Ann Arbor, Michigan- It's always great to start anew isn't it? Don't pinch yourselves EMU Hockey fans, the Eagles are now 2-0 in the year 2006! Eastern Michigan completed a key sweep of the #9 Robert Morris Eagles today with a hard fought 6-5 victory. The Eagles last night won by the score of 3-2.

The Eagles jump started the scoring just a mere thirty-one seconds into the game, on a nice wrap-around goal from Charlie Jones[Dan Olgren, Kelly Koester] which gave EMU a quick 1-0 lead. Robert Morris fought back at the 2:56 mark into the period on a goal from Ryan Tomassoni which seemed to catch the EMU defense all out of whack, set up by some really nice passing and some good spacing from RMC, to put the score to 1-1. The second EMU goal was scored on the power play, after about 1:13 of the Eagles spending their whole time attempting to get the puck into the offensive zone. However, the Eagles were able to successfully put the puck into the back of the net on a goal from Dan Olgren[Matt Oypd, Jeff Jepson] to give EMU a 2-1 lead. Robert Morris however used some nice passing to conclude the scoring, on a goal from Nick O'Meara[Ryan Behnke, Matt Lang] to conclude the scoring at 2-2. Of course this is going to sound rather very obvious, but the first period was about as evenly played of a period of hockey as you'll have, considering the shots were close, but both teams were also playing very hard and it was a nice period of hockey to watch.

The second period was bar none Eastern Michigan's best, but also the action became harder hitting and a quite a bit more choppy. Robert Morris struck first in the period to give themselves their first lead of the hockey game at 3-2 on a 3 on 1 opportunity in which RMC showed another excellent passing display with a perfect one-timer which was shot in by Steve LaFrenier. However, that was the lone goal that RMC would get for the period as the Eastern Eagles took over from that point. The key goal of the entire game in my view, was Aaron Diez's goal on a breakaway which evened the game at 3-3. By evening the game just 2 minutes after RMC scored, shifted the momentum in the favor of the Eastern Eagles. The good news is that the Eagles were then able to push the lead to 4-3 on a power play goal from Kelly Koester[Dan Olgren, Jeff Jepson] in which the Eagles had the Robert Morris defense out of position and were able to pound the puck home. It was a great example of how successful a Power Play can be. The Eagles three minutes later made the score 5-3, short handed on a picture perfect pass through center ice from Aaron Diez which was put in the back of the net by Charlie Jones[Kardel, Diez]. The second key play of the hockey game came at the 6:12 mark in the second period when goaltender Tom Gresham stopped a sure fire goal on a breakaway when two Eastern players collided at the red line allowing the opportunity. This play fired up the crowd and allowed for the Eagles to continue the momentum for the rest of the period with Eastern ahead by the score of 5-3. The game became much more choppy in the second period with several scuffles, several dangerous hits from RMC, and the game just gained a more volatile feel.

The third period was one of those periods that you just watched and had to be amazed with the way that EMU held on. Robert Morris scored 4 minutes into the period to make the score 5-4, on a goal from Jason Ulanski in which the Eastern defense basically disappeared. The third key play of the game for Eastern came just a mere 13 seconds later when EMU was able to respond with their sixth goal, which turned out to be the game winning goal scored by Jeff Jepson, with an assist to Dan Olgren. Robert Morris spent a lot of the period down in the EMU zone and time after time after time, Gresham would make a huge save in a volatile situation to save Eastern's 2 goal lead. With about 4 minutes left in the game, Eastern was on the power play and again the Power Play gave up a goal to the opponent. This time, the puck floated back to RMC and pounded into the net by Chris Malik which drove the crowd nuts, the players nuts, and everyone nuts as the score had become 6-5. The last three minutes consisted of Robert Morris continuing to put a ton of pressure on the Eastern net, but thanks to some very good defense and some outstanding goaltending, Eastern was able to withstand the constant swarm of RMC and hold on for a key 6-5 victory which completed the sweep. Truthfully, it was a period of hockey that had Robert Morris really fired up from all of the stuff that had been happening during the game. But again, Eastern despite being outshot 20 to 3(no, that's not a misprint everyone) was able to show the resolve and heart to hold on to the victory, a wonderful sign for things in the near future.

This was the first weekend trip for Robert Morris to the Ann Arbor Ice Cube, and it's probably a trip they won't forget. Robert Morris really impressed me in the first period with the way that they passed the puck and spaced themselves out on the ice, giving themselves a ton of great opportunities to score and cause a lot of chaos. Robert Morris also enjoyed using the drop off pass, and they ran it was a quite a bit of success. In addition though, Robert Morris is another team on the order of Michigan-Dearborn that enjoys to check, and check and check again. To add to that, they are a bit bigger as well. However, what ended up being their downfall were a lot of stupid plays, and a lot of cheap checks from behinds in the game. If RMC can control their emotions, they are a pretty dangerous team.

In terms of Eastern, I was very impressed with the poise they showed during the first two periods and the resolve they showed in the third period. Eastern in the second period took control of the game by successfully taking advantage of the opportunities that were presented to themselves on two more breakaways. Finally! In the third period, considering the huge disparity in the number of shots on goal, the Eagles did a great job defensively protecting the net. Ultimately though, I think that if you asked any of the EMU fans who were at the game, you could give credit for tonight's victory to one person and that was goaltender Tom Gresham. His second period breakaway save was vital in keeping things in the Eagles favor, and he made a ton of huge saves in the third period only allowing a couple of goals in which he didn't really get a lot of help. Overall though the Eagles played well, and deserved the victory they got tonight.

However, it still does bug me how ineffective our power play has been. Yes, I do understand that the Eagles scored two goals on the Power Play, which is great and is a huge improvement over what has been happening of late. However, we also still gave up a shorthanded goal coming back the other way. Also despite the fact that we did score these two goals it took an awful long time during the two minutes to get us going. We'd spend a lot of time skating around attempting to set something up only to watch it be shot back the other way. In a sense, I blame it on overzealousness and over aggression. When you are on the power play, you're supposed to have the advantage and tonight we finally started to take some advantage of it. However, the opponents continued to take advantage of it as well. Especially it's frustrating when you compare it to the performance of the Penalty Kill which not only scored a goal but didn't allow a power play goal on the evening. So I suppose you take the Yin with the Yang as they say, and accept the risk of allowing a short handed one in effort to gain another one or two. It's just I'm worried that those one or two short handed goals could not only end momentum for the Eagles in future games, but could quite possibly cost them one or two too. 

Overall though, I thought Eastern played their best period of the season in the second, and overall played a good game against a tough, physical team that really passed well. It's a great sweep for EMU and is hopefully the start to a successful 2006 campaign.

Looking Ahead:

The Eagles will not have to leave the state of Michigan for the rest of the month of January. Next Friday and Saturday, Eastern Michigan will have another pair of contests against the Lindenwood Lions, a team that beat the Eagles 8-5 in a contest during the Thanksgiving Classic in Michigan-Dearborn. However, these two games will be in the friendly confines of the Ann Arbor Ice Cube where the Eagles are undefeated in 2006! Come on out and support the Eagles in these two important games as well.

Until Next Time,
GO EAGLES!
-Kevin