NMU 3, Michigan 1

I need a macro to write this posts a little quicker. It's the same thing every week.

Hogan plays really well for the most part, gives up an unspeakably bad goal. We take several mind-numblingly stupid penalties. The offense can't put the puck in the net.

Tonight's version: Brian Lebler plowed Brian Stewart and took his 42nd goalie interference penalty of the season. It took NMU all of six seconds to score. Backhand shot from down by the goal line, closer to the corner than the net. Somehow it sneaks in. Remember that list I was talking about of the 10 worst goals Michigan has given up this decade? That'd be a candidate. Oh, let's not forget that we lost another defensive zone faceoff that directly led to the goal.

NMU made it 2-0 shortly thereafter on a wrist shot from the blueline that got tipped right in front of Hogan. Four--FOUR--Wolverines chased the puck-carrier out to the point on that one, leaving Chris Summers in no man's land in front of the net. Fox was wide open to tip the puck in.

Hagelin made it 2-1 late in the first when he centered the puck and it deflected in off a NMU defender and Stewart.

That would be all the scoring until NMU added an empty-netter very late in regulation off a Michigan turnover. Josh Langfeld...errr...David Wohlberg threw a blind pass to the right point and it was intercepted. Steve Kampfer kept backing up like he had no clue the goalie was out and NMU was able to ice the game.

In the meantime, what else happened? We were 0 for a gajillion on the power play, including 3 in the first ten minutes of the hockey game when it was still 0-0. We had a 5 on 3 late in regulation and had a few good chances, then Kevin Lynch took a boarding penalty to wipe out the last 1:01 of the power play. Yes, another 1 goal loss (essentially) where we wiped out more than a minute of power play time by taking dumb penalties.

Louie Caporusso took another goalie interference penalty.

Fred Pletsch had a bad mistake, saying that the only 3 Swedes in the CCHA were playing in this game. As nice as it was of him to not mention the name Calle Ridderwall to Michigan fans, he's a Swede and a pretty damn good one.

Hogan made at least 5 stops to keep us in the game, including a breakaway off a turnover by Chris Brown and a stop on Olver off a Hagelin turnover. He's not getting a lot of help offensively. He's actually played pretty well as of late, but this team just can't overcome at least one horrifically soft goal a night.

That being said, we've gone 131:06 since we've scored a goal that wasn't by accident. In the NMU game and the second game of the series against UNO, the only goals we've scored have been centering passes that ended up in the back of the net.

I really don't like Winnett running the point on the power play.

As much as I hate watching this team sometimes (or a lot of the time), I love watching Rust, Hagelin, and Glendening play together.

That's all I've got.