MICHIGAN 3, QUINNIPIAC 1

The Michigan hockey team kicked off the 2005-06 season with a solid 3-1 victory over Quinnipiac.

Freshman Travis Turnbull scored two goals, while Kevin Porter had a goal and assist and T.J. Hensick had a pair of assists.

After a scoreless opening stanza, the Wolverines broke the game open 3:44 in to the second period when Turnbull beat Bobcat goalie Josh Siembida for his first career goal.

Then midway through the period, Porter slam dunked a pass through the crease just seconds into a power play to make it 2-0.

In the third period, the Bobcats would finally break freshman netminder Billy Sauer's shutout with 2:50 remaining when Joe Dumais banked a shot off Chad Kolarik that beat Sauer to make it 2-1.

Quinnipiac's comeback attempt would last all of 44 seconds when Turnbull deflected a shot out of mid-air to regain the two goal lead and cap off the scoring.

Sauer was sharp in his debut turning aside 25 shots on goal. Siembida made 30 saves for the Bobcats.

The weekend series concludes tomorrow night at Yost. The puck drops at 7:35 p.m.

D-MAN SHORT: With all the talk about a short d-line should a player get injured, Michigan faced the situation tonight, however it was when junior defenseman Jason Dest received a 5-minute major and game misconduct for checking from behind with 2:09 left in the first period.

BAILEY SIDELINED: Jason Bailey was the only freshman not to see playing time tonight due to an illness.

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RUST COMMITS FOR 2007

U.S. National Team Development Program Under-17 Team forward Matt Rust has verbally committed to the University of Michigan for the 2007 season. He becomes the second member of the class, joining standout defenseman Tristin Llewellyn.

The Bloomfield Hills, Mich. native fits the mold of another former Wolverine from Bloomfield Hills —John Shouneyia.

Rust stands 5-foot-10, 172 pounds. He's the latest in a line of small, shifty centers to join the ranks of the Maize n' Blue.

The Red Line Report Junior Edition ranked him 26th in their Top 60 Junior prospects saying Rust is strong on his skates, has excellent one-on-one skills, and is a pure finisher with star quality. He plays a physical style despite his lack of size, which may come back to haunt him as he's suffered a few injuries as a result. His knocks according to Red Line are his defensive awareness in his own end and that he "competes when he wants to" but when he does "he's outstanding."

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COUPLE OF LOOKS AT 2008 RECRUIT AJ JENKS

The Marquette Electricians Fall Classic was held last weekend here in Marquette. One of the teams participating was Honeybaked and I had the opportunity to take in two of their games to check out 2008 recruit AJ Jenks.

The first game I got to check out was Honeybaked vs. Philadelphia. Great game! Honeybaked was apparently asleep this morning during their 6-2 loss, but woke up and put forth a great effort tonight. It was a back and forth game that ended with Honeybaked scoring a dramatic game-winning goal with 0.2 seconds left in overtime to win 5-4. Literally a buzzer beater if there ever was one. Honeybaked led, lost the lead, trailed, came back to tie the game late in the 3rd period, then won with 0.2 seconds left. Just amazing.

I kept an eye on Jenks every time he was on the ice. He was solid, if unspectacular. Has great size for a kid his age, hopefully will fill out a little more before college.

Jenks plays center. He did very good on faceoffs... won most of them, though lost two critical ones late in regulation in the offensive zone with his team trailing. He assisted on the first Honeybaked goal... carried the puck down the right side of the rink into the offensive zone before losing it, but one of his teammates got it in front of the net and scored.

I don't think Jenks was on the ice for any of the goals against, either. He played in all situations... even strength, power play, and penalty kill. He didn't really do anything to make me go "Wow!" during the game tonight, but he didn't really show any weaknesses, either. Like I said, a solid overall game.

The next night I checked out the first two periods of Honeybaked vs. the L.A. Jr. Kings. I left after the second period because Honeybaked was dominating the Kings. Honeybaked was outshooting them like 35-7 at that point, and a few of those shots by L.A. weren't really shots (one was a long clear by L.A. that went on net). L.A. spent nearly the entire second period shorthanded, a few times two men down. They just got killed with penalties.

Jenks looked really good in this game. Maybe part of that is because L.A. looked so bad. Jenks had a great steal when L.A. tried to clear the puck from their zone, then came out from the corner with the puck all alone in front of the net but he couldn't bury it. Great presence out on the ice. What I like is that he always seems to be aware of what's going on. He always got back to play defense. If a defenseman pulls a Werner and pinches in, he'll cover the point. He covered the area in front of his goalie when a defenseman was late getting back, and so forth. I'd like to see him get more involved offensively and shooting the puck. Other than the one aforementioned chance, I only saw him shoot one or two times, same with yesterday, too. I'm sure that'll all come in time, but definitely the potential is there for a strong two-way power forward.

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That's all for now...

Go Blue!

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