Michigan
24-10-5
Lake Superior State
8-27-2
Michigan Downs Lakers, Advances to CCHA Semifinals
3/10/2002 12:00:00 AM | Ice Hockey
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A three-point night on two goals and an assist by junior forward Mike Cammalleri (Richmond Hill, Ontario) sparked the sixth-ranked University of Michigan ice hockey team to a 4-1 win at Yost Ice Arena on Sunday night (March 10), eliminating No. 12 seed Lake Superior State two games to one in the first round of the CCHA Tournament.
| | Cammalleri |
Cammalleri, who posted a hat trick in Saturday's (March 9) victory, tallied the game's first two goals to give the Wolverines all the offense they would need for a victory, scoring late in the first period and early in the second stanza.
During a first period that saw the Lakers control the majority of play in the Wolverines' zone, U-M received a two-man advantage with just under 1:30 left in the stanza and took only 20 seconds to score, with Cammalleri taking a pass from sophomore defenseman Mike Komisarek (Islip Terrace, N.Y.), skating towards the net and drawing LSSU netminder Matt Violin to the ice before deking around him and roofing a shot for the 1-0 lead.
Cammalleri added his second of the game -- and fifth straight for Michigan over the last two games -- with a marker 4:32 into the second period, teaming up with freshman forward Eric Nystrom (Syosset, N.Y.) to put the Wolverines up by two goals. Nystrom carried the puck into the LSSU zone and kicked it over to Cammalleri, who shoveled the puck from the slot past a sprawling Violin.
Michigan had the chance to go up by a 3-0 margin halfway through the second when freshman forward Dwight Helminen (Brighton, Mich.) was awarded a penalty shot after Laker defenseman Chris Thompson froze the puck in the crease. Helminen beat Violin, but his shot rang off the left post and crossbar to keep the score at 2-0.
Two minutes into the third period, the Lakers finally got on the board when Jeremy Bachusz converted on the power play, bringing LSSU to within one. Aaron Davis set him up, hitting a streaking Bachusz from behind the net for a one-time shot that beat senior goaltender Josh Blackburn (Choctaw, Okla.).
The Wolverines regained their two-goal lead just over six minutes later when Nystrom teamed up with Cammalleri and junior forward Jed Ortmeyer (Omaha, Neb.). As Cammalleri rushed up the ice with Nystrom, he faked a slapshot at the blueline and dished it to Nystrom, who looked to pass to Cammalleri but held it for a short-side shot that caught Violin off-guard.
Michigan completed the scoring and wrapped up the series with an empty-net goal by junior forward John Shouneyia (Bloomfield Hills, Mich.) at 18:53.
Violin stopped 22 shots in the losing effort as Michigan outshot the Lakers by a 26-13 margin. Blackburn posted 12 saves and allowed just one goal for the second straight night. Each team converted once on the power play as LSSU went 1-for-7 with the man advantage while U-M was 1-2, scoring a power-play goal for the sixth straight game.
Michigan now advances to the CCHA semifinals on Saturday (March 16) against an opponent to be determined in the CCHA Super Six Championship at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. The Wolverines will face the lowest remaining seed from Friday's (March 15) quarterfinal games between No. 3 Northern Michigan and No. 8 Notre Dame and No. 4 Alaska Fairbanks and No. 7 Ohio State. Opening faceoff is slated for 2 p.m., and the game will be televised live by FOX Sports Net Detroit.
GAME SUMMARY
| Goals By Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lake Superior State | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Michigan | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
1st period
1, MICH, Mike Cammalleri/20 (Mike Komisarek, John Shouneyia) 19:19 (pp).
PENALTIES - Mark Mink, MICH (interference) 4:30; J.J. Swistak, MICH (obstruction-hooking) 11:35; Barry Pochmara, LSSU (high sticking) 14:19; Milan Gajic, MICH (cross-checking) 14:19; Chad Dahlen, LSSU (obstruction-hooking) 17:26; Ryan Reid, LSSU (hooking) 18:33; Jed Ortmeyer, MICH (high sticking) 19:51.
2nd period
2, MICH, Mike Cammalleri/21 (Eric Nystrom, Jed Ortmeyer) 4:32.
PENALTIES - Chris Thompson, LSSU (minor penalty) 9:43; David Moss, MICH (obstruction-hooking) 10:44.
3rd period
3, LSSU, Jeremy Bachusz/6 (Aaron Davis, Jeff Mushaluk) 2:00 (pp).
4, MICH, Eric Nystrom/16 (Mike Cammalleri, Jed Ortmeyer) 8:46.
5, MICH, John Shouneyia/10 (unassisted) 18:53 (empty net).
PENALTIES - Milan Gajic, MICH (obstruction-hooking) 1:15; Mike Roemensky, MICH (interference) 9:50; Brandon Rogers, MICH (holding) 13:14.
Shots on goal: LSSU 4-6-3 13; MICH 7-11-8 26. Power plays: LSSU 1 of 7; MICH 1 of 2. Penalties: LSSU 4 (8 min); MICH 8 (16 min). Goalies: LSSU, Matt Violin 4-11-2 (57:04 minutes, 25 shots-22 saves) , EMPTY NET (02:56, 0-0); MICH, Josh Blackburn 23-10-5 (60:00, 13-12). Penalty Shot: MICH 0-1 (9:43 2nd period, Helminen hit the left post). Referee: Steve McInchak. Assistant Referees: Kevin Langseth, John Philo. Attendance: 5879. Time: 2:22.
| Individual Player Statistics | |
## Lake Superior State G A PIM Sh +/- --------------------------------------- 2 Tyson Turgeon...... 0 0 0 0 0 3*Chris Thompson..... 0 0 2 2 -1 4 Ryan Reid.......... 0 0 2 1 -2 5*Bo Cheesman........ 0 0 0 0 -3 7 Will Magnuson...... 0 0 0 0 0 8 Chris Peterson..... 0 0 0 0 0 9 Derek Seal......... 0 0 0 0 0 10 Kyle Anderson...... 0 0 0 1 0 11*Chris McNamara..... 0 0 0 0 -2 12 Justin Micek....... 0 0 0 0 0 14 Barry Pochmara..... 0 0 2 1 -1 15*Jeremy Bachusz..... 1 0 0 2 -3 20 Adam Nightingale... 0 0 0 0 -1 22 Ryan Branham....... 0 0 0 0 0 23 Jason Nightingale.. 0 0 0 1 0 26 Aaron Davis........ 0 1 0 3 0 27 Jeff Mushaluk...... 0 1 0 1 -2 28*Chad Dahlen........ 0 0 2 1 -1 Totals............. 1 2 8 13 -16 | ## Michigan G A PIM Sh +/- --------------------------------------- 3 Eric Werner........ 0 0 0 2 0 4 Andy Burnes........ 0 0 0 0 +2 5 Brandon Rogers..... 0 0 2 0 +2 8*Mike Komisarek..... 0 1 0 3 +1 9 Milan Gajic........ 0 0 4 1 +1 10 Dwight Helminen.... 0 0 0 4 0 12 J.J. Swistak....... 0 0 2 1 0 13*Mike Cammalleri.... 2 1 0 6 +2 14 Craig Murray....... 0 0 0 1 0 15*Jay Vancik......... 0 0 0 0 +1 17 Michael Woodford... 0 0 0 2 +1 18 David Moss......... 0 0 2 1 0 20 Charlie Henderson.. 0 0 0 1 0 21*Eric Nystrom....... 1 1 0 1 +2 23 Mike Roemensky..... 0 0 2 1 0 25 Mark Mink.......... 0 0 2 0 0 26*Jed Ortmeyer....... 0 2 2 1 +2 28 John Shouneyia..... 1 1 0 1 +1 Totals............. 4 6 16 26 +15 |
N O T E S
Michigan advances to the CCHA semifinals for the 13th straight season.
U-M's 2-1 series win over Lake Superior was its second series in the last 12 years decided in a third game. A 1998 set with Notre Dame went into a third game, with the Wolverines prevailing by a 4-3 margin.
After spotting LSSU a 4-0 lead, the Wolverines outscored the Lakers 11-2 in the rest of the series.
Michigan has netted four goals in six of its last seven games.
Mike Cammalleri extended his point streak to five games with his second three-point effort in as many nights. Cammalleri, who has posted back-to-back multi-goal games, has 6-4-10 in his last five skates, including 5-2-7 totals in the opening series with Lake Superior.
Mike Komisarek extended his assist streak to a career-high three games with a helper tonight.
John Shouneyia posted his 15th multi-point game of the season with a goal and an assist, and he has notched a point in 11 of his last 13 games, including an assist in each of the last two contests. Shouneyia established a career high for goals in a campaign with his 10th marker, eclipsing his nine from a year ago.
Jed Ortmeyer posted his fourth multi-assist game of the season and has a point in six of his last nine skates (4-5-9), including three of his last four appearances (1-3-4).
Eric Nystrom recorded his first points of the postseason with a goal and an assist, his sixth multi-point game of the year.
Q U O T E S
Head Coach Red Berenson
On whether or not this was one of the toughest first-round opponents ... "It really was. Maybe it's one of the reasons I'm not so much in favor of everyone making the playoffs. You get the top six teams that are really battling for home ice and maybe some of the lower teams get a chance to redeem themselves. Lake State played well, they played hard, and this was a close series."
On why it was hard to pull away from LSSU ... "Obviously, they've got goalkeeping. They play a tough defensive style, it's tough to get to the net, and you rarely get outnumbered rushes because everybody is back. Their style will probably be successful for their team in the future when they get some guys that are a little better offensively."
On the importance of the win ... "It was important for us to be able to play in these kind of games. They're (LSSU) on their heels, they're playing not to lose and we're trying to win. We're the favorite team, and the pressure was on us the whole weekend."
Reviewing the series ... "We started off with a tough game and I can't tell you we played that bad but the breaks went against us obviously in the first two goals and we had a tough time getting the puck past them again. It was a real good team effort on Saturday for our team to rebound and find a way to take the lead and take control of the game and all that game did was get us a ticket into tonight's game. We had our backs to the wall last night, they (LSSU) had their backs to the wall a little more tonight but we also did. We knew that if we didn't win this game, it would be the last game of the year."
On improvements for next weekend ... "I think we need to improve in some areas. When you think you're a first-place team and you're playing what you think is a last-place team, you don't always play your best. I think we tried to but obviously it was a tough weekend. We'll address some issues this week, but they're not big issues, just little things because all the teams we're playing from now on will be above .500 and better teams."
Junior Forward Jed Ortmeyer
On the play of Lake Superior ... "We knew we would get their best, they had nothing to lose. The way they've been playing, going into a lot of one-goal games throughout the year, they have a new coach who's got them buying into the system and they're really working hard."
On having Mike Cammalleri back in the lineup ... "It's great. He's obviously a special player and to get him back on your line, you just try to go to the net and keep your stick on the ice and he'll find you. He just adds that much more depth to our team and it's a huge bonus to have him back in our lineup."
Junior Forward Mike Cammalleri
On his first goal ... "We were five-on-three so we had some room out there and they (Jed Ortmeyer, John Shouneyia and Mike Komisarek) were moving the puck well, which gave me some room. (Eric) Nystrom picked the defense to set up my one-on-one with the goaltender."
On facing the end of the season tonight ... "That was our mentality coming into last night and tonight. We get to live and see another day and that helps our team if we play with desperation. From hereon in that's our situation. That's a good judge of character when you see a team who's got their backs against the wall and they're facing adversity and they come out and win hockey games and find a way to win. It shows some character."
Contact: Paul Thomas (734) 763-4423
