WOLVERINES SWEEP WESTERN WITH WILD 6-5 WIN

How do you follow up a wild 6-4 Friday night victory at Yost Ice
Arena? With an even wilder 6-5 win at Lawson Ice Arena for Blackout Saturday.

Brandon Kaleniecki completed the hat trick with a power play goal with 53
seconds left in regulation as Michigan escapes Kalamazoo with a 6-5 victory
and sweeps Western Michigan. Couple with an Ohio State loss, U-M extends
their CCHA lead to five points over the Buckeyes and nine points above
third place Nebraska-Omaha.

U-M goalie Al Montoya was huge in net, literally down to the last second of
regulation. With their goalie pulled following Kaleniecki's goal, Western
put on the pressure for the last minute of play. A scramble in front of
the net saw the puck passed through the crease and Montoya stretching the
left pad and glove to stone the Broncos slam dunk attempt with one second
left. The score doesn't do justice the game Montoya played tonight.

The Broncos got off to a fast start again when Mike Lesperance circled in
to the right corner and threw the puck out front to Ryan Mahrle, and he
kept jamming away at it until he beat Montoya for at 4:11.

Milan Gajic evened the game at 6:54 on the power play. T.J. Hensick
carried the puck in to the Western zone and threw a shot on net from the
right circle that went off the skate of Mahrle to Gajic at the left circle,
and he quickly fired a shot that beat Broncos goalie Dan Bellissimo on the
shortside post.

But big brother Vince Bellissimo would put Western back ahead with a power
play later in the first. Pat Dwyer skated in along the left side of the
U-M zone, threw a centering pass that went past a Wolverine and Bronco tied
up in front of Montoya, but found Bellissimo trailing in late and
undefended, and he had a wide open net to beat Montoya.

Fast forward to the back half of the second period, when things really
start to get interesting. The Wolverines would smell blood and score four
times in a 2:53 span.

With 8:49 remaining in the period, David Moss set up Kaleniecki between the
circles, and he blasted a one-timer that deflected off Western forward
Trevor Cooke and past Bellissimo.

Shortly after the faceoff, Western would get a four-on-two rush which saw
Montoya make a great save from point blank range. The puck popped out and
racing down ice was Jeff Tambellini along with Chad Kolarik for a
two-on-one break. Tambellini passed across the slot to Kolarik, and the
puck initially went off his stick straight up in the air and Kolarik batted
it out of mid-air and the puck bounced past Bellissimo just 44 seconds later.

Then with 6:22 left, Moss split the defenders at the Western blue line
despite getting hooked, lost control of the puck but regained it in the
corner, and sent a pass to Kaleniecki all alone in front, and he banged it
in to make it 4-2.

Then 27 seconds later, Chad Kolarik won a faceoff in the Western zone back
to Nick Martens, who sent the puck across to Tambellini, and he ripped a
one-timer top shelf to make it 5-2. It was like the old days of watching
Bill Muckalt rip one off the draw.

But as has happened so many times at Western, this game wasn't over by a
long shot.

About a minute later Montoya came up with a huge breakaway save on Daryl
Moore. But with 48 seconds left, Moore would return the favor on
Tambellini's goal by winning a faceoff in the U-M zone back to Jonathan
Lupa, who wrist a shot past Montoya that he never saw.

Just before the ensuing faceoff, Andrew Ebbett would take a stupid penalty
for cross-checking Vince Bellissimo. As the two were coming together for
the puck drop, Ebbett for no good reason put his stick up and hit Vince
below the chops. The Wolverines would pay the price for that penalty, too,
as Mike Erickson took a feed while cutting towards the net unguarded and
beat Montoya with two seconds left in the period to make it 5-4 and pump
new life in to the Broncos.

After Erickson's goal, tempers flared and Montoya put Daryl Moore in a
headlock, while Matt Hunwick absolutely decked Pat Dwyer. The two were
battling in the corner before the goal and Dwyer turned towards Hunwick
while celebrating and paid the price for it. Fox Sports Detroit had Dwyer
wearing a mic and it sounded something like this after the goal... Dwyer:
"Woo hoo hoo hoooo! <THUD>" Both teams received a few penalties which all
offset.

In the third period, Western thought they had tied the game at 6:47 when
Nathan Ansell's shot from the right dot went in under Montoya's pad and in
the net, but Paul Szczechura standing in the middle of the crease and the
goal was waived off.

But the Broncos would get it back and tie the game with 7:43 remaining in
regulation on the power play. Brent Walton threw the puck towards the
crease from the corner and it deflected across to Jim McNamara and an open
net. Montoya dove and got a piece of the puck, but it wasn't enough to
stop it from going in.

Then with just under 2:30 left, the Broncos would take a tripping penalty
and with 53 seconds remaining Kaleniecki would slam dunk a pass through the
crease from Milan Gajic. It was actually a broken play as Gajic fanned on
a pass from T.J. Hensick at the left hash marks, but the puck still slid
under a sliding Bellissimo. Gajic regained control, toss the puck in the
crease, and Kaleniecki was literally just sticking his head out from behind
the right side of the net and got his stick on it to slam it in and get the
hat trick. The Wolverines would then hang on for the victory.

Montoya finished with 30 saves, while Bellissimo turned aside 21
shots. The Wolverine power play went 2-for-6, but bad news on the flip
side as the Broncos put in three power play goals for the second night in a
row.

U-M returns home next weekend to host Alaska Fairbanks. Game time is 7:35
p.m. ET both nights.

--------------------------

If you missed tonight's game on Fox Sports Detroit, you missed quite an
exciting game! I should have video highlights on MHNet by Monday morning,
so check back for that.

One more note, with the win tonight, Michigan moves in to a tie with
Minnesota for the #2 spot in the PairWise Rankings, which is used to
determine seedings for the NCAA tournament. I believe coming in to this
weekend the Wolverines were #6 on the list.

That's all for now...

Go Blue!

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