U-M LOSSES, TIES NEBRASKA-OMAHA

I know the analogy "just like football" has been used to describe this season's
Michigan hockey team due to their lack of ability to hold a late lead and
tonight's game was another example of that.

After a heartbreaking 4-3 loss to UNO Friday night, in which the Wolverines
rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the third period only to lose the lead six
seconds after tying the contest, tonight U-M came out strong and couldn't
finish. The Wolverines blew a pair of two-goal leads and tied UNO, 4-4.

Chad Kolarik and Andrew Ebbett opened the scoring for the Wolverines in the
first period, but as I've said many times over the past handful of seasons,
late period goals have been a huge problem for the Wolverines and once again it
happened tonight. The Mavericks went on a late period power play and Brandon
Scero connected with under three minutes to go.

Early in the second period, Bill Thomas tied the game for the Mavs after an odd
play in which the U-M defense relaxed for what they thought was going to be an
icing call, but the officials never signaled an icing.

T.J. Hensick would put U-M back ahead shortly thereafter with a wrap-around
goal. Travis Turnbull would give the Wolverines another two-goal lead midway
through the period when he scored just after coming out of the penalty box.

The Mavs would cut the lead in half again on the power play with about five
minutes left in the second period when a shot deflected off Jack Johnson past
Noah Ruden.

In the third period, the game was even both ways and Michigan held the lead
until, you guessed it...another late period goal. UNO scored with 2:02 left in
regulation to tie the game, and it would finish 4-4 in overtime.

So things are getting interesting heading into the final weekend of regular
season play. The only thing settled right now is Miami is in first place.
Michigan State overtakes second place with 32 points, Michigan falls to third
place with 30 points, and Nebaska-Omaha is one point behind them. Northern
Michigan and Lake Superior State are tied for fifth place with 26 points.
Michigan MUST take a least one point from their home-and-home series against
Ferris State next weekend to secure a fourth place finish and first round
playoff bye.

The Wolverines are currently 13-9-4, Northern Michigan is 12-12-2, and Lake
Superior is 11-11-4. Under CCHA tie-breaker rules, the first tie-breaker goes
to the team with more conference victories. If Michigan was to get swept by
Ferris State next weekend and Northern Michigan sweeps Ohio State, they would
be tied with 30 points and NMU would hold the tie-breaker with one more
conference victory.

If Michigan is swept and LSSU sweeps next weekend, Michigan still holds the
tie-breaker over them. They would have identical records, conference wins,
win-percentage, they split the regular season series, so it goes to
goals-against in their head-to-head match-up and Michigan holds a 6-5 edge
there.

Bottom line: The worst Michigan can finish is fifth place. The best they can
finish is second place. If they take one point from Ferris State, they'll
finish no worse than fourth place and get a first round bye.

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That's all for now...

Go Blue!

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