The Swoop Zone- Covering EMU Hockey 2006-2007!

TEAM:	FIRST PERIOD	SECOND PERIOD	THIRD PERIOD	FINAL SCORE:
Eastern Michigan	3(15)	4(22)	5(21)	12(58)
Kutztown(DIII)	0(6)	0(8)	0(9)	0(23)

Dearborn, Michigan- In one of the most lopsided hockey games that I have ever been to, the Eastern Michigan Eagles opened up their 2004 East/West Classic with a 12-0 victory over Division III Kutztown. The Eagles were paced by the hat trick of Dave Stewart and solid dominating play throughout the entire game.

The Eagles began their scoring onslaught just 1:53 into the first period on a goal by Jeff Jepson with assists from Charlie Jones and Carl Voelker. After Kutztown commited a penalty on a 3 on 0 breakaway, the Eagles powerplay struck within the first thirty seconds with a goal by Mike Opyd set up by a very nice pass by Matt Opyd. So with the Opyd-Opyd connection, the Eagles found themselves up 2-0 within the first 8:53 of the game. Yes, you heard me correct. The Bears of Kutztown on a sloppy EMU possession of the puck had a 3 on 0 breakaway set up which should of been an easy goal to tie the game up at the time. However, one of the Kutztown players commits a trip and gives the Eagles a power play which they take advantage of. This thoroughly describes how good of a first period the Bears had. The Eagles three minutes later ended the scoring in the first period on a goal from Carl Voelker with assists from Dave Stewart and Kelly Koester. The Eagles thoroughly dominated this period by controlling the puck in the Kutztown zone for around 15 minutes of the period. Kutztown looked as if they were trying to adjust to the Eagles speed and just couldn't figure out quite how to do it.

The Eagles struck again early in the second period to continue to assert their dominance on Dave Stewart's first goal of the game set up by Nate Arthurs to push the Eagles lead to 4-0. Not to be outdone, the Eagles score exactly 2 minutes later in the period to increase the score to 5-0. The fifth goal was a pretty easy one to describe. The Eagles make a nice pass, and then a high pass and Adam Jakubowski snatches the puck out of the net places the puck on the ice and quickly pounds the puck into the net. An alert play, and Jakubowski was smart in taking his time getting the puck down and shooting it. Otherwise, rushing this could of given the goalie an even more adequate opportunity to come up and stop the puck. Kutztown's performance in the second period can be defined by the Eagles sixth goal of the game. Eastern Michigan's Dave Stewart scores a shorthanded goal to give the Eagles a 6-0 lead. On this particular Kutztown power play, the Bears spent 1 minute and 45 seconds of it in their own zone unable to prevent the Eagles from consistently forechecking and stopping the Eagles from asserting themselves. The Eagles second period concluded with their seventh goal from Carl Buchin with assists to Charlie Jones and Mike Opyd. With the score 7-0, the Eagles clearly had the game in the bag.

Early on in the third period Kutztown played their best hockey of the game for approximately 30 seconds, giving themselves two solid opportunities against EMU Freshman goaltender Brian Mason. However, on a strange play EMU all of a sudden was up 8-0. Eastern Michigan had the puck in the Kutztown zone and Dave Stewart shot it and the Kutztown goalie appeared to have stopped the puck. However, as he lifted his stick up to pass the puck out, the puck seemed to sneak in behind him over the line and was thus counted as a goal for the Eagles, giving Dave Stewart his hat trick for the game. Probably the oddest way I've ever seen a Hat Trick scored in my life. The Eagles jumped the score into the double digits with their tenth goal from Steve Jacobs on an assist from Bryan Young and Carl Voelker. The eleventh goal of the game was scored for the Eagles by Steve Kardel, on an assist from Dave Aliff. The Eagles scoring mercifully ended for Kutztown at the 18:50 mark in the third period on a goal from Bryan Young set up by assists from Nate Arthurs and Derek Wilson.

The Eagles in this game looked very good which is to be expected against a lower division school. The Eagles were able to control the puck consistently in the Kutztown zone for large periods of the game. The Eagles also won just about every face off that happened which helped to emphasize this fact. The Eagles were faster than the Bears of Kutztown, better stick handlers and better passers across the board. Whenever the Eagles wanted the puck, they would just take the puck right away from Kutztown without any problems. Every pass of Kutztown's was blocked or intercepted, every shot of Kutztown's was either from beyond the blue line or a weak shot in front of goaltender Brian Mason. The Eagles were just bar none the better team in every single aspect of the game tonight and really had numerous opportunities to make the score look a lot worse than 12-0, the Eagles probably had great chances to score on at least an additional 5-6 possesions meaning this game could of been in the range of a 17-0, 18-0 game. It was that dominating of a performance.

However, to be fair to Kutztown and to be fair to Eastern Michigan and all of its fans, by winning this game by a dominating score of 12-0 we cannot instantly annoit the Eagles as a championship team based solely on this game. Kutztown is a rather small university in Pennsylvania that I doubt a large number of us here in the state of Michigan have heard of. They compete in Division III with a record of 7-6-1. However, to Kutztown's credit they have beaten Division I Rutgers and tied with Rutgers as well. However, unfortunately for the Bears it seems as if these three games in Dearborn are going to be no more than just an opportunity to compete against higher level competition and three larger schools. I admire Kutztown for being willing to play these games over the Thanksgiving Weekend and they deserve credit for going out there and trying to compete.

Kutztown however did do a couple of things that I believe should be noted in favor of this club. First of all, despite the fact that they did lose so dominating, they did play hard. They did a solid job for the most part playing defensively considering that they could not get out of their zone at all and that the only way they could change lines was to ice the puck. Second of all, they played a really clean game of hockey only committing one penalty vs EMU's two. Third of all, despite the fact that I am sure that this team was frustrated that did not revert themselves to a goonish brand of hockey that can be demonstrated by a large number of teams. So despite Kutztown having a miserable game across the part and being thoroughly dominated throughout played with a level of class that is to be commended. The Swoop Zone wishes Kutztown best of luck in their future Division III games and hopes that they have a good season and that this experience will only help to make them a better team than they are.

However, for the Eagles it was an extremely good effort. One large thing about this game that was overshadowed was that Freshman Goaltender Brian Mason earned a shutout in this game for the Eagles. However, considering that the playing time is dominated by Jake Pruss and Tom Greshman it is nice to see a glimpse into the possible future of the Eagles, and an experience like this for Mason could only help his confidence.

Congratulations to the Eagles, you looked outstanding again tonight. I just hope you can look that good against West Chester and #1 Rhode Island.

Looking Ahead:

The Eagles complete their East/West Classic in Dearborn over the next two nights. The Eagles take on the West Chester Golden Rams who they have lost to two years in a row and the #1 Rhode Island Rams. Redemption should be on the mind of the Eagles. The Eagles then due to a cancellation of the two game series against Fredonia State, don't play again until December 11th in which they will take on the Kent State Golden Flashes at the Ice Zone in Boardman, Ohio. Then on Sunday, the Eagles are in for a treat as they get to play on the ice of the Cleveland Barons at Gund Arena in Cleveland, Ohio against those same Golden Flashes. The Eagles next home game returns the Eagles back to the Ann Arbor Ice Cube for two large games against the University of Illinois.

Let's hope for two more wins this weekend and GO GREEN!

-Kevin

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Yes, this might seem to be a tad bit finicky on my part. The Eagles went out there and scored 12 goals on the evening which in itself is an outstanding number. The Eagles went out there and shot the puck 58 times offensively. The Eagles controlled the puck in the offensive zone very well as well. The Eagles looked great offensively. However, when you have two breakaways stopped and you have numerous other chances that weren't even put on net one can wonder a little. However, overall a great performance from the Eagles offensively.

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Kutztown could do nothing offensively, however this was thanks to a mindset solely from being able to control the puck really well. Defensively we looked solid, but really there weren't a lot of opportunities for our defense to have to make a name for itself.

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When your penalty kill can control the puck in your opponents zone for 7/8 of their power play, you've done something right. When your power play scores on its one opportunity, you've done something right. This was a great effort from our special teams.

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Pruss saved the Eagles repeatedly in this game. He did an outstanding job, and without him EMU would of lost tonight.

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It was a great effort, but let's just hope that the game doesn't give EMU too much confidence going into two very challenging games to conclude the East/West Classic.

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