It was disappointing to only get one point out of four from Michigan State, but it's my hope that this weekend was a good learning experience. It gave the team a chance to play in two tournament-style games against a team with a lot of tournament experience. It let the youngsters get a taste of the MSU rivalry, plus it let them face a lock-down defensive team that is also very talented. I fully expect that the next series against MSU will go better for Michigan.
The Michigan Side:
Game stories and highlights (if you're so inclined).
Brian and I were on the same wavelength about this weekend. Namely that the officiating sucked and that we had seen Friday night's game too many times before.
Michigan Daily LiveBlog of Friday night. MHNet LiveBlogs Friday and Saturday. It really is painful to relive how many missed opportunities there were. BTW, I have my laptop back (accidentally left it in Michigan over Christmas) so my liveblogs and livetapedelayblogs will come back at some point--provided the damn thing will turn on.
Short game story about Saturday in the Freep--I include it in the Michigan section because of the "Blue Wall". Comley bitches about the cross-check, fails to mention the weak-ass calls that gave his team a nearly 2 minute 5-on-3 and led to two goals.
Less Daily articles than possibly exist due to server problems with their site. I was able to find some:
Red thinks that Sauer is every bit as good as Lerg right now, even though Lerg became just the second player in CCHA History to win a Player-of-the-Week award four straight times. Lofty praise for a guy that wasn't even guaranteed to be our starter this year.
Kolarik was embarrassed by the loss Friday. Rust and Berenson were happy with the effort on Saturday. Comley bitching.
Despite a lucky goal to tie the game, Porter doesn't feel lucky about Saturday's game. Just a frustrating weekend...
We've got a tough schedule the rest of the way. Comley bitching.
As pointed out by a commenter and confirmed here, Vaughan was out of the lineup due to illness. Winnett got dinged Friday night, hence Ciraulo coming in. I thought Llewellyn made the most of his opportunity. He played pretty well this weekend, IMO.
Michigan doesn't really get shut out by teams that aren't MSU.
Nice feature on Scooter Vaughan. He seems like a really good kid.
Random article I have to mention: Michigan is the top "Champion Factory" in collegiate sports according to Forbes.
The Michigan State Viewpoint:
State News article about the game Saturday night. Comley bitching.
State News Friday night game story. Red talks about how that game was probably good for the team moving forward.
The Spartans were disappointed in leaving a point on the table Saturday night. Red was disappointed in the officiating during the weekend. Pretty impressive job by Shegos to piss off both coaches. That's not easy to do.
The Spartans really wanted Friday's game. Michigan took 67 shots, but 41 didn't make it to the MSU net.
Apparently Michigan "wasn't coming close" until their last goal. Don't know that I'd go that far, Rick. We had some great chances both nights. It's interesting how neither team is happy with the results of the weekend.
MSU was perfect when leading after 2 periods until Saturday night.
Lansing State Journal Saturday game story. Comley bitches. Commenter says that Shegos is a notorious "sixth man" for Michigan. See below. I guess we'll find out about that. FTR, he kind of helped out the Sparties as well.
MSU had a nice gameplan to take Michigan out of what they like to do offensively. By the way, I'm ready for Benedict Lerg to leave.
Feature on Yost from the LSJ. I miss that place.
Upcoming Article: I've talked so much about power play opportunities in the last couple of weeks, that I decided to put together a massive database of all our games for the last 5 years. It will allow me to break it down by official, by opponent, and by location to see what the trends are. There's some very interesting stuff in there--at least it's interesting to me.
A teaser: I'm not crazy for thinking that it seems like we're always shorthanded when we play LSSU. There's a reason that so many of us miss Piotrowski. There's an unexpected name at the top of the list of refs that we shouldn't like. And we'll see how much of a friend to the Wolverines Mr. Shegos really is.
I'll have the analysis for you Wednesday or Thursday.
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5 comments:
Great job, Tim.
I have had my fill of the MSU nonsense. Last weekend only proved that Michigan has to step up their efforts against Tourney quality teams. We have at least two more if not three more games against MSU. The team needs to cash in on their chances.
My guess on your teaser is... Hall.
CCHA officiating sucks, but it sounds like the WCHA i struggling with their's as well.
TTYL.
Streak
It was a nice wakeup call I think. It showed that they're going to have to adjust their breakout, the way they get the puck in the zone, and their power play when they face a team like that. And it's a lesson I'm glad they learned now, rather than in April.
It sucks only taking 1 of 4 from Sparty, but I really do think we'll be a better team because of it.
The thing that I did like is that they were getting chances. As bad as they played on Friday, they were still getting some chances. They just were shooting it wide or off someone's shin pads. I think they started to panic a little bit though, and rushed things too much.
Hall hasn't been our friend. He's probably second on the list...maybe third. But that's not who I was talking about ;-)
Saturday--
Sauer: 32 saves
Lerg: 27 saves
Sauer goals: 5v4, 5v3
Lerg goals: 5v5, 5v4
Perani Cup Stars of the Game:
1. Lerg
2. Sauer
WTF.
Simple, Jeremy, MSU took three points and that was enough to tip the scales. Both played well, but I would guess MSU had the better opportunities.
Tim:
Here is the list on CCHA of lead officials:
Aaron- sucks
Hall- sucks
Hill- see him very rarely
Kotyra- I think he does most of the UP games, ??
Lisko- seen him do WMU games. Average
McInchak- Blows chunks
Murphy- he did a weekend last season and was inconsistent.
Sergott- big goof.
Shegos- sure isn't his brother.
Wilkins- haven't seen him hardly at all- think he did our series at UNO this year. REALLY SUCKS.
Overall, on ice lead officials are terrible in the CCHA.
That and it was an MSU rink, with likely more MSU media doing the voting...I mean, even Rick Comley seemed to think Lerg didn't have much to do, since he said something along the lines of "Michigan didn't really get anything going until the tying goal"
Paula Weston (I know....) just had a column about how she won't participate in the Perani Cup voting anymore because certain arenas (No clue if MSU is one of them) tend to try and manipulate the stars so certain players on their team get more points toward the Cup.
The lead refs are terrible in the CCHA. Now consider that they will likely have to double the amount of refs to go to a two-referee system and think about what that means...guys who aren't good enough to be a CCHA ref NOW will become CCHA refs. More Hoberg, more Pochmara, more new people who are worse than the guys they've got...It's scary.
What I wouldn't give for Pio and Duke Shegos to come back out of retirement.
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