Re: '12-13 Michigan Tech Season Thread: Screw the Election, Let's Play Hockey!
Mel Pearson show summary 2-4-13:
On Friday night:
I missed the first 5 mins - they likely talked about our slow start
Good 2nd Period, Blais called a TO to gather his team
Weren't getting pucks to the net, did a better job of that in 3rd
Big Petan goal early in 3rd, good game the rest of the way until refs decided to get involved
Brad Stebner took his guy out, ref called penalty, they had been letting the players play, they decided to call a penalty out of neutral zone, not a bad hit or anything ,let the guys play
This is a penalty they're looking for, the refs did a good job most of the weekend except 5 min stretch
Have to kill the PK, for 1:45 did a great job, then they got a bounce, down 4-2
Kero scored to make it 4-3
Seemed like Blais was playing more of top two lines, we were rolling all 4 lines, may have helped us going into Sat
On Saturday night:
We were ready to play, better team from the drop of the puck
Interesting that Blais thought his team played a better game Saturday than Friday, they generated more shots, but didn't have as many Grade A chances on Saturday
Dirk - Shot people at UNO, not convinced it's completely accurate but outshot by UNO 12-4 in 1st, Mel - May be accurate, not concerned about shots, we had a good 1st period
D. Johnstone - great shot, on his off-wing, have a better angle at the net, patient, goalie made first move, great shot
Dirk - Did UNO dman make a mistake not going to Petan to let goalie know Johnstone had to shoot it - Mel - Yes, would tell our Dman to put more pressure on Johnstone to force him to pass or put him on a worse angle
UNO scores - tough goal, Archibald nice give-n-go, Dman didn't react in time, backhand goal
Head to OT - Likteig goal, every shot in OT is a good chance, Likteig shoots it like that in practice, one of the better wrist shots on our team, he went high glove side
36 saves for Copley, made 1 or 2 Grade A game saving saves, their guy did too, Blake had a great chance that was stopped
Faulkner made a lot of great glove saves all weekend
5 min major PP - we looked tired, they outworked us, we were had two excellent chances, Petan back door, had a little patience, great save
Dirk - Did the ice condition affect both teams? Mel - we didn't talk about it once, we just played, delays got a little long
Dirk - during PP it seemed we couldn't do waht we wanted passing wise Mel - UNO was complaiing more about this ice Sat than we were, that's why it's nice to have your own rink, there was a BBall game earlier in the day
plus there was ice skating the week before and when they went to build the ice back up they didn't build it back up gradually creating brittle ice
Stebner was a healthy scratch on Saturday - will he back this weekend?
Not sure when he'll be back in, he had a tough game, he's a had afew tough games. He's been struggling, take him out, look at your game, evaluate what you need to do to get back to that.
Tommy Brown - did a real nice job, when you don't notice Dman, they played pretty well.
Carl Nielisen - strong
Sova had his best weekend since he's been back, skated, engaged physically
ALl our Dmen played well
Rix/Eick did a good job
Likteig - good to have him in lineup, played him against their top line, only 2nd game of season, he can skate, backcheck/forecheck, good kid/always work hard, on him abotu his complete level, be stronger along board/compete, he's done that
UAA coming in this weekend, two ties against CC:
They're a scrapy team, Mel's talked to a number of coaches that have played them, they're a tough/scrappy team
Can not take any team lightly, especially in WCHA
We need to act like we're playing a 1st place team, have to play our game, this week will be about how we have to play
Dirk - We've gotten seperate from Bemidji, how high can we go? Mel - Havne't looked at that. We've decided we need to just take it 1 game at a time. Have to play at a high level. Our goal is to get to final five in St. Paul.
Relief that Copley has solidified goaltending? Mel - It helps. Have faith in all three of our goalies. It helps the team whent hey step on ice, they can play a little more confident.
They reviewed WCHA Scores, I don't think there were any questions for Mel this week.
dj@themix93.com for questions
Ticket Giveaway for Friday night: Winter Carinval started in 1949, through 1958 only 3 opponents, Michigan, Michigan State, Minnesota, what team broke that trend?
Answer: Colorado College
Saturday ticket giveaway question: - remember 5:07ET start
Who coached Huskies in 1st winter carnival series? Bessone
Lot going on, special promotion going on. $30 for tickets to all 6 events, quite a deal. Great weekend of hockey, big games for us. The guys feed off of great crowds, we'll be ready to play.
Dirk - It's a fun team to watch, get out and watch. Kids are only $15 for all 6 games. On sale through Thursday.
Blue Line Luncheon noon Friday at Continental.
