Michigan
22-10-5
Lake Superior State
8-25-2
Michigan Upset by Lakers in CCHA Tournament Opener
3/8/2002 12:00:00 AM | Ice Hockey
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Opening the first round of the CCHA Tournament, the sixth-ranked University of Michigan ice hockey team spotted Lake Superior State a four-goal lead in game one of the best-of-three series and could not recover, dropping the opening game by a 4-3 margin Friday (March 8) to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead in the weekend set.
| | Moss |
Coming into the game with a 9-1-0 mark in their last 10 games and a six-game home winning streak, the Wolverines found themselves down 2-0 just 2:32 into the game on a pair of Lake Superior State breakaway goals, and U-M trailed by a 3-0 margin after the first period, despite outshooting the Lakers by a 17-5 margin.
Lake State forward Jeremy Bachusz put the Lakers on the board 36 seconds into the game on a U-M power play, blocking a shot by junior forward Mike Cammalleri (Richmond Hill, Ontario) at the Michigan blueline and racing down the ice with the puck, beating senior goaltender Josh Blackburn (Choctaw, Okla.) through his five-hole. Less than two minutes later, the same situation occurred when Chris McNamara, who was serving the penalty, came out of the penalty box, took a pass from Chris Peterson, and skated alone into the U-M zone, beating Blackburn through his five-hole.
The Lakers made it 3-0 at 14:07 when Bachusz netted his second of the night, scoring through Blackburn's five-hole on a two-on-one breakaway. In the LSSU zone, junior defenseman Mike Roemensky (White Lake, Mich.) tried to send the puck around the boards, but Aaron Davis intercepted the puck and fed it to Bachusz to begin the odd-man rush.
In the second period, McNamara extended Lake State's lead to 4-0 just over five minutes in after LSSU capitalized on a turnover in the Wolverines' zone. McNamara stripped the puck to gain possession and chipped it to Bachusz, who skated down the left wing and hit McNamara in the slot for a shot that went through Blackburn's five-hole.
The Wolverines began their comeback less than two minutes later when freshmen defenseman Eric Werner (Grosse Pointe Woods, Mich.) slapped a rebound shot in from the right faceoff circle. Junior forward J.J. Swistak (West Bloomfield, Mich.) took the initial shot that caromed off the mask of LSSU netminder Matt Violin and out to Werner for the empty-net goal.
Michigan cut the lead to 4-2 just 47 seconds later on the power play when freshman Michael Woodford (Westford, Mass.) tapped in a rebound off a shot from the point by sophomore defenseman Mike Komisarek (Islip Terrace, N.Y.). Komisarek's shot hit freshman forward David Moss (Dearborn, Mich.) in the slot and bounced into the crease for Woodford to poke it home.
Down by two late in the third period, junior forward Jed Ortmeyer (Omaha, Neb.) brought the Wolverines to within one with Blackburn on the bench, scoring with the extra attacker at 18:11. Freshman forward Milan Gajic (Burnaby, B.C.) picked up the puck along the boards after a failed clearing attempt by the Lakers and tapped it over to Cammalleri, who hit Ortmeyer with a pass in front of the crease. Ortmeyer backhanded the puck over Violin to give the Wolverines a chance to send the game into overtime.
Blackburn was pulled twice more during the final 1:49, but the Wolverines could only manage one shot on goal, which was stopped by Violin.
Violin made 39 saves as Michigan outshot the Lakers 42-16, marking the third time this season the Wolverines have kept Lake State to 16 shots or less. LSSU was 0-for-2 on the power play, while U-M netted a goal on one of its four chances.
The Wolverines and Lakers will continue the best-of-three series on Saturday night (March 9), with opening faceoff slated for 7:05 p.m. The game will be televised by FOX Sports Net Detroit.
GAME SUMMARY
| Goals By Period | 1 | 2 | 3 | F |
| Lake Superior State | 3 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| Michigan | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
1st period
1, LSSU, Jeremy Bachusz/4 (unassisted) 0:36 (sh).
2, LSSU, Chris McNamara/10 (Chris Peterson) 2:32.
3, LSSU, Jeremy Bachusz/5 (Aaron Davis, Jason Nightingale) 14:07.
PENALTIES - Chris McNamara, LSSU (checking from behind) :23; Jeremy Bachusz, LSSU (holding) 7:34.
2nd period
4, LSSU, Chris McNamara/11 (Jeremy Bachusz) 5:44.
5, MICH, Eric Werner/4 (J.J. Swistak, David Moss) 7:09.
6, MICH, Michael Woodford/7 (David Moss, Mike Komisarek) 7:56 (pp).
PENALTIES - Jeremy Bachusz, LSSU (cross-checking) 7:47; David Moss, MICH (goaltender interference) 10:25; Michael Woodford, MICH (interference) 17:09.
3rd period
7, MICH, Jed Ortmeyer/12 (Mike Cammalleri, Milan Gajic) 18:11.
PENALTIES - Milan Gajic, MICH (roughing) :32; Chris Thompson, LSSU (roughing) :32; Chad Dahlen, LSSU (holding) 10:20.
Shots on goal: LSSU 5-9-2 16; MICH 17-13-12 42. Power plays: LSSU 0 of 2; MICH 1 of 4. Penalties: LSSU 5 (10 min); MICH 3 (6 min). Goalies: LSSU, Matt Violin 4-9-2 (60:00 minutes, 42 shots-39 saves); MICH, Josh Blackburn 21-10-5 (58:37, 16-12) , EMPTY NET (01:23, 0-0). Referee: Steve McInchak. Assistant Referees: Kevin Langseth, John Philo. Attendance: 6608. Time: 2:16.
| Individual Player Statistics | |
## Lake Superior State G A PIM Sh +/- --------------------------------------- 2 Tyson Turgeon...... 0 0 0 0 0 3*Chris Thompson..... 0 0 2 0 0 4 Ryan Reid.......... 0 0 0 0 +1 5 Bo Cheesman........ 0 0 0 1 0 6 Jeff Cochrane...... 0 0 0 0 0 7 Will Magnuson...... 0 0 0 1 +1 8 Chris Peterson..... 0 1 0 0 +1 9 Derek Seal......... 0 0 0 0 0 10 Kyle Anderson...... 0 0 0 0 0 11*Chris McNamara..... 2 0 2 2 +1 14 Barry Pochmara..... 0 0 0 2 -1 15 Jeremy Bachusz..... 2 1 4 4 +2 20*Adam Nightingale... 0 0 0 1 0 22 Ryan Branham....... 0 0 0 1 +1 23*Jason Nightingale.. 0 1 0 1 -1 26 Aaron Davis........ 0 1 0 1 +2 27 Jeff Mushaluk...... 0 0 0 2 +1 28*Chad Dahlen........ 0 0 2 0 +1 Totals............. 4 4 10 16 +9 | ## Michigan G A PIM Sh +/- --------------------------------------- 3 Eric Werner........ 1 0 0 2 +1 4 Andy Burnes........ 0 0 0 0 0 5 Brandon Rogers..... 0 0 0 0 0 8*Mike Komisarek..... 0 1 0 4 -3 9 Milan Gajic........ 0 1 2 0 0 10 Dwight Helminen.... 0 0 0 4 -1 12 J.J. Swistak....... 0 1 0 3 +1 13 Mike Cammalleri.... 0 1 0 5 +1 14 Craig Murray....... 0 0 0 1 -1 15*Jay Vancik......... 0 0 0 1 -1 17 Michael Woodford... 1 0 2 6 -1 18 David Moss......... 0 2 2 1 +2 20 Charlie Henderson.. 0 0 0 3 -2 21*Eric Nystrom....... 0 0 0 4 -3 23 Mike Roemensky..... 0 0 0 1 +1 25*Mark Mink.......... 0 0 0 0 -1 26 Jed Ortmeyer....... 1 0 0 3 0 28*John Shouneyia..... 0 0 0 4 -2 Totals............. 3 6 6 42 -9 |
N O T E S
Michigan's loss is only the second by a No. 1 seed in the first round of the CCHA Tournament. During the 1987 tournament, No. 8 Ferris State dropped No. 1 Bowling Green by a 6-4 margin in game one.
A No. 1 seed has never lost an opening-round series in the CCHA Tournament.
Michigan had an eight-game winning streak in the first round snapped tonight and suffered only its second loss in the last 26 first-round games, all played at Yost Ice Arena.
Michigan has only gone into a third game in the first round once in the last 12 years and needs a win tomorrow night to force a rubber match.
The Wolverines dropped to ninth in the Pairwise Rankings with the loss after entering the weekend ranked fourth.
U-M's only other first-round loss in the past 12 years was a 4-2 decision to No. 7 Notre Dame in 1998 when it was seeded second. The Wolverines went on to win that series with 2-1 (ot) and 4-3 victories on their way to an NCAA title.
U-M is 0-3-0 against Lake Superior State in the first round of the CCHA Tournament.
David Moss posted his first career multi-assist and multi-point game with 0-2-2 totals.
Michigan has held the Lakers to 16 shots or less in each of the three meetings this season.
Q U O T E S
Head Coach Red Berenson
On Lake Superior State's first-period goals ... "Those were tough breaks; on the other hand, they (LSSU) took advantage of those breaks. Last week we talked about blocking shots. They blocked a shot and scored a goal. They scored one out of the penalty box, and their timing was right. You obviously can't give a team two breakaways and expect to get off to a good start. They scored on both of them and then they scored on their next shot. It's a tough way to start the game. We talk about the fact there are going to be upsets, and you'd have to say that was an upset. For us, the whole weekend comes down to tomorrow."
On U-M goaltender Josh Blackburn's play ... "I think Blackie could have played better; on the other hand, you shouldn't give a team two breakaways in the first place. Before he really gets a good shot he's got two breakaways in the net. Maybe on another night he'd make those stops, but I can't put any blame on Blackburn. We just can't give up those kind of chances."
On Michigan's play ... "We played well. We did a lot of good things. It was just the chances we gave them that hurt us."
On parity in the league ... "There's not a big difference between first place and last place or first place and 11th place. We've seen that in Bowling Green, we've seen that in Lake State. They come in here and get a 4-0 lead and it should be easy for them to win the game, and they did that."
Junior Forward Jed Ortmeyer
On coming back from a four-goal deficit ... "It's definitely tough when we spot a team four goals, no matter who they are."
On the team's mood after the game ... "Hopefully it will bring us closer together. We definitely have to stick together and support each other. We have to come back tomorrow, you know, with our backs against the wall once again and hopefully we can respond."
On the Lakers holding the lead ... "They went into a little bit of a trap, I think maybe we tried to do too much instead of just trying to get in deep, but they definitely did a good job."
Sophomore Defenseman Mike Komisarek
On the game ... "I think we gave them life. Anytime you give a team three breakaway chances and put it in the net, it gave them life, it gave them confidence and motivated them that much more. They came in here right off the bat with three quick goals and think they can play with us and shut us down."
Contact: Paul Thomas (734) 763-4423
