6 - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, January 10, 1994 Michigan shows Lake who's boss, for now By PAUL BARGER DAILY HOCKEY WRITER Michigan's 5-2 victory over Lake Superior State Saturday night marked the first multigame regular season- series sweep the Wolverines have ever had against the Lakers. The dominant force in college hockey over the last decade, the Lak- ers may have symbolically handed over their crown this weekend to the No. 1 Wolverines. At the very least, Michigan proved once and for all those days of Laker mastery of the Wolverines are over. "They've been a tough team ever since I've been at Michigan," coach Red Berenson said. "We've gotten better and we think we're up at the same level as their team." The most lopsided score in the Lake State-Michigan series came a mere two years ago at Sault Ste. Marie. The Lakers pounded the Wolverines, 10-0, on the road to their second na- tional championship in five years. After that game the Wolverines com- plained of being unprepared, unmotivated,and embarrassed. "A lot of guys wouldn't want to show up every night because they knew that someone would step up and usually get the job done," captain Brian Wiseman said. "But, on occa- sion they didn't, and we get results like the 10-0 loss up there." This weekend was a completely different story. With the recent depar- ture of All-Americans such as Denny Felsner and David Roberts, the Wol- verines have learned to rely on the team as a whole instead of individual players. "There is no real superstar that grabs all of the headlines," forward Mike Knuble said. "We're getting a balanced effort. All four lines are scoring, all six defensemen are play- ing well and (goaltender Steve) Shields is playing great." Although Michigan achieved an importantmilestone this weekend, one goal looms large on the horizon. The Lakers have defeated the Wolverines three straight years in the CCHA play- offs and Michigan is looking for a little payback. The Wolverines have a hefty 10-point lead over Michigan State in the race for the regular season title, but the torch won't be passed from the Lakers to the Wolverines until Michigan can defeat the Lakers, down the road, when it really counts. Speaking for everyone that played through the 10-0 game at the Soo, senior David Oliver said, "It's impor- tant to get a series win, but the turn won't be complete until we beat them in the playoffs." MICHIGAN 6, LAKE SUPERIOR 1 Lake Superior 1 1 1 0-3 Michigan 2 1 0 1-4 Frst Period- i, LSSU, Trzinski 6 (G. Tallaire), 3:21.2, UM, Sacka1 (Luhning), 14:32 (sh). 3, UM, Wiseman 9 (Oliver, Hilton), 15:24. Penalties - Matteucci, LSSU (interference); 4:47; Matteucci, LSSU (crosschecking), 9:27; Hiton, UM (hooking), 13:04. Second Period - 4, UM, Knuble 21 (Oliver), 11:14 (pp). 5, LSSU, Matteucci 4 (Beddoes, Miller), 16:03. Penlaties - Matteucci, LSSU (roughing), :53; Botterill, UM (roughing), :53; Felsner, LSSU {holding), 4:10; Knuble, UM (holding), 4:58; Vallcevic, LSSU (holding), 11:01; Hogan, UM (rough- ing), 11:49; Matteucci, LSSU (tripping), 19:42. Third Period - 6, LSSU, Felsner 1 (Wetherill, Beddoes), 14:38. Penalties- Angelelli (charging), 5:54. OvertInt- 7, UM, Wiseman 10 (Botterill, Oliver), 2:47. Penalties - none. Shots on goal - LSSU 7-8.8-1-24. UM 12-4-11- 2-29. Power plays - LSSU 0of 3; UM 1 of 6. Goalie saves - LSSU, Lacher 10-3-11-1-25. UM, Shields 6-7-7-1-21. Referees - Matt Shegos, Mark Shegos. Linesaan - John Kelly. At: Yost ice Arena. A:7,388. Li Br" 0c Ll SIos By MICHAEL ROSENBERG DAILY HOCKEY WRITER You want leadership? How's this for leadership: Two minutes and 47 seconds into overtime against Lake Supe- rior State Friday night, Brian Wiseman took the league into his own hands. The senior captain of the Michigan hockey team took a pass from freshman Jason Botterill in front of the goal, and promptly put the puck in the net and Lake State in its place. Any hope the Lakers had of winning the CCHA regular-season title faded almost as quickly as the color in coach Jeff Jackson's hair. That's leadership. "It's fitting that if someone's going to score the win- ning goal, it's your captain," coach Red Berenson said. After the game, Wiseman's thoughts were naturally on Bowling Green. Bowling Green? "That's what I should have done against Bowling Green," Wiseman said more than once, referring to the Oct. 29 game against the Falcons. With that game tied, 5- 5, in overtime; Botterill passed to Wiseman. The center couldn't lift the puck off the ice on his shot, and the Wolverines went on to tie Bowling Green. That tells you all you need to know about Brian Wiseman. His team is 15-0-1 in the toughest confer- ence in college hockey, and he is worried about that one tie. It's all his fault, he thinks. If it wasn't for that one stupid shot, the Wolverines would be perfect in confer- ence play. When you expect that much of yourself, your team- mates don't dare complain that you're too hard on them. That's why Wiseman is unquestionably the leader of this team. If the Wolverines aren't giving it their all, Wiseman lets them know about it. "Every now and then everyone kind of (slacks off) a little bit," Wiseman said. "You just have to stay focused on the task at hand." Wiseman, David Oliver, Mike Stone and Steve Shields have lived together for three years now, and the four are straitjacket-tight. They do almost everything together, Wiseman, Oliver the class of CCHA including keeping their teammates in line w hen they are tempted to slack off. "This is by far the best team I've been on at Michigan," Wiseman said. "It's not the most talented, but it's the most disciplined. It's the hardest working. I think that's what we lacked before. I think in the past we were outworked sometimes. This year our work ethic is second to none." With the Wolverines several weeks ahead of the rest of the conference, the only question remaining in their sea- son is whether Wiseman or Oliver will win the CCHA' scoring title. Quite frankly, Wiseman isn't helping him- self by giving Oliver so many quality shots. "He's the craftiest player with the puck I've ever' seen," Oliver said of his linemate. "There aren't too many guys I'd rather have with the puck than Brian Wiseman." Wiseman, Oliver and Shields are all candidates for the Hobey Baker award, given annually to the best player in college hockey. One can only imagine the conversations going on in their house. Wiseman: "OK, Ollie, here's the deal. I'll do your shopping for a month if you let me win the Hobey." Oliver: "Fine, but you also have to do the dishes for a,. week." Wiseman: "It's a deal." Shields: "Hey! What about me? I'm a contender too,' you know. Who do you think stops all those breakaways while you guys are messing around on the other end of the ice? I'll let you win, but you have to wash my uniform@ every day for the rest of the season." Wiseman: "Jeez. It's only a trophy." Who truly deserves the award? Lake State coach Jeff Jackson knows who he would vote for. "David Oliver is by far the best player I've seen," Jackson said, although he quickly added that "Wiseman's no slouch either." Perhaps Laker goalie Blaine Lacher knows which- Wolverine is best. Lacher certainly saw enough of them this weekend. Please, Blaine, tell us. Who is better,* Wiseman or Oliver? "To be honest with you, I was most impressed by Mike Knuble." JONATHAN LURIE/Daily Michigan's Mike Knuble checks a Laker during the Wolverines' 43 win Friday. HOCKEY Continued from page 1 the game, it looked as though Lake Superior might be the team celebrat- ing. It was Lake State which had the momentum when Laker Brian Felsner popped a puck over Steve Shields' shoulder and into the Wolverine goal at the 14:48 mark of the third period. "The guy went for a wraparound," Shields said. "It either hit my stick or a defender and popped up. I thought I knocked it down, but then I looked back and it was rolling over the goal line." Lake State's second score also came on a play where Shields apparently lost the puck, this time because of a Laker player's screen. Mike Matteucci put home a shot from a few feet inside blue line to answer Mike Knuble's second period power-play goal and cutthe Wol- verines' lead to 3-2. "I thought they played a really good game," Berenson said. "I thought we were playing well in the third period. We weren't giving them the chances like we were in the second." But despite having chances to score, the Lakers only netted one goal in the second period. "Friday night was our chance to win," Lake State coach Jeff Jackson said. "I thought we played pretty well." While Friday night's game was a tight contest between two apparently evenly matched teams, Saturday's MICHIGAN 5, LAKE SUPERIOR 2 Lake Superior 0 1 1-2 Mchigan 1 4 0-5 First Period - 1, UM, Oliver 17 (Botterill, Knuble). 1:54 (pp). Penalties-Wetherill, LSSU (hooking), :51; Sacka, UM (interference), 3:17; Halko, UM (tripping), 8:47; Morin, LSSU (hooking), 18:38; Luhning, UM (cross-checking), 18:38; Miller, LSSU (checking from behind), 19:15; Stone, UM (checking from behind), 19:15. Second Period -2, LSSU, G. Tallaire 2 (S. Tallaire, Aldridge), 7:24 (pp). 3, UM, Oliver 18 (Morrison), 8:48 (pp). 4, UM, Luhning5 (Schock, Halko), 10:33 (pp). 5, UM. Knuble 22 (Wiseman), 14:16 (pp). 6, UM, Sloan 1 (Madden), 15:39. Penalties - Schock, UM (trip- ping), 1:45; Wiseman, UM(cross-checking), 5:26; Miller, LSSU (cross-checking), 8:39; Wetherill, LSSU (charg- ing), 9:33; Hogan, UM (roughing), 11:26, Aldridge, LSSU (interference), 14:07; Aldridge. LSSU (slashing), 15:39: Knuble, UM (slashing), 15:39; Beddoes, LSSU, double-minor, (slashing), 16:14; Legg, UM (interfer- ence), 17:48, Hogan, UM (hooking), 18:58. Third Period- 7, LSSU, Morin 7,8:16. Penalties- Beddoes, LSSU (high-sticking), :53; Stone, UM (high- sticking), :53; Miller, LSSU (roughing), 2:04;Angelelli, LSSU (roughing), 2:04; Strachan, LSSU (roughing), 2:04; Bourke, UM (roughing), 2:04; Botterill, UM (rough- ing), 2:04; Sakala, UM (slashing), 2:04; Knuble, UM (high-sticking) 14:44; LSSU bench, served by Ness (too many men), 16:21; Lacher, LSSU, served by Pulente (roughing), 17:25; Botterill, UM (cross-check- ing), 17:25. Shots on goat - LSSU 2-6-4-12. UM 7-11-5-23. Power plays - LSSU 1 of 8; UM 4 of 6. Goalie saves - LSSU, Lacher 6-7-5-18. UM, Shields 2-5.3-10, Gordon (10:10 third) X-X-0-0. Referees - Roger Graf, John Dobrzelewski. Unesman - Bob Faria. At: Yost Ice Arena. A: 7,512. matchup featured little drama. Michi- gan dominated aLaker team with supe- rior special teams and defensive play. The Wolverines struck early with a power play goal just 1:54 into the game by Oliver, who was named CCHA Offensive Player of the Week for his five points on the weekend. Power play goals by Oliver, Warren Luhning and Mike Knuble, and Blake Sloan's first collegiate goal gave Michigan an insurmountable 5-1 lead. "That's the best (power play) I've seen in my three years," Lacher said. "They deserve to be No. 1 in the nation. I don't think any one can beat them in this building unless they fall asleep." The Wolverines power play went 4-of-6, while the penalty killers held the Lakers to 1-of-8 on the power play. Meanwhile, the defense limited Lake State to a meager 13 shots on goal for the game, considerably easing Shields' job. The Wolverines used their bodies to block many of the Lakers' shots before they could reach Shields. "Coach reminded us this morning in our meeting that that was something we weren'tdoing too well," Mike Stone said. "So we were a little more con- scious of getting down and blocking some of their shots from the point." And those blocked shots from the point helped stop the Lakers from scor- ing points, both in the game and the CCHA standings. More importantly, the season sweep sent a message to the Lakers that Michigan is the team to beat now in the conference. Jackson seemed to get the message. When asked if Michigan was the best team his club has faced this year, he contritely replied. "That's not even a fair question." JONATHAN LURIE/Daily= Michigan captain Brian Wiseman scored the winning goal against Lake Superior State in overtime Friday night. It was Wiseman's second goal of the contest. b 1 Throug~h game~sof .fan. 8 I, 0, 9 -I*1 Easter ichigan University Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration 1994 i 4'7 I aF{ 4 NA rl IT *1 ~~js nary 17th 1 . I -