Michigan Beats Bowling Green, Blows Lead in Loss to Wisconsin

By Sean · Monday, February 8, 2010 · 11:18 AM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

Michigan outshot Bowling Green 30-13 last Thursday and won the road game 2-1.  All of the scoring came in the first period, and thankfully the 2 power-play goals scored by Matt Rust and Chris Brown were enough to give Michigan the victory.  The win initially moved Michigan up to fourth in the CCHA, but once the weekend games were played the Wolverines ended up dropping to sixth.  Even so, Michigan is now in great position to move back up in the standings since it finishes the Bowling Green series tomorrow night at Yost.  A win would put Michigan in fourth place and put them just 3 points back of third.  On top of that, Michigan will still have two games in hand on Alaska and Nebraska-Omaha, the teams tied for fourth right now, after tomorrow’s game, so a win over the Falcons would be absolutely huge for Michigan’s hopes of a bye in the CCHA playoffs.

Because of what happened in Camp Randall Stadium on Saturday, it looks like an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament is no longer a realistic possibility.  It wasn’t all that likely even before Saturday’s outdoor game with Wisconsin, but an upset of the #3 team in the country, which would have been Michigan’s second win of the season over the Badgers, would have been huge for a possible at-large berth.  The reason I say it would have been huge is because it didn’t actually happen.  Michigan was up on Wisconsin 2-1 late in the game, but the Badgers scored a pair of power-play goals in the final 5:30 of the third period to win 3-2.

Early on in the Camp Randall Hockey Classic, Michigan looked like it was in for a long day.  Bryan Hogan gave up a really soft goal only three minutes into the game, and for the most part Wisconsin was controlling play.  As time went by, however, Michigan started to get it going and tied things up when Scooter Vaughn followed up his own shot and scored on a rebound with a little more than a minute left in the first period.  The goal gave Michigan a ton of momentum heading into the first intermission, and it propelled the Wolverines to a solid second period.  Neither team managed to score in the second period, but Michigan, outside of one close call where Wisconsin hit the post and failed to follow up a rebound on an open net, seemed to be controlling the play.

It was more of the same in the first part of third period.  Michigan was controlling the play, but there was no scoring.  Well, there was no scoring until 11 minutes in, when Kevin Lynch sniped a shot from the blue line and put it right past the goalie to give Michigan a 2-1 lead.  Camp Randall was stunned, as Michigan now led with only nine minutes to go.

Michigan continued to control play up until when Chris Summers took a tripping penalty with 5:42 left to play.  Wisconsin didn’t score on its only other power play earlier in the game, but it had plenty of chances and kept the puck in Michigan’s zone for almost all of the two minutes the Wolverines were shorthanded.  As a result I was beyond concerned when Wisconsin got another chance to go on the power play, and unfortunately that concern quickly turned out to be for good reason.  Wisconsin scored only 10 seconds into the power play to tie things up at 2.  All it took was a couple great passes and Wisconsin’s Brendan Smith easily was able to put it past Bryan Hogan from the slot.

Fast forward a few minutes and there was basically a replay of what just happened.  Chris Summers was penalized for slashing, which was a really weak call given the circumstances.  Aside from it being late in the game, where usually penalties have to be really obvious to be called, Summers’ “slash” came when Hogan basically had the puck covered and right before the whistle sounded.  Like I said, it was a pretty weak call, but it turned out to be the difference in this game because Michigan once again looked lost on the penalty kill.

Wisconsin’s Brendan Smith scored again on virtually the same play that tied the game up.  This time around it took Wisconsin 34 seconds of the power play to score, as Bryan Hogan froze the puck a couple of times before giving up the goal.  The biggest problem for Michigan was that it couldn’t win a faceoff, allowing Wisconsin to set up plays with little disruption.  That led to Smith finding his way to the slot to once again score after a couple great passes, giving Wisconsin a 3-2 lead with less than two minutes to play.

Michigan’s hopes of tying this game up quickly went out the window when David Wohlberg ran over Wisconsin’s goalie with 57 seconds left.  He was penalized for goaltender interference, and Wisconsin essentially was able to take a knee to run out the clock and seal the 3-2 victory.  It was a pretty crappy way for Michigan to lose, especially considering it led 2-1 just minutes earlier.  More than anything, this loss capped off a crappy day of sports that included Michigan getting destroyed by Wisconsin in basketball and the Red Wings blowing a 3-0 lead to the Kings and losing 4-3.

As I touched on earlier, Michigan is likely going to have to win the CCHA playoffs to make the NCAA tournament.  To get an at-large berth, Michigan would basically have to win out the regular season and then continue to win in the CCHA playoffs to even have a chance at making the NCAA tournament without an automatic bid.  For me I’m just going to hope that Michigan finishes in the top four of the CCHA to get a bye in the playoffs, because I just don’t think an at-large berth is going to happen.  If it is, though, Michigan is going to have to win and win often, starting with tomorrow’s game against Bowling Green.  The game will be broadcast on Comcast 900 and will start at 7:35 p.m.

(The game at Camp Randall ended up having an attendance of 55,031.  All in all I think the event turned out to be pretty cool, but the ice was downright awful.  There was a foot-long gash in the crease where Bryan Hogan was for two periods that prompted quite a few delays for repairs.  Red Berenson requested that the two teams switch ends at the 10-minute mark of the third period because the ice was so bad down there, but his request was denied.  Michigan had officials at Camp Randall to basically take notes for the game at the Big House this December, so hopefully they learned enough from this experience to make the Big Chill at the Big House even better, especially with regards to the playing surface.)