had no chance on either of the Huskies'
third-period goals, and it was a shame to see him lose the shutout.
 
Also deserving of comment is the defensive work of Troy Johnson, who
after the first period Friday night was assigned to shadow Knipscheer
for the rest of the series, and held him to one assist and one goal,
that a ppg.  (Evidently Comley felt for some reason that NMU's top line
of Johnson, Frederick and Hadden worked better against the Huskie's
Knipscheer line than did the Wildcat defensive line involving
MacGillivray.)
 
Frederick's weekend performance of six goals and eight points guaranteed
he will be on the dais for the Blue Line luncheon this Friday, as will
be Wisconsin coach Sauer; something Freddy's been hoping for ever since
Sauer's remarks last year about Wisconsin's lack of interest in
recruiting him to the Badger program.  In addition, the Wildcats, their
coaches and fans are talking a lot about the 9-2, 11-0 beatings the
Badgers dished out to them, and the associated comments that came with
them, in the season's second weekend in Madison.  Marquette is really
gearing up for the Badger series.
 
 
 **********************************************************************
 *  Steve Christopher, NMU  [log in to unmask]             * * * *    *
 *  NCAA Division I Hockey National Champions  1990-91   *   GO   *   *
 *  NCAA Division I Hockey Final Eight 1991-92           *        *
 *  WCHA League Champions 1990-91                        * 'CATS! *   *
 *  WCHA Playoff Champions 1988-89/1990-91/1991-92 . . .   * * * *    *
 **********************************************************************