WOLVERINES ESCAPE THE SOO WITH 4-3 WIN
Oct. 22, 2004

It wasn't pretty, but it's a victory nonetheless.

Michigan opened their CCHA schedule on the road at Lake Superior State and
escaped with a 4-3 comeback victory. The Lakers blew a pair of two-goal
leads as the Wolverines rallied with three second-period goals and Milan
Gajic scored the game-winner 5:20 into the third period.

The Lakers struck with a pair of quick goals in the opening stanza. On the
power play, Jeff Rainville fed a pass to Steve McJannet between the
circles, and he sent a one-timer five-hole on U-M goalie Al Montoya. From
my angle on the far sidelines, it appeared that McJannet got the puck with
the heel of his stick and sent Montoya a change-up rather than a fastball.

LSSU went ahead 2-0 just 46 seconds later when the Lakers threw the puck in
front of Montoya, several players skated through the slot whacking at the
puck, and it ended up on the stick of Jon Booras all alone in front and he
put it top shelf on Montoya. Definitely not Montoya's fault on this one as
the defense just had a total breakdown and couldn't clear the puck and
someone missed their assignment covering Booras as there wasn't anybody
near him when he got the puck.

The Wolverines would start their comeback early in the second period. With
a two-man advantage, Andrew Ebbett sent a pass through the slot to David
Moss for the slam dunk to make it 2-1.

The Lakers would return the favor at the midway point of the period on the
power play. Deker Smith sent a weak shot from the top of the left circle
that appeared to go through the left arm of Montoya. Not sure if Montoya
was screened on the shot, but juding by his reaction it seemed like it was
another one he should have had.

A few minutes later the Wolverines appeared to have a goal only for it to
be waived off. A scramble in front of the net saw players whacking at the
puck until the whistle blew and referee Brett Klosowski skated in behind
the net pointing down as if he was signaling the puck was in the net. The
goal light never came on. He talked with the linesmen, then made a quick
phone call upstairs. There's video replay in the CCHA now? The call
lasted about two seconds, then after a length explanation to captain Eric
Nystrom Klosowski waived off the goal.

Regardless, just a minute later with 5:24 remaining in the second period
and playing 4-on-4, Kevin Porter whistled a wrist shot from the right
circle past LSSU goalie Jeff Jakaitis to cut the lead to one goal.

Then with 1:32 left in the period and on the power play, Ebbett came out
from behind the net and fed a pass to Brandon Kaleniecki, who knocked the
puck just over the goal line to tie the contest.

In the third period and on the power play yet again, Gajic took a pass
between the circles from T.J. Hensick and absolutely ripped a one-timer
past Lakers goalie Matt Violin to put U-M ahead.

Montoya made a couple of key third period saves as the Wolverines hung on
and escaped Sault Ste. Marie with a 4-3 win.

Montoya finished the contest with 18 saves. Jakaitis played the first two
periods and stopped 32 shots for the Lakers. Violin played the third
period and made 10 saves. No idea why the Lakers switched
goalies. Jakaitis was playing a great game, and with the game tied 3-3
heading into the final 20 minutes, it made no sense to me to just throw in
the back-up goalie.

Other notes and observations...

On top of the softies he keeps letting in, the other aspect of Montoya that
scared me tonight was his puckhandling. He got caught behind the net a few
times and several other times he seemed to just give it a weak flip against
the boards rather than firing it around. A few times the Lakers managed to
block the weak flip and cause a turnover. Montoya certainly loves to come
out of net like Marty Turco, but he isn't exactly handling the puck like
Marty used to.

Jason Ryznar, as others have talked about, is becoming a force out
there. He's got some speed and was wheeling around there on offense and
defense, muscling his way past defensemen while carrying the puck into the
zone, and hustling back defensively and using his long reach to his
advantage. Freshman Kevin Porter also continued to impress on both ends of
the ice, hustling back in the third period to make a key defensive stop.

This team has a lot of guys who can dance with the puck. Gajic, Hensick,
and Ebbett all showed some great stickwork with the puck. And Jeff
Tambellini was just flying out there. At one point he made two laps around
the LSSU zone while carrying the puck and weaving past everyone. He
managed to skate in and around the LSSU zone, fire a shot, get his own
rebound, and skate another circle around the zone carrying the puck and get
off another shot. He finished with 10 shots on goal.

The talent of this team is obviously there, however right now it seems like
it's only there when they want it to be there. The Lakers did a great job
of keeping the majority of U-M's shots from the perimeter during the first
period and a half, and it just wasn't looking good for the Wolverines. It
wasn't until Michigan started playing more down and dirty in the slot that
they finally got some results. After Gajic's goal in the third period, U-M
was simply buzzing in the LSSU zone. You could visibly tell they picked up
the pace and their game play. But this Wolverine team is too talented to
not be showing that type of intensity all game and dominating a team like
LSSU (not to knock the Lakers too much because they did play a solid game
and almost steal it). Hopefully sooner or later they'll get it all together.

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That's all for now...

Go Blue!

Jason
Michigan Hockey Net
http://MichiganHockey.net/