Michigan Hockey: Michigan wears down the Irish -- Friday Night

Posted at 8:00am -- 12/13/2009

MICHIGAN WEARS DOWN IRISH IN SERIES OPENER

Winning ugly is still winning and that is exactly what the Wolverines did Friday night, taking the series opener against a depleted Notre Dame, 4-1.

Notre Dame coach Jeff Jackson probably felt his squad was at the Alamo last night, as Michigan was relentless in their attack on the Irish defense. I say defense, but it was a patchwork of forwards playing defense, as four Notre Dame defensemen sat out with injuries suffered in last week’s sweep at Miami.
The Irish were without (Jr.) anchor Ian Cole, out due to a concussion, as well as (So.) Eric Ringel, (concussion), (So.) Sean Lorenz, (“lower body injury”) and (Fr.) Sam Calebrese, (broken ankle).

It was unclear if Cole or Ringel were going to play this week, and Jackson basically sat them on the advise of Notre Dame’s medical team. Both have been ruled out of the return match in South Bend on Sunday afternoon.

Jackson had to move three forwards to the blue line: Billy Maday, Riley Sheahan and Ryan Guentzel. Michigan took full advantage of the opportunity, frequently pinning the Irish deep in their zone and forcing Notre Dame to either turn the puck over or just dump the puck out of the defensive zone.

It was pretty apparent from the start that Michigan would impose their speed on the Irish, and stepped up a hefty forecheck to pressure the inexperienced forwards on defense. Carl Hagelin got Michigan rolling with is ninth goal of the year, camping out in the slot and backhanding a rebound past Irish netminder Mike Johnson. Michigan forced a faceoff to Johnson’s right, where Matt Rust drew it back to the point. Tristin Llewellyn fired a bouncing shot that Johnson stopped, but Hagelin pounced on the rebound, deked to the left and went high to score at 8:38. Michigan outchanced the Irish in the period, but the shot advantage was only 11-7. Bryan Hogan came up with several good stops in the period to hold the 1-0 lead at the intermission.

Michigan came right back early in the second period and advanced their lead to 2-0, but not before killing a string of three straight penalties at the end the first period and at the start of the second. Lee Moffie and Louie Caporusso did the heavy work, keeping the puck in the Irish zone after several attempts to clear it. The slick Michigan forward came out of the corner and spotted Moffie diving from the point towards the slot. His one timer pinballed off of skates to Lebler who was positioned to Johnson’s left. Lebler gathered in the puck and, from an acute angle near the goal line, quickly drilled a shot off of Johnson and into the net.

Notre Dame re-grouped and countered on their fourth power play opportunity of the game, as Chad Langlais was whistled for a minor and then was given a ten minute misconduct for disputing the call by referee Matt Shegos. The Irish didn’t wait, as less than thirty seconds into the penalty Riley Sheahan snuck in back door from the point and slammed in a perfect cross ice pass from Ryan Thang at 7:27. Ben Ryan also assisted on the first Notre Dame tally in over 161 minutes.

Exactly 90 seconds later, though, Michigan would take the momentum back as Lee Moffie buried a shot from the high slot on the power play to give Michigan a 3-1 advantage. The play started off of a point shot from Steve Kampfer that ricocheted off of a cutting Louie Caporusso’s skate directly to the opposite side, where Moffie was stationed. He accepted the puck, moved over to the slot and placed a shot that appeared to deflect off of a Notre Dame player, hit the post, and snuck in. Michigan dominated the period as they held a 23-12 shot advantage and the 3-1 lead at the end of two periods.

Louie Caporusso wasted little time finishing the Irish off, as he made a solo rush into the Notre Dame zone and absolutely wired a 30 foot wrister that beat Johnson high on the glove side, just under the bar, at 1:02.
Chad Langlais started the play out of the Michigan defensive zone, feeding Brian Lebler who made a crisp neutral zone play to spring his linemate. The game became a bit chippy after that and play was sloppy. Both teams took minor penalties, but there was no other damage, other than a few Irish chances that slithered just wide off of deflections, or shots that got through Hogan.

Red Berenson commented: “I would say that was an ugly win. We got lucky on a couple of our goals and they were unlucky on a couple of their good scoring chances.”

Berenson also mentioned that “Hogan had to play a strong game” considering that the Irish were not completely void of talent, or opportunities. He also complimented the obvious number one star of the game, Louie Caporusso on his game: “One of Louie’s best (this season). He battled hard and was rewarded.”

On the other side of the bench, Coach Jeff Jackson was reserved in his comments: “For Michigan, Rust’s line is really challenging and they really hemmed us in at times, and Caporusso’s line is not much of a fall off. It’s tough when you’re playing basically two forwards down low in the defensive zone all the time and you’re not accustomed just to having one. I give the kids credit for battling. I wish we could have generated a little bit more.”

Typically, Notre Dame’s defense does jump into the rush and adds a bit more pressure on the opponent’s defensive coverage. Last night it appeared that Michigan was the more aggressive team, pinching their defense more frequently, generating the opportunities that were the difference in the game. Michigan gave the Irish a does of their own trapping style through the neutral zone, once they could break past the wave of forecheckers Michigan sent in.

Hogan finished with 23 saves on the night, and Johnson made 25 saves before being lifted at a TV timeout with about thirteen minutes left in the game. Senior (third string) netminder Tommy O’Brien finished up for the Irish.
The two teams meet Sunday in South Bend to wrap up the first part of the regular season.

YOST Bits

Both teams seemed to be scratching their heads at the rather ticky-tack penalty calls by Kevin Hall and Matt Shegos. The game was rather physical at times, but nothing not expected between these teams. ND finished the night 1-7 on the PP, where Michigan was 1-5.

Michigan’s penalty killing string was snapped at 25 straight chances when Notre Dame scored in the second period. It also stopped a lengthy goal scoring drought for the Irish, who seem to be rather snakebit around the net.

Carl Hagelin scored his team leading ninth goal of the season, leading the team in points.

Michigan is now three points out of sixth place, as NMU also lost to LSSU. A win Sunday coupled with another NMU loss to LSSU and an Ohio State loss to Miami, will allow Michigan to jump into a tie for sixth place with NMU and Notre Dame. LSSU is currently in fifth place, one point ahead of NMU and Notre Dame. Michigan and Ferris State both have two games in hand on the rest of the conference.

Forwards Lindsay Sparks and Anthony Ciraulo sat for Michigan. Defensemen Eric Elmblad and Greg Pateryn also did not play.

Yostmeister three star selections:

1. Michigan- Louie Caporusso- 1G, 2A on the night and constantly buzzing on the forecheck
2. Michigan- Brian Lebler- proved last night with 1 G and 1A that, if he can stay out of the box he can
contribute.
3. Michigan- Lee Moffie- probably the Freshman d-man’s best game, adding 1G and 1A.

Written by Yostmeister

Go Blue -- Wear Maize!