GBMWolverine: Michigan Hockey -- Northern Michigan at Michigan -- Preview -- Part I

Posted at 6:00am — 2/17/2012

GBMWolverine: Michigan Hockey — Northern Michigan at Michigan — Preview — Part I

#5 Michigan Hosts #20 NMU In Last Regular Season Home Series
#5 Michigan (18-10-4, 12-8-4-1 3rd CCHA) vs. #20 NMU (14-10-6, 9-9-6-3 t7th CCHA)
Yost Ice Arena — Ann Arbor, Michigan
Friday 2/17 at 7:35 p.m. — TV: Friday — BTN — DirecTV Channel 610.
Saturday 2/18 at 5:05 — TV: Saturday — FSD — DirecTV Channel 663. (Hockey Day in Michigan)

The Wolverines took a short trip up to East Lansing last Friday before moving downtown for the annual JLA engagement with the Spartans. Michigan dropped a 3-2 decision in the opener, but rebounded for a come from behind 3-2 overtime victory in Detroit. NMU traveled to Bowling Green and secured their first road sweep of the season over the last place Falcons. Michigan maintained their 3rd place spot in the CCHA, one point behind 2nd place WMU and six points behind CCHA leader, and #1 team in the country, Ferris State. Northern is mired in a three way tie for 7th position along with Miami and Notre Dame and trail Michigan by five points. Michigan traveled to Marquette this past October and lost 5-3 and tied 3-3 before winning their only shootout in six tries. The Wolverines are 11-5-1 at home this season, while NMU is 6-8-1 on the road, including a 4-7-1 CCHA record. The Maize and Blue are 6-3-1 in their last ten against the Wildcats, 11-2-2 in their last fifteen games overall. Michigan leads the all time series 35-19-6. NMU has been outscored 45-35 on the road this season, and last beat Michigan at Yost on 2/19/2010. The ‘Cats have split series at Yost in ‘04-05, ‘06-07, and ‘09-2010.

Rewinding Michigan’s Previous Action:

The Wolverines played at Munn arena for the second time this season and came up on the short end of a 3-2 score. Michigan jumped out to a 2-0 second period lead on goals by AJ Treais and Kevin Lynch. The Spartans came back though, and evened the score early in the third period before netting a mid period marker to secure the victory. Neither team played well, with numerous turnovers allowing chances on both ends. The deciding factor in the game was two borderline penalty calls on Michigan forwards that led to PP goals. Michigan tried to gain the tying goal in the late stages of the game, but couldn’t convert a PP chance on a phantom call against MSU. It was a tough game to lose after having a two goal lead, but MSU was more aggressive and Michigan could not contain their power play. This was the first game that Michigan lost after holding a lead after two periods all season.

On Saturday night, both teams skated in front of a standing room crowd of 20,066 and put on an exciting up and down affair. The Wolverines took a 1-0 lead after one period on AJ Treais’ first of two goals. The Spartans scored off of a turnover and then potted another PPG to take the lead 2-1. Treais scored a beauty later in the period to send the teams off tied at 2-2 after two periods. The game stayed knotted for the third period, although Michigan barely survived long stretches of being dominated. They also fought off a late period PP chance by MSU and nearly won it with minutes remaining on a Greg Pateryn shot that found the far post.

Midway through OT, Michigan dumped the puck into the Spartan zone. The MSU defender went down to handle the bouncing puck and somehow saw it squirt past him. Kevin Lynch jumped behind him, went in and sent a far side shot past MSU’s Will Yanakeff to secure another JLA overtime win over their archrivals. Michigan is 3-0 at JLA this season, with two OT victories over MSU. Yanakeff was outstanding in the series, while Shawn Hunwick was near perfect and was the #1 star on Saturday night. The victory kept MSU three points behind Michigan, tied for 5th place with LSSU and one point behind 4th place Ohio.

Scouting the Wildcats:

Walt Kyle’s squad is an example of how difficult it is to gage the CCHA this season. One weekend they look as if they could compete for a national title, and the next they are dropping winnable games. It has led to an even CCHA conference record- a familiar place for Wildcat fans. One thing is for sure about NMU- you know that you will get their best effort and will sport the bumps and bruises to prove it. (I would compare NMU’s roster similar to Miami- both in size, speed and aggressiveness.) Northern stays in games (1-1-6-3 in OT games) and has taken six CCHA contests past overtime this season- including against Michigan- winning three of those six shootouts. They have also split a pair of games decided in overtime with a win at Wisconsin and a loss at WMU.

NMU is led by five seniors, four of which are key components in most games. Forward Tyler Gron (14-19-33, +8) is a pure goal scorer and touched the Wolverines for three goals in Marquette earlier this season. Justin Florek is a big, rugged winger (Ann Arbor Pioneer graduate and USNDT player) that stands 6’4”, 204 lbs. He has added 15-13-28 to the offense and has tallied 2-5-7 against Michigan in his career. Andrew Cherniwchan (7-7-14) is another big winger that likes to stir it up on the ice (his 59 PIM’s leads the team) and creates havoc for opposing defensemen. In eight games against Michigan, “Cherny” has added 3-2-5.

Cherniwchan was also center stage for the entanglement with Shawn Hunwick in October that found the Michigan goaltender decking him with his blocker after being instigated by “Cherny”, forcing a major and an ejection to Hunwick and the subsequent ire of the NMU faithful. (Luke Moffatt was also ejected in that game for fighting Cherniwchan; forward Reed Steckel was also issued a four minute double minor for boarding a Michigan defenseman maliciously, which set off the fight.)

Needless to say, the Wildcats thrive on physical play and carry enough offense in their first line to offset their overall lack of scoring depth. Secondary scoring comes from junior Matt Thurber (8-15-23, +14), sophomore Stephan Vigier (11-9-20) and freshman Reed Seckel (7-8-15, +12, 43 PIM’s.)

The blue line also provides offense, particularly on the power play. Junior Kyle Follmer (3-19-22, 33 PIM’s) is tied with Gron for leading the team in assists. Freshman Mitch Jones (4-4-8, -10, 31 PIM’s) potted two markers against Michigan this season. NMU doesn’t lack size, similar to Miami. Freshman Jake Baker (1-5-6, +2, 42 PIM’s) is 6’5”, 211 lbs. and sophomore Wade Epp (1-7-8, +8, 58 PIM’s) stands 6’4”, 202. Junior Scott Macaulay (3-9-12, -3, 58 PIM’s) also is part of the Wildcat blue line hit parade.

The goaltending duties are handled by senior Reid Ellingson (4-5-4, 2.92 GAA & .905 save %) and probable starter in both games, sophomore Jared Coreau (10-5-2, 2.03 GAA & .935 save %). Coreau is similar to Miami’s Connor Knapp, standing 6’5” and 208 lbs. Both saw action against Michigan in October, with Ellingson beating the Wolverines and Coreau tying and dropping the shootout duel.

Become a GBMWolverine member and talk hockey in the forum. Stay tuned to the forum for the latest Michigan Hockey news… Go Blue!

Please comment on our GBMWolverine Message Board about this article and read what others comment.

You can contact us at our e-mail address: GBMWolverine

Written by GBMWolverine Staff — YostMeister

Go Blue — Wear Maize!

Home/Michigan Wolverines News