Some info and some venting... STATUS OF JOHN MADDEN FOR MAINE A thank you to Jeff W for stepping in and clearing up any confusion. To my knowledge, Madden was assessed a game misconduct on Saturday, not a game disqualification. However, as Brad pointed out, THE MICHIGAN DAILY has Madden as being out for the Maine game. Again, to my knowledge, this is not the case. Madden is eligible to play versus Maine on Thursday. And shame on you, Brad, for paying attention to the DAILY. :-) They made more mistakes in their hockey coverage than UM did on the ice, and that was DAMN hard to do this weekend. FORWARD SITUATION FOR MAINE It's fairly clear that Brendan Morrison (knee injury) isn't available this week. It's absolutely clear that Matt Herr (DQ on Saturday) isn't available this week. That leaves UM with 12 forwards for the Maine game, assuming Justin Clark is in the lineup. I don't believe that Clark, a freshman yet to make his debut, is 100% healthy...but he's close. If Clark isn't in the lineup, I assume that Michigan would dress 7 defensemen, 2 of which (Chris Fox and Mark Sakala) have some experience at forward, as opposed to dressing a walk-on as the 12th forward. (That said, see comments on the defense below.) WHAT HAPPENED ON FRIDAY (WMU 7 at UM 2) Not only did Western Michigan outplay the Wolverines in every aspect of the game in their CCHA opener, but it was the weakest performance I've ever witnessed from a Michigan team. I was so upset with the lack of effort by some of the Wolverines that I left Yost Arena before the game ended. You can point fingers at several members of the Blue, but the one that really caught my eye was defenseman Mark Sakala. He didn't play the game in full health, which is the only thing keeping me from saying that I never hope to see him in a Michigan uniform again. His lack of effort left me speechless. I purposely didn't access Hockey-L on Friday night because I felt that I would say something I would come to regret, but it's now 60+ hours later and I'm still fuming mad at Sakala's performance. Most of the Wolverines had bad games, but I did see effort in *some* of them. WHAT HAPPENED ON SATURDAY (UM 3 at WMU 2) Mark Magliarditi cemented his selection to the CCHA All- Rookie team in goal, and established himself as a front- runner for Rookie-of-the-Year. He made 31 saves in Friday's rout, then turned aside 42 on Saturday...keeping the Broncos in the game. Unlike the previous night, Michigan was the better team. The Blue outshot WMU, 45-21, but struggled to finish anything on Magliarditi. UM's power play was uncharacteristically anemic (1-12 on the weekend, 2-20 on the season), often not even producing a quality chance, but otherwise Magliarditi stood on his head and nearly sent Michigan home pointless on the weekend. He stopped 73 of 78 over the two-game set, and looked better than Brian Renfrew ever did between the pipes. Watch out for the Broncos...if this was a reasonable indication, they have the goaltending they need to get back to the NCAA tourney this season. As for the Blue, most of them played better than they did on Friday. (Sakala didn't dress on Saturday.) Blake Sloan was HUGE, including a pair of goals and rock solid defense throughout. I'd be remiss if I didn't add that fourth line forward John Arnold was the only UMer that worked his butt off in both games. Hopefully, come late March, I'll be able to look back at this weekend and chuckle. John H - U Mich (2-1-0/1-1-0 CCHA) HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.