6B - The Michigan Daily - SPORTSMonday - November 3, 1997 a s i i a i J 4 { d j 1 i ji g# S 1 P From start to finish, Blue victory full of emotion Large crowd, Michigan pep band energize Wolverines By Kurt New was a very long week waiting for sports that I've ever had, a naiy Spors Writer today." been playing hockey for I If there were one word that could Throughout the contest, the now," senior Amy Helber said &'curately describe Michigan's game Wolverines outhustled Michigan THE No GOAL P igainst Michigan State on Sunday, it State and beat the Spartans to almost Throughout the season 'ould be emotion. every loose ball. Leading the emo- Wolverines have used the te Before, during and after the game tional charge was Michigan defender Goal Patrol" to describe thei ,the atmosphere surrounding Phyllis Shelley Johnson. sive prowess. Ocker Field was overflowing with Johnson spent much of the game This mentality was in full manotion. diving to the ground fully extended during Sunday's game. Eve Tlie tone was set before the game attempting to break up a Michigan the game had long since beer Cs'err began, thanks in large part to State pass. ed, Michigan remained deterr the loudly support- The intensity displayed by keep Michigan State off of th we., crowd. A total M 9 :11 Michigan was constant throughout board. 611 people were g the game and was reflected by Whenever the Spartans rei in. attendance, easi- Michigan's 16-6 advantage in shots penalty corner Michigan pla ly' the largest 0 taken. the bench could be heard turnout of the sea- ' G d4 Yet, it was once the game ended "NGP, Michigan, NGP!" son, that Michigan's emotion really The Michigan players on f Further adding to exploded. The entire Michigan bench showed the same desire to I the- anticipation of ' stormed the field and created a huge the shutout. With less than a the $ame to come pile of celebrating Wolverines in the to go, the Spartans had two twas the appearance middle of the field. chances at point-blank ran of the Michigan pep band, whose The celebration continued as Helber made both saves to ke every presence symbolized the magni- Michigan took a cool-down lap at bay. tude, of the game and caused the around the field. "The shutout means a lot cro d to become even more boister- As they approached the bleachers, Herber said. "We lost to ous. the players applauded the crowd for overtime on their home tu On top of all this, the game was the their support while the pep band ser- meant a lot to shut them out final home game for the six enaded them with a rendition of"The exciting for the team, becau Iichigan seniors. Victors." the shutout was an entir T mark this occasion, each player Of course, no celebration would be effort." was given a bouquet of flowers and complete without a cooler of FINISHING IN STYLE: Fla had their parents come out on the Gatorade being dumped on the head been the marquee goal sc field to congratulate them, while the coach. year for Michigan, so it see rdd and their teammates cheered "They got me, I was caught totally fitting that she wrap tip her . ld)y. by surprise," Michigan coach Marcia Phyllis Ocker Field with a h Once the game began, the Pankratz said. The three goals add to her Wolverines channeled this emotion The Wolverines then savored the impressive totals, giving into one of their most intense perfor- victory with family and friends who goals, 61 points, and 10 ga rnances of the season. The had come to show their support, in no ning goals for the season Wolverines clearly wanted this victo- hurry to end the celebration for Michigan records. ry more than the Spartans did, and it which they had waited so long. Flachs, however, was t was evident in the way Michigan "This isn't just about this year," low-key about her accomplis played. senior Aimee Remigio said. "This "I just wanted to go out "We couldn't wait for this game," was four years in the making. bang," Flachs said. Michigan senior Julie Flachs said. "It "This is the greatest moment in nd I've 0 years d. PATROL: n the rm "No r defen- Idisplay n when n decid- mined to e score- ceived a ayers on yelling he field preserve minute scoring ige, but ep them Mi i chigan's Amy Philbrook (5) celebrates with Kelli Gannon (3) in the Wolverines' 4-0 victory over Michigan State. After chigan found out that Penn State had lost, the Wolverines could officially call themselves Big Ten champions. to me" them in ARTANS rf, so it Continued from Page 1B here. It's Michigan capitalized on the emotional atmosphere. se today Despite playing in the most pressure-filled game of their re team collegiate career, the Wolverines appeared poised and relaxed and took the offensive early. chs' has Through the first 20 minutes, the Wolverines dominated, orer all rarely letting Michigan State get the ball past midfield. Yet, ins only the score remained knotted at zero as Michigan was unable career at to convert on several penalty corners. at trick. Finally, with 10:42 remaining in the half, Michigan's r already constant pressure was rewarded with a penalty stroke when her 28 the Spartans conmitted a foul that prevented a goal. Senior me-win- Julie Flachs took the penalty stroke and blasted it over the - all sprawled out Spartan goalie, Beth George. With the score only 1-0 at halftime, Michigan's precari- ypically ous lead was still far from safe. shments. There would be no letup on this day, however. Michigan with a came out with an even fiercer intensity to start the second half. Ten minutes into the half the Wolverines got the insur- ance goal they were looking for. Off a penalty corner, Flachs ripped a blistering shot into the net to make the first collegiate goal score 2-0. Just 37 seconds later, Gannon took a perfect centering pass from junior Amy Philbrook and poked it under George to give Michigan an insurmountable 3-0 lead. All that remained was for the remaining seconds to tigk away before Michigan would claim its first-ever Big Ten championship. In a moment that seemed almost trivial .due tp Michigan's total dominance, Flachs closed out the scoring with another scorching slapshot off of a penalty corner, t give her a hat trick. "That's just how Julie is," senior Aimee Remi io said. She always shows up for the big games, I'm just surprised she didn't score four.' As the final whistle blew, the Wolverines stormed the field in wild celebration. While they would have to wait to see if Penn State lost before they would know if their Big Ten championship was outright, it was clear among the hugs and tears of the Michigan players that nothing would diminish what they accomplished. "Right from the beginning the players bought into t, system, their attitude was excellent, and they worked ve. hard," Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz said. "They isn't so plain _' __ ___ Kosick's By Chris Farah Daily Spots Writer Intrinsically, there's nothing very special about a hockey puck. About three inches in diameter, made of hard, black rubber, pucks are easy to find - a couple bucks will buy you one at any discount sporting goods supplier. But pucks can take on a value and meaning much greater than their physical properties would suggest. In certain circumstances, a puck can be almost priceless. Just ask Michigan freshman Mark Kosick. Kosick scored his first collegiate goal during Michigan's game against Alaska-Fairbanks on Friday. At 9:50 in the first period, the center scored off a pass from Michigan right wing Sean Ritchlin. "We had the puck in their zone for maybe 20 or 30 seconds, Kosick said. "We were just cycling the puck down low. (Michigan forward Greg) Crozier cycled it down to Ritchlin, and they thought he was going to wrap it around, but he gave it out to me in the front. "I just deked the goalie and slid it through his legs." One of the Wolverines collected the puck for Kosick as a keepsake of the goal. The puck was just plain black. No logo, no nothing. Fairbanks hasn't gotten around to ordering any special game pucks yet, so the Nanooks were using normal, ordinary, unmarked pucks against the Wolverines. The puck may not have had any marking - it looked like any puck, from any store, much less one in Alaska - but Kosick's first goal made it different. "One of my teammates went to get the puck, and it was just there for me in my locker afer the game" Kosick said. "I was happy to get the puck because it was my first goal." Although his first goal may not be memorable for all the right reasons, Kosick will undoubtedly have more goals in the future - certain to more than make up for the disappointment. It fact, Kosick's first goal wasn't even his only one of the night. He went on to score twice more during the game, marking the first hat-trick by a Wolverine this season. Kosick's two assists in Saturday night's game against the Nanooks gave him five points on the week- end - more than any other Wolverine. A possible explanation for Kosick's scoring outburst is the line rearrangement made by Michigan's coaching staff going into last weekend. Kosick and Crozier were moved from the first line, on which they had played with Bill Muckalt, to the second line, joining Ritchly- Kosick said that he, Crozier and Muckalt had pr lems finishing plays when they skated together. "Muckalt, Crozier and I were on a line for pretty much the whole season up until this weekend," Kosick said. "We were playing really well, we were getting'a lot of chances, but we weren't really scoring as much as we should've been.." Considering Michigan is a young squad, there will probably be other line changes in the future. But Kosick said the Wolverines on his current line seemto work particularly well with each other. "If things aren't working out, the coach is goingo switch up the lines and see if somebody works better with somebody else," Kosick said. "This weekend vas our weekend for our line. Everything went well for us. We passed the puck well, we skated well, we got a lot of chances, and scored on alot of them:" Spring Break Acapulco'- Cancun 1998 Las Vegas - Denver - Florida Your ticket for fun! Nassau, Bahamas For more information call MMgU Tony Fayne at 1.888.974.1 499 NANOOKS Continued from Page IB demonstrated. And with their opportuni- ties, the Wolverines capitalized. "They were definitely dirty at times, but we kept our composure and we got quite a few power-play opportunities because of it," Michigan center Mark Kosick said. "We got them back on the scoreboard instead of retaliating." A minute after Greg Crozier's opening goal, Michigan forward Josh Langfeld added a power-play goal. Fairbanks' Scott Mcllroy then fired a shot past Michigan netminder Marty Turco to open the scoring for the Nanooks in the second. After goals by Chris Fox and Sean Ritchlin, the Wolverines were up, 4-I. Michigan held off a rally at tie end of the third, as the Nanooks added two goals within a few minutes of each other. While Saturday's game was exciting for the fans, Friday's Halloween matclh was downright frightful for the Nanoos. Fairbanks was down early to the Wolverines, as it scored three goals in the first period. Michigan then squelched any hopes of a Fairbanks comeback in the third period, adding another trio of goals. After heading into the third period down 3-2, the Nanooks seemed to have the momentum shift in their direction, after scoring twice in the second period. But Mike Van Ryn stopped the bl' ing for the Wolverines, scoring from te right point. Kosick then settled the issue by adding two goals to give him a hat trick for the evening. a v -l ' I ITR I art history at nyu * History of Art r and II " Painting and Sculpture in New York: Field Study - Architecture in New York: Field Study Renaissance Art - Modern Art - Contemporary Art in New York: Field Study Summer in thecity New York University has one of the largest summer programs in the country. Two six-week sessions. Housing in Greenwich Village as low as $100 per session. Apply on-line! www.nyu.edu/summer Free Summer Bulletin Call 1-800-771-INYU, ext. FOI (Mon.-Fri., 9 a.m.-5 p.m., EST) E-mail: fas.summerriayu.edu / J STAY OUT LATE. SEE MOVIES. GET PAID. Working at a Star Theatre is no ordinary job. You'll enjoy a great work environment and work with good people. Every Star Theatre offers advancement opportunity, flexible hours, health benefits, 401K and college tuition reimbursement. Now hiring full/part-time, and seasonal cast members. 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