The Michigan Daily-Friday, January 27, 1978-Page 9
A Pain in the Ice .. .
Mother Nature gives dekers a snow job
-1
Blue-Indiana: Tonigh ... maybe;
A
By PAUL CAMPBELL
Everybody's got problems.
Take the Michigan hockey team. The.
Wolverines were supposed to leave
yesterday for Denver, where they are
scheduled to play the league leading
Pioneers in a Friday-Saturday series.
Now they're cooling their heels,
hoping that the snow relents and that
their rescheduled departure today at
noon willcome off.
That's fine and dandy for Denver,
right? After all, the Pioneers are
waiting out-there in the Mile High city
with their too thin air and their too
small ice sheet, which Michigan won't
even get to practice on.
They're sitting pretty in first place in
the WCHA, where they've been since
the second week of the season. They
know that Michigan, like every team in
the league, struggles to win on the road.
WCHA Standings
WCHA STANDINGS
W L T,"TP
Denver 16 4 0 32
Wisconsin 14 4 2 30
Michigan Tech 14 6 0 28
Minnesota 11 8 1 23
MICHIGAN 10 10 0 20
NotreDame 7 12 1 15
Colorado Col. 7 13 0 14
North Dakota 7 13 0 14.
Minnesota-
Duluth 6 13 1 13
Mich. State 5 14 1 11
THIS WEEKEND'S GAMES
MICHIGAN at Denver
Colorado College at Michigan State
Michigan Tech at Wisconsin
Minnesota at Minnesota-Duluth
Notre Dame at North Dakota
So everything should be smiles in
Pioneer country, right?
Wrong. Denver's got plenty of
problems of its own. They've had to say
goodbye to two of their forwards. First
junior Alex Belcourt's (4 goals, 12
assists, 16 points) was kicked off the
team for a fighting incident at a party.
Freshman wing Brad Purpur (4-4-8)
also has a problem. Hockey at Denver
was fun for the newcomer from Win-
nipeg, but classes weren't. Now he's
academically ineligible for the rest of
the season.
3/4"The loss of Belcourt and Purpur
takes away the luxury of depth," said
first year Coach Marshall Johnston.
"Depth is a big factor in determining
your degree of success. I just hope that
this team can continue to come back
and win games like they have been all
year."
The loss of Belcourt and Purpur is
overshadowed by a much bigger
problem.Denver is on NCAA probation.
-That means that even if the Pioneers
hold to form and win two WCHA playoff
series, they will be passed over when
invitations come out from Providence
for the national semifinals.
The Pioneers aren't standing still for
the two-year ban, however. Realizing
that their 16-4 WCHA mark portends
well for post-season play, the university
has planned an appeal. Legal alter-
natives have already failed, as the Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals unheld the NCAA
decision.
Bur back to hockey. Despite their
problems, the Pioneers have surprised
the league by holding first place for so
long. They've done it with a well-
balanced attack and the resiliency
Johnston referred to.
Junior Doug Berry leads the scorers
with 15 goals-and 23 assista before last
weekend's sweep of Minnesota-Duluth.
He's followed closely by Sophomores
Mark Davidsin (15-18-33) and Perry
Schnarr (14-18-32) who beat Michigan
with an overtime goal in the second
game of the WCHA season.
Senior Ernie Glanville has taken over
the number one goalie spot from Jim
Bales. Glanville came up with a rarity
in college hockey against Duluth when
he shut them out 4-0. His goals against
average is hovering around three per
game.
Johnston, whose team must face
Michigan at home before going on the
road to battle red hot Michigan Tech
and Wisconsin, thinks the Pioneers can
hold on to first place if they win four of
their next six games.
Michigan coach Dan Farrell has
similar aspirations for the Wolverines,
who broke a seven game league losing
streak when they beat North Dakota 5-2
on Saturday.
"We'll be going out to Denver hoping
for a split," said Farrell. "But then we
play seven of ten at home, all against
second-division teams, so maybe we
can get a streak going."
Farrell pointed out that his team
played well in Denver last year, win-
ning both games for the first time ever.
But inconsistencies continue to
plague Farrell's team. The coach hopes
that Rick Palmer's solic Saturday per-
formance is indicative of a hot hand.
The senior will start Friday, and
Farrell would go with him again if he
performs well.
The experiment which saw Dean
Turner move up from defense to wing
was short-lived, and dino will be back at
the blue line against the Pioneers. He
did a good job creating situations in the
slot, but even his sometimes too
aggressive play was missed at the
point.
Now that thelosing streak is over,
Farrell would like to put thoughts of it
in some random snowdrift. He'd rather
talk about the team's attitude.
"I think that the win will help us this
weekend," said the coach.
Johnston wasn't feeling too sorry for
Michigan, either. "I remember a
similar slump they had last year
(Michigan lost seven in a row before
winning 12 straight). Sometimes losing
streaks are not that good an indication
of how well a team is playing.
ICER ICINGS: Dave Debol-is closing
in on the only Michigan career scoring
record he doesn't hold. Debol has
scored 10 goals, four short of Kris
Manery's standard. Manery, by the
way, is quickly closing in on a 20-goal
season for the Cleveland Barons of the
NHL.
Birth defects
are forever.
Unlessyou help.
TO PROTECT THE UNBORN
AND THE NEWBORN
Big Ten bows to snow4
AS THE northern part of the
United States is quickly turning
into the Yukon, basketball games
are falling almost as quickly as
the snow. The Michigan-Indiana
basketball game, originally
scheduled for last night has been
tentatively rescheduled for
tonight at 8:05 p.m.,
Other postponements around
the Big Ten are last night's
Minnesota at Purdue, Ohio State
at Michigan State and North-
western at Wisconsin basketball
games. These games have not
been rescheduled as of press.
time.
For the wolverines, as well as
Ohio State, the cancellations
were the second straight in the
Big Ten schedule. Last Saturday;
Michigan's game in Columbus
was postponed until the following.
Monday because of the large
snowfall in that city.
MCAT - DAT -LSAT -GRE
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