14A - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, March 21, 1996 Recent success not the only simiarity between area hockey clubs . Michigan should change its school colors. Maize and blue are nice, but the hockey team deserves to wear red and white. If the Wolverines' uniforms matched those of the Detroit Red Wings, it would be even harder to tell the two teams apart. The NHL's best team has a lot in common with Michigan, one of the top teams in college hockey. Of course, if the two met head-to-head, one squad would be decapitated. But you can't ignore the similarities: Both have head coaches with cool names: The Wolver- ines have "Red." The Red Wings have "Scotty." Gordon and Scott are OK names to begin with, but these two coaches are better than average. Both Michigan coach Red Berenson NICHOLAS J. and Detroit coach COTSONIKA Scotty Bowman are among the most The Greek respected in their Speaks leagues. "Red and Scotty are a lot alike," says Ken Kal, who worked as Michigan's radio play- by-play announcer last season and serves as Detroit's this season. "They are both serious about their hockey. They want to win, and they know how to do it." They should be similar. Berenson played for Bowman with the St. Louis Blues and was his assistant coach with the Buffalo Sabres. The two are still friends, and both have been out to watch each other's team in action. Both love Joe Louis Arena: The Red Wings have only lost at their home rink three times this season. The Wolverines are undefeated at the Joe in 1995-96. Michigan won the Great Lakes Invita- tional there in December, defeating Northern Michigan and Michigan State. The Wolver- ines beat the Spartans again in Detroit in February, and then they toppled Lake Superior, 4-3, this month to with the CCHA playoff title. Sounds a lot like the Wings. "I was with the New York Islanders when they won four straight Stanley Cups, but I've never been around a team like this that, approaching the end of March, had just lost three home games," Jimmy Devellano, Red Wings senior vice president, told the Detroit Free Press. "And two of those games were by one goal." ® Both are star-studded: The Red Wings have NHL stars Sergei Fedorov, Steve Yzerman, Paul Coffey and Dino Ciccarelli. Michigan had the top four scorers in the CCHA this season - Brendan Morrison, Kevin Hilton (who was drafted by Detroit), Jason Botterill and John Madden. Both have good, young goaltenders too. Detroit has baby-faced Chris Osgood, and the Wolverines have sophomore Marty Turco. ® Both, despite having powerful offenses, have a commitment to defense: The fun and gun Red Wings have been known for their ability to put the puck in the net for years. So have the Wolverines. But both have been criticized for not being tough enough on the blue line. Not this season. "Maybe we've been too offensive in the past," Berenson says. "But I like our team now. We're playing good team defense." Michigan tied with Western Michigan for the lowest goals against in CCHA games this season. Detroit has the lowest goals against in the NHL. "Both Scotty and Red are big on keeping the goals against down," Kal says. "They like offense, but they preach good defense." Both can expect rough play in the postseason: Last season's Stanley Cup finals were tough on Detroit. After cruising through the playoffs; they were swept by the New Jersey Devils. Why? The Devils clutched and grabbed and held the speedy Wings, not allowing them a chance to fly and show their skating talent. The same could happen to Michigan "Just like with Detroit, I can see a lot of teams doing that to (the Wolverines),'Kal says. "That's the only way you slow down teams like this." Both have captains named Steve: Michigan captain Steven Halko prefers the "n" on the end of his name. Grown men call Detroit captain Steve Yzerman "Stevie" to his face. Yzerman is a center. Halko is a defenseman. But they are much alike. Both have had distinguished careers with their teams. Yzerman scored his 500th goal this season. Halko played in his 150th straight game last month. And they are both missing one crucial line on their resumes. Both haven't achieved their highest goal in decades: Detroit has not won the Stanley Cup since 1955. Michigan has riot won a national title since 1964. Both 'teams were dominant in the 1950s, but they. haven't been since. Last season, Detroit made it to the-Stanley Cup finals and didn't win. Last season, Michigan made it to the final four and fell to Maine in triple overtime. Both teams are expected to play for their most coveted prizes this season. Late March' for Michigan. Late May for Detroit. Witi'Il of the frustration that has built up all these years, look for both squads to go all out. So if the Wolverines win the national title March 30 in Cincinnati, don't be surprised the Red Wings hoist the Stanley Cup n Ma - in new maize and blue uniforms., - Nicholas J. Cotsonika can be reached over e-mail at cotsonik@unich.edu. JOE WESTRATE/Daily Michigan defenseman Bubba Berenzweig is rarely mistaken for Red Wing Bob Rouse. Tumblers host By Sharat Raju Daily Sports Writer Ordinarily, home meets are an oppor- tunity for the home team to dominate the competition and to show off in front of friends and family. - Someone should have informed the #schedule makers of this concept before the schools were selected for the men's gymnastics Michigan Invitational this Saturday 7 p.m. at Cliff Keen Arena. '"All the teams we're bringing in aire all nationally ranked teams," Michigan coach Bob Darden said. "They're very go It certainly is g the host Wolverine column. The gues nois-Chicago, No Michigan State. M the lowest in the m "We have teams 220s," Darden ad( ing to put in ag around 209 (point The Wolverine February at Illinoi scored a 210.2. T Michigan Invite odd squads." coming off of a subpar 206.7. It was the oing to be difficult for team'slowesttotalsince January's 197.55 es to break into the win finish at the Windy City Open in Chicago. sts include No. 7 Illi- However, the coachingstaffhopes their . 5 Illinois and No. 3 hard work can come through in the num- ichigan (0-8) is ranked bers before the home crowd. meet at 24th. "We're seeing really good results from s that are scoring in the training," Darden said. "We're having a ded. "We are still wait- tough time, as coaches, taking that same good concerted effort level of consistency ... down on to the s)." competition floor. It seems like that isjust s' season high was in the ongoing chore for the coaching staff s-Chicago, where they (all season)." hey are most recently All the schools competing have strong programs, especially the two highest- ranked Big Ten rivals, Illinois and Michi- gan State. The Fighting Illini are scoring at a season average of 221.36 points. They month and shouldbe atough team to beat. The Wolverines have seen the Spar- tans quite often. Michigan State has a strong team from top to bottom, led by Joe you want: Duda holds three Spartan records, in- cluding a 9.85 in the parallel bars which he scored in February. Sterk's season- high performance was on the high bar - with a 9.75. Both are impressive in the all- Summer Wo Make $615.OO/ You need two things to get the job y a degree and experience. You take care of the degree- our program can take care of the ex Find out why IBM, XEROX, P&G, Upjohn a others want students who have worked inc Interviews being held today: Thursday Michigan Union, Welker Room 2:1 5pi Be prompt. Bring pen and paper. If unable to attend, call ?! Socat/we sicEi BUILDING LEADERS SINCE 1868 Gymnast Kathy Burke and the Wolverines hope to swing past Penn State Saturday in Happy Valley. M women hope to ride hot streak' past Penn State in season finale xperience. nd hundreds of our program. March 21 M, 4:15pm Shelly at 665-0406 around. The other schools have strong pro- grams as well. The most notable is No. 14 Brigham Young. The Cougars boast Darren Elg, who holds four school records including the all-around (57.95), floor (9.95), horse (9.95) and high bar (10). The invite happens at the tail end ofthis gymnastics season. The Wolverines are mindful of this, and they hope to have a strong showing to close out the regular season. By Kevin Kasiborski Daily Sports Writer The college gymnastics calendar is similar to the NHL's: You want to win during the long regular season, but your main objective is peaking for the playoffs. The Michigan women's gymnas- tics team will have to wait a week for the postseason to begin, because there is one more regular season meet this Saturday at Penn State. But apparently they couldn't wait that long to begin peaking. Last Saturday, Michigan scorched No. 6 Brigham Young by a score of 197.000-194.350. That point total was not only a season-high, but the second best in school history. The No. 5 Wolverines set school records with their team scores on the uneven bars (49.375) and on the floor exercise (49.475). They slipped up a little in the vault, as their season high score (49.550) was "only" good enough for a third place tie in the Michigan record book. Michigan gymnasts posted fourteen personal-best scores, highlighted by senior Wendy Marshall's first career perfect 10 on the floor exercise, the final event in her last home meet. "I cannot say enough about Wendy's performances and her con- tributions to this team," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "I knew once she nailed that last double-back, they were to give (the 10.0) to her." Two meets ago, Michigan scored 196.425 points in a narrow loss to Georgia, the top-ranked team in the nation. Those two meets were at home though, and this week with Penn State, as well as the entire postseason, will be spent away from Cliff Keen Arena. So far this year the Wolverines have not scored as high on the road as they RESERVE OFFICERS' TRAINING CORPS have at home. "It's definitely harder to get scores and compete away from home," Plocki admits. But she blames the lower road scores on injuries. "We didn't co* pete at full strength as far as health and our lineup throughout the middle part of our season, so our away scores do not reflect the quality of the team that we are." The Wolverines' effort was good enough to top Penn State when the two teams faced each other earlier this month. Michigan (192.225) placed third and Lady Lions(I 91.95 were fourth at the six teamShani Invitational hosted by Oregon State March 1. The Wolverines are hoping for a strong performance this weekend to keep their momentum going into next week, when they will try for their fifth straight Big Ten title at the confer- ence meet. Good road scores at Penn State and at the Big Ten meet will also help guarantee a spot in the NCAA cent* regional on April 14. Teams qualify for regionals based on their composite score. It is calcu- lated using a team's two highest home scores, two highest road scores and the next two highest scores of either variety. The highest and lowest of the six are dropped, and the composite score is the average of the remaining four. The top seven teams in the regi will be invited to compete, and the Wolverines' composite score cur- rently ranks second in the central re- gion. They have not yet clinched a spot, but it is very unlikely that six teams wilna-c them-n Our Graduates Work. 11 SUMER 5HUUL FUR PEUPLE ago/_..