Hockey 5, UAF 2

Chippy game last night featuring a wide array of scorers. Michigan played pretty decently defensively but was helped out by UAF whiffing on most of their really good scoring chances. Montoya didn't make a tough save all night. Nor did he give up a soft one... neither goal was savable. I'll take it.

Michigan players that stood out: Hensick (of course) and Moss. Michigan's strategy for gaining the line on the power play now seems to consist of "get the puck to TJ and get out of the way." When he's on the ice, there's no dumping, there's no difficulty, it's just 10 seconds with TJ and then you're set up in the zone. Moss managed to escape last night without notching any points, but he was making smart little plays all night to keep pucks in the zone, break out 2 on 1 against the UAF PP, or strip UAF players of the puck. Excellent all-around night for him. Kolarik also made a number of very nice passes.

Refereeing... always an issue, and McInchak made a lot of really, really marginal calls, including some interference penalties I don't understand. But at least he was consistent last night, which you don't always (often) get.

Kolarik went down injured in the third but returned later in the game. Woodford did play in place of Ebbett and had a typical Woodford game: one bad penalty, solid defensive play, an unconverted scoring chance. We'll probably get Ebbett back tonight.

Overall, thumbs up for everybody.

Update: Check out the boxscore. Unless I was hit in the head recently, something's new: blocked shots are listed under each player's summary. Red's serious, man. He's seriously serious. (Also, UAFs Curtis Fraser went 12 of 14 in faceoffs.)