Page 6-The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday- October 19, 1992
Oliver adds new twist
to Michigan
's5
attack
by Andy Stabile
Daily Hockey Writer
So much for first-game jitters.
David Oliver scored four goals in Michigan's season-opening 6-1
victory against Notre Dame Saturday. That puts Oliver on pace for a
140-goal season.
"The puck's not going to go in like that every night," Oliver said
laughing after the game.
It's fun to dream a little.
Dreaming aside, Oliver did have the best night of his college career.
He scored his goals in a variety of ways, mezmerizing Irish goaltender
Greg Louder and the 5,319 fans on hand at Yost all night.
"Oliver, he's a sniper," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "He
takes advantage of opportunities as they present themselves. He is smart
around the net."
Even though Oliver does not like being called
a "sniper," he is no stranger to the red light. He
was Michigan's second-leading scorer with 31
goals last season and Saturday night's
performance was nothing less than a goal-scoring
I / clinic.
First goal: Michigan is on the power play late
in the first period leading, 1-0. Oliver stands in
front of the crease with his back to the net. Brian
liver Wiseman fakes a shot and puts a pass right on
Oliver's stick. Without looking or turning to face
the net he sneaks the puck through Louder's legs with eight seconds left
on the clock.
"I saw out of the corner of my eye that the goalie had his legs spread
open," Oliver said. "I got it away as quick as I could, and I found the
hole."
Second goal: Seven minutes into the second period Michigan is
shorthanded, leading, 2-0. Oliver intercepts an errant Irish pass in the
Notre Dame zone for a mini-breakaway. He sweeps in from the left side
and, after a little shake-and-bake, again beats Louder between the legs to
score his first-ever shorthanded goal.
"I just made a quick fake, and his legs opened up again," Oliver said.
Third goal: Four minutes later Michigan leads, 3-0. Oliver skates into
the puck, which lies still in the slot. His slapshot beats Louder high on
the glove side before the Irish goalie can move.
"That was sort of a weird goal," Oliver said. "The puck was just sit-
ting there. It was just sitting there and nobody was going for it. I took
four steps and I hit it. I think it was the hardest shot I ever let go. I sort of
took a running swing at it."
Fourth goal: 56 seconds into the third period, Michigan now leads, 4-
0. The faceoff is in the circle to the right of the Notre Dame net. Center
Brian Wiseman draws the puck back to Oliver and who fires a blind shot
that rings into the net off the left post.
"We planned the draw to come back to me but I bobbled it," Oliver
said. "I just teed it up and shot it. I didn't even look where it was going. I
heard the 'tink' and I saw all the people sat up. I can't even believe it
went in."
Call him a sniper, say he has "soft hands" or "the golden touch."
Oliver is one of that certain breed of hockey players that puts the puck
into the net. None of Oliver's goals came on cleaned up rebounds or bad
goaltending. All four were created, nothing was cheap or easy. Much
credit also goes to Wiseman who assisted on three of Oliver's goals, but
Oliver had to finish the play.
"I just worry about going out and working hard and things are going
to happen," Oliver said. "Of course Denny (Felsner) created a lot of ac-
tion on the ice. He's a great player and he attracted a lot of attention to
him, but Brian Wiseman and (rookie Ryan) Sittler, they're not too bad of
hockey players themselves. It's nice playing with talented guys."
And let's face it, who didn't let out a small sigh of relief when the
puck started going in the net Saturday. With the departure of last sea-
son's leading scorer Felsner, there were some questions about where
Michigan's goals would come from. Before the season, Berenson pre-
dicted that no one individual would replace Felsner's scoring, but instead
many players would pick up their game.
. One game does not make Oliver Michigan's next hockey superstud.
If Berenson is right, Oliver was just the first to turn up his game a notch.
Make that four notches.
Brian Wiseman and David Roberts join in celebrating one of David Oliver's four goals against Notre Dame.
HOCKEY
Continued from page 1
the puck into the goal for a 2-0
Michigan lead.
"I saw out of the corner of my
eye that the goalie had his legs
spread open," Oliver said. "I saw it
and got it away as quick as I could
and I found the hole."
The team effort Berenson was
looking for came about in the second
period as the Michigan defensive
corps made life easy for Wolverine
goalie Steve Shields, holding Notre
Dame totone shot on goal.
"Our team played a strong pe-
riod," Berenson said. "Our fore-
checking was good. We broke up
some of their rushes in the neutral
zone. They really didn't get on
Shields, but one time and that was a
great shot."
"One shot; you just kind of sit
back and enjoy it," Shields said.
"I've had a few one-shot periods, but
I just try to keep myself involved
and keep my concentration. So I
don't know really know how many
shots I get."
Oliverput the Wolverines up 3-0
with 6:58 gone by in the second
stanza. With Michigan forward Rick
Willis in the penalty box for charg-
ing, Oliver stole the puck from the
Irish defense and skated in on
Louder all alone.
One fake later the Wolverines
had another goal. It was the first
short-handed goal in Oliver's career.
"Me and Wiseman usually don't
get out there on shorthanded," Oliver
said. "But we got out there for the
last 10 seconds of their power play
and the defense made a bad pass and
it went off his skate. So, I had the
breakaway and I put it in and it felt
great."
But the night was still young.
Slightly more than three minutes
later, Oliver had the hat trick as he
ripped a slapshot over Louder's
shoulder to increase the Wolverine
lead to 4-0.
Oliver added his fourth goal to
his evening's resume before most of
the fans had a chance to return from
the second intermission. He ripped a
slapshot off the far post for a 5-0
Wolverine lead.
Notre Dame cashed in on a 5-on-
3 opportunity for its only tally of the
evening at the 16:26 mark of the
third period when Jamie Ling
slipped the puck past Michigan net-
minder Chris Gordon.
Wiseman added a goal to his
three-assist performance when his
shot trickled off the glove of Irish
goalie Brent Lothrop for a 6-1 lead.
The goal was the third power-play
goal of the evening for the
Wolverines.
"I was hoping to go a little more
upstairs on him," Wiseman said. "I
didn't get enough on it as I would
have liked to, but fortunately, he
misjudged it."
Berenson was quite pleased with
his team's opening effort.
"We wanted to play a solid game
and not pay as much attention to the
score as we have been at times,"
Berenson said. "As much as Oliver
might have stolen the show, in terms
of his goals, we're not getting into
that scoring mentality. We're getting
into that team mentality."
Notre Dame coach Ric Schafer
came away from the game with high
regard for the Wolverines.
"They're really good," Schafer
said. "They were too primed and
ready to play. They were awfully
quick and awfully strong. I still feel
good though. We're going to learn
from this. We tried some things they
did (blind passes), but it didn't work.
I'll say it again: Boy, are they
good!"
Stickers
swept in
big series
at Iowa
by Brett Johnson
Daily Sports Writer
It may have been Iowa, but it
definitely was not "heaven" this
weekend for the Michigan field
hockey team. The Wolverines took
their 6-3 record to Iowa City to face
No. 2 Iowa and No. 3 Penn State,
and they did not fare well.
The Lady Lions got off to a quick
start Saturday, and never looked
back en route to a 6-1 win. Michigan
let the conference's leading scorer,
Chris McGinley, get Penn State go-
ing with 20:54 left in the first half on
a direct corner.
But McGinley was not finished,
and neither were the Lady Lions.
McGinley beat Michigan goalie
Rachael Geisthardt on the next two
goals to increase the lead to 3-0.
The Wolverines were able to get-
some scoring opportunities in thee
first half, but were unable to capital-
ize on them. In addition, the defense
was unable to keep Penn State out of
the scoring zone. The Lady Lions
got 13 shots inside the circle during
the first stanza.
The second half was more of the
same.
Penn State sophomore Heather
Atkinson increased the lead to 4-0Gas
she put a pass from McGinley past
new Michigan goalie Nicole Hoover.
The Wolverines scored their only
goal with 11:27 left in the game
when Gia Biagi scored her first ca-
reer goal on a pass from Katie
Thomas. The LadysLions closed out
the scoring on goals from M inley,
her fourth of the game, and Danielle
Annibale. Michigan was out-shot,
24-12, in the game.
Sunday, the Wolverines were
looking for their first victory ever
over Iowa in 21 tries. However, they
would have to contend with the
Hawkeye's scoring tandem of Kristy
Gleason (21 goals, 3 assists) and
Jaime Rofrano (5 goals, 18 assists).
Although the defense was able t
hold Gleason without a goal, it was
not able to stop Rofrano fromhaving
a huge game, or prevent the Wolver-
ines from losing, 7-1.
The Hawkeyes took the early..
lead on a goal from freshman Ann
Pare, but Michigan was able to knQt
the score less than two minutes later,
on a goal by Katie Thomas. It was
her eighth of the season.
After a. Hawkeye goal by Mary
Craybill, Rofrano started her scor
ing. She played a part in Iowa's next
four goals, scoring three and assist
ing one, which put the game out of,
reach. With the score 6-1, Pare
ended the scoring with her second
goal of the game.
Thegdefense had a hard time once
again, allowing 34 shots, including
28 from inside the circle. The of-
fense also had a very hard time. It
managed three shots all game and.
only one from inside the circl
which was the goal by Thomas. :
The weekend series dropped-
Michigan to 2-4 in the Big Ten (6-5,'
overall) and was the team's fourth,
consecutive conference loss.
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EVAN PETRIE/Daily
Freshman right winger John Arnold handles the puck in
victory against Notre Dame.
Saturday night's
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