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Saturday, March 22, 2008
CCHA Finals: Michigan 2, Miami 1
It’s over. Miami loses 2-1 to Michigan in the CCHA tournament championship game at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
Miami’s Alec Martinez scores on a laser shot with 38.6 seconds remaining off a pass from Mitch Ganzak, but that’s all for the RedHawks.
UM goalie Billy Sauer was a force between the pipes. An enthusiastic, pro-Michigan crowd of 17,213 watches the action.
The Wolverines (31-5-4) will be the top overall seeds in the NCAA tournament and the RedHawks (32-7-1) will be second. So perhaps these two teams will see each other again at the Frozen Four in Denver.
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CCHA Finals: Miami vs. Michigan
Miami’s hopes of its first Central Collegiate Hockey Association tournament title are just about gone.
Michigan’s Brandon Naurato scores with 10:00 remaining to give the Wolverines a 2-0 lead. Naurato scores off a pass from Tim Miller and is so close to the goal that he ends up in the net after the goal.
2:28 remaining in the game
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CCHA Finals: Miami vs. Michigan
Ongoing wireless problems here at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, but it appears we have a technical break, at least for a while.
18:29 remaining in the third period, Michigan still leads 1-0
The RedHawks getting plenty of scoring opportunities. They have a 21-12 lead in shots, but Wolverines goalie Billy Sauer has been excellent.
Hope to be back with more …
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CCHA Finals: Miami vs. Michigan
Sorry for the delay in live blogging, lots of technical difficulties at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit.
With 12:22 remaining in the second period, Michigan has just gone ahead 1-0. Pretty centering pass from Matt Rust found Aaron Palushaj in front of the goal, and Palushaj slapped the puck past Miami goalie Jeff Zatkoff.
Timeout on the ice with 11:37 left in the period …
Overall, lots of fast, hard-hitting hockey. Very physical game. The RedHawks outshot the Wolverines 8-4 in the opening period.
Here are some pregame notes that were thwarted by the wireless problems …
Third-ranked Miami is 32-6-1 Top-ranked Michigan is 30-5-4
Michigan beat (4-2) and tied (5-5) the RedHawks last month at Steve Cady Arena in Oxford
This is the seventh time in the last eight seasons that the Wolverines have played in the CCHA tournament title game. They won in 2002, 2003 and 2005.
Michigan is 23-0-1 this season when scoring at least four goals. The only blemish was the 5-5 tie against Miami.
The Wolverines are led by senior forward Kevin Porter, the CCHA Player of the Year. He’s got 28 goals and 28 assists this season. MU senior forward Ryan Jones was also a finalist for that award.
Michigan leads this series 65-18-3
Entering this weekend’s play, the RedHawks were ranked second nationally in penalty killing (.892).
Very big crowd on hand, clearly a partisan gathering for Michigan.
Wolverines wearing their bright maize jerseys, the RedHawks are wearing red.
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Miami’s NCAA Possibilities
The Miami-Michigan game for the CCHA tournament championship will start at 7:30 p.m. here at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit. In the meantime, let’s talk about MU’s NCAA tournament possibilities.
Here’s what we’re pretty sure we know …
The winner of tonight’s game will be the overall No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. The loser will be the No. 2 overall seed. North Dakota appears to be locked in at No. 3 and New Hampshire at No. 4. So each of those schools will be a top seed in one of the regionals (Madison, Wis.; Albany, N.Y.; Worcester, Mass.; and Colorado Springs, Colo.).
Where each team will go is the issue. The latest opinion from the hockey pundits seems to have the No. 1 seed going to Madison and No. 2 going to Albany, with North Dakota going to Colorado and New Hampshire going to Worcester. There is a complicated ranking system used for all of this, but there are intangibles as well that don’t necessarily go along with the rankings, such as host schools playing at their own sites. That’s why there is a committee to sort all this out as opposed to simply following rankings. Therefore, nobody will be 100 percent sure about who’s going where until the pairings are announced at 11:30 a.m. Sunday.
But Miami fans can know this: The RedHawks will be the No. 1 or 2 overall seed in the NCAA. Nothing can change that at this point. Now can they win their first-ever CCHA tournament title? We’ll know soon.
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It’s Miami Vs. Michigan
The showdown everybody wanted to see will happen Saturday night here at The Joe. Miami, a 2-1 overtime winner over Notre Dame, and Michigan, which rallied for a 6-4 victory over Northern Michigan, will square off for the Central Collegiate Hockey Association tournament championship.
I’ll have more details Saturday evening before the game, then provide plenty of live blogging. But it appears a pretty safe bet that both teams, regardless of Saturday’s outcome, will be No. 1 seeds in next week’s NCAA tournament.
