Exhibition yields icers 38 penalties

By Joe Smith

Daily Sports Writer

Referee Tony Molina is probably out of breath after Saturday night's exhibition game at Yost Ice Arena.

What was thought of as a friendly exhibition game for the Michigan hockey team got ugly real quickly as whistles blew early and often in the Wolverines 4-1 victory over Wilfred Laurier.

A total of 38 penalties were served for over 90 minutes in the box, which made for a heavily interrupted tune-up for this weekend's Ice Breaker Tournament that will include defending national champion North Dakota, and NCAA tournament participants New Hampshire and Colgate.

"It was a good warmup game for us," assistant captain Scott Matzka said. "It's a tough game for us, but it was a lose-lose situation because we feel we can't beat them by enough. We'd like to go out there and beat them by 10, but we got some good shots on their goalie and I think we got some valuable experience tonight."

It could have been much worse than a 10-goal cushion for the Wolverines, as they dominated Wilfred Laurier in all facets of the game - peppering the opposing netminder, Chad Marshall with 55 shots.

Laurier had more than twice as many penal ties (21) as they did shots on goal (10).

The Hawks did jump out to an early 1-0 lead, taking an advantage on one of their two first-period shots.

A two-on-one breakaway took a wrong turn for the Wolverines, as Michigan All-American defenseman Jeff Jillson went down to block a late pass by Laurier junior winger Rick White.

The problem was Jillson blocked it right into his own net, past junior goalie Josh Blackburn.

But the Wolverines took over after that, scoring four unanswered goals - including three shorthanded. Two of which were by Matzka, who led the team in that category last season with six shorthanded tallies.

"Matzka is going to be a threat when he's on the ice," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "I thought he had a great weekend."

The power play wasn't as successful, with the Wolverines failing to take advantage on 15 opportunities.

The absence of captain Geoff Koch and senior Mark Kosick, both sitting the game out with nagging groin injuries, had an affect because Berenson had to sub in players who weren't practicing at their positions on the power play.

"You don't want to get into these penalty-kill type games," Berenson said. "I think we're a better team five-on-five because I think the hockey's better. But when you get an official or team or game like we had tonight then you have to play through it."

The game was physical, as the Hawks were certainly not intimidated by Michigan - aggressively forechecking the Wolverines, including taking their fair share of cheap shots after the whistle blew.

Tempers flared, words were shared, but in the end it was just a chance for the Wolverines to take shots at players other than their own teammates. A trial especially useful before hosting a crucial and challenging tournament this weekend with two of the nation's best.

KIMITSU YOGACHI/Daily

Senior Josh Langfeld got on the scoring track with a backhand goal Saturday.