The CCHA’s leading scorer came to Yost and continued his
torrid point-scoring pace by registering a point in each game of
the weekend series. The only problem was that each time he was
credited with a point, the game was all but over.
Miami sophomore forward Matt Christie — who came into the
weekend series with five goals and 10 assists in just eight games
— was limited to a garbage-time goal on Friday night and an
assist on Saturday that also came too late.
On Friday, with Michigan leading 5-1 in the final minute and
Miami down a man, Christie managed to pull away from the Michigan
defense for a breakaway. The Mighty Duck draft pick beat junior
goalie Al Montoya glove side and notched his sixth goal of the
season.
“(The gameplan) was definitely to shut down their top
line, and him in particular,” senior defenseman Brandon
Rogers said. “It’s frustrating he got two points right
at the end of both games when we had him in check all night both
games. But I think for the most part we did a good job of keeping
him off the scoreboard.”
Christie had nothing but praise for the stout Michigan
defense.
“They played solid as a team,” Christie said.
“When you play against good teams, they don’t usually
worry about individuals. We had a gameplan, and they had a
gameplan. And they just outplayed us this weekend.”
The breakaway was not the first showdown of the night between
Christie and Montoya. On two occasions Christie and Montoya
collided on the ice. On the second occurrence, Christie was
whistled for a two-minute goalie interference penalty.
“The two of us battled a little bit last year,”
Christie said. “Sometimes I play down low on the power play,
so I’m in front of the net. He’s a competitor, and so
am I. So things like that happen.”
Overall, Michigan was happy about the way it defended the top
CCHA scorer and one of the top offensive lines in the
conference.
“We knew that if Christie and (Chris Michael) had good
weekends then we probably wouldn’t win because they win when
those guys score,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said.
“I’m disappointed with the shorthanded goal last night,
but we did a pretty good job, and it wasn’t just by playing
defense. It was by playing offense and good forechecking, as
well.”