Friday night with the Gophers...

[Puckhead]

Well things certainly weren't looking good after the first period. Minnesota scored a power play goal with a bit over 12 minutes to play. Then Michigan gets to the last minute of the period which has seemed to be the last minute of doom lately and yes, you guessed it, Minnesota finds the back of the net and it's 2-0 going into the first intermission. Granted that last goal was a weird goal, but it was a goal.

After a bit of paint blistering by Berenson during the break a different Michigan team hit the ice. Kile found the back of the net to get Michigan on the board with just over 16 minutes to play in the second. With just under 4 minutes to play in the period Calderone found the back of the net and the game was tied at two. That's how the second period ended, Michigan 2, Minnesota 2.

Minnesota took a 3-2 lead with just over six minutes to play and it looked like Minnesota might get out of this one with a win after all, but that's only how it looked. A little over a minute later Slaker found the back of the net to tie the game at three and light a fire under the entire team. With just over 2 minutes to play Allen found the back of the net and suddenly Michigan had the 4-3 lead. Lockwood finished off the scoring, finding the empty net with just under one minute to play and that was the final score.

Michigan 5, Minnesota 3

Every Senior on the ice had at least one point in tonight's game. This was the first time Michigan has won back to back games since November, when they beat Arizona and then BU on the Friday of the following weekend.

 

[jz597]

Good effort tonight and a deserved win in my opinion. It looked like the team was more engaged on defense and drove the play for a few stretches as well. Hard to blame Naglevoort for any of the goals. This certainly was a far cry from the two debacles in Minneapolis.

One thing I found interesting was the presence of a physical player on each line. Seemed to help out and I'll be curious to see if they continue that.

 

[alfadriver]

I have to disagree that the team was that much different in the first to the rest of the game- it was really close out there, and other than a really great bounce to the stick of a gofer, it should have just been 1-0.

All night, they were blanketing Minnesota, breaking up passes all over the place, just bugging them all night.

What took a while was the offense. They spent a lot of effort just getting the puck on the net- which was good, and that built confidence.

Zach, again, looked really confident in the net. Really, only the 3rd goal he could have played better.

And just like last week, the whole team played within themselves.

 

[Capt28]

Hah, a winning streak!!! Excellent effort and we didn't fold in the last 10 minutes.
After the series at Minny, I knew we could beat these guys on a non-Olympic surface

 

[blue-boy]

It was a hard-fought game and it was nice to see the good guys pulling it out. Got some key goal-tending and the kids blocked a lot of shots. They kept plugging away...just a nice win with solid effort.

 

[Capt28]

BTW here is a sobering thought about our defense: We lead the nation in blocked shots and are still giving up 35 SOG per game. Yikes!

 

[alfadriver]

BTW here is a sobering thought about our defense: We lead the nation in blocked shots and are still giving up 35 SOG per game. Yikes!

The kind of shots that make it through have changed a lot. Like against OSU, Zach had to only make a handful of really key saves. Although there were a few deflections that scared me a lot.

One funny note- Zach now has the 3rd best save % (.907) and if ranked Lafontaine would be 5th (.901) in the B1G. So our goalies are more suffering due to shots than their bad play.

 

[wolverines74]

Holy ( holey )underwear Batman we won 5-3! "74

 

[STPGopherfan]

Well things certainly weren't looking good after the first period. Minnesota scored a power play goal with a bit over 12 minutes to play. Then Michigan gets to the last minute of the period which has seemed to be the last minute of doom lately and yes, you guessed it, Minnesota finds the back of the net and it's 2-0 going into the first intermission. Granted that last goal was a weird goal, but it was a goal.

After a bit of paint blistering by Berenson during the break a different Michigan team hit the ice. Kile found the back of the net to get Michigan on the board with just over 16 minutes to play in the second. With just under 4 minutes to play in the period Calderone found the back of the net and the game was tied at two. That's how the second period ended, Michigan 2, Minnesota 2.

Minnesota took a 3-2 lead with just over six minutes to play and it looked like Minnesota might get out of this one with a win after all, but that's only how it looked. A little over a minute later Slaker found the back of the net to tie the game at three and light a fire under the entire team. With just over 2 minutes to play Allen found the back of the net and suddenly Michigan had the 4-3 lead. Lockwood finished off the scoring, finding the empty net with just under one minute to play and that was the final score.

Michigan 5, Minnesota 3

Every Senior on the ice had at least one point in tonight's game. This was the first time Michigan has won back to back games since November, when they beat Arizona and then BU on the Friday of the following weekend.

Congratulations! Your team took it to us. My hope is my Gophers will respond. My gut told me your team wouldn't be down for a whole season.

Any way, Cheers!

 

[Puckhead]

Congratulations! Your team took it to us. My hope is my Gophers will respond. My gut told me your team wouldn't be down for a whole season.

Any way, Cheers!

Well they certainly responded, walking out of Yost with a 4-1 victory tonight. Not sure it was a total wash for Michigan though, it seems they pretty much did everything, at least for stretches of time, except score goals. A lot of close calls for Michigan tonight, but just couldn't get it in the net.

 

[STPGopherfan]

Well they certainly responded, walking out of Yost with a 4-1 victory tonight. Not sure it was a total wash for Michigan though, it seems they pretty much did everything, at least for stretches of time, except score goals. A lot of close calls for Michigan tonight, but just couldn't get it in the net.

Chalk it up to puck luck. Frustrating especially when you get a few that ring off of the pipe. I didn't get to see any of this game, but I am sure Michigan played well. Like I said earlier, I knew that Michigan would break out sooner or later.

Tourney could be very interesting.

 

[alfadriver]

Chalk it up to puck luck. Frustrating especially when you get a few that ring off of the pipe. I didn't get to see any of this game, but I am sure Michigan played well. Like I said earlier, I knew that Michigan would break out sooner or later.

Tourney could be very interesting.

I would not call it puck luck, really. It's the core weakness of the team.

The hard part as a fan that it's taken so long for the team to really realize that playing that kind of defensive effort is what is actually required to be competitive. Once they have, you could see that the players are improving and are really becoming a team.

Now the mental aspect of clutch shooting needs to come back. Maybe, then, we can play Friday night in Detroit.

Still, given the depth of how down the team went in the middle of the season, I'm quite happy for the team that they are finding a groove like they are. And can compete with the best like we saw at the beginning of the season.

 

[STPGopherfan]

I would not call it puck luck, really. It's the core weakness of the team.

The hard part as a fan that it's taken so long for the team to really realize that playing that kind of defensive effort is what is actually required to be competitive. Once they have, you could see that the players are improving and are really becoming a team.

Now the mental aspect of clutch shooting needs to come back. Maybe, then, we can play Friday night in Detroit.

Still, given the depth of how down the team went in the middle of the season, I'm quite happy for the team that they are finding a groove like they are. And can compete with the best like we saw at the beginning of the season.

Best wishes going forward! Seems like all of the teams in the BigTen have some potentially fatal flaws. It's just that some teams have been better at covering up or compensating for those flaws.

 

[wolverines74]

Wish List : Depth and a hunger to win. Playing with a sense of Urgency. GBGB"74