By Jim Rose
This weekend at Yost Ice Arena had a little bit of everything. The recipe was as follows: One bad game, one good game, two Michigan hockey records, one whole banana, and half a period of Greg Daddario for seasoning.
The end result? The usual. Two Michigan victories.
On Friday, the Wolverines (19-2-2 CCHA, 28-2-3 overall) trudged their way to an uninspired 3-1 victory over Notre Dame. At one point, a fan tossed a banana onto the ice - perhaps as commentary on the players', well, "rotten" performance. But the Wolverines sprang to life on Saturday, giving the Irish a 6-1 thrashing.
The big story of the weekend was Brendan Morrison - the senior Hobey Baker candidate became Michigan's all-time leading scorer on Saturday night, surpassing former Wolverine Denny Felsner with two goals and two assists. On Friday, Morrison's two-assist night had moved him ahead of Brian Wiseman as Michigan's career assist leader.
Morrison has 168 career assists among 262 points. His season totals (23-43-66) lead the nation.
Gregg Malicke started Saturday's game in net, and the junior gave up one goal on 16 shots before being replaced by sophomore fan-favorite Greg Daddario for the last half of the third period.
The cheers for the Malicke-Daddario switch were outdone only by the standing ovation for Morrison's record-breaking point, which came on an assist to Matt Herr 2:58 into the third period. The Michigan bench emptied and mobbed Morrison after the play, delaying the game for several minutes.
"It was a really special moment," Morrison said after the game. "I've been really lucky to be surrounded by great players here at Michigan for the past four years, and without them, this never could have happened."
The game began with a host of Wolverines getting on the scoreboard, and Michigan jumped out to a 3-0 lead after one period.
Morrison picked up the first goal seven minutes after the opening faceoff, and Michigan didn't score again until forward Warren Luhning redirected Mike Legg's shot from the point with under two minutes left in the period. Then, with just 25 seconds remaining before the first intermission, Bobby Hayes hustled around from behind the net to poke in John Madden's deflected shot.
Legg and Morrison scored in the second period, before Herr's third-period goal rounded out the scoring for Michigan.
Malicke held Notre Dame scoreless until the third period, when he was beaten at 7:13 by right wing Brian Urick for the sole Irish goal.
Daddario made two saves in his first league action of the season.
Michigan coach Red Berenson said that Malicke's performance was particularly important.
"You never know, he could be the most important player on our team," Berenson said. "You never know what can happen. If Turco gets hurt, Gregg would have to step in and be the guy.
"He's been through everything the other guys have - all the practices - but he doesn't get to start. When he plays, I think the players show their appreciation."
While the atmosphere after Saturday's game was celebratory, Friday's post-game press conference was quite different. Although Michigan won, 3-1, the players were nowhere near happy.
"We were just kidding ourselves out there," Morrison said. "Obviously, we have to play better as a team."
Neither team could get on the scoreboard through two periods, and it wasn't until a minute into the third that Jason Botterill scored on a pass from Morrison. The assist was the 165th for Morrison, and Botterill wasted no time in retrieving the puck for his teammate.
"It was nice to help him out on the goal that got the record," Botterill said. "Brendan's very deserving of that honor, he's worked hard here for four years."
Bubba Berenzweig scored Michigan's second goal while being held. Skating from right to left between the circles, he slid the puck past Notre Dame goaltender Matt Eisler. Peter Bourke assisted.
The Irish got on the board when center Aniket Dhadphale put a slapshot past Michigan goaltender Marty Turco while skating up the right side of the ice.
With 6:16 to play, Harold Schock finished the scoring with an unassisted goal. The Wolverines thought they had another goal 10 seconds later, but the net was shaken loose from its moorings before the red light was turned on. Botterill's protestations of the call - or no-call - earned him a 10-minute misconduct.
Eisler made 44 saves, and the Irish defense frustrated the Michigan power play all night.
"I thought our execution was very poor," Berenson said. "We put ourselves in a position to be beaten at home. Notre Dame didn't get a lot of chances, but they still could have won the game in the end. We were very vulnerable.
"It's disappointing when we don't execute the way we say we're going to and the way we do in practice.
"We had a lot of players that just 'got through' the game. They were not ready to make a difference in the game."
Berenson did give credit to sophomore Justin Clark, who played a strong game in his first action after missing close to two months with mononucleosis.
MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
Brendan Morrison (middle) is congratulated by teammates Jason Botterill (right) and John Madden (left) after he became Michigan's all-time leading scorer during Saturday night's 6-1 victory over Notre Dame.
MARK FRIEDMAN/Daily
Michigan defenseman Blake Sloan was just one of several Wolverines involved in extracurricular activity with The Fighting Irish Saturday night.
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