Michigan Splits Series with NMU; Fourth Place Still a Possibility

By Sean · Monday, February 22, 2010 · 2:37 AM |  Share | Leave a Comment 

Speaking of inconsistency, the hockey team was in action this past weekend and split its series with Northern Michigan.  Actually, the hockey team was consistent in the sense that it continued to take dumb penalty after dumb penalty, make stupid turnovers in its own zone, and allow soft goals.  The inconsistency mainly involved the offense, but the other things mentioned were a perfect storm of suck that led to Northern Michigan winning 3-1 on Friday night.  Michigan didn’t play all that well defensively on Saturday, but thankfully the offense came alive and propelled the Wolverines to a 5-4 victory.

Friday’s game was a prototypical Michigan loss.  The Wolverines seemed to control play, outshooting NMU 39-21.  All it had to show for 39 shots, however, was a single goal.  It had eight power plays in this game and didn’t score once.  Michigan had three consecutive power plays in the first ten minutes of the game but struggled to even get shots on goal.  Those struggles set the tone for this game, especially after NMU scored only seven seconds into its first power play of the game.  The goal seemed pretty soft, as did the next one Bryan Hogan allowed only a minute and a half or so later.  Carl Hagelin made this a 1-goal game a few minutes later on a weird bounce, but that was basically it for the scoring.  Neither team scored again until the Wildcats added an empty-net goal with 46 seconds left right after Hogan was pulled to win 3-1.

On Saturday it looked like Michigan was on its way to a loss many different times during the course of the game.  Trailing 1-0 in the second period, Michigan finally got it going with two goals in a span of ten seconds.  Luke Glendening scored the tying goal, and off of the ensuing faceoff, Kevin Lynch went right down the ice and put it in the back of the net to suddenly give Michigan a 2-1 lead.  That lead held up for less than two minutes, as Northern Michigan quickly answered with a goal to once again make things even.  That also didn’t last long for long, however, as less than five minutes later Ben Winnett scored a power-play goal to give Michigan a 3-2 advantage.

The third period got off to an extremely shaky start for the Wolverines.  Northern Michigan scored two quick goals about a minute apart to take a 4-3 lead.  Yost was stunned, but four minutes later Michigan answered with a couple of quick goals of its own.  Chad Langlais tied the game on a picture-perfect power-play goal that was set up beautifully.  Then, exactly a minute later, Greg Pateryn came down the right side of the ice and somehow flipped it past NMU’s goalie for his first career goal.  Michigan led 5-4, and after NMU barely missed on a couple of close calls in the last minute, that is what the final scored ended up being.

Because Michigan split this series, it no longer controls its own destiny for a first-round bye in the CCHA playoffs.  Northern Michigan is now in that role, needing a regulation win and a shootout victory to for sure clinch fourth place and a bye.  Here is a full look at the CCHA standings with one week left to play (games left are in parentheses; points are after the dash):

1. Miami (2) – 66
2. Ferris State (2) – 46
2. Michigan State (2) – 46
4. Alaska (0) – 45
5. Nebraska-Omaha (0) – 44
6. Northern Michigan (2) – 42
7. Michigan (2) – 40
8. Ohio State (2) – 38
9. Lake Superior (2) – 35
10. Notre Dame (2) – 33
11. Bowling Green (2) – 21
12. Western Michigan (2) – 18

What will it take for Michigan to jump to fourth place by itself?  First things first, Michigan has to not only sweep Notre Dame (Thursday’s game is at Yost and Saturday’s is in South Bend), but neither of those wins can come via a shootout.  That is the only way Michigan can pass Alaska to take outright possession of fourth-place.  One regular win and one shootout win would tie Michigan with Alaska, but I’m not sure how the tiebreakers would play out to determine which team gets the first-round bye.  Either way, with both Alaska and Nebraska-Omaha already completing their CCHA schedules, Michigan doesn’t have to worry about them adding any points and moving around in the standings this weekend.

The team Michigan does have to worry about is Northern Michigan.  The above-mentioned scenarios will all be moot if Northern Michigan manages to win at least once in a regulation and once in a shootout.  The Wildcats host Lake Superior State in both games of that upcoming series, and if Michigan wants to even have a shot at fourth place, it has to hope that NMU splits at best.  Theoretically it’s possible that there could be a three-way tie for fourth place or a tie between Michigan and NMU, but all the Wildcats need to clinch sole possession of fourth place are a regulation win and a shootout win.  Getting 4 points would give NMU at least a tie of fourth place, but again, that brings the tiebreakers into the equation.

Regardless of what Northern Michigan does, Michigan needs to take care of business against Notre Dame.  If Michigan were to get swept by the Fighting Irish, it’s possible that the Wolverines could drop to ninth place in the CCHA.  That would force them to go on the road in the first round of the CCHA playoffs, which is the worst-case scenario at this point.  Even if Michigan doesn’t get a first-round bye, a lot would have to happen for it not to host an opening-round series.  It is possible if Michigan gets swept, though, so the Wolverines better first make sure they beat Notre Dame at least once before worrying about what happens in the rest of the CCHA this weekend.