The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - April 5, 1999 - 3B *Maine wins title in OT thriller, 3-2 ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Two Hockey East rivaIs who split their four regular-season meetings a plaed on even terms again Saturday night for the NCAA Championship. It took 10:50 of overtime to decide it, when Marcus Gustafsson knocked in a rebound of his own shot to give Maine a 3-2 victory over New Hampshire for the Black Bears' second national hockey title. The victory was a redemption of sorts for Maine, which lost 6-1 and 4-1 in the final two reg- Ok lar-season games against New Hampshire to fin- ish second behind the Wildcats, three points back, in the Hockey standings. "The first national championship was for the ste of Maine; this one is for our players," Maine coach Shawn Walsh said. "They learned values Jbey'll use for the rest of their lives." "Obviously I am real disappointed, but I have to congratulate Maine," New Hampshire coach Dick Umile said. "These were two good teams that *deserved to be here. .,"We will remember this night for a long time and hopefully build on from here." The Bears won the rubber game, which just hap- pened to have the national title as the prize, by refusing to wilt after squandering a two-goal lead. Maine goaltender Alfie Michaud, named the Frozen Four's Most Outstanding Player, kept his team in the game with 46 saves, and the Bears seemed to be wearing down New Hampshire in the oyertime. Although outshot 48-39 for the game, Maine @oent on the attack in overtime, getting off nine shots to New Hampshire's five. Goalie Ty Conklin made a string of spectacular saves in the extra period before Gustafsson wrist- ed the puck past him, triggering a celebration by Maine's players. "Cory Larose got the puck on the half-boards and he centered it, Gustafsson said of the winning sequence. "I was shooting down the center, going for the net. I shot right away, the rebound came out and I put it in the net." Conklin, who had 36 saves, broke his stick over tbe goal pipe in disgust for allowing the deciding goal. ,. "Both of them are terrific goalies," Walsh said. "I told Ty after the game that he'd be back in a game like this. Both guys got help from the, but their positions Were great. "Alfie was smooth again. He saw the puck very well." .Maine was banned from the NCAA Tournament in 1996 and 1997 for violating NCAA recruiting and other rules. The Black Bears won the national championship and lost in the title game to Boston University in 1995. Walsh called this season "a wonderful journey," JIM ROSE Rose Beef Goss fixes a wrong with two rights AP PHOTO Maine won its second national championship of the decade Saturday night. The Black Bears defeated Hockey East rival New Hampshire 3-2 in overtime on Marcus Gustafsson's goal. adding, "Our seniors have had faith, loyalty, fra- ternity and commitment." The 1993 champions were led by Paul Kariya, who now plays for the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim on the same ice where the Frozen Four was held this year. The 1999 champions were led by his brother, Steve.. "It's just an unbelievable feeling," Steve Kariya said after following in his brother's footsteps by winning the NCAA title at Maine. Three of the last four title games ended 3-2 in overtime. In two of those, Michigan has won the national title. Half of the last 12 championships have been decided in OT. New Hampshire's Mike Souza drew the Wildcats even 3:33 into the third. Freshman Darren Haydar stole the puck, skated behind the Maine goal, then zipped a pass across to Jason Krog. Krog fired to Souza, who beat Michaud at point-blank range. Michaud kept New Hampshire frustrated for most of the first two as the Black Bears built their lead. But Haydar brought the Wildcats to life with a shorthanded goal with 4:02 remaining in the sec- ond period. Haydar skated out of the penalty box, took a long pass from Souza and, alone some 20 feet behind the defense, skated in on Michaud and beat him to the glove side. Souza's goal was his 23rd, fourth of the NCAA tournament, and Haydar's was his 31st. Maine appeared to take a commanding 3-0 lead when Dan Kerluke sailed a shot past Conklin at 13:18 of the second period. But officials disal- lowed the goal after reviewing the play, ruling that the Black Bears' Jason Vitorino was in the crease. Three minutes later, Haydar scored and New Hampshire suddenly was back in the game. Niko Dimitrakos, a freshman who had a goal and an assist in Maine's 2-1 overtime victory over Boston College in the semifinals, gave the Bears a 2-0 advantage early in the second period of the championship game. Dimitrakos slammed a shot from the slot into the right corner of the net for his eighth goal. Maine's Ben Guite opened the scoring on a power play when he poked in a rebound 15:47 into the game. Conklin blocked Vitorino's slap shot from the top of the circle and the puck wobbled outside the crease, where Guite, being dragged down by defenseman Jayme Filipowicz, got his stick on the puck and slid it past the sprawling goalie. New Hampshire lost 4-0 to eventual champion Michigan in last year's semifinals, but beat Michigan State 5-3 to make it to the final this time. And this week's big winner is: the Michigan Athletic Department! In recent days, a pair of announcements cast Tom Goss' department in a favorable public light. First, a pair of sports - women's water polo and men's soc- cer - were elevated to varsity sta- tus. And then, just days later, foot- ball ticket prices were, ahem, "low- ered." (This "reduction" in ticket prices, of course, came on the heels of a rather steep increase, but a pub- lic uproar led to the rollback.) But let's avoid being overly cyni- cal. The fact is, two good things happened within the Athletic Department. The addition of men's soccer to the varsity group is long, long overdue. Steve Burns' club team owns a Thie A pair of national champi- Depa onships, which is evi-w dence of the type of tal- ent Michigan can attract. gee Granted, the jump to var- embO) sity will result in a vastly by nOft different program - a Vt maybe even an entirely meen's different program - but pros nonetheless, the Wolverines can be ------ expected to compete nationally. There's no reason to think they won't be among the nation's elite teams within a few years. The addition of women's water polo is also a blessing to the Athletic Department, because it brings the University a bit closer to compliance with the dreaded Title IX. Water polo essentially "beat out" women's teams in lacrosse and ice hockey to get the nod, though one - or both, - of those could actually be the next to get bumped to varsity. In truth, the water polo team is the beneficiary of the University's delin- quency with men's soccer. Had soc- cer already been a varsity sport, there would probably be little or no chance of varsity status for women's water polo. That is not - I repeat, not - to say that the team is unde- serving of varsity status. Most of us are aware, by now, of the time and dedication it takes to become a top- notch club program. (In fact, if you've gotten this far, you're proba- bly used to reading about it in this very space.) But in all honesty, it's pretty sim- ple: The Athletic Department was finally getting embarrassed by not having a varsity men's soccer pro- gram. But in order to add soccer, a women's sport had to be added, too. And according to the University's Board in Control of Intercollegiate Id~ rrtj fir I/71 f 'S Athletics, water polo was the best option. All of this is extremely interesting when considered in light of the recent fluctuation in football ticket prices. Originally bumped from $27 to $35, speculation held that the increase was intended to offset the* cost of those fancy, new, advertis- ing-free scoreboards in Michigan Stadium. (Of course, that was only- speculation - but considering the failure of the short-lived "Pay to Watch the Away Football Games at Crisler" program, it seems like pret- ty logical speculation.) Whatever the reason, after an examination of "budgetary adjust- ments" (their words), the Athletic Department now says this: "our val- ued fans felt under- mined by having a large hetc increase at one time." Ment (No word yet on whether those valued fans feel undermined by ng the sneaky "at one time" 'assed phrase in there, but oh raving well.) Still, my personal sity favorite is the headline iOccer at the top of the Athletic '0M. Department's Web site: "Michigan Reduces ---- Ticket Prices." Hmmm. So somehow, the Athletic Department managed to simultane- ously 1) lower football ticket prices to accommodate their valued fans, and 2) raise football ticket prices to add two new varsity sports. That's pretty clever - opportunistic, if nothing else. Admittedly, it's fun to smirk at the Athletic Department's tactics, and those cleverly worded press releas- es/Web page stories certainly give - rise to a chuckle here and there. But in truth, Tom Goss and his depart- ment deserve to be commended. The bottom line is entirely good: Men's soccer will become a varsity sport, and the outcry of the football fans was acknowledged. It's easy to pick on groups like Michigan's Athletic Department when every one of their decisions is made on behalf of thousands of peo- ple, with millions of dollars hanging in the balance. Nothing is easy. When they screw up, they deserve to hear about it. But when they get it right - as they did last week - they deserve to be commended. So, to Tom Goss and his department: Good job. Keep up the good work. Now, if we can only get enough people to complain about that hideous halo around the football sta- dium ... - Jim Rose can be reached via e- mail at jwrose@umich.edu. New Hampshire's .Krog wins Hobey ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) - Jason Krog had two goals and an assist to send New Hampshire to its first NCAA championship game. Although the Wildcats didn't win that, some 12 hours later, the school had another first when Krog won the 1999 Hobey Baker Award, given to college hockey's best player. Krog, the nation's scoring leader this \year, was presented with the award Friday at a ceremony that seemed like a New Hampshire pep rally. - The ceremony was held at the team hoi'l for the NCAA Frozen Four, and the crowd packing the ballroom included Kreg's teammates and coaches, many of his relatives and a group of cheering Wildcats fans. aI thank my teammates for making the year so successful and enjoyable,' Krog, a senior center said. "I feel this award is just as much theirs as mine." _ie invited his teammates onto the pidium, and some helped him hold the trophy. What he's accomplished is not by accident," coach Richard Umile said. "He has led our team by example. He doesn't talk a lot, he just does it." krog was a unanimous selection for the Hockey East player of the year, lead- ing the Wildcats to the conference title. Ie ranked in the top 10 percent of his academic class with a 3.67 grade-point average last semester. He was a finalist for college hockey's Humanitarian Award. "On the ice or in the classroom, every- body looks up to Jason. He's respected as a hard worker in everything he does," Umile said. "For me, it's been a special honor to coach Jason Krog and spend four years with him." Krog had 85 points on 34 goals and 51 assists. Krog notched one assist in the nation- al championship game on Saturday, a 3- 2 overtime loss to Maine, and added a pair of goals and an assist in Thursday night's 5-3 semifinal victory over Michigan State. The Wildcats made it to the semis last year, but were eliminated 4-0 by eventual champion Michigan. There were 10 finalists for this year's Hobey Baker Award. Michigan State center Mike York was the runner-up, but no other spots were announced. New Hamphire center Jason Krog (left), the nation's leading scorer was named the 1999 Hobey Baker award winner on Friday. AP PHOTO Frustrated and disappointed with the University? Need help making sense of your U of M experience? Check out http://universitysecrets.com Jane Lubchenco Award-winning Marine Scientist, Biodiversity Advocate and Environmental Film Maker Monday, April 5 : 6 pm : Hale Auditorium U of M Business School. Hill and Tappan Streets. Free and Open to the Public. * MacArthur "Genius Prize" Winner, Pew Scholar in Conservation and Environment, Presidential Appointee to National Science Board, UN Science Advisor. s