12/6/2008 – Michigan 6, Michigan State 1 – 10-7 (6-5 CCHA)
12/7/2008 – Michigan 5, Michigan State 3 – 11-7 (7-5 CCHA)

Oh and the hockey team swept Michigan State this weekend, which would normally be a much bigger deal than whatever the basketball team did but there was the whole Duke thing and Michigan State is the hockey equivalent of Michigan's football team this year: shockingly terrible. No grand sweeping column but how about a series of thoughts and so forth and so on:

Brandon Burlon! No one had seen much from Michigan's highest-touted incoming recruit because of an ankle sprain that held him out of the first month and a half and then a series of road games but holy cow, man. Burlon was sick the entire weekend. At Yost there was a sweet behind-the-back pass to an open guy in the slot as Burlon was heading behind the Michigan State net and a sick, sick goal in which he undressed a defender and roofed a backhander shortside. I cannot believe it didn't make that night's highlight reel. Which is here:

Then at Munn he's a critical part of the game-tying goal, leaping into the rush to create a two on one and sliding the puck over to Hagelin for him to bork in to the open bork. He was a second-round pick for a reason; that reason appears to be "is sick with puck."

David Wohlberg! Is also on fire. You can see some of his fine work from Friday night above. On Saturday he combined with Aaron Palushaj to create the game winner; Wohlberg's slick tape-to-tape pass to Caporusso gave him a wide open net to leisurely shoot into for the winner. I think he's found a home on the top line.

Aaron and McInchak. Oh, holy God. This was the sort of thing I was fearing when I heard college hockey would move to two referees. It honestly hasn't been that bad when the CCHA has deployed a crew with one old hand and a promoted linesman. The linesman usually stays out of the way and makes only the really obvious calls.

This abortion of a crew contains two proven incompetents and they reffed like it. Yost Built:

A few minutes later Tristin Llewellyn absolutely planted Crowder as he brought the puck into the zone. He then threw an elbow to Crowder's head for good measure. Crowder retaliated and punched him in the face a few times. Llewellyn did nothing after the initial elbow but was still assessed a Roughing ATW penalty to keep the MSU power play in tact. It was absolutely ridiculous and MSU scored on the subsequent power play, a great shot by Petry over Hogan's shoulder.

Thankfully Tweedle-Dumb and Tweedle-Dumber gave it right back to us a few minutes later. Petry hit Naurato with what looked like a hard, but clean, check and eight seconds later (keep in mind MSU had the puck the whole time) the back referee whistled Petry for elbowing. Petry was all the way at his bench when the whistle went, and he started cracking up. I haven't seen a look of disbelief like that since Jack Johnson's "For what?!" reaction after he got tossed for not hitting Howells from behind.

Word. The game at Yost was incredibly chippy largely because Aaron and McInchak refused to send players for the extra two when they deserved it. David Wohlberg was dragged to the ground by his face mask and then had the crap beaten out of him and there was no power play because Wohlberg did some shoving after he was extricated. That guy should have been gone for fighting; instead he gets a coincidental minor and the rest of the game continues being a bitch-fest. When a freshman skill forward like Czarnik ends up with a misconduct for telling you what an idiot you are, you've probably screwed up.

Negatives. I was not much of a fan of Llewellyn's weekend. His screwup towards the end of the five-minute major Friday sent State on a 2-on-1 and

I have your hat. If you are the intrepid Michigan fan who tossed his hat on the ice after Turnbull's game-clinching empty-netter, I have it. We ate at a place near the arena after the game and happened to sit near the guy who runs the penalty box (and Jeff Lerg), and he bestowed it unto me. So, yeah, if you want it email me and we can arrange a dropoff.

Airing of grievances. All right, it must be said: "Can't Turn You Loose" (the Blues Brothers song) is out of control. Believe me, no one loves it more than I do but there's something wrong when you're playing it during the first intermission and then in the second intermission it lasts seven minutes. It is way too much and actually verges on annoying, which is sad because in proper doses it's one of the best traditions at Yost. Just not for 30 minutes every game.

Also, the "everyone dances" thing was cool at the end of last year but I miss it when there was one cajoled fat guy or nutball in a costume who would dance for our amusement. Now it's just "hey look at everybody moving around sort of." Even the return of Superfan could not restore order.

Also also what in the hell is with the band director deciding that "Let's Go Blue" really needs to be played at triple speed? The whole band has been a disaster this year. The student section can hardly hear it in its new location. The director is killing Can't Turn You Loose, thinks playing "YMCA" is a good idea, and has for some inexplicable reason decided to make it impossible to clap along with Michigan's oldest cheer.

And no one is yelling at him to dance. This is letting the terrorists win. When Michigan is winning comfortably you yell at the band director to dance. He won't until this Haithcock guy is gone, but one day the students will be yelling at the band director to dance because that's what they always do despite the fact that he never dances and the band director will dance and cancer will be cured. Do not let terrorist cancer win. Yell at the band director to dance.

The situation. Michigan has hit the halfway point and it's amazing how much that one stupid game against Western changes the situation. Win that and you're 12-6, well on track to make the tournament and still in with a chance at the CCHA. At 11-7, though, it's kind of ugly. Michigan needs to get their crap together and make a push starting now otherwise making the tournament will be touch and go all season. It's ridiculously early for this sort of thing, but Michigan sits #18 in the current pairwise rankings. (Top four: Northeastern(!), Princeton(!!), Vermont(!!!) and Cornell(!!!!)).

The next four games will be huge. Michigan rolls into the GLI with the best record of any of the participants. They open with Tech, which has gone from respectable back to awful (2-13-1 and a –33 goal differential) and then face either Michigan State, who you know is struggling, or North Dakota. North Dakota is normally a bear of an opponent but this year they're just 7-8-1 and have a goal differential of +1 and that's after murdering Harvard 10-1 on Friday. They'll be down Rust and Palushaj but it's not exactly a loaded tournament this year.

Then they get Miami at Yost in January, which will be the biggest series of the year by far. Sweep them and Michigan is suddenly five points back with two games in hand and is in the thick of the CCHA race. Get swept and they're out of it, looking for home ice in the first round, and staring down the barrel of a tourney miss. Much hinges on the next four games.