MICHIGAN 11 Notre Dame 1 (Saturday) UND sandwiched one unanswered goal around streaks of eight and three by UM. Although I can echo some of the worries recently posted by atwbartley@aol.com...e.g., how can Michigan avoid complacency, will they be ready to play a one-goal game the next time they're in one, etc...I have to say that I didn't find the game to be boring. I'll gladly see the Wolverines roll over the CCHA's second division. It helps keep the blood pressure a little lower and the finger nails a little longer. There are plenty of tight games still remaining on UM's schedule. Plus, it's a nice change of pace to see Michigan hammer the second division. En route to the CCHA regular season crown last year, UM's four losses all came at the hands of teams outside of the CCHA's phinal phour. (Losses to Ferris State, Illinois at Chicago, Miami and Notre Dame.) As for the game, the Irish looked like they abandoned their game plan before their bus pulled into Yost. The first period saw five Michigan goals and four Notre Dame shots. Kevin Hilton and Brendan Morrison fed Jason Botterill for a pair of PP tallies in the period. The trio is currently 1-2-3 in CCHA league scoring, all at over two points-per-game. Morrison also scored a pair of NHL caliber goals in the opening stanza. The first came unassisted when Notre Dame's All-Overrated Jamie Ling hit Morrison perfectly with a centering pass. Morrison then danced around Ling, a UND defenseman and finally goaltender Matt Eisler before depositing the puck in the net. His second goal was similarly an individual effort from the blueline in as he bobbed and weaved through the UND defense before tucking it shortside on Eisler. Un-B-leave- able. Morrison may not win the Hobey Baker, but I have to believe that he's the best player in college hockey today. Michigan's other first period goal was scored by Sean Ritchlin thanks to a beautifully placed cross-ice pass from Greg Crozier. Bubba Berenzweig drew the second assist, making it an all-freshman play in the scoring books. After 20 minutes, the outcome of the game had been determined. UND coach Dave Poulin replaced Eisler with Wade Salzman mid- way through the second period and it took Michigan all of eight seconds to add to Salzman's goals against total. It's obvious that the Irish will be MUCH easier to dislike under Poulin than they were under Ric Schafer. (A) Schafer was/is too damn charming (pleasant, witty, etc) to dislike. (B) The Irish were much less aggressive, in so far as committing penalties, under Schafer. In a nutshell, they were a bland team with an entertaining coach. I commented at the game that the most noticeable change in UND's strategy was the shift from "ice and change" to "hack and change." No, they weren't that bad...but their new aggressiveness was apparent. Continually putting Michigan on the power play is not a recipe for picking up points at Yost. Of Michigan's five first period goals, three came on the power play and one more was on a delayed penalty. I was also treated to a pair of "take out the guy that just touched my goaltender" plays, that I professed my appreciation for earlier. Michigan's Chris Frescoln didn't disappoint. After a UND player took a poke at UM's Marty Turco, Frescoln reached around from behind him, put his hand on his face and proceeded to yank him to the ground as if he were pulling the handle of a slot machine. The majority of the (UM) fans in my area were looking for five minutes. I couldn't figure out what major would be appropriate to call, so I would have given Frescoln a double-minor for roughing. As it was, he only went to the box for two minutes. Add a goal and an assist and this may have been the best game of Frescoln's career. Notre Dame's Brian Urick was the other "enforcer." He delivered a monster cross-check right across the numbers of a UM player (Bobby Hayes?), sending him sprawling into the net. Urick came so far across the ice to deliver the hit that he had to stop twice for fuel. In fact, I believe he went to the box for charging rather than cross-checking. Michigan wanted five minutes (and deserved five minutes), but got only two. Fair enough, UND deserved more than two for Frescoln's mugging. The question on everyone's mind (well, at least on mine) was, what happened to 8-foot tall UND senior defenseman Davide Dal Grande? UND's career leader in icing wasn't in the lineup and he wasn't on the roster listed in the game program. (He has appeared in 14 games this season.) He was "in the house" though, sitting in row 1 behind the Irish bench, obstructing the view of those sitting in rows 2-5. Btw...backup 'tender Gregg Malicke mopped up the final 20 minutes in the UM net. Malicke is still nursing a knee injury from earlier in the month, but looked good in stopping all eight shots he faced. He may have caught a break at the end as Notre Dame fluttered one off of his blocker and into the net as the game ended, but time had apparently expired. As soon as the puck went over Gregg's shoulder, I looked up and saw that beautiful green light behind the goal, so I knew he was safe. For everyone that remembers that I preferred Chris Gordon to Steve Shields, I also prefer Malicke to Turco. However, in this case I'd just like to see Malicke get more minutes. I'm also a Turco fan, and Marty's play has picked up in the second half. His goals against is primarily a product of the team in front of him, but his save percentage is steadily on the rise. Turco is 20-4-0 with a 2.09 and 89.3 going into Friday's action at Ohio State. He was 27-7-1 with a 2.76 and 89.4 last season. He looks to get his 50th career win in February of his sophomore season, and his 60th will hopefully arrive this year as well. Back to Malicke, he is 0-0-0 with a 0.91 and 95.0 in 132+ minutes. Unlike Gordon/Shields, when I simply felt that Gordon was hands down a better netminder than Shields, I'd like to see a balanced rotation of Malicke and Turco. But, if it ain't broken... Fwiw...the crowd favorite is third stringer Greg Daddario (5'6" and not yet shaving), who has stopped all three shots he's faced in 11+ minutes played. And, the Michigan crowd topped (or lowered) itself this weekend in the foul language department. At one point, a very loud (probably 1000 voices strong) chant of "F*** the Irish! F*** the Irish!" was emitted from the student side, filling the arena. I don't necessarily disagree with the sentiment, but it didn't need to be verbalized. Two opposable thumbs down. Obligatory statistical content (some already posted by Jeff Weiss): Congratulations to Western Michigan freshman netminder Marc Magliarditi for recording his fourth shutout in CCHA play, establishing a new conference single season record. I tabbed Magliarditi as CCHA Player of the Year for the first half of the season in a recent article. As much as I'd like to see Morrison (or Botterill or Hilton) dominate the scoring and receive PotY, I'd still have to give it to Mag at this point. I think it will be a two man race between he and Morrison at season's end. Also, after seeing him in person and reading of his play at LSSU this weekend, it's clear that Alaska Fairbanks' Ian Perkins is another CCHA freshman goaltender of note. I bet UAF fans would have enjoyed having Perkins during the Fedorchuk-Lester-MacMillan days, rather than Brian Fish and Larry Moberg. And, an update of Michigan's top two lines (overall): NAME POS YR GP G A PTS P/GP 1 Brendan Morrison C JR 18 18 29 47 2.61 1 Bill Muckalt RW SO 22 12 19 31 1.41 1 Jason Botterill LW JR 18 23 15 38 2.11 2 Kevin Hilton C SR 24 8 38 46 1.92 2 Warren Luhning RW JR 21 13 15 28 1.33 2 John Madden LW JR 24 17 18 35 1.46 Botterill has been on roughly a goal-a-period pace since returning from the WJC...13 goals in 5 games. Hilton is still a point ahead of Morrison in the CCHA scoring race (39 to 38) and the two of them are beginning to pull away from the field. Hilton gave a skating exhibition on Saturday as well, including toying (sorry, I can't think of a better description) with the Irish during one of UND's power play opportunities. Hilton carried the puck into the UND zone, then decided to kill some time rather than directly generate offense, so he skated out of the zone and began passing the puck back and forth with the UM defensemen. They (Hilton primarily) literally held the puck for about 30 seconds in a 4-on-5 situation. Lastly, and least...there's no quicker way to end a streak of solid officiating than by having Roger "Steffi" Graff in the house. Steffi doesn't know when to pay her taxes and Roger doesn't know when to blow his whistle. Oh well, if Matt Shegos (or Steve Piotrowski) worked every game I'd never learn to appreciate him/them. John H ([log in to unmask]) 20-4-0 overall / 15-3-0 CCHA HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.