MICHIGAN 3 Michigan State 0 (Friday) Very exciting/intense game. Ron Mason and MSU deserve a lot of credit. The Spartans hung tough all night with only four defenseman and eight or nine forwards. On the blueline, Tyler Harlton and Jeff Kozakowski played about 35 minutes with Chris Bogas and Chris Smith getting the other 25. And, I have to say, after seeing the Spartans three times in three weeks, Jeff Kozakowski is much better than Chris Bogas among MSU's highly touted pair of freshmen D's. Bogas has the offensive numbers (mostly assists), but he was routinely undressed by the Wolverines. (Goaltender Chad Alban routinely covered his butt.) Kozakowski logs more minutes and does the dirty work defensively, going relatively unnoticed. An injured Jon Gaskins and the punter from the football team (Salani?) were dressed as the third defensive pair, but I don't remember them taking a shift. Considering they had played BGSU the night before, the effort by MSU's four D's was admirable. Likewise, Chad Alban was stellar between the pipes. Anson Carter was also on the ice for almost 40 minutes...including a few three minutes shifts. Anson worked his butt off and won almost every faceoff before wearing down, but he showed very little offensively. Anson played most of every power play and penalty kill. MSU shut down UM's power play, but UM returned the favor including escaping a couple of 5-on-3 situations in the first period. Even with two 5-on-3's, MSU only mustered three shots on goal in the first. (Another three in the second and seven in the third.) The goals were very nice. John Madden knocked in a baseball backhand over Alban's shoulder for the winner late in the second. (It was disputed, but Madden's stick was well below the crossbar.) The second goal was a great three-way effort, started by Bobby Hayes. IMO, Hayes' deserved the first star purely on hustle. In this instance, there was a faceoff outside of the MSU zone. Hayes won the draw forward, picked up the puck and carried it deep into the MSU zone before dumping it back to Chris Frescoln at the left point. Frescoln uncoiled a blast that was intended for a re-direction. Mike Legg supplied the re-direction. Michigan's final goal came from Bill Muckalt into an empty net. However, it WASN'T an empty netter. Alban was trying to get to the bench when Muckalt outworked an MSU player for the puck near UM's blue line. To me, it didn't appear that Alban got back as quick as he could. Maybe he thought Muckalt wouldn't shoot so soon. But, seeing Alban returning home, Muckalt risked the icing and fired from behind the red line, cleanly burying it. All in all, an enjoyable college hockey game. Referee Steve Piotrowski did some whistle swallowing...hey, it is playoff time... but did OK for the most part. His two worst calls were split between the teams. In the first period, he called coincidentals on what was totally an MSU mugging of a UM player. In the second, he missed UM defenseman Chris Frescoln take out MSU forward Mike York with a high cross-check to the shoulder/chops. York looked to be badly injured, but eventually skated off and quickly returned to the game. Hats off to Michigan for getting a gritty, "must" win. Hats off to Michigan State for a smart game plan that was well executed. Given their short bench, previous night's play and hostile environment, MSU's monster defensive effort was what they need to leave Yost with a point or two. They weren't going to outgun Michigan. Had MSU gotten the first goal, the game would have been REAL interesting. (Btw...plenty of credit to Michigan's netminder Marty Turco as well. He didn't see a lot of action, by he made the key saves that had to be made. The game was 0-0 late into the second period and still 1-0 five minutes into the third.) My lone beef (there always has to be one, right?) is with the MSU fans. Make that AN MSU fan. Michigan's longtime traveling secretary recently passed away and was honored with a moment of silence prior to the game. Unfortunately, one classless MSU fan used the moment of silence as his personal stage for screaming "GO GREEN!" Go home. MICHIGAN 7 Bowling Green 5 (Saturday) The Wolverines tried to let this one slip away following a 7-2 lead early in the third period. Michigan carried the play for pretty much the entire evening, outshooting the Falcons 42-16. IMO, it appeared that *some* of the Falcons knew all too well that they were playing for the right to return to Yost next weekend. A BGSU win would have left Michigan in fourth place, and since the Falcons had already clinched fifth it would have meant BGSU@UM in the CCHA first round. I honestly think that some of the Falcons didn't care to win this one...and they almost did! Where was All-America defenseman Kelly Perrault? He was never in the game defensively, which isn't totally new, but he didn't show up offensively until UM had the comfortable(?) five goal lead. Perrault handed UM quality scoring chances shift after shift. If I were in net for BGSU, I think I would have cracked Perrault with my goal stick just hard enough to get him out of the game. Michigan had an outside shot at capturing the CCHA title outright with a victory and a Lake Superior loss or tie at Miami, which prompted a loud chorus of "LET'S GO, REDSKINS!" at Yost, but the 'Skins didn't oblige. However, I'm SICK of hearing that UM disappointingly has to settle for second. No way. Lake Superior and Michigan are CCHA co-champs! LSSU gets (and deserves) the #1 playoff seed for winning the head-to-head season series. But this doesn't end Michigan's streak. They've captured three straight CCHA regular season titles and four of the last five. For Lake Superior, it's their first regular season title since 1990-91. However, the Lakers have managed to sandwich two NCAA titles in there in the meantime! :-) (Btw...along with the #1 CCHA seed comes the pseudo-automatic NCAA bid for the Lakers.) Lastly, freshman defenseman Bubba Berenzweig tallied his fourth goal for the Wolverines on Saturday night. Unfortunately, unlike Chicago (where he notched goal #3), I'm not aware of a local Ann Arbor eatery that offers a Hubba Bubba on the menu. I'll be discussing the matter with a local restauranteur (sp?) soon. :-) John H ([log in to unmask]) GO BLUE! 1995-96 Co-Champs! HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to [log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.