B -- The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - Monday, January 29, 1996
HOCKEY
WMES Poll
Team
1. ColoradotCollege (10)
2. Minnesota (1)
3. Boston U.
4, Michigan (1)
5. Denver
tie. Lake Superior
7. Maine
8. Michigan State
9. UMass-Loweli
10. Western Michigan
Points
115
107
93
73
63
63
47
46
16
15
Ohio teams disrupt
Morrison, power play
By John Leroi
Daily Sports Editor
BOWLING GREEN - The last time
Brendan Morrison was this frustrated,
he was sitting in the press box, nursing a
knee injury. This weekend, the Wolver-
ines' star and Hobey Baker award candi-
date, was irritated, not by some swollen
cartilage, but by a pair of choking defen-
sive schemes.
Ohio State and Bowling Green not
only managed to shut down Morrisonbut
also rendered Michigan's powerplayprac-
tically nonexistent.
Morrison entered the weekend leading
Others receiving votes: Bowling
Green 7, Vermont 7, Brown 1.
First-place votes are in
parentheses.
Michigan 0 2 2 0-4
Ohio State 1 2 1 0-4
First Period -1, OSU, Lafrance 6 Holmes, Richards),
14:46. Penalties -OSU bench (served by Compeau (too
many men on ice), 16:04; Muckalt, UM (roughing),.20:00.
Second Period -1, UM, Legg 7 (Sloan), 3:45.2, OSU.
Dufour 7 (Rathwel, Sellers) 13:22 3, OSU, Holmes 2
(Richards. Sellers, 14:05; 2, UM, Berenzweig 2 (Botterill,
Muckalt) 15:19. Penalties - Harrison, OSU (tripping),
6:05.
Third Period -4, OSU, Holmes 7 (Richards, Morrison),
17:45(pp); 3,UMMuckalt13(Legg) 18:104 s UM,Sloan
5 (Legg, Lunhing) 18:56. Penalties - Halko, UM (high-
sticking), 3:32: Rathwell, OSU (holding), 13:35; Muckalt,
UM (holding), 15:57
Shots on goal - UM 14-20-13-1-48. OSU 6-6-10-2-
24.
Power plays - UM 0 of 3; OSU 1 of 3.
Goale saves - UM, Turco 5-4-9-2-20. OSU, Brown
14-18-11-1-44.
Referee - Matt Shegos.
Linesmen - Bob Faria. John Nowosatka.
At: OSU Ice Rink. A: 1,578.
Michigan 2 1 2-5
Bowling Green 2 2 2-6
First Period-1, BG, Fair 4 (Fry,5:08 2, BG, Crombeen
10 )Perrault Fry) 10:01 (pp); 1. UM, Legg 8 (Madden,
Sakala) 15:04 (sh); 2. UM, Legg 9 (Crozier Ritchin)
16:04. Penalties - Romiski, UM (charging), 1:44;
Muckalt. UM (slashing) 9:05: Fair, BG (cross-checking)
12:45: Lunhing. UM (Interference) 13:25: Perrault BG
(tripping) 16:40: Botteril, UM (hooking) 17:22; Eldred,
8 (hooking) 18:34.
Second Period - 3, M, Crozier 11 (LeggMuckalt),
2:29 3,8G. Herman 4 (Ackerran, Hall) 17:58 (pp): 4. BG.
Punchard 13 (Fry, Eldred), 18:45. Penalties - Sloan, UM
roughing)C 5:16; Fair, 8 G(holding).7:10: Crombeen, BG
(hooking). 14:03: Crozier UM (rnterferencen. 17:05.
Third Period - 5, BG Holzinger 5 (Punchard, Perrault,
9:20 ipp);:4. UM Morrison 19 (Schock, Botterilfl 1107:
5, UM. Madden 18 (Muckalt, Hilton) 13:06 (ppl: 6, BG
Hall 19 (Herman, Clark) 14:40. Penalties - Herman, 8G
(tripping), 0:16: Punchard, BG (cross-checking), 7:01;
Turco, LIM (interfererfe(served by Morrison), 8:06;
Lunhing, UM (elbowing. 8:52: Fry, BG (elbowing).11:56;
Punchard, BG (charging). 16:54.
Shots on goal - UM 1110 16-37. BG 9-6-9-24.
Power plays - UM 1 of 9: BG 3 of 7.
Goalie saves - UM, Turco 7-4-7-18. BG, Savard 9-9-
14-32.
Referee - Matt Shegos.
Linesmen - Bob Faria. John Nowosatka.
At: BGSU Ice Arena. A: 5,009.
Up next
.
F.s
9 -
% /
I '
Who: Ohio State
Where: Yost Ice Arena
When: Friday and Saturday, 7 p.m.
OCHA Offensive
Player Of the Week
Michigan State senior center
Anson Carter had five points in
the partan's sweep at Illinois-
Chicago. In Friday's 7-3 victory,
he had his seventh career hat
trick. He added a power play goal
and an assist in Saturday's 3-0
shutout. In both games, Carter
scored both game-winning goals.
CCHA Defensive
Player of the Week
Eustace King, a senior
goaltender from Miami (Ohio),
recorded a win and a tie in the
Redskins' two road games at
Dowling Green and Ohio State. In
Friday's 4-3 overtime win against
the Falcons, he stopped 35
shots, including 15 in the third
period. Against the Buckeyes, he
made 30 saves and held Ohio
State.scoreless in the final two
periods.
the conference in
scoring and leading
the country in points
per contest. He
scored 11 points in
one weekend earlier
this month and was
named CCHA Player
of the Week for the
fourth time last week.
But in two games
against Ohio State
floc ey
Notebook
him the Heimlich maneuver to start any
consistent offense - especially on the
power play.
Against the Buckeyes, Michigan went
scoreless in three chances with a man
advantage - the first time they didn't
score a power play goal since a 5-0 loss to
Western Michigan Dec. 9.
The next night, the Wolverines found
themselves in nine man-up situations, but
could only manage one goal - when
Harold Schock's slapshot took an acci-
dental bounce off Morrison's stick and
hopped into the goal.
"We were just getting a little lazy on
the power play," Michigan center Mike
Legg said ofthe Wolverines paltry effort.
"Instead of picking it up when we had the
man advantage we laid back thinking it
was a break."
Michigan's special teams were horren-
dous compared to past performance. Not
only was the power play unsuccessful,
but even more distressing to Michigan
was their torrid penalty killing.
After not allowing a power-play goal
in nine contests - holding opponents 0-
for-46 in those games -the Wolverines
allowed Ohio State, the lowest scoring
team in the league, to convert one of its
three chances. ,
The next night, Bowling Green cashed
in on three of its seven chances - the
most power play goals Michigan has sur-
rendered all season.
And if you wanted to point to some-
thing as the reason the Wolverines came
out of the weekend with only one point,
get this statistic:
In Michigan's 20 victories it has con-
verted 35.8 percent of its power play
opportunities. In the their five losses and
and Bowling Green, he only made a cameo
appearance in the box score on a goal that
bounced offhis stick on the way to the net.
It wasn't so much that Morrison was
ineffective, but rather both opponents
made a blatant attempt to stop him.
"Coming in we knew we had to take
their best player out of the game," Ohio
State coach John Markell said. "(Sean
Sutton) did a great job on him."
Markell's game plan going in was to
have Sutton hang on Morrison like jew-
elryonDeion Sanders. And while Sutton
was choking Morrison, the rest of the
Wolverines were too busy trying to give
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FILE PHO-TO'/Da-
Michigan's Mike Legg was one of the few bright spots for Michigan this weekend, scoring six points.W
one tie, the Wolverines have connected
for only two power play goals in 36
chances - a 5.6 percent success rate.
THE STREAK STOPS HERE: Michigan
managed to alter the record books a bit
this weekend, but probably not in the
way it would have liked. Friday's tie at
Ohio State snapped an eight-game win
streak. Saturday's loss to Bowling Green
ended a similar nine-game unbeaten
streak.
But what hurt most were the one-on-
one battles. The Wolverines had won 22
consecutive matchups with the Buckeyes
before Friday. And dating back to 1992,
Bowling Green hadn't beaten Michigan
in 12 straight games.
BACK IN THE THICK OF THINGS: After
sitting out two games with a leg injury,
junior defenseman Blake Sloan returned
to the lineup Friday night, as expected.
Sloan made his presence felt, sending the
game into overtime with a mammoth
blast just 64 seconds before the end of
regulation.
"It was a good feeling," Sloan said.
"But we still didn't win it."
DON'T TURN THAT PAGE: Despitearather
poor showing this weekend, Michigan
coach Red Berenson may not wantto flip
over his calendar on Feb. 1. The month of
January has been very kind to the Wol-
verines - especially in the scoring de-
partment. Michigan's 67 goals in eight
games made the first month of 1996 the
fourth-most prolific month in Michigan
history and the best since 1964- the last
time the Wolverines won the NCAA
championship.
Ohio State's arena shows state of Buckeye hockey program
By Nicholas J. Cotsonika
Daily Sports Editor
COLUMBUS - Size isn't every-
thing, but it sure says a lot sometimes.
If there is any question about the
status of the football and hockey pro-
grams at Ohio State, all anybody has to
do is look at the facilities.
Ohio Stadium is so big, there is a
residence hall inside.
OSU Ice Rink is so small, it can't
even fit its own Zamboni.
The Buckeyes have never really been
big on hockey. Football-is the show in
Columbus, and few kids in the area
grow up dreaming of glory on the ice.
"This is my first hockey game, but
I've been to football games before,"
said Kevin Hale, 9, of Columbus. "I'm
just here because of my mom."
Brenda Hale really didn't want to
come to Friday's Ohio State-Michigan
game either. Even though she went to
Ohio State in the late '60s, she isn't a
big supporter of the hockey team. She
only came at the urging of her neighbor.
"I told her how much fun it was when
I went to school, and I brought her out,"
said Judy Rollenhagen, a 1970 Michi-
gan graduate. "Hockey was always fun."
It hasn't been at Ohio State. The
Buckeyes are perennial cellar-dwellers
in the GC HA and, even though they tied
the Wolverines, 4-4 on Friday, have
had trouble beating their archrival,
Michigan. Ohio State has not beaten the
Wolverines in Columbus since 1989.
The Buckeyes' lack of success is
mirrored in their arena. The Ohio State
Athletic Department hasn't put enough
money into hockey to make it first class,
Ohio State coach John Markell said.
"It just hasn't been a high priority for
this school," Markell said. "Football has
a lot. Basketball has a lot. And we don't."
The ice the Buckeyes are forced to
tread on is considered by many players
as the worst in the CC HA. It resembles
a frozen pond in late March, soft and
slushy on the surface, dirty from over-
use and looking like it might become a
swimming hole at any time.
Sitting in just the eighth row behind
the net, a fan is at the rafters. It's pretty
hard to see from there too, because the
glass looks like it was washed after
Ohio State's last win over Michigan.
The boards need repair, especially
the Zamboni doors. At one point in
Friday's game, the puck slipped be-
tween panes of glass.
Reporters need to walk thfough the
benches to get to the ladder they have to
climbtoget tothe press box. The Zamboni
must park outside. And if fans want stale
nachos, they have to go to St. John Arena,
the basketball venue, to get them.
"The puck hit the ceiling, enough
said," Dave Mangelos, a Michigan alum,
pointed out.
The fans are almost as sparse as the
patches of good ice. Michigan had as
many of the 1,578 fans Friday as Ohi
State. And the Buckeyes acted as ifthe
had stepped into a library for the first
time.
"I didn'texpect it to be this quiet, being
Ohio State-Michigan," said Mike
Pniewski, a Michigan senior.
There is hope for the Buckeyes, how-
ever. Since OSU Ice Rink is one of only
three hockey facilities in the Columbus
area - the others are at the State Fair-
grounds and the zoo - Ohio State is
building a new arena. It should be com
pleted in three years.
"It should give our program a boost,"
Markell said. "It will be a much-needed
boost. You need a good building to play
well, to get to the next level."
. - I
GREEK
Continued from Page 1B
weekend's 4-4 tie with Ohio State and
6-5 loss to Bowling Green so surprising
is Michigan's experience with losing.
The Wolverines were ranked No. 1
for most of last season and ended up 30-
8-1. However, four ofthose eight losses
came against league patsies Miami
(Ohio), Ferris State, Illinois-Chicago
and Notre Dame. The youthful team
played well against the best but had
trouble concentrating on the rest.
This year had been different. With
newfound maturity, the Wolverines
coasted through the month of January
and didn't just beat the teams they were
supposed to - they embarrassed them.
Ferris State was blown out, 10-3. Mi-
ami was obliterated, 13-0. Illinois-Chi-
cago dropped a pair, 9-1 and 9-3. And
Notre Dame fell, 11-1.
"This is not a good time to play
Michigan," Berenson said after last
Saturday's win over the Fighting Irish.
How could he have known he was so
wrong? How could he have known that
his Wolverines would narrowly escape
losing to a team they had snickered at
the night before?
Michigan walked into OSU Ice Rink
Thursday night and quietly joked about
the bad ice, dirty boards and sorry team.
The Buckeyes had not defeated the
Wolverines in their last 25 attempts,
and their chances at snapping that streak
looked as bad as their 5-13-4 record.
So the win-tipsy Wolverines gave
the perfunctory performance they fig-
ured would be good enough for a vic-
tory. Ohio State took advantage of that
by diving in front of shots, clogging up
the neutral zone, and getting stellar
goaltending from Kurt Brown.
It wasn't until Michigan found itself
behind, 4-2, with just two minutes re-
maining that it finally shook out the
cobwebs. Bill Muckalt and Blake Sloan
scored to tie it and salvage one point i*
the standings for the Wolverines.
"We were lucky to tie the game,"
Berenson said.
The exciting comeback was kept in
perspective on the ride back to Ann
Arbor, however. Michigan had almost
lost to the worst team in the CCHA, and
that was enough to leave the bus movie,
"Crimson Tide," largely ignored.
But sometimes hangovers linger for
a while. And sometimes, if you've re-
ally had too much, you wake up drun*
the next morning.
Saturday, the Wolverines quickly fell
behind, 2-0, at Bowling Green, where
they had romped over the Falcons, 8-1,
earlier this season.
Bowling Green was doing many of
the same things Ohio State did. The
Falcons were plugging up the passing
lanes, restraining speedy Michigan with
physical play, and exploiting the Wol
verines' wobbly condition.
In the end, the Falcons were the ones
hugging each other after the game, slap-
ping fans' hands, and raising their sticks
withjoy. The Wolverines were left shak-
ing the fog from their heads, knowing
they didn't concentrate, knowing they
were much better than they showed.
"We think we're too good right now,"
Michigan forward Mike Legg said.
"We're playing lazy hockey. We're not
playing Michigan hockey at all, and it'*
showing."
Drunk on success. Hung over on
losing.
If the Wolverines' heads don't clear
up, there might not be any champagne
to drink in March.
- Nicholas J. Cotsonika can be
reached over e-mail at
cotsonik@umich.edu.
FILE PHOTO/Daily
Michigan's Warren Luhning said Tuesday that he didn't think overconfidence would be a problem when the red-hot
Wolverines took on lowly Ohio State and Bowling Green. However, Michigan tied the Buckeyes, 4-4, and lost to the Falcons,
6-5. Michigan had not given up 10 goals in its last eight games combined, and then the Wolverines gave up 10 in two days.
CCHA standings
Team (overall record)
1. Michigan State (22-6-0)
2. Western Michigan (21-6-2)
3. Michigan (20-5-1)
Lkek Sune'rior (19--11
Won
18
15
15
Lost
3
4
4
4.
Tied
0
2
1
I
Pts
36
32
31
31
Lake Superior
jumps into tie for
third with win
ICERS
continued from Page1B
games' final two minutes, the cellar-
dwelling Buckeyes would have
toppled the No.3 team in the country.
To the Wolverines' credit, they played
The Wolverines had at least a half
dozen prime scoring chances during a
power play opportunity with three
minutes remaining, but either Savard
came up big or Michigan failed to
bury its chances.
"That was a huge kill for us," Bowl-
3-2, the only time the WolverineO
enjoyed the lead all weekend.
But the Falcons scored three straight
goals and Michigan couldn't draw
within one until Schock's blast from
the point was tipped by Brendan
Morrison past Savard.