The Michigan Daily - Sports Monday - February 1, 1993 - Page 5
HOCKEY NOTEBOOK
Mark the date and
time: two oalie assist
by Chad A. Saf ran
Daily Hockey Writer
DETROIT - A goalie getting an assist is definitely a rare occurrence.
Two goalies from the same team notching a point happens as often as a
Democratic president takes office. The United States now has Bill Clinton
in the White House, and the Michigan hockey team claimed two scoring
goalies Saturday against Michigan State.
Wolverine netminder Steve Shields grabbed his first assist of the season
on Mark Ouimet's first period goal at the 7:27 mark that put Michigan up
2-0. Shields now has five assists in his career.
Chris Gordon made his contribution in the third period. Gordon nabbed
his point on Dave Roberts' tally at the 14:57 mark, giving the Wolverines
their eleventh goal of the night.
"I was totally surprised," Gordon said. "I had no idea that I was even in-
volved in that play. I wasn't getting many shots, so I was just diving for
pucks, getting as many as I can. I didn't know what happened. The next
thing I know, I had an assist."
Gordon had one assist last season.
PACKING THEM IN: Michigan citizens love their college hockey, and
they proved it Saturday at Joe Louis Arena, as 18,275 people passed through
the turnstiles to watch the Wolverines and Spartans battle.
The crowd was the largest ever to witness a non-tournament college
hockey game in NCAA history, surpassing the total set Nov. 28 at the
Palace of Auburn Hills when Michigan played Notre Dame. For that game,
18,147 fans came to watch.
The Wolverines have now played in front of the three largest non-tour-
nament crowds in NCAA history. Joe Louis Arena hosted 16,643 fans to see
the Feb. 22, 1992 contest between Michigan and Michigan State.
THOSE WACKY FANS: The Michigan faithful that made the journey to
Detroit did not leave their creativity in Ann Arbor.
As the Wolverines continued to extend their lead over the Spartans, the
fans decided to rub it in a little more.
During the third period, the chant of "Go play Central," referring to
Central Michigan, echoed through the arena. Of course, the Chippewas do
not even have a varsity hockey team.
The ideas kept coming though as the call of "Put the band in" was
sounded. In addition, the familiar "Pizza, Pizza" cheer was used several
times. In contests at Yost Ice Arena, Cottage Inn offers a free pizza when
the Wolverines score 10 goals or more. Unfortunately for the fans, no free
food was distributed at the game.
DEFENSE, DEFENSE: The Michigan blueliners continued their
sparkling play of late Saturday, allowing a season-low 13 shots on net and
only two the entire third period. In the last five games, Michigan's
See ICERS, Page 8
Melees mar Friday night contest
UIC cheap shots lead toflticuffi; Berenson launches diatribe at refs
by Tim Rardin
Daily Hockey Writer
Leading 8-0 after nearly two and
one-half periods of play, the
Michigan hockey team had, to that
point, provided the fans at Yost a
memorable show against Illinois-
Chicago Friday.
Unfortunately, though, it was the
ensuing action on the ice - a bench-
clearing brawl with 11:08 re-
maining - that the 6,758 in
attendance will remember.
Throughout the game, the odds of
such an incident occurring increased
with every cheap shot that the
Flames threw. In fact, Coach Larry
Pedrie's squad gave every indication
that its entire game plan was
centered around the notion of offset-
ting Michigan's superior talent with
physical, albeit it illegal and premed-
itated, play.
"They came out trying to run us
out of our building, and there's no
way you're going to do that,"
Michigan coach Red Berenson said.
"The problem was a long time be-
fore the fight started. There were a
lot of problems going on out on the
ice.
"You just knew; it was like a
time bomb ready to go off."
And indeed that bomb did go off.
At 8:52 of the third period, UIC's
Derek Knorr shoved Wolverine
Mark Ouimet to the ice after the
whistle, provoking Ouimet's line-
mate Dan Stiver to pay Knorr back
for the hit.
"I took a dive and I tried to get
the penalty," Ouimet said. "Stiver
was just sticking up for me. We're
not gonna get run out of our own
building by a bunch of idiots like
that."
From there, a number of different
fights developed amidst a shower of
"C-YA" signs thrown by seemingly
everyone in the arena. When all was
said and done, three Michigan play-
ers - Ryan Sittler, Ron Sacka and
Rick Willis - were disqualified for
fighting, while four Flames were
kicked out. More than twenty min-
utes later, the penalty boxes looked
more like the team benches.
Berenson, needless to say, was
less than satisfied with the
officiating of the whole game, fight
and all.
"The way (the refs) should've
stopped (the fight) is by controlling
the game to start with, which wasn't
being done," he said. "It's so frus-
trating having to play against players
like that and a team like that, with
officiating like that."
Illinois-Chicago coach Larry
Pedrie had a different take on the
whole affair.
"I didn't think the game was out
of hand," he said. "One of our play-
ers was at fault. It was just pure
frustration. That's not the way to
handle frustration."
The way the Flames did handle
that frustration illustrated the differ-y
ence between the two teams.
"They shouldn't be allowed to
play in the league if they're going to
do something like that," Michigan's
David Oliver said. "I don't respect
them as much as I did."
In the end, the fight, coupled with
the 107 total penalties - 92 in the:
third period alone - severely blem-
ished an otherwise stellar perfQr-
mance by the Wolverines.
"Stewart had a great game.
Ouimet had a great game. A lot of
our kids played really well,"
Berenson said. "And yet you've got;
everyone talking about all the crap
that went on. These things shouldn't
happen in college hockey."
Dan Stiver (left) and Brian Wiseman celebrate after a goal in Saturday's matchup at Joe Louis Arena. The Wolverines won the season series, 2-1.
SCORE BY PERIODS
UIC 001- 1
Michigan 2 5 1 - 8
First Period: 1, UM, Neaton 7
(Oliver, Stewart) (pp) 10:52. 2,UM,
Stiver 13 (Roberts, Ouimet), 16:49.
Second Period: 3, UM, Stewart
11 (Ward), 2:56. 4, UM, Hilton 8
(Stewart), 6:06. 5, UM, Stewart 12
(Hilton), 12:22. 6, UM, Stone 7
(Willis, Sacka), 15:57.7, UM, Sacka
4 (Ward, Harlock), 19:52.
Third Period: 8, UM, Wiseman 6
(Stewart Neaton) (pp) 4:19.9, UIC,
MacDonald 6 (Bessert,Thidobeau),
12:31.
Goalie Saves: UIC, Hillebrant (7-11-
5--23), Featherstone (x-x-7-30).
Michigan, Shields (8-10-x-18),
Gordon (x-x-13-31).
Officials: Referees - Brent
Rutherford, John LaDuke. Lines-
man -John Kelly.
Attendance: 6,785.
SCORE BY PERIODS
Michigan St. 1 0 0 - 1
Michigan 52 4- 11
First Period: 1, UM, Oliver 22
(Stewart, Hilton), 1:54. 2, UM,
Oiumet 9 (Ward, Shields), 7:27. 3,
UM, Neaton 8 (Stewart, Hilton)
(pp), 11:05. 1, MSU, Woodward 8,
11:56.4, UM, Hilton 10 (Stewart,
Neaton) (pp), 14:59. 5, UM, Stiver
14 (Roberts), 17:46.
Second Period: 6, UM Oliver 23
(Neaton Wiseman), 1:55. 7, UM,
Knuble 13 (Roberts) (pp), 13:52.
Third Period: 8, UM, Stiver 15
(Roberts, Harlock) (sh), 4:27. 9,
UM, Knuble 14 (Roberts, Tamer),
9:05. 10, UM,Wiseman7 (Harlock,
Roberts), 12:27. 11, UM, Roberts
11 (Sinclair, Gordon), 14:57.
Goalie Saves:MSU, Buzak (9-16-
x-25), Kruse (x-x-1 1-36).
Michigan, Shields (3-7-x-10),
Gordon (x-x-2-12).
Officials: Referees - Brent
Rutherford, John LaDuke. Lines-
man -John Kelly.
Attendance: 18,275.
HOCKEY
Continued from page 1
Steve Shields (one assist) and Chris
Gordon (one assist).
. Despite the score, the Spartans
restrained themselves from taking
out their frustrations with cheap
shots on the Wolverines. However,
Illinois-Chicago could not keep its
emotions in check Friday night.
The two teams amassed 27 penal-
ties apiece (of the 54 total infrac-
tions, 40 were called in the final pe-
riod) that totaled 146 minutes. The
biggest altercation came at the 8:52
mark of the third period with
Michigan ahead, 8-0.
The end result of the melee that
delayed the game for over 15 min-
utes was three disqualifications for
fighting on each team and two 10-
minute misconduct penalties. For the
Wolverines, forwards Ron Sacka,
Ryan Sittler and Rick Willis were all
ejected and suspended for Saturday's
game, while Dan Stiver was whistled
for a misconduct penalty.
"Our player was at fault," UIC
coach Larry Pedrie said. "It was pure
frustration and that's not the way to
handle frustration. It got out of hand
more because of the score."
Michigan center Brian Wiseman,
who was making his return from a
back injury and contributed his sixth
goal of the season, said he sensed
trouble coming early in the game.
"We knew that something was
coming," Wiseman said. "The refer-
ees let somethings go. It was an un-
fortunate situation. We showed a lot
of pride and character out there. It is
a tribute to the team and the
coaches."
The incident overshadowed, a
standout performance from
Michigan right wing Cam Stewart.
The junior forward slammed home
'You see he (David
Roberts) can make
great plays. Every so
often he comes up
with a move you
haven't seen before.
He's been an important
playmaker more so
than a goal scorer this
year.'
-Red Berenson
two goals to go along with his three
assists. With the five points, Stewart
eclipsed last season's total of 28.
Two of the points were garnered
with the aid of Kevin Hilton. Stewart
assisted Hilton when he fed Hilton
from the goal line to the high slot,
where the freshman forward smoked
his eighth tally of the season past
Flame goalie Jon Hillebrandt.
Hilton returned the favor six
minutes later when he spotted
Stewart in the slot from behind the
goal line. Stewart banged home his
12th score to give the Wolverines a
5-0 lead in the second period.
Defenseman Alan Sinclair looks to pass Saturday against Michigan State.
BLUELINES
Continued from page 1
1988 to 1992 with a 11-8-3 record
against Michigan, and both teams
made their way to the semifinal
round of last season's NCAA tour-
nament.
The series has been marred by
late hits, scuffles and brawls in the
past few years. Two years ago at Joe
Louis Arena, the benches emptied at
an intermission and at least five dif-
ferent battles took place.
This December in East Lansing,
after a tight-checking Spartan vic-
tory, the teams queued to shake
hands and another brawl ensued.
"They have a lot of dummies on that
team," Spartan Bryan Smolinski was
overheard saying after the contest.
0 From where does this hatred em-
ine players and staff have refined
their recruiting, game plans and ap-
proaches to the game to the point
where they are no longer the butt of
Spartan jokes.
There was a time when the Yost
crowd was decked in green. Hockey
was unpopular in Ann Arbor, and
Spartan fans bought many tickets to
games in supposed enemy territory.
That time is long gone, as the Yost
crowd of today is one of the most
boisterous and enthusiastic in the na-
tion. CCHA teams dread playing in
such a hostile environment against
one of the top-rated teams in the
country.
Times have definitely changed.
With Michigan fan support reaching
a crescendo and the teams having
split two earlier games this season,
the scene was set for something re-
tossed at the 19:53 mark of the first
period.
"In the '80's, when the score was
13-3 for us, we came in and took our
gear off and the game was over and
nobody thought much about it," Ma-
son said. "By the way they played
tonight, I think they've got the talent
and experience now to win the na-
tional title if they can put together
games like this. So, it's just some-
thing we have to write off.
"We got bombed tonight -
maybe it'll give us a standard that
we have to move up to."
Mason is actually resigned to the
notion that Michigan is a better team
than MSU. Michigan better than
Michigan State? This is akin to the
fall of an empire.
"It's embarrassing. It's humiliat-
ing to lose like that in front of
"It's hard for those guys to accept
that we have improved to the point
where we're better than they are,"
Michigan senior captain Dave Har-
lock said. This is coming from a
player who was on the other end of
that 11-4 MSU victory and has been
a key component of Michigan's rise
to prominence in college hockey.
The Wolverine upperclassmen
have toiled at length to give the pro-
gram the credence and respect it now
enjoys. They were the ones who
made the team good enough and
popular enough to pack Yost for a
game against Kent State. They can
now revel in the spoils they have
earned. "When the score hit double
digits, you could see a wave of green
head for the exits," Ward said of
Saturday's game.
All the Michigan seniors must
CCHA Standings
Team W
Miami 15
Michigan 15
Lake Superior 14
Michigan St. 11
W. Michiaan 11
L
2
4
4
7
s
T Pts.
3 33
2 32
4 32
1 23
2 24
I
I