I was a bit late for Friday's game against Notre Dame. I missed our first goal. I had to wait 72 minutes of game-time to see another goal sored by us. That's right, we went into double overtime. I can honestly say this was the best hockey game played by Michigan in i have ever seen. Both teams were amazing on the breakaway, and given the incredible shots that were taken its hard to believe that the score was only 2-1 after over 83 minutes of play. Both goalies were on fire.
To add incredibility they announced the overtime basketball score during the game. Needless to say, (but I will say it anyway) the crowd went nuts. Double overtime was intense, but the most amazing thing happened. No, I do not mean that the band ran out of music to play, although they did. Michigan started playing offense. We actually had organized plays and ran the cycle. It was crazy. We stepped it up and we won.
What I was worried about was that the next day we would revert back to our old ways. Boy was I relieved.We played as a team all 60 minutes. That's right, we were able to win this one in regulation. We set up the cycle, passed very well, and owned the neutral zone using team tactics. Part of this I think was that the double overtime along with coming off a tough series against Ohio State just took to much out of Notre Dame. They just didn't have the fire or the speed. I am pretty sure that the linesman who kept getting in the way was their best defender To be fair we were a bit sluggish too, and there were several times when the puck just kind of bounced around and everyone watched it. Both teams fell over themselves too. I joked that we needed to keep two sets of stats for players. Icetime and time on the ice. Anyway, we were tired but we kept on the attack, and were rewarded with a 3-1 victory. The one goal is were Notre Dame caught us asleep (or just a bit too cocky) after our third goal. The game ended with us killing a penalty with a 6-4 disadvantage. We killed it beautifully.
As for the atmosphere, what could you want for our last CCHA home game? How about some shoe throwing? Well the kids riding the Zamboni machines wouldn't throw their shoes, but both drivers did. The Blues Brother's into lasted just a little longer and tasted just a little sweeter for the last game. Seriously, if you have not been to Yost for the second intermission, you are missing out. Also the student section went nuts when they realized Brady "The Incredible" Hoke and Al "Gorgeous" Borges were there. I think we were all astounded to see Brady Hoke wearing sleeves. Also, he hardly sat the entire game. Al Borges left a little before the end of the game to the chant of "Gorgeous Borges."
As fore defeating Notre Dame, we felt kind of bad taunting them all game, and then eliminating them, even though we didn't need the victory to get to the tournament. Some of the band taunts were pretty long. They took it pretty hard, but we had a streak to maintain. 23 straight appearances in the CCHA final rounds is something to write home about. Well that is about it. Lets see if we can't squeeze one more conference championship out of the CCHA before we extend our record setting streak for tournament appearances to 22.
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