The Northern Michigan University Wildcats clamped a ferocious defense on the speedy Pioneers of Denver University Friday night at Marquette's Lakeview Arena, and the result was a 4-1 WCHA victory. The 'Cats concentrated in particular on the Pioneers' league-leading scorer Angelo Ricci, a sophomore center from Elgin, Illinois. Ricci showed why he attracted the attention early in the game when he got away in a 4-on-4 situation, taking a short outlet pass from Denver goalie Bryan Schoen in his own zone and skating all the way down the left side of the rink with the puck before firing a low hard shot from the left point area which NMU goalie Corwin Saurdiff couldn't prevent going by his left leg. The goal gave Denver a 1-0 lead at the 10:36 mark of the first period. However, Wildcat coach Rick Comley had assigned sophomore center Bill MacGillivray to shadow Ricci, and MacGillivray completely shut down the Denver star for the rest of the game. I'm not sure, but both Rick Comley (according to his postgame interview remarks) and I don't think Ricci got off another shot. It was a physical game, as had been predicted by Wildcat Dave Huettl at the Blue Line luncheon yesterday; Denver's speed is well known, and the Wildcats had known that they needed to counter that with close defensive work. Speaking of the luncheon, featured speaker Pioneer coach Frank Serratore had the large crowd roaring with laughter several times. He has a future as a stand-up, if he ever tires of coaching. One of his better lines (especially for this crowd, of course) involved his behavior at the Pioneers' last game in Marquette last year. Serratore said a power play came up, " . and I saw Drake,(Beattie, et al) heading over the boards, and I just dropped my head down and closed my eyes. One of my assistants thought there was something wrong with me and asked if I was OK . . I just said, 'Just tell me when it's over!'." Serratore also talked about the fact that the Colorado College program refused to share its NMU game films with Denver (I have the feeling from comments at the luncheon and later that CC coach Brad Butenow is not a big favorite around the leage). Said Serratore, "Heck, I love it! For the first time since I've been here we have teams asking for our films. I say 'No problem--we'll Fed Ex them on our number!' What a change!" Denver's first-place tie with Wisconsin coming in to the weekend was the subject of much talk. Back to the game. The Wildcats evened the score at 16:36 of the first when they executed a beautiful play. Brent Riplinger moved up ice and passed to Karson Kaebel as he was moving across the Denver blue line down the right side. Schoen moved to his left to face Kaebel, who slid a perfect pass across to the slot to Don Ruoho who drilled it over the goalie's right shoulder. At 7:39 of the second period the Wildcats took advantage of a five-minute power play opportunity created when a Pioneer smashed Steve Woog into the boards and was called for checking from behind. It took a while, about three minutes of the penalty, but finally a hard shot by Bryan Ganz following a feed from Riplinger was blocked by Schoen. The puck trickled through Schoen's pads and came out behind him in the crease, where ever-opportunistic freshman forward Kyuin Shim who had sta stationed himself, as usual, just to the goalies left, tapped it in for the score. The 2-1 score was maintained throughout the remainder of the second period and most of the third, but there was a lot of exciting play. Steve Woog came as close as you possibly can to making it 3-1 right at the end of the second; he broke in on Schoen from the goalie's left in the final seconds and let go a slap shot which saw the puck buried in the net to Schoen's right. However, the buzzer sounded and the goal light turned green before the goal was scored. A friend of mine who was present commented, "We need goal judges with quicker reflexes; or maybe some with more anticipation!" ;-) At 15:19 the Wildcats got the pivotal fourth goal of the game for an im- portant 3-1 lead. That goal was a carbon copy of the first scored by NMU, but was produced by a different set of players. This time it was Chad Dameworth passing to Kory Karlander at midice, with Korlander taking it down the right side and passing off to Scott Smith who was unmolested coming down the middle and flicked the puck past Schoen's right side. Serratore pulled Schoen with about 2:30 left, but the extra attacker did not make a distance. The missing goalie did, however, as Steve Woog scored on the empty net at 19:28 to finish off the scoring. Although it was an ENG, it was still a nice effort by Woog, who was closely covered by a Pioneer and had a very small slice of the goal as a target; he made the shot from about twenty feet out on the right. Woog's goal was especially nice since his father Doug took advantage of Minnesota's weekend off to come to Marquette and watch his son play. Doug was interviewed on the postgame radio show, and it was neat to listen to another coach's perspective on a game. Rick Comley was quoted in the Mining Journal as saying "We had a good, solid effort tonight. I think the two teams matched up real well. They're definitely the fastest team we've played this year. But, we didn't give them any superior situations for them to take advantage of. I thought that MacGillivray did an excellent job playing against Ricci." Serratore evidently continued his humorous act during the postgame inteview with the Mining Journal; he was quoted as saying, "Northern accomplished their goals this evening. They did a good job of nullifying our speed. This is the first time in three years that Northern has had to check us, so we must be improving." Both defenses did a good job; Saurdiff only had to make 19 saves (although several were big-time, especially one on a short breakaway) and Schoen turned back just 16. As Comley noted in the radio postgame, "We only got 20 shots on goal, but we got some quality ones." Despite the physical play (by both teams, I might add), only eleven penalties were called in the game, and there were only four power play opportunities for each team (NMU, 1/4; DU, 0/4). Signing off to listen to the continuing broadcast of the Wildcat volleyball team's drive for the NCCA II national championship in Portland! (We're up 2-1 in the best-of-five quarterfinal, against Northern Colorado!!!) *********************************** * Steve Christopher, NMU * * More than Division I Hockey - * * First NCAA II Team to Ever Have Four * * First Team Volleyball All Amerians! * * [log in to unmask] * ***********************************