Ann Arbor, Michigan- During the second period of today's game at the Ann Arbor Ice Cube, the puck is shot off the boards and the puck goes grazing by the head referee. The Eastern Michigan Hockey crowd cheers. Simply put, if you want to keep things simple and define this game in simple terms, that would be the best way to describe it. The Western Michigan Stallions gave the EMU fans nothing to cheer about, only things to yell and whine about, en route to an easy 5-1 victory over the Eastern Michigan Eagles.

The first period set the tone for the entire game as Western struck three times in the period. The first goal was scored 7:28 in by Josh Hines to give Western a 1-0 lead. Two minutes later, the score was pushed to 2-0 on a pair of beautiful passes which resulted in Kevin MaAvoy pounding the puck into the back of the net. Near the end of the first period, with only 1:38 remaining, the Stallions put the ultimate dagger into the Eagles pushing the score to 3-0 on a goal from Michael Podelnyk. The period was controlled by the Stallions despite the fact that the Eagles had 8 shots on goal. The majority of the action was in the EMU end of the ice and when the Eagles even had an opportunity to go on the offensive, Western's defense was always there in bunches. As the Eagles found out in the first period today, it's difficult to score 1 on 3.

The real fun began in the second period as it was a long, painful, tough period of hockey to watch and there were no goals scored in the period! The period began with goaltender Joe Rutherford being given an opportunity to play, which was in my view intended to be a spark to try to get the Eagles to get going. I suppose it worked, sort of. The period consisted of a large number of penalties which seemed to almost be sparked off by a checking from behind penalty about midway in the period. Both teams had numerous opportunities on the power play and on the penalty kill during the period, and neither could do much. The number of penalties however began to frustrate the Eagles and ultimately this frustration was felt throughout the crowd as well, as the concentration of the hockey game truthfully went from hockey to the referees. It was a period that just sort of dragged on and dragged on and consisted of lots of questionable calls and lots of things that just made you scratch your head and wonder. However, despite all of this the score remained at 3-0 without the Eagles entirely losing their cool, but the seeds of frustration were set in.

The third period began and was basically a continuation of the second period, in which the penalties continued to be called against both teams, but mainly against Eastern Michigan. However, despite all of this, the Eagles were able to get a goal with 7:35 left on the power play, scored by Jeremy Majszak, with assists going to Charlie Jones and Ryan Connolly. The lone goal for the Eagles was a well set up play with the two passes and Majszak pounding the puck home into the empty net. Despite everything, the score was now only 3-1.  However, just 40 seconds later immediately off the faceoff Evan Visuri was able to score on a beautiful shot over the top left shoulder of Rutherford to put the score out of reach at 4-1. Western added a 5th goal with 1:01 left in which the goaltender was run over, and the entire front of the net was a maddening scramble, which ultimately led to David Kennedy putting the puck home and ending the score in the favor of the Western Michigan Stallions at 5-1.

The Western Michigan Stallions looked like a team that has much improved since the last time I saw them last season. Their team this season however consists of mainly freshman and sophomores, and came into this weekend's series coming off of a split of bottom feeder Saint Louis University. Overall, they are a team that played solid defense overall and on this night took it to the Eagles. I must as well give credit to the Western Michigan goaltender who did a solid job coming in and making the few saves that he had to throughout the game. However, do I feel that they are an unbeatable team? Absolutely not. But they played well enough tonight to not only win, but to dominate.

It is honestly in my own viewpoint very difficult to figure out what to say about Eastern Michigan during this game. Everything just seemed off. I believe the Eagles during the game today completed one or two good solid passes, while every other one was always long, off base or just plain bad. Every time the puck came to an Eagle player, they would overskate it, or they would be unable to harness the puck in and do anything. If you are going to have any success offensively, you have to be able to pass the puck to force the defense to manuever around so you can get the opportunities to shoot the puck on net. This will not happen when you cannot even complete simple cross ice passes that these players should be able to do in their sleep. Everything was way, way off tonight and if you want to find a culprit for a lack of success offensively, there it is. What's disturbing though about this, is that the Eagles are now 30 games into their season and are having problems passing with each other. It's one thing to be doing this type of stuff early on in the season, but when there are only 4 regular season games left? If you watch any other team that the Eagles have played, they didn't miss nearly as many passes as the Eagles did on this night.

Defensively, the Eagles played okay. However, again there were 3 to 4 times in which a defenseman would turn over the puck and force the Eagles back on the defensive. There were numerous other times, when an EMU hockey player would be along the board waiting for the puck to come to him and a WMU player just intercepts the puck before the EMU player could do anything. It just felt like there was not that sense of urgency early on in the game, and it ultimately bit the Eagles in the end. 

Special Teams. We had numerous power play opportunities and couldn't do anything with them. Guess why? The passing was not at peak performance and the WMU goaltender was able to stop the few chances that came at him. The penalty kill as it has all season long has been outstanding and in a lot of ways almost gave the Eagles their best opportunities to score AGAIN. If you are looking for a positive spin on things for this game, I can name it in two areas overall. Our penalty kill, and the impressive play of backup goaltender Joe Rutherford who made some pretty good saves to keep the Eagles in the game. In fairness though, I do not believe that what happened in the first period was Tom Gresham's fault, as I don't think he really got much help overall in the game.

The Eastern Michigan Eagles following this sweep, fell to 10-20 on the season. In a lot of ways, this game can be a great representation of how the season has gone for the players and the fans. Simply put, frustration causes people angst and causes people to do some strange things. Let's put this flatly. We are all agree as EMU fans that the referees did a poor job overall refereeing the game, and in some instances made some calls that were overall questioning to ones mind. However, to spend the entire game complaining about the referees? In my view, this is all negative energy. How does it ultimately help? The Eagles are out there struggling on the ice, they are all frustrated, the EMU fans are all frustrated, so the best course of action is to take it out on the referees. Negative Energy + Negative Feelings = Positive Results? It's just in my view a counterproductive thing. You are more than welcome to disagree with me here, but that's my viewpoint flat out and simply. The referees might of helped WMU win the game, but ultimately WMU had to take advantage of those opportunities to win that game. 

Ultimately this is one of those games that has you consider the following scenario. The fan walks out of the Ann Arbor Ice Cube, drives downtown to their favorite establishment and has a large drink of their own favorite desire, in this case preferably alcoholic. The fan can cry, whine about the crappy job that the referees did all they want while they are in the establishment and then the moment they walk out, they forget this game ever happened. Otherwise, you'll be in for one long week.

Looking Ahead:
The road for the Eagles doesn't get any easier looking ahead. The Eagles next week travel to the Bird Ice Arena to play against the CSCHL Regular Season Champion Ohio University in a pair of 2 point CSCHL Games. The Eagles then conclude the regular season the following week with their annual home and home series with the Michigan-Dearborn Wolves. On Feb. 11th, Fan Appreciation Night at EMU, the Eagles will honor their seniors who worked hard during the past four years of playing on the EMU Hockey Club. I am looking forward to that night being a much more enjoyable night than tonight was.

Until Next Time,
Go Green!
-Kevin