Michigan falls to Wisconsin in its third shutout of the season
Chris Meszaros
Daily Sports WriterNovember 29th, 2008
After its impressive 6-3 victory over No. 1 Minnesota last night, the question was, what kind of Michigan hockey team would play tonight against Wisconsin?
Would it be the team that was dominated in a two game sweep by the hands of Miami last weekend, or would it be the team that outplayed the Gophers for the entire 60 minutes?
After giving up careless turnovers throughout the game and not converting on any opportunities, it’s clear that the Michigan hockey team still has work to do.
Michigan (9-7 overall, 5-5-0 CCHA) lost to Wisconsin (7-7-2 overall, 6-5-2 WCHA) 3-0 at the Kohl Center in Madison.
Wisconsin opened up the scoring with 16 minutes to play in the third period.
After saving a shot from Wisconsin’s Brendan Smith, Sauer got out of position on the rebound, coming too far out of the net. The Badger’s Michael Davies put home the rebound with Sauer sprawling on the ground.
Michigan was unable to rebound from the goal. Junior Brian Lebler was called for a clipping penalty in the middle of the third, a five-minute major and the Badgers capitalized with another goal at the tail end.
Sauer tried to trap a loose puck on the ice, but when he didn’t Wisconsin junior Blake Geoffrion had an easy goal.
“We can kill a few penalties, but we can’t kill nine,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “I don’t know how much that added up to with the five-minute penalty, but it’s too much. We came on this trip to be a disciplined team. We had no idea how the referees would be calling penalties this year in this league”
Wisconsin added an empty netter at the end.
Though Wisconsin took over the game in the third period, it was close throughout.
Sauer was the star for Michigan in the second period. He denied five excellent scoring chances in the period.
On his best save, Sauer saved a shot but then got out of position on the rebound. Wisconsin had a wide open wrap around attempt but Sauer was there to stuff the other side with a diving attempt.
“He stood on his head in the second period,” Berenson said. “When you play on the road, the other team is going to catch fire at some point. They did and he matched that. We had to respond for him and we didn’t do it.”
The senior made another great save minutes later after giving up a rebound to a Badger right on the doorstep, but Sauer’s blocker was somehow there to stop the shot
The Wolverines reverted to their previously bad habits tonight, giving up too many turnovers in the defensive zone and in neutral ice. Although Wisconsin didn’t capitalize because of mistakes of its own, mishandling passes and missing the net on shots, it created quite a scare for Michigan.
After a dominating second period by Wisconsin, Michigan finally came back to finish the second on a strong note. The Wolverines created several scoring chances on a 4-on-4 in the final two minutes, two by sophomore Carl Hagelin, and drew a penalty in the final seconds to start the third period on the power play.
Both the first and second periods were similar, with both defenses playing well enough to shut out the opponent.
The first also ended in a stalemate. Both Wisconsin and Michigan played well on defense, killing off any dangerous chances and the goaltenders where there to clean up any mess.
Each team dominated ten minutes of action, Michigan started the game on fire after its 6-3 upset win against No. 1 Minnesota, getting two good chances by sophomore forward Matt Rust, but the sophomore whiffed on a good look into an open net. Freshman David Wohlberg also nearly connected on a bang-bang one-time play in front of the net, but tipped the pass wide.
The Badgers outplayed the Wolverines to end the period, giving up a bad turnover deep in their own zone, but the shot by Jake Gardiner was high and wide. Wisconsin also had two power-play opportunities at the end of the period, but failed to capitalize on either chance.
Printed from www.michigandaily.com on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 14:15:36 -0500