Friday, March 19, 2010

Live Blog: Ferris State/Northern Michigan

Karl Henkel/At the CCHA Tournament

The weekend officially kicks off in about 20 minutes, so buckle your seat belts, then unbuckle them and run in the house and turn on the television. Or, just follow along here.

Pre-game: Brian Stewart (NMU) and Pat Nagle (FSU) get the starts in net.

19:30: Ferris State coach Bob Daniels is sporting a much more traditional wardrobe than NMU coach Walt Kyle. Seriously, what is Kyle wearing?

17:06: A Northern Michigan giveaway leads to a decent scoring chance for FSU's Casey Haines, but the shot is deflected out of play.

15:10: Northern Michigan gets its first shot on goal after a semi-break from Mike Maltese.

13:09: Ferris State applies extended pressure in the NMU zone, but nothing comes of the opportunities.

9:19: All of the fans not in attendance are really missing out on all these scoring chances ... er, shots on goal ... er, neutral zone battles.

8:50: Finally, a good scoring chance for NMU's Tyler Gron, who pounced on a rebound off the pads of Nagle.

6:39: The Wildcats get the first power-play opportunity as FSU's Michael Trebish goes off for hooking.

4:39: Nothing doing on the power play.

2:29: Ferris State strikes first on an odd goal. Jordie Johnston's shot from the left wing hit Stewart in the mask, and the richochet went through NMU defenseman Kyle Follmer's legs and right to FSU forward Todd Pococke, who sent it back through Follmer's legs and into a wide open net.

End of first period: For a period with 25 combined shots (FSU led 13-12), it was rather quiet. With the way the first period played out, this may end up being a low-scoring affair.

Second period

18:17: The shots are still coming from the outside and good chances are missing the net. Ferris State's Justin Menke draws a penalty for contact to the head-high sticking.

16:00: Two power-play chances and nothing to show for it on NMU's part. Ferris State has done a nice job defensively, so much so that the best scoring opportunity of the power play was by FSU's Mike Fillinger on a two-on-one.

14:37: The Bulldogs get their first chance with the man advantage as Alan Dorich goes off for tripping. FSU has a 19 percent power-play mark on the season.

12:39: Fans of defensive hockey are getting their money's worth so far. Power plays have meant nothing the first half of the game.

11:40: A nonchalant shot deflection by Nagle leads to a penalty against Ferris State's Toff Pococke for obstruction hooking.

9:40: Northern Michigan was able to get sustained pressure and had two good scoring chances, including Mark Olver's shot from between the circles that hit the crossbar. His shot was deflected by FSU's Blair Riley.

9:00: Ray Kaunisto's wraparound attempt was stuffed by Nagle, but his follow-attempt beat Nagle blocker-side to tie the game at 1.

8:19: Andrew Cherniwchan scoops up a Joe Louis Arena bounce and cuts in alone on Nagle from between the circles. Cherniwchan beats Nagle with a nice deke.

7:58: Let the meltdown begin in Big Rapids. Kaunisto scores again and it's 3-1 NMU.

7:58: Ferris State burns its time out.

6:37: Dumb penalty taken by NMU's Justin Florek, who gets two minutes for boarding.

2:31: The intensity has picked up late in the second period. It looks as if Ferris State is mad it relinquished its lead.

2:30: Right on cue, FSU's Cody Chupp wrists a turnaround shot into the net. NMU's lead is now 3-2.

2:13: For some reason, one official stepped into the scorer's box to talk on the phone. What's even more interesting is that the phone appears to have a wire coming out of the bottom of it. They still make those? Was the official also paged on his beeper? Apparently nothing will arise from the phone call.

End of period: The three goals in 1:02 by NMU breaks the previous record for the fastest three goals in a CCHA tournament game. The previous mark was 2:27, set by Michigan State in a 2003 first-round game. Shots are 26-21 FSU after two.

Intermission: During an on-ice promotion, a fan won a free CCHA t-shirt. Free? It must not be of high quality. For a high-quality t-shirt, check out the inaugural MichiganCollegeHockey.com t-shirt on the front page. For just $11, you can look like the coolest cat in the kennel.

Third period

19:10: Ferris State is humming early on, already with multiple chances from close range.

14:45: Ferris State has now fired 30 shots at NMU goalie Brian Stewart, who has to be considered as one of the game's top performers to this point.

13:16: FSU's Mike Embach was all alone on Stewart, whose poke check prevented Embach from completing his deke.

11:56: Tyler Gron, parked to the left of Nagle, takes a feed from Ray Kaunisto and buries it for a 4-2 lead.

6:54: Harmless shot from Embach finds its way through Stewart to make a ball game out of this one. Should be an extremely entertaining final few minutes.

5:53: I believe Mickey Redmond would call this a bingo-bango play. Matthew Kirzinger buried Zach Redmond's cross-ice pass to tie the score at 4. Stewart had little chance to come across and stop the shot.

5:22: Embach fires one off the iron. Ferris State has Northern Michigan on its heels.

1:33: The puck is bouncing all over the place; Ferris State controls deep in NMU territory.

35.7: Stewart nearly fumbles a shot from Aaron Lewicki off the right boards.

End of regulation: It's going to be awkward to have three teams playing in the championship game at one time. What's that? You mean they play until someone wins? Awesome.

Overtime

Note: The last overtime CCHA tournament game was in 2008, when Miami beat Notre Dame, 2-1 on an Alec Martinez goal.

18:53: It didn't take long and it didn't take much. Greger Hanson's half-slapper from between the circles careened off Nagle. NMU wins, 5-4 in OT.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done on the blog!

Skip Noodlemaker said...

You guys freaking rock - one of the big boys now. You definitely put INCH and USCHO to shame. Nice job guys (and girl?)