Since Dave Fischer has posted the box for the game, I will not. MTU escaped UMD last night with a 3-3 tie. As UMD's Coach Mike Sertich commented at the Blue Line Luncheon earlier, UMD looks for ways to lose games. UMD outplayed MTU the first and second periods. But the third was MTU's. MTU also played the OT better although UMD looked etter during the last minute of play. In the first, UMD's Rybarmoved the puck in short of the left side of the crease on a powerplay. MTU was unable or unwilling to keep him out of the Grade A shot zone. At 11:59, Rybar took a wrist shot shot that beat Caravaggio to gain UMD's first score. While UMD basically played better than MTU in the first, MTU did have opportunities. Throughout the game, MTU was able to penetrate from outside the zone by skating past the left side of UMD's defense down on to the net. In each case, the MTU skater, typically Pat Mikesch, would take a 5 foot shot that Lendzyck would block and give up a nice juicy rebound that would sit about 10 feet out in the slot for about a second before a UMD player swept it aside. If MTU had a player to sweep down trailing Mikesch a sure rebound shot could have been made in each of the cases. MTU's young team has to learn that the play is not over on after the shot is made on net. Every play has to be followed up. Goalies in this league are just too good to be beaten by the first shot. The second was worse. UMD successfully clutched any MTU player who hesitated in the neutral zone. It would start with the MTU player being reluctant to cross the UMD blue line, typically on the side nearest the UMD bench. A UMD player would skate up to the MTU player and insert his stick into the play while grabbing or clutching with the other arm. This would further slow the MTU player thus allowing yet another UMD player to enter the play and ultimately cause a turnover. When MTU skated through the blue line without neutral zone hesitation, they played much better were usually more able to play offensive zone hockey. UMD's Ciccarello scored at 2:41 of the second when he redirected a Federenko shot from the left of Caravaggio. THis put MTU down by two. However, MTU's Randy Stevens drove into the slot and hammered a shot past Lendzyck at 8:17. THis motivated MTU for a short period but UMD's Brad Federenko overpowered MTU's defense at the the Tech net at 8:50 to remain the 2 point lead. MTU gave up on looking pretty and started to play hockey in the third period. [After the game, Coach Mancini joked that he threaten the players with having to listen to Bob Olson's WZRK radio telecast if they didn't play better. Someone at Dartmouth from this area will appreciate this joke.] Instead of making cute little passes, MTU started to hit a little harder, move to the net a little fiercer and cause Lendzyck a little bit of anxiety. At 8:30, Pat Mikesch would was aggressive all night finally beat Lendzyck from the right circle. Then on a powerplay, Randy Stevens took a pass from the point and scored from the right of the crease to gain the tying score at 14:59. MTU tried but could not put away the game as MTU's Harris was called for interference at 16:17 on a cheap call. The overtime was not spectacular. MTU play the first four minutes well but couldn't put enough pressure on UMD's goalie. The last minute was clearly in UMD's hand. The only real threatening shot was a Federenko blast that beat Caravaggio but was saved by the post in a rink reverberating "clunk" early in the OT. Tonight, we do it again. MTU is now 12-9-3 overall and 9-8-2 in the WCHA. The middle of the lead is so close that there only a handfull of points separating eight teams; thus every point gained or lost means a shift in the standings. Last night, we moved up to fourth with the hapless Gophers who lost to CC last night. I think we are a good third or fourth place team this year ... thus we need to keep winning to hold this position.