Ann Arbor, Michigan- Whenever the Michigan-Dearborn Wolves and the Eastern Michigan Eagles play either at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube or at the Michigan-Dearborn Ice Arena, you know that you're going to get a game that is hard fought and competitive. Tonight's game was no different, as the back-and-forth affair ended in the favor of the visiting Wolves 7-6, with the game winning goal being the natural hat trick clinching goal for Joel Kuehn.

The Eagles started off strong as they had in their previous contests, scoring this time 1:55 into the game on a goal from Dan Olgren[Koester] to give the Eagles a 1-0 lead. Michigan-Dearborn responded seven minutes later on a goal from Brad Zarem[Justin Minnini, Patrick Colden] on a really nice shot from Zarem to tie the game up at 1. The Wolves took this momentum and quickly capatalized it to make it 2-1 on a really, really nice shot from Brian Hopper[Kuehn, Michael Crowley] over the right shoulder of Tom Gresham. However, the Eagles were able to finish off the first period in a tie, when the Michigan-Dearborn goaltender mishandled the puck to Olgren who was in the right place at the right time to pound the puck into the back of the net to even the score at 2 after one period of play. The first period ended with the Eagles on a power play and then at the 20:00 mark Michigan-Dearborn committed a penalty to give the Eagles a 5 on 3 power play to start off the second period.

However, the power play was unplugged as the Michigan-Dearborn defense didn't allow for the Eastern Powerplay to put any aggression on the net, and ultimately 2:47 in, a mere 47 seconds after the 5 on 3 ended, the Wolves pushed ahead 3-2 on a goal from Steve Rademacher. The Eagles were able to quickly respond 33 seconds later on a goal from Josh Cabanass[Kardel, Collins] to tie the game up at 3 each. Dearborn turned the puck over and gave the Eagles a 2 on 0 opportunity which they took advantage of. Michigan-Dearborn pushed back ahead on a goal from Brian Hopper[Zarem] in which the Eagles had two defensemen back and neither one challenged Hopper and allowed for Hopper to shoot the puck by Gresham. The Eagles however responded yet again, this time on a 2 on 1 opportunity with 7:36 left in the period on a goal from Jeff Jepson[Hytchens, Connolly] to make the score 4-4. The Eagles despite being outplayed for a large portion of the first two periods were able to take their first lead since the opening goal of the game with just 1:30 left in the period when a Michigan-Dearborn defenseman's stick was broken and Jeremy Majszak took advantage scoring a goal that looked large at the time, with assists rewarded to Charlie Jones and AJ Jensen. The second period ended with the Eagles ahead by the score of 5-4.

The third period was Michigan-Dearborn's from the start and really from the finish. Dearborn on a breakaway quickly tied the game up at 5, just 2:35 into the period on the first of Kuehn's three goals. Kuehn added his second goal of the game five minutes later to put the Wolves back ahead 6-5. However, as was the story of this game, the Eagles were able to respond with a huge goal from Mike Opyd[Cabanss, Kardel] to fire the crowd back up again and to tie the game up at 6-6. The next few minutes consisted of both teams having golden opportunities to score. The Eagles with 2:11 left on the clock had a powerplay opportunity, and then just 14 seconds later gave the advantage back to the Wolves committing a necessary penalty on a breakaway coming the other way. The final goal of the game was a goal that I myself have many doubts about. With about 1:10 left in the period, I could swear that I heard a whistle and all of a sudden Michigan-Dearborn had a goal in the back of the net. Simply put, in the game of hockey or in any sport if the whistle is blown the play should be dead instantly. Kuehn's final goal clinching the natural hat trick ended up holding up despite protest from the Eagles bench and players, and the Wolves were able to hold on easily against the final Eagles rally to get out of the Ann Arbor Ice Cube with a 7-6 victory.

It is quite interesting to note that both Michigan-Dearborn and Eastern Michigan's teams primarily consist of Freshman and Sophomores. Eastern Michigan has 19 sophomores and freshman, Michigan-Dearborn 18. These are two teams that are filled with a ton of youth, and you could really tell on this day that there was a lot of youth out there on the ice. A lot of the goals that were scored were on mistakes from both sides. Mishandlings of the pucks, miscues around the net, lackadasical skating, etc.. These mistakes are what made for an exciting game, and to the credit of both sides they took advantage of a large number of the opportunities and were able to respond to each other throughout the entire game. It's a very promising sign when you have these two clubs playing that well against each other and they are so young.. It just gives you the feeling that in a year or two, these will be two pretty good teams when the mistakes are hammered out.

It needs to be understood and clearly stated that despite the fact that I have my own doubts about the validity of the last goal because of the mysterious "whistle" that I thought I heard, the Michigan-Dearborn Wolves manhandled Eastern tonight. They were in control for large portions of the games and in a lot of ways the only way the Eagles were able to stay in the game was thanks to Michigan-Dearborn making mistakes in their own zone. Dearborn has some very talented players on their team and they really passed the puck outstanding tonight. If they can just tighten up a lot of the mistakes they made tonight, you get the feeling that they are really a very solid team and deserved to win the game tonight. 

Honestly from a fan's standpoint, it's quite an interesting predicament to be talking about this game. Despite the fact that the Eagles did not play very well in my own view point, they did enough to keep themselves in the game all the way up to the end. They took advantage of the opportunities that Michigan-Dearborn did give them through turnovers and showed a lot better poise and success on the breakaway opportunities that they did receive. Trust me, there was no one happier than myself when I saw the Eagles successfully execute a 2 on 0 break, and then soon later a 2 on 1 break and were able to take advantage completely of these opportunities that Dearborn had given them. The effort was there as well as they were blocking shots and were really playing hard out there for a large majority of the game. 

However, let's also look at the other side of the ledger. The Eagles passing wasn't very crisp at times, the defense left Gresham out to dry numerous times and then there was the powerless Power Play. Let's be honest, I'm not one of those individuals with unrealistic expectations towards things. I'm not one of those individuals who honestly expect the Eagles to score 100% of the time on the power play and then I'm still not happy. However, I do believe that a team when they are on the power play should be able to control the puck and put some sustained pressure against their opponents for at least a good portion of it. After all, when you are on the power play you have more men on the ice than your opposition. It's almost like when the Eagles go on the power play they forget how to pass, control the puck and execute anything. No team deserves to win a game when they cannot put any sort of pressure on their opponents when they are 5 on 3. In particular, no team deserves to win a game when they have TWO 5 on 3's and are unable to do anything with it at all, except for pass the puck and have a missed shot, or to pass the puck around get it intercepted and have it lead to a near breakaway goal on the other end of the ice or just another iced puck. It's really sad in my view as well, as I have seen in a couple of games earlier on this season that the Power Play was executing some really, really nice plays and were scoring. In fairness, I think there is an easy fix for this. I believe that the power play needs to simplify what they are doing and not attempt to make the perfect play every time. Very rarely with this happen. Shoot the puck on net some, try for deflections, go for the ugly goal every once in a while. In my view, if you can get the opposition to respect your power play than they'll play more passive and your passes can become more crisp and you can have more success shooting the puck on net. Bottom line, let's just put it this way. You know it's really bad when as a fan that you have more confidence when your team is 4 on 5 instead of 5 on 4, as truthfully the Eagles showed a lot of fire shorthanded and produced some of their better opportunities of the game. 

One reason the Eagles were in this game for so long was the play of Tom Gresham who made some unreal saves tonight in the critical moments. Yes, I understand that the winning goal was scored at 1:08 in the final period, but Gresham saved it from being a 2-3 goal deficit at that moment. One in particular was a huge save on a breakaway with only 4 minutes left in the third period which kept the score 6-6. 

Nevertheless, despite the controversy of the infamous whistle that I swore I heard.. despite the fact that the power play was so anemic that I had more confidence in our Penalty Kill scoring and despite the fact that the Eagles were so badly outplayed, they played good enough to make it a tie game coming down to the wire and had opportunities to win a game that they truthfully shouldn't of. It was a very, very entertaining game that went against the Eagles on this night.

Looking Ahead:

The Eagles are now done for the 2005 portion of their season and will now get to turn their focuses to Final Examinations and the Christmas Vacation! The Eagles will return to the ice January 7th and 8th for a pair of games against the Robert Morris Golden Eagles at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube.

Until Next Time,

GO EAGLES!
-Kevin