My impressions from Sunday night at the Joe. I have the official stats and will type in what I can tomorrow, if someone doesn't beat me to it. Game 1, Minnesota vs. Lake Superior LSSU dominated the first, opening up a 3-0 lead. UM had 4 shots on net and 3 came on their only power play of the period. Yes, 1 shot in 18 minutes. Two Laker tallies were PPGs. Freshman Brian Rolston faked UM goalie Jeff Stolp out of his jock and danced around him for the third Laker score. The first 17 minutes of the second belonged to the Gophers, but they could only muster 1 goal on superstar goalie Darrin Madeley. The Minnesota defense fell asleep a bit, however, and LSSU scored 2 goals in the last 2:07 to build a comfortable lead, 5-1. LSSU held the shot advantage 21-16. Lake Superior put it out of reach early in the third. Two goals in the first two minutes sealed it. Paul Constantin got his hat trick and Rolston got his second. UM kept working, and scored once more on Madeley and then once on back-up Blaine Lacher. Gopher's back-up Tom Newman also played. The shot totals ended up 30-28, Minnesota, so you could say goaltending was a big difference. The ref was Tim MacConaghy (who?) from the ECAC. Minnesota was 2/6 and LSSU 3/5 on the power play. Game 2, Michigan vs. Northern Michigan First, I must mention that John Gallagher was the ref and he calls EVERYTHING. NMU had 6 power plays in the first period alone. 29 total minors were called. Each team had a 4-on-3 and a 5-on-4 goal in the first and that was all the scoring. Short-handed great Joe Frederick netted a SHG breakaway goal, but Michigan scored on the same power play to again tie it. Then the Wildcat offense got moving and tallied 3 straight, with Scott Beattie, Jim Hiller and Frederick all getting their second goals of the game. UM G Steve Shields would have had trouble stopping a beach ball at this stage. But the turning point of the game was when David Roberts scored a PPG at 19:59.5 to cut the lead to 6-4. With some help from Gallagher (4 UM power plays in the period while only 1 for NMU) and Shields (11 saves), Michigan was able to come back. A 5-on-3 PPG early and a Denny Felsner top-shelfer at the halfway point tied it up. The game winner came when Mike Helber hit the short side on NMU goalie Corwin Saurdiff. Corwin had come out a bit too far and was caught leaning to his left to cover the passing lane to an open Wolverine. NMU ended up out-shooting the Blue 31 to 26 (on net) but Michigan led 57 to 50 on total shots attempted. UM was 5/12 with the man advantage while NMU was 2/9. The CCHA completes the weekend going 5-0 and advancing all 3 teams to Albany. Quite an improvement over the past 2 years, when ZERO CCHA teams made it to the semifinal round.