Michigan teams tournament-bound

By Matt Mackinder / MiCHO Editor-In-Chief

Several Michigan-based college hockey teams will be competing in holiday tournaments in two weeks before the second half of the regular season kicks in.

In arguably the most prestigious tournament of them all, Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech and this year’s invited school, Providence, will take part in the Great Lakes Invitational Dec. 28-29 at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.

The Spartans won the GLI last year and in 2004 and aim to send their seniors out with their third title.

Michigan and Providence play in the first semifinal with Michigan State and the Huskies in the nightcap.

All four GLI games will be televised on FSN Detroit.

Northern Michigan will be in the Denver Cup with host Denver and Dartmouth and Sacred Heart from Dec. 28-29 in Colorado. NMU opens the tournament against Dartmouth.

At the Catamount Cup Dec. 29-30 in Burlington, Vt., Western Michigan will do battle with host Vermont along with Quinnipiac and Holy Cross. The Broncos face Quinnipiac in their first game.

Ferris State, Brown (and ex-Wayne State assistant coach Danny Brooks), Army and Connecticut go after the UConn Hockey Classic title out east. FSU will tackle Brown on Dec. 28.

The other Michigan schools – Lake Superior State and Wayne State – are idle until the first weekend in January.

Broncos fall to USA Junior Team

Compiled by MiCHO Staff

The 2008 U.S. National Junior Team netted two power-play goals and recorded a 37-14 shots advantage to secure a 4-2 win over Western Michigan University in an exhibition game Tuesday night at Lawson Arena.

"Tonight was a very good test for us," said John Hynes, head coach of the U.S. National Junior Team. "Western Michigan challenged us physically and several of our breakdowns cost us. The reason we play these games is to learn lessons that will help us to be prepared to win the World Junior Championship."

Team USA carried the play for much of the opening period, and was rewarded with two goals in the final four minutes of the stanza. Kyle Okposo put the U.S. ahead, 1-0, with a power-play goal at the 16:55 mark with assists going to Jamie McBain and Cade Fairchild. McBain set up the play by sending a pass from the right circle over to Okposo in the slot. Okposo then wristed a low shot through the legs of WMU goaltender Riley Gill.

Ryan Flynn buried a shot from the left of the Bronco net with 1:53 left in the period with Blake Geoffrion and Colin Wilson drawing assists on the play.

Western Michigan got on the board at 8:11 of the second frame when Max Campbell flipped a shot from the slot up high past Team USA netminder Jeremy Smith (Plymouth Whalers - OHL) on the glove side.

Both teams switched goaltenders with 8:24 left in the middle session. Joe Palmer came in for Team USA and Jerry Kuhn was sent to the Broncos net.

The U.S. National Junior Team opened up a 3-1 lead with a man advantage at 13:34 as McBain scored on a 2-on-1 break. After receiving a pass on the right wing from Matt Rust (Michigan), McBain used a WMU defender as a screen to slide the puck through the legs of Kuhn.

Campbell tallied his second marker of the evening 1:24 later to bring the Broncos within one when his shot from the left circle that whistled by Palmer's left shoulder.

Mike Carman provided Team USA with a two-goal cushion with 2:58 left in the game. Rhett Rakhshani took a shot from the right circle that handcuffed Kuhn. Carman was able to slip the rebound into the back of the net. Bobby Sanguinetti was credited with the second assist on the play.

"It's a tremendous opportunity for our program and the community at large. The guys next door wearing the stars and stripes are selected to represent our country over at the World Juniors and that's the elite young players that we're up against," WMU head coach Jim Culhane said."Our guys worked extremely hard and battled. Obviously, the shots are two to one in their favor, but I don't think you can fault our effort and determination throughout the hockey game."

Smith and Palmer combined to make 12 saves for Team USA.

Kuhn took the loss, surrendering two goals in 25:55 of play. Gill and Smith each saw 31:08 of action. Matt Federico made two saves in 2:57 late in the third period. Team USA was 2-for-3 on the power-play while holding Western Michigan scoreless in two opportunities.

The U.S. National Junior Team will play one more exhibition game - on Saturday against the Czech Republic in Ceska Trebova, Czech Republic - prior to the 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation World Junior Championship in Pardubice and Liberec, Czech Republic, Dec. 26-Jan. 5.

WMU breaks for the holidays before returning to action Dec. 29-30 when it travels to Vermont for the Catamount Cup. The Broncos will face Quinnipiac at 4:05 p.m. on Dec. 29, then will face either Holy Cross or the host Catamounts the following day.

Warriors swept at Niagara

Compiled by MiCHO Staff

Wayne State ventured to Niagara last weekend for two CHA games and came away with two losses.

Friday night, WSU fell by a 4-2 count. Matt Krug and Stavros Paskaris scored third-period power-play goals and goaltender Brett Bothwell made 23 saves.

Jon Grabarek scored the lone goal for the Warriors in Saturday’s 2-1 defeat. Kyle Funkenhauser finished with 20 saves, including 17 in the first two periods.

Wayne State (3-13-2, 1-5-0 CHA) is idle until 2008 when its nine-game road trip continues at Minnesota (Jan. 4-5) and Northern Michigan (Jan. 11-12).

NMU bests Tech, secures Cup

The Northern Michigan Wildcats rounded out the season series with the UP-rival Michigan Tech Huskies this weekend with a Friday night tie and a 2-0 victory on Saturday night.

The win assured that NMU would be in control of the Ramada Cup - the trophy given to the winner of the NMU-MTU season series - for the next year.

The heat of the rivalry was drawn to the surface on Friday night when, with 10 seconds remaining in overtime, NMU goaltender Brian Stewart was on the receiving end of a Jordan Foote hit.

A fist fight quickly broke out between the two teams and went on for nearly a minute while the officials tried to separate players across the ice.

When the smoke finally cleared, Foote had picked up a pair of five-minute calls for slashing and fighting, as well as two 10-minute game disqualifications. MTU’s Eric Kattelus and NMU’s TJ Miller and Matt Siddall each got five-minute fighting penalties and 10-minute game disqualifications. In the final 30 seconds of the contest, there were 90 penalty minutes and four DQs given out.

In all, there were 114 minutes of penalties handed out during the 1-1 draw.

NMU's Friday goal came from Siddall, while Tech's Matt Gwilliam netted his team's lone marker.

On Saturday, Northern (7-10-1, 5-9-0) scored a pair of goals in the second period and was back-stopped by a second solid effort from sophomore goaltender Stewart. Tech (6-8-2, 5-6-1) could never make up the deficit.

NMU goals came in from Ray Kaunisto and Andrew Sarauer.

For the weekend, Stewart was lights-out and finished the series with 64 saves on 65 Tech shots for a .985 weekend save percentage. If you stretch those numbers back through the Wildcat victory against Alaska a couple weeks back, Stewart has stopped 90 of 93 shots in his last three starts for a .968 save percentage.

The winning goalie, however, got minimal help from his offense this weekend and NMU was out-shot, 65-24.

The Wildcats will now get a short holiday break before they face off again on Dec. 28 in the Denver Cup. The 'Cats will take on Dartmouth and either Denver or SHU.