Michigan splits with Northern Michigan

After an upset win Friday night over host Michigan, Northern Michigan had to settle for a split with the Wolverines after a loss on Saturday night.

Friday, the Wildcats ended U of M's 22-game home CCHA win streak with a 4-1 win. Milan Gajic had Michigan's lone goal while NMU goalie Tuomas Tarkki made 27 saves.

Darin Olver and Patrick Murphy scored on two of Northern's first three shots on Wolverines goalie Al Montoya. Mike Santorelli and Pat Bateman finished the scoring for NMU (13-8-5, 11-6-3 CCHA).

Montoya stopped just 13 shots for U of M (20-7-1, 17-3-0 CCHA).

"We didn't come out and have the game we wanted to have," Michigan senior defenseman Brandon Rogers said. "A lot of the time when we win at home we get it going early and we get the fans behind us and it's hard for the other team to play. We never established that tonight. We let them get on the board early and get ahead of us. We played from behind all night."

Michigan captain Eric Nystrom and Kevin Porter scored on back-to-back power plays Saturday night to pace Michigan to a 3-1 win. Gajic scored early in the third period for a three-goal cushion. Montoya lost his shutout when NMU defenseman Jamie Milam scored at 11:54 of the third period.

Tarkki made 28 saves in defeat while Montoya stopped 19.

"I think a lot of good things showed up in tonight's game," Michigan head coach Red Berenson said. "I thought we played with more of an edge and more of a fight and with more urgency in the game. These games mentally are games of desperation and confidence. There's a balance between the two. If you don't have enough desperation, you're going to look like you're overconfident, and maybe we played with a little bit of that (overconfidence) last night. Tonight we played with more desperation. There was more urgency and more second efforts all through the game. We got rewarded for it. Maybe we didn't like the way the game finished, but for the most part I though we made a stronger team effort."

The ‘Cats will begin a five-game homestand this weekend when Alaska Fairbanks will call at the Berry Events Center for two games.

Michigan will face Michigan State this Friday at Yost Ice Arena with a 7:35 p.m. start. The teams will then rematch Saturday at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit at 7:30 p.m. Both games will be on Fox Sports Net Detroit.