01 Page 6-The Michigan Daily- Sports Monday - November 11, 1991 Power play falls in line by Rod Loewenthal Daily Hockey Writer Nonexistent against Michigan State, and timid vs. Western Michi- gan, the Wolverine power play fi- nally surfaced last weekend with the (arrival of Minnesota. The team's power play exploded against the Golden Gophers due to the play of Denny Felsner, Brian Wiseman, David Oliver, and Chris Tamer. The group recorded three power-play goals and amassed all seven goals Friday night in Michi- gan's 7-3 triumph. Oliver's hat trick and Felsner's seven points paced the line, while Wiseman dumped in two goals of his own. "The power plays and the penal- ties: were a big part of the game," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "I thought it was a real factor." Again Saturday night, the potent line dug into the Gopher defense early, with Felsner scoring on the power play at 7:04 into the first pe- riod. The second line line got its only points of the weekend on the Wolverines' next power play opportunity. An assist by Dan Stiver at 14:58 into the first period fueled David Roberts' second goal on the season. That was all the scoring the line got. Oliver recorded his second con- secutive hat trick and led the first line to four of Michigan's seven goals. '"We heard that as soon as Denny got .the puck they were going to go after him so that leaves two of us open," Oliver said. "I think the rea- son we did so well is that they, be- ing in the West, don't see our power plgythat often." Wiseman attributed his line's power play dominance to a combina- tion of factors. He cited the differ- ent formations used between his line and Ouimet's second line as one possible explanation for the scoring difference. "Maybe they key in on Denny je.0 Shields buries Gophers Woog's bitter criticism by Josh Dubow Daily Hockey Writer After Friday's 7-3 loss to Michigan, Minnesota coach Doug Woog was not in the mood to pay compliments to the victorious Wolverines. In fact, Woog handed out more criticisms of Michigan than Denny Felsner dished out assists to his Wolverine teammates. While David Oliver and Brian Wiseman were the recipients of Felsner's good will on the ice, Michigan goaltender Steve Shields received the brunt of Woog's criticisms in the postgame press conference. That's kind of inter- esting when you consider that Shields gave up only two goals to the No. 5 team in the country. Woog feels Shields' footwork prevents him from being a good goalie. "He can't move on the ice," Woog said. "But everything we shot was upstairs. He comes rushing out, but he can't move his feet laterally. "You can come out one side, but when you're coming out on the ice, your can't move back to the other side," he added. "He'd come out to play the angle, and instead of us going back the other way, we'd shoot the puck up so he could use his body." If it were that simple, you would think the No. 5 team in the country could exploit that weakness. But the Gophers beat Shields twice on 36 shots - once on a rebound, and once when he overcommitted on a shot from the point. This could mean one of three things: Minnesota is not a top team be- cause it could not take advantage of this; or, Michigan's defense is so out- standing that it protects Shields from having to face tough shots; or, while Woog is right that Shields isn't the quickest goalie on his feet, he compen- sates for this with his size. I'll side with the latter theory. So Shields has a weakness. All players have weaknesses, but the good players use their strengths to overcome them. Most big goalies struggle with low shots and excel on high shots Shields is no different. But the final results are what matter, and the Go- phers couldn't beat Shields low or high Friday. Woog says the Gophers needed to move Shields around so they could take advantage of his footwork. He felt if his team could do that, the Go- phers could beat Shields. If Woog noticed this shortcoming so quickly, wouldn't Central Colle- giate Hockey Association coaches and players also notice this? Wouldn't;. they be able to exploit this flaw in Shields' game considering they see him more often than Minnesota? There is no way Shields would have a goals against average of 2.91 in the CCHA for his career if all teams needed to do to beat him was move him around. Woog's comments shouldn't insult Shields, but rather they should insult the rest of the CCHA. Though his record should be enough defense of his ability, Shields re-,: sponded to Woog's criticisms verbally. "People always think if you can move a big goalie, you can go back the other way and beat him," he said. "They tried that once on me, and I kicked it away. I'll let that speak for itself." Maybe Woog's comments were motivated by frustration. It must be disheartening to get blown out by a team when you can clearly see weak- nesses you think you can exploit. But the point is, Minnesota couldn't. Michigan goalie Steve Shields stops a shot from Minnesota defenseman Travis Richards. The Wolverines swept the weekend series from the Golden Gophers by scores of 7-3 and 7-6 to give them a record of 4-1-1. too much and that leaves us free," Wiseman said. "But Denny fights off his checks anyways and gets his stick on the puck." Special teams played exception- ally well during short-handed penalty killing situations Friday night. Rookie Ron Sacka dogged Go- pher attackers all evening as the Wolverines stopped the Minnesota power play cold. However, Saturday night the penalty-killing was not as impressive. On the weekend, Michigan went a combined 7/17 on its power-play opportunities while Minnesota, af- ter a wretched 1/7 power play show- ing Friday night, regrouped Satur- day night to go 5/14 for the two games. But Berenson was not overly concerned about his team's penalty- killing performance Saturday night. "We had trouble with their power play," Berenson said. "I didn't like some of our penalties we took. Cheap penalties are harder to kill. When you take a good penalty it's easier to kill. They took advan- tage of their power play and we took advantage of ours." a a 1992 BSN STUDENTS. Enter the Air Force immediately after gradua- tion - without waiting for the results of your State Boards. You can earn great benefits as an Air Force nurse officer. And if selected during your senior year, you may qualify for a five-month internship at a major Air Force medical facili- ty. To apply, you'll need an overall 2.50 GPA. Serve your country while you serve your career. USAF HEALTH PROFESSIONS COLLECT (313) 463-8599 WHAT'S HAPPENING I RECREATIONAL SPORTS Outdoor Recreation Program ROPES COURSE DAY TRIP SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 16 PRE-TRIP MEETING WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1991 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM NORTH CAMPUS RECREATION BUILDING FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL 764-3967 ICERS Continued from page 1 After Felsner and Nielsen opened the scoring for their teams, the Wolverines began putting on A clinic. David Roberts, Oliver, and Helber all scored in a 2:12 stretch starting at 14:58 of the first period. While the second period was played evenly, the Wolverines still, outscored the Gophers, 3-2, for the' 7-3 lead. Minnesota upped the score to 7- 6, after which Shields replaced Chris Gordon in net and turned aside seven shots to maintain the one-goal edge. "It was a good weekend," Beren- son said. "We played better on Fri- day. I thought we were lucky (Saturday)." 0 IM Fraternity Top 20 1. DE 2. X 3. IAM 494 476.5 467.5- 432.5 4. IN 11. EVANS 12. AEfI 13. AD 14. AAMD 15. DKNQP 16. ATA -1 '7 TT7T 382.5 369 366 343.3 341 334 77 7 1. 2. E ox 1 1 1 1 SOCCER RESULTS TEAM PTS. 3. ZBT A Ell 5. (Ae XAE 5. DAO 6. ZBT 50 39 28 28 429 '.IjY 117 117 117 117 106 106 106 The Mani2 413.7 8. XAM IN FIJI I 1329 ec11 in S. Universit orders 996-0009 *7 A T 'All f0 I