NORTH DAKOTA 8, MICHIGAN 5

North Dakota once again ended Michigan's season in the first round of
the NCAA tournament, this time by an 8-5 margin.

It was a wild game as the teams combined for 12 goals in the first 32
minutes of the contest, trading the lead along the way, before the
Fighting Sioux pulled ahead and their goalie woke up, while U-M
continued to take bad penalties and Sauer struggled.

Michigan started the game strong scoring two goals in the first minute
of play.

The Sioux would get one back a few minutes later, but T.J. Hensick
quickly responded to make it 3-1.

But the rest of the first period belonged to the Sioux as they scored
three unanswered goals to take a 4-3 lead heading into intermission.

The second period would begin the same as the first--with Michigan
scoring two goals in the opening minute to take a 5-4 lead.

But over the next 11 minutes, the Sioux would again respond with three
unanswered goals to take a 7-5 lead.

North Dakota, at that point, was something like 5-for-7 on the power
play. They shredded the already poor U-M penalty kill unit.

Billy Sauer had perhaps his worse game of the season. He couldn't
stop anything and let in some very bad goals. But as the game kept
going back and forth with neither goalie stopping anything, and
Michigan's penalty kill playing awful, it was clear U-M had to stay
out of the penalty box and that's something they couldn't do. They
took some flat out stupid penalties and paid the price each time, yet
didn't learn from it until it was too late.

The Wolverines had several good chances in the final 30 minutes,
including Hensick and Kevin Porter each breaking in alone, but North
Dakota's goalie finally woke up and stoned them.

Another bad break for Michigan with about 13 minute left in the third
period, Hensick was sent to the box for a 10 minute misconduct. He
didn't take a penalty, just got a misconduct, and the announcers had
no clue why (and we never got any explanation). That basically
crippled the Wolverines until the closing minutes, when they received
a power play.

With Hensick out of the box and a faceoff in the North Dakota zone,
they pulled Sauer for a 6-on-4 advantage, but seconds into the power
play, the puck flipped to Matt Hunwick at the blue line. He caught
it, dropped it, and had it immediately taken away for an empty net goal.

So let the offseason begin, and what a long one it could be. Besides
losing Hensick--the nation's leading scorer--and the rest of the
seniors, there's a long list of potential early defections including
Jack Johnson (who most expect to leave in the coming days), Mark
Mitera, Andrew Cogliano (who the Oilers are reportedly going to try
signing), and Kevin Porter. To a lesser extent, you could add in Chad
Kolarik and Chris Summers, though they don't seem as likely to be
leaving.

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As for the rest of the NCAA action today, Michigan State is currently
leading Notre Dame, 1-0, in the third period. I'm sure there's still
plenty of bitter U-M fans out there over not being placed in the
Midwest Regional, especially if the Spartans pull it out.

#4 Miami upset #1 New Hampshire and will face Boston College tomorrow
in the Northeast Regional final.

#1 Minnesota escaped #4 Air Force, 4-3. Air Force actually lead 3-1,
but gave up three goals in the final 8 minutes of regulation. They'll
meet North Dakota tomorrow.

And #3 Maine defeated #4 UMass to punch their ticket to the Frozen Four.

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That's all for now...

Go Blue!

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