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 .....ga.'s ..k.gg ...s. ... h..f.....r.g.s..ps..f.......g.....s...k d.s..g.sx.........s....... ..... 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.