Wolverines top 'Cats
Kyle Whitney
Issue date: 10/18/07 Section: Sports
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The 'Cats staked a 1-0 lead in the first period on a Nick Sirota backhand from the front of the net. The goal was the second of the season for the junior forward.
The mistakes soon began to pile up for the Wildcats (1-0-0 CCHA, 2-1-0 overall), though, and the team collected six second-period penalties to Michigan's one.
"You cannot be in the box that much. They had the puck and we took so many stupid penalties," NMU head coach Walt Kyle said. "They got total control of the game on power-plays."
During that second period, Michigan squared the game on a Kevin Porter goal during a 5-on-3 advantage.
"We can't give a talented team like that so many opportunities on the power-play," Sirota said. "We have to stay more disciplined. That's what happens when you give them so many chances like that."
As the third period opened, NMU (0-1-0, 1-2-0) was still down a man.
Then, at the 10:30 mark of the final period, Porter put the Wolverines up for good. A Chad Kolarik laser from the front of the net soared over NMU goaltender Brian Stewart's shoulder and rang off the crossbar. The rebound sailed to Porter, who flipped in his second marker of the night.
Carl Hagelin tacked on another Wolverine goal in the final five minutes.
For the night, Stewart made 27 saves on 30 Michigan shots.
"I thought [Stewart] played good. He made some good saves and I can't fault him on any of those goals," Kyle said. "I thought we left him out to dry on a couple of those plays."
Kyle said that the team will need to do a better job of controlling the puck and of staying out of the penalty box if they hope to compete with the Wolverines on Saturday.
And although the Michigan squad is a perennial contender, the Wildcats showed themselves that they can skate with the Wolverines.
"We played with them for a period, but that doesn't matter," Sirota said. "You have to play the whole 60 minutes and we didn't do that today."
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