PORTER'S PAIR POWERS MICHIGAN, 3-1

Senior captain Kevin Porter scored two goals to help propel the
Michigan hockey team to a 3-1 victory tonight at Northern Michigan.

The first period was solid but unspectacular play by both teams. It
was pretty even until the end when a bad defensive turnover by the
Wolverines between the circles in their own zone allowed Nick Sirota
to walk in alone on U-M goalie Billy Sauer and flip a backhander past
him.

But a penalty riddle second period--for the Wildcats--allowed the
Wolverines to climb back into the game.

Early in the middle stanza it appeared U-M had finally broken their
0-for power play streak, but referee Steve McInchak waived off the
goal because he had blown the whistle before the puck went into the net.

After a few more power plays came up empty handed, the Wolverines
finally converted a 5x3 opportunity when Chad Kolarik sent a pass
across the slot to Kevin Porter and he wrist the puck past NMU goalie
Brian Stewart.

The Wolverines dominated the second period with five power play
opportunities and limiting the Wildcats to two shots on goal.

In the third period, the Wildcats got an early power play, but shot
themselves in the foot midway through it when Jared Brown tripped Mark
Mitera from behind.

The Wildcats got another power play chance at 7:41, but again, midway
through the man-advantage, they took another bad penalty, this time
for too many men on the ice.

The Wolverines killed off the remainder of their penalty, then
capitalized on the shortened power play at 10:30 when Porter connected
for his second tally of the night. Kolarik ripped a shot off the
cross bar and the rebound came right out to Porter near the right
circle and, with Stewart out of position, he fired a wrist shot into
the open net.

Michigan really controlled play after the goal through much of the
remainder of the game. With about seven minutes left, they got the
puck into the NMU zone and turned it into a shooting gallery by
holding it there for a good minute or two and just unloading shot
after shot.

With 3:44 left, Carl Hagelin (bork! bork! bork!) iced the game when he
smoked a wrist shot top shelf past Stewart.

The Wildcats had a power play for the final 1:37 when Brian Lebler got
called for running into the goaltender, even though he didn't hit the
goaltender. Lebler and an NMU player were going after the puck and he
checked the NMU player, who crashed into Stewart.

Regardless, the U-M penalty kill did a fantastic job shutting down the
Wildcats final power play. You could tell how bad Porter wanted the
hat trick and he got close a few times with the net empty.

For the game, the Wolverines were 2-for-9 with the man-advantage,
while NMU was 0-for-5. Billy Sauer didn't get much work with 13
saves, but he made a couple of critical stops in the third period to
keep the Wolverines in the game.

A very solid effort all around by Michigan tonight. The weekend
series wraps up tomorrow night.

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That's all for now...

Go Blue!

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