U-S-A! U-S-A!

Yesterday evening the Under-20 Team USA, who are as of now about four hours into their flight to the Czech Republic for the World Junior Championships, took on the Western Michigan Broncos in an exhibition game at Lawson Arena. I worked the game, but as we had few students in attendance thanks to Christmas, I basically got to enjoy it, and the following autograph session, as a spectator.

While we expected a blowout, the Broncos (who are currently beating only Lake Superior State in the CCHA and have only 4 points on the season...good job guys) put up a strong fight and only ended up losing 4-2.

Team USA, ready to kick us to the curb.

Team USA looked great together - their warmups especially had a very "Miracle" feel to them (of course the uniforms helped, but the sheer skill and the synchronized drills were everything you'd expect of this sort of team), and were very impressive, though the Broncos were no slouches either. Team USA, despite only played with its final roster set since December 4th, looked good together, although they definitely looked stronger when they were running set plays - at times it seemed like they weren't quite used to each other enough to know just where to expect linemates to be, which got them into a little bit of trouble. The team also faces the problem of having a strong set of finesse players, great skaters with excellent vision, sniping skills and hockey sense, but they fell prey to the Broncos more physical hockey on occasion - their checks weren't spectacular and for at least the first portion of the game they shied away from most physical contact. Bronco defenseman and Phoenix prospect Chris Frank, to the delight of the student section, crushed more than one member of the team before the game was over.

The goal scorers for Team USA were Kyle Okposo and Ryan Flynn mere minutes apart in the first period, Matt Rust in the second, and Mike Carman in the third. Both Bronco goals were from the new addition Max Campbell. Fans were given the opportunity to see both Team USA goalies, as they and the Broncos both swapped out their starting goaltenders with 8:54 left in the second period. (The Broncos proceeded to let perpetual third-stringer Matt Federico and his Darth Vader goalie mask have 2:57 of ice time as well - the first he's seen all season.)

Ten players notched points for Team USA, including Colin Wilson and Jamie McBain, who both had two point nights. Other notable performers were Leafs prospect Tyler Ruegsegger and Rangers prospect Bobby Sanguinetti. Second overall draft pick James VanRiemsdyk looked good, but was held off the scoresheet.

After the game, they held an autograph session where the entire team signed roster photo sheets and chatted with us. They were all charming and friendly (Rhett Rahkshani even offered to let us try his gross looking pastel green energy drink with 'protein powder' that he promised was delicious. We were skeptical and did not.)

The game itself was a great experience - the crowd was into it, and the Lawson Lunatics student section even forwent their usual "who cares, you suck!" cheers when the starting lineup for the opposition was announced. The Broncos put out a better effort than they have in quite a while (excepting the Wayne State games last weekend). Co-Captain Jeff LoVecchio summed it up saying, "Playing a team of that caliber, we knew we had to step it up. Last week was a huge step in the right direction and I think we continued that tonight." True story, 'Vecchs...now keep it up and apply it to some of those conference matches.

Team USA looked promising, while far from perfect, and should only continue to play better as the trip goes on. Hopefully they'll have a strong showing at the World Championships in Pardubice. Good luck boys, we're cheering for you!

Playing Catchup

Red Wings:

Friday night the Wings played Minnesota - I had to work Bronco Hockey, but Kirsten kept me up to date (I have a feeling it pained her to do this; sorry about that) on scores so that I could let my whole section block know we blanked them 5-0. The story of the game should have been Henrik Zetterberg's hat trick, but instead it as crazy-as-ever Dominik Hasek and his ridiculous trip on Marian Gaborik. I think he's gotten bored not being able to do that move yet this season. I'd be remiss if I didn't post it because, well, it is certainly hilarious:

Nice to see he's got his confidence back.

Sunday afternoon the Wings took on the Carolina Hurricanes at home for the first time in years. The sheer amount of red on the ice was a little overwhelming and I was working on a Logic exam at the same time so I didn't take a lot of notes. Valtteri Filppula scored a nice goal that Cam Ward actually helped him out with and Jiri Hudler had a career-high three point night (all assists). Says Babcock of my rookie: “He’s been getting better and better. Each night that I watch him he seems to be growing with confidence with the puck. … He’s got a bright future.”

The game was a seesaw for the first two periods, but the Wings pounded it home in the third, resulting in a 5-2 victory and keeping this stat alive: besides an overtime victory in Game 1 of the 2002 Stanley Cup finals, the Carolina/Hartford franchise hasn’t won in Detroit since beating the Red Wings 3-0 on November 14, 1989. Interesting.

This evening (as I type) the Wings are taking on Nashville - check back post-game for a recap.

Bronco Hockey:

I haven't been keeping with the updates a lot thanks to the fact that, well the record hasn't been stellar. This past weekend, however, we took on the Wayne State Warriors (and defenseman Phil Partyka who I went to highschool with - huh.) in a weekend series of (unfortunately) non-divisional play. The Broncos shone, winning Friday's game 5-2 and Saturday's 5-1. I hear from the players that it's the first time they got to go out after a game in, well, quite a while.

The next Bronco Hockey game is Tuesday December 18th against the US World Junior Team, whose final roster was just announced, before they head off to the Czech Republic. We've been promised a staff autograph session, so if anyone's interested in any particular team members (including James VanRiemsdyk) let me know and I'll see what I can do for you.

The Broncos are looking up lately - backup goalie Jerry Kuhn, who made some spectacular saves this weekend, was recognized as the CCHA Rookie of the Week, and the team just got signed letters of intents from four new recruits - Culhane's not particularly known for his recruiting ability, but they sound sturdy enough. I suppose we'll see come next season.

In other news...

It's great to hear that Boston Bruins star forward Patrice Bergeron is feeling a bit better and making a trip back home to Quebec City. It sounds like he's improving every day and keeping up hope that he'll be back yet this season:

"I'm improving these last few weeks, like I say, and in my heart I want to get back, too," he said. "So I believe it's an achievable goal to get back this season. We'll see what happens."

We wish him the best and would love to see him back - hopefully things will only continue to get better from here on out.

ATTN: (Wings 3, Blackhawks 5)

I dislike Chicago.

And I'm burning that darn free hat.

Unfortunately (or very fortunately, as I was to find out) I spent the evening working not only with Athletic Facilities, but also in the (totally non-proverbial) penalty box as the Time Out Coordinator for Comcast at tonight's WMU/Notre Dame CCHA game so I missed out on another thrashing of the Wings by the Hawks. Seems like it was a busy weekend for everyone - I don't even have a link for you to anything but the dismal scoresheet yet.

In the meantime, in case you're in the west Michigan area and want to catch my sixty minutes of fame, Comcast's local sports channel is reshowing tonight's WMU game on Monday afternoon at 3:30!

The Way a Road Trip Should Be (Wings 5, Coyotes 2)

Edit 7:56pm est: Tracy has chronicled the game from a 'yotes point of view over at HLOG, complete with a lovely shot of yours truly looking like an idiot. Thanks Tracy!

As mentioned, I was working both Bronco football (a pitiful loss) and Bronco hockey (a brilliant win) yesterday evening and didn't get home until halfway through the second period of the Wings/Coyotes game, so this post will be a little on the sparse side. Fortunately for me, what it is sounds like I missed was the shakier first period play on the Wings' part, and by the time I got home they settled in nicely and pulled out the victory.

Tomas Holmstrom was the victim of what everyone I've heard from is calling a horrible penalty call that robbed Henrik Zetterberg of a goal in the first period. I mention this because even though I didn't see it, it seems like the pinnacle of the trashy calls we've been getting lately and I can only hope it goes downhill from here. Fortunately, even though the game could have been 6-2 instead of 5-2, we still won it in the end, and Zetterberg came back with a late goal (you guessed it, a gorgeous Datsyuk to Holmstrom to Zetterberg hammer-in)to make up for this one. His point streak and phenomenal play continue through nine games now.

My rookie Jiri Hudler notched his first goal of the year in the first period as well playing now, with Mikael Samuelsson back and Dallas Drake being sent home to rest after the nasty McLaren hit that broke his cheekbone, on a line with Aaron Downey and Matt Ellis (both of whom also looked good tonight trying to seal spots on the lineup). The other goals came from blissfully unlikely sources - Kirk Maltby with two and Chris Chelios with the third. It's always great to see the Eurotwins put on a show like they have been, but games like this that prove our scoring depth are a big relief and will prove to be a big asset to the team.

Coyotes blogger Tracy was texting me from the game, which she attended despite the Coyotes jacking up prices for Wings games, the last of which was "Now I cower at your team's feet." That's what I like to hear.

There are whispers of Igor Grigorenko getting the call up for the Wings soon, and the belief is that Downey would be the one sent back to Grand Rapids, especially after the way Ellis has been playing so far this season. I have to agree with Matt from On the Wings on this one:

"Quite frankly, I’d rather the Wings keep him. Downey, along with Ellis, brings an energy to this team that Grigorenko seems incapable of providing."

I'll hold judgment until I see Grigorenko's play of late (I was hoping to catch a Griffins game before this call-up, but I don't think I'll be able to make until November 1st), but it seems like a shame to continue putting so much energy into Grigorenko, who is starting to feel like the guy given way too many chances because the team really wants him to work out.

The Wings' next game is Wednesday against the Vancouver Canucks - bring it, Hannah!

For other, likely more in depth recaps, check out:

• On the Wings
• Gorilla Crouch
• Winging it in Motown

Other Notes:

• Charter Cable seems to have Center Ice functioning now, at least in my area. I called yesterday (why no, I haven't been calling every day for the past few weeks) and was met with an "Oh! We do have that now!". Not only are they carrying it, but so long as you ask, they're crediting subscribers' accounts with $20 for the discount that Center Ice was giving if you ordered the programming early enough in the season. I even managed to talk my way into prorating so the three weeks of games we missed don't end up costing me anything. Good luck to anyone else still trying to get it! I watched the Oilers/Flames yesterday and was treated to a spectacular shot of Ales Hemsky looking around after getting, well, smushed. It was worth all that pain.

• The WMU Bronco Hockey Team swept Bentley College this weekend, winning 5-2 Friday and 3-2 yesterday evening. Sophomore goalie Riley Gill looked outstanding and had the whole crowd bowing to him more than a few times. The kid is hot. Next weekend the boys are off to Niagara for a series there - let's hope this keeps up, as we're now 2-0 on the season and undefeated including the exhibition game against Windsor.
  

The Wonder Twins Strike Again: Wings 4, Kings 1

Having missed the last Wings game due to work (well, that's a lie, I came home just in time to see Robert Wing Killer notch the game winner, but let's forget about that), and not been able to catch anything else recently because, well, Charter you still suck, I finally got to sit down tonight and catch the Wings take on the Kings in the start of their first Western road trip of the year.

This particular road trip was a scary one last season, wherein the Wings dropped three of four games and couldn't score more than one goal in any of those losses. Unfortunately, the one team they did beat was the Kings, in the first matchup of the trip - but let's try not to think about that either.

Going into tonight, the Wings had won thirteen of their past fourteen games against the Kings - a nice feel-good stat that made me even feel good about Chris Osgood getting the start tonight. Luckily that stat has improved to fourteen of fifteen, and Ozzie had a brilliant evening. Midway through the first period he made a flurry of amazing saves where just about every player on the ice was swarming his crease, and kept it up all night long, absolutely robbing Michael Cammalleri, who did eventually net the only Kings goal, at least twice.

The Kings goalie of the evening, Jonathan Bernier, looked pretty solid for the first few minutes, only fumbling the puck once on a second one-timer from Lilja (lucky goalie; he held onto the puck with a little bounce-move that if he'd stumbled over would have almost definitely been a goal, as there were two or three Wings waiting there to tap it in), and even looked all right after recovering from the tag team Eurotwins PP goal. Unfortunately for him, he started to crumble a little a after Kris Draper, who is currently red hot, notched a shortie on him after he went down too early and couldn't move across the net fast enough to stop it.

With those two, the Wings started the game off with a 2-0 lead, the first , which has been a scary number for them lately - and after Andreas Lilja took an untimely penalty that gave the Kings (who had scored seven PP goals to this point) a two man advantage for twenty second, allowing Cammalleri to move the Kings within one, it looked like that might be the case again. Luckily for us, the hero line of Henrik Zetterberg, Pavel Datsyuk, and Tomas Holmstrom decided they weren't standing for that. Despite Babock's goal, at the start of the season, to keep the duo of Datsyuk and Zetterberg on seperete lines, injuries to Johan Franzen and Mikael Samuelsson have forced them back together - and what a show they are. Holmstrom scored a beautiful tic-tac-toe goal that proved he's not only a grinder and that he can work with finesse sometimes too, putting one right past Bernier to lift the Wings ahead by two again, and Zetterberg added the fourth shortly after on a brilliantly patient wraparound play. Datsyuk assisted on both, bringing their totals for the night as a line to 3G, 5A. Think that's impressive? Individually on the season their numbers look like this:

• Datsyuk: 1G 6A
• Zetterberg: 4G 8A
• Holmstrom: 5G 2A

Think they're making a damn strong case for staying together through the season, much?

They weren't the only three making an impact tonight - in the first period Babcock ran the gritty line of Dallas Drake, Matt Ellis, and Aaron Downey, inserted with the injury to Samuelsson, quite a bit, and the Money Line (two Czechs and a Finn!) from last year of Val Filppula, Jiri Hudler, and Tomas Kopecky were together for a good chunk of the night. None of them broke onto the scoresheet, but Babcock commented that they were effective in the postgame.

While the game was enjoyable, I was disappointed with the lack of Jack Johnson, having been excited to see him again after watching him play my WMU Bronco's with U of M last season. I only even heard his name twice! Hey Kms2, where was your boy tonight?

Bronco Hockey

Last night was the first game of the season for my WMU Broncos - well, an exhibition game to be precise, but exciting nonetheless. They took on the U of Windsor Lancers, and while they got off to a 0-2 start, they rallied with the help of freshman Max Campbell who led the team with two goals and an assist and ended up winning 5-2. Considering we lost our number one rookie from last year, Mark Letestu, to the WBS Penguins, seeing someone step up to that role was a relief.

As usual the game was a good time - between Jeff LoVecchio chatting with us from the penalty box and helping us cheer on Frank the Tank and Jonathan Lupa getting a game ejection for a great fight, the season started off great.

Other Miscellany

• Elly told me to mention the Penguins while she's off in Ontario. So could Ty Conklin look a little more ridiculous in this year's Baby Pens roster shot? (Oh and the Pens won with what looks to have been a good 6-4 showing at the ACC yesterday night, too.)

• Petr Hemsky, forgotten brother of Ales (read: he failed out of the OHL), scored the game winning goal 4:59 in to overtime for his current team Srnsi Kutna Hora (home of the Sedlac Ossuary - possibly the coolest thing I saw in the Czech Republic). Way to do something, other Hemsky!

• Looks like Jason Smith really does love his Timmy's - and also like he's very disinterested in, well, Lupul's existance.
  

• Some sports recap of some football game (yeah, I was paying a LOT of attention to my TV) just used the phrase "He throws like Ernest Hemingway writes." Best. Sports metaphor. Ever.
  

Tomorrow night the Wings take on the Ducks - presumably not even before I get home from my night class, so here's to hoping the road trip continues the way it's started.