10B - The Michigan Daily -- SportsMonday - November 16, 1998


Penalty killing, Blackburn
keep icers on par with Irish
Langfeld's hat trick, Jillson's first goal claw Nanooks

By Chris Duprey
Daily Sports Writer
SOUTH BEND - Maybe when this
season is over, the Michigan hockey
team will look back upon Saturday
night's intense road contest at Notre
Dame and remember it as a positive
turning point in its season.
The Wolverines (5-1-1 CCHA, 6-2-1
overall) hung on for 2-2 tie against the
Fighting Irish after picking up two points
in a 6-3 home victory over Alaska-
Fairbanks on Friday.
With Sean Ritchlin off the ice after a
five-minute major penalty, and 10:02
remaining in the third period of a 2-2 tie,
the Michigan penalty-kill unit was
thrown into the fire of a must-succeed
situation on Saturday.
Since Ritchlin's penalty wouldn't be
cut short by' a Notre Dame goal, the
Fighting Irish had the opportunity to
score more than once on its power play
and put the game away.
But due to an aggressive, attacking
defense employed by the Wolverines, and
some clutch saves from freshman goal-
tender Josh Blackburn, Michigan was
able to silence the Joyce Center crowd
and keep the contest knotted at two.
"That's a tough penalty to have to kill
on the road, in the third period,"
Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "I
thought our team did a great job."
Michigan continued to press after
returning to even strength, and almost

came up with the game-winning tally
when Geoff Koch's wrist shot clanked
off the post to the right of Notre Dame
goaltender Forrest Karr with 1:50 left in
regulation.
Just when it seemed that both teams
were content to take the draw in over-
time, Michigan defenseman Jeff Jillson
shook things up a little bit.
The freshman had a long pass inter-
cepted in the Michigan zone with 34 sec-
onds left, but the Fighting Irish failed to
convert their best opportunity of the
extra frame. Notre Dame pressed hard
until Blackburn gloved a point-blank
shot from Dan Carlson.
"Blackburn faced tough competition
and tough situations," Berenson said. "I
thought he came up real strong."
After spotting Notre Dame a 1-0 lead
early in the game, Michigan stormed
back with two scores of its own. Dave
Huntzicker notched his first career tally
at 11:05 of the first period, firing a blue
line bullet past Karr.
Mark Kosick followed midway
through the second period with his third
ofthe season, putting away a rebound off
of Mike Van Ryn's initial attempt.
Both Michigan tallies were power-
play goals - quite a pleasant surprise
for Berenson after his team had strug-
gled in that area until this weekend.
Michigan's power play success was a
direct carryover from Friday's 6-3 home
victory over Alaska-Fairbanks, where

the.Wolverines found the back of the net
four times in 10 chances with the extra
man to ice the Nanooks.
"I think our overall game started to
gel,' Berenson said. "Our power play
might have been the difference."
The Wolverines, fresh from a two-
week layoff, didn't wait long to get start-
ed in front of their Yost Ice Arena faith-
ful, scoring twice by the 2:06 mark of the
first period.
Josh Langfeld began what wouldf
turn out to be a hat trick for the sopho'
more, receiving a feed from Mike
Comrie and depositing the puck in the
far corner behind Alaska-Fairbanks
goaltender Ian Perkins at 18:46 of the
first.
Michigan's blue line presence on the
power play began to wreak havoc on
Alaska-Fairbanks. Captain Bubba
Berenzweig's shot from the point was
tipped in by Koch for his first goal of the
season at 17:54.
Berenzweig later added a goal of his
own, as Michigan slammed home three
of the next four goals scored to take a
commanding 5-2 advantage. Jillson
scored the fifth Michigan goal - his
first career score.
Unfortunately for the Wolverines,
their season series with the Nanooks is
finished. With Michigan State and Notre
Dame on tap for next weekend,
Michigan should expect the same leve4
of competiti-n it faced on Saturday.
THREE STARS
OF THE
WEEKEND:
The Michigan Daily hockey
writers' picks for the three
stars of the weekend:
3. Josh Langfeld: The sopho-
more's hat trick in Friday
night's 6-3 victory over
Alaska-Fairbanks provided the
margin of victory. Langfeld
also gave the Wolverines
some added intensity in a
third-period scuffle.
2. Josh Blackburn: The fresh-
man goaltender put together a
solid weekend. He made some
solid saves when needed
against Alaska, but his crown-
ing achievement came in the
form of 34 saves at Notre
Dame on Saturday, which
helped the Wolverines grind
out a 2-2 tie.
1. Michigan penalty-kill unit:
Forced to kill off a five-minute
Notre Dame power play with
10:02 remaining in the con-
test Saturday, the penalty
killers rose to the occasion,
barely allowing the Fighting
Irish the chance to set up
their attack.'

Over 120 College Teams,
Including Yours.
Only on, NintendW° 64E

WARREN ZINN/Daily
Freshman Josh Blackburn made several key saves in both games this past week-
end, helping the Wolverines to a victory over Alaska and a tie with Notre Dame.

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Michigan 6, AlaskaFairbanks 3
Alaska-Fairbanks 2 0 1 - 3
Michigan 3 2 1 - 6
First peod- 1. UM, Langfeld 3 (Comrie,
Huntzicker), 1:14; 2. UM, Koch 1 (Berenzweig,
Matzka), 2:06 (pp); 3. UAF, McNeill 1 (Reinheller),
2:38; 4. UM, Berenzweig 3 (Rominski, Jillson), 6:33
(pp); 5. UAF Kirwan 4 (Tiemstra, Hamilton), 8:46.
Penalties- UAF, Carriere (interference), 1:39;
UAF, Rocheleau (hooking), 5:28; UM Crozier (trip-
ping), 9:20; UM, Hayes (slashing), 10:28; UM,
Hayes (unsportmanlike conduct), 10:28; UM,
Rominski (slashing), 13:55; UAF, Team (too many
men), 16:08; UM, Van Ryn (interference), 16:33;
UAF Carriere (boarding), 19:12.
Second peiod -1. UM, Langfeld 4 (Kosick,
Huntzicker), 5:37 (pp); 2. UM, Jillson 1 (Ritchlin,
Berenzweig), 8:34 (pp). Penalties - UAF, Grosul
(hooking), 1:52; UM, Matzka (interference). 2:36;
UAF, Wynia (hooking), 4:56; UAF, Rocheleau (hook-
ing), 6:55, UM, Langfeld (interference), 7:01; UAF,
Kirwan (interference), 7:40; UIAF Tiemstra (interfer-
ence), 8:34; UM, Van Ryn (interference), 19:59.
Third peod-- 1. UM, Langfeld 5 (Comrie) 7:09;
UIAF, Reinheller 3 (McNeill, Coady), 7:49. Penalties
- UAF, Kirwan (roughing), 12:29; UAF, Hafele
(roughing), 13:39; UAF, Hallet (hooking), 13:39;
UIAF, Tiemstra (roughing), 13:39; UAF, Hallet
(roughing), 13:39; UAF, Hamilton (roughing), 13:39;
UM, Kosick (roughing), 13:39; UM, Huntzicker
(roughing), 13:39; UM, Comrie (roughing), 13:39;
UM, Van Ryn (roughing), 13:39; UM, Langfeld (high
sticking), 13:39; UM, Langfeld (10-min miscon-
duct), 13:39; UAF, Hamilton (10-mi misconduct).
13:39.
Shots on gpal - UM 10.1343 - 36; UAF 14-1.6 -
21.
Power Plays - UM, 4 of 10: UAF, 0 of 7.
Saves - UM, Blackburn 12-1-2 - 15; UM,
O'Malley 00-3 - 3; UAF, Perkins, 711-12 -30.
Referee - Tony Molina.
linesmen - John Nowasatka, Pat Bracco.
At Yost Ice Arena. A. 6,287.
Saturday's
Michigan 2, Notre Dame 2
Michigan 1 1 0 - 2
Notre Dame 1 0 1 -2
First period - 1. UND, Inman 5 (Dusbabek, Fraser),
10:05; 2. UM, Huntzicker 1 (Kosick, Comrie), 11:05
(pp). Penalties - UND, Henning (charging), 10:34;
UM, Hayes (charging), 13:37; UND Van Arkel
(roughing), 15:29; UM, Rominski (roughing), 15:29;
UM, Ritchlin (hooking), 17:15.
Second period - 1. UM, Kosick 3 (Van Ryn,
Huntzicker), 11:17 (pp). Penalties - UJND,.Simon
(holding), 10:10; UM, Berenzweig (hooking), 12:32;
UND, Van Arkel (slashing), 14:08; UM, Peach

Special teams 'power'.
'M' to 'kill' opponents

By T.J. Barka
Daily Sports Writer
SOUTH BEND - For the first
month of the season, the Michigan
power play was anything but powerful.
Two weeks ago, in a 6-1 loss to
Northern Michigan, the adjective
describing the Michigan power play
attack could have been pitiful, as the
Wolverines went 0-for-1I1.
This weekend, the 'power' finally
came back to the power play. Six of
Michigan's eight goals on the weekend
came off the man advantage - four in
Friday's victory over Alaska-Fairbanks
and two more in Saturday's draw
against Notre Dame. The Wolverines
went six-for-14 on the weekend, a .429
percentage.
"Our power play might have been
the difference" on Friday, Michigan
coach Red Berenson said. "We are get-
ting point shots through and shooting
smarter right now."
The play of the defensemen from
the point was the greatest difference
for the Wolverines this weekend.
Michigan got goals from three differ-
ent blueliners - Bubba Berenzweig,
Jeff Jillson and Dave Huntzicker -
off shots from the point.
"The goal was nothing special,"
Huntzicker said about his first career

and I was just waiting for the
rebound," Kosick said. "I saw the puck
and I put it through"
When asked about the power play*
newfound aggressiveness, Kosick said
that the Wolverines decided to simpli-
fy their attack a little bit, striving to get
shots on net instead of using time to
try to execute perfect passes and shots.
"We are starting to shoot the puck
from the sides and the boards more,"
Kosick said. "You can try to look and
get pretty shots on goal, but it comes
down to getting shots through and
scrapping out the rebounds."
Along with stressing quantity in lio
of quality, the Wolverines believe that
they are beginning to figure each other
out and plan their attack accordingly.
"We are getting pretty comfortable
and familiar with each other,"
Huntzicker said. "We are coming up
with new combinations to keep every-
one fresh."
The comfort level that the power-
play has felt has also been felt amo
the penalty killers. After giving up t*
goals in the Northern debacle,
Michigan's penalty-killers only
allowed one goal the whole weekend.
"Penalty killing really helped us this
weekend," Berenson said.
The penalty killers did an especially