4B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 18, 1999
O'Malley
- O' so good in relief'
Sophomore proves to be more than competent replacement
By Chris Grandstaff
Daily Sports Writer
Last season was a big change for
Kevin O'Malley. For virtually all of
his hockey life O'Malley has been
his respective teams' starting goalie,
but last season fellow freshman Josh
Blackburn won the job, and
O'Malley was relegated to the
bench.
In fact, O'Malley only saw action
in eight games for the Wolverines
last season - starting just once, a 2-
1 loss to Niagara.
The experience was no doubt a
difficult pill to swallow for
O'Malley, who watched from the
bench as the Wolverines took home
the CCHA Tournament title and fell
just short of a Frozen Four appear-
ance.
Blackburn keyed the Wolverines'
late season run, and was named team
most valuable player at season's end.
After that performance it seemed
that O'Malley, despite his obvious
talents, would once again play back-
up to Blackburn this season.
That is until this past Monday,
when Blackburn was diagnosed with
a Lisfrancs sprain - an injury that
will keep him out of the Wolverines
lineup for three months.
Blackburn tore ligaments in
between his first and second toe on
his left foot.
The injury was sustained over a
week ago when Blackburn slipped
and fell on a buckeye after attending
a party. Blackburn was trying to
move a refrigerator into his resi-
dence when the accident occurred.
With Blackburn out, O'Malley
was forced to step in and step up
right away this past weekend against
Massachusetts Lowell.
And did he ever.
O'Malley's performance against
the River Hawks was just short of
spectacular.
On Friday, his Michigan team-
mates made it easy on him. The
Michigan defense suffocated the
River Hawks, and O'Malley only
faced 12 shots - making 11 saves in
two periods of action, while allowing
just one goal.
But Saturday evening was a differ-
ent story for the Michigan net min-
der as the River Hawks came out fir-
ing - outshooting the Wolverines
25-20. O'Malley answered the River
Hawks' call though, setting down
shot after shot en route 5-1 victory.
His effort earned him first star of
the game honors.
"I felt great this weekend," said
O'Malley. "I felt terrible for Josh,
but I'm glad to be back out there.
I'm back in my environment. This is
what I do best.
"After Friday's game we knew they
would come back hard, and they'd try
to even up the series. They had a lot
of power plays tonight, a lot of five-
on-threes, and we were outshot
tonight. But that makes it easier for a
goalie to stay in the flow of the
game."
Michigan coach Red Berenson
agreed with O'Malley's analysis, but
was also pleased with the more
intense game experience O'Malley
was able to gain on Saturday.
"O'Malley played solid,"
Berenson said. "He was tested more
tonight than on Friday. The fact that
he had to stay in the game all night
helped his confidence out a lot."
O'Malley's performance
impressed the entire Yost Ice Arena
crowd, but maybe none more than
new Wolverine goalie coach Stan,
Matwijiw.
"What can't you say about Kevin's
play this weekend," Matwijiw said.
"Here's a guy that hasn't started a lot
of games in his collegiate career and
comes into this weekend and just
plays absolutely fantastic, especially
in the second period when we got
outshot 12-4, and he was definitely
the difference."
Since joining the Wolverines last
Monday, coincidentally, the sam
day that Blackburn's injury wa
diagnosed, Matwijiw has seen a lot
of potential in O'Malley.
"Kevin is obviously a big guy who
covers a lot of net," Matwijiw said.
"lie plays the puck very very well.
When you have a big guy like that
you can get away with a lot more
than a guy who's say 5-8, 5-9, or 5-
10 even..
"He moves well for a big guy, a
he's pretty intelligent. He's hockey
smart. He's got a natural instinct, and
that's good because now he can build
off of that.
"For example if I come in with a
kid that has no hockey sense at all,
that makes my job very difficult. We
have a kid that has the hockey smarts
and both he and Scarpace are eager
to learn. You're going to see
improvements in both of them
because of that."0
But as far as improvement goes
Michigan's new starting goalie only
needs to work on "the little things,"
Matwijiw said.
Michigan hockey fpns celebrate at Yost Ice Arena after the fourth goal on Saturday night.
sophomore goaltender Kevin O'Malley, who stopped 24 of 25 shots on the night.
DAVID KATZ/Daily
This was more than enough for
Hockey team plays hero to Mott's kids; final three freshmen score
By Uma Subramanian
Daily Sports Writer
Long after the game had ended and the stands at Yost
had cleared, a select group of fans remained. Three
children and their parents lingered near the exit of the
Michigan locker room waiting for their hockey heroes.
For Chris Janowiak Jr. the night was extra special. A
doctor at Mott Children's Hospital had donated tickets
to the game. Janowiak's doctors gave the boy the day
off so he and his father could attend the game.
"This is really cool," Janowiak said. "Some of (the
Wolverines) might get into the NHL someday."
For their part, the players willingly obliged their
young fans' requests, autographing hats and programs.
To his favorite player, Michigan junior Josh Langfeld,
Janowiak made a special request, asking him to sign
his hospital bracelet.
"These kids just enjoy hockey," Chris Janowiak, Sr.
said. "We're thrilled that someone donated these tick-
ets and gave them the opportunity to come see the
game."
AND THEN THERE WERE THREE: Peer pressure is an
interesting phenomenon. This past weekend, for three
Michigan hockey freshmen, the pressure of seeing
their classmates score paid off.
As a result, after only four regular-season games, all
six freshmen have scored.
"It's a load off their mind," Michigan coach Red
Berenson said. "They were seeing other freshmen
score, and, as much as you don't want to think about it,
you knew it was bothering them."
Prior to this season, this year's freshman class was
touted as one of the most offensively talented in the
country. In an unusual move, the coaches recruited for
speed and offensive prowess instead of size.
Already this season their efforts have been validated.
Ironically, prior to Saturday's game, the players that
hadn't scored were the ones who had been expected to.
But in a span of three minutes, all that changed as
first Andy Hilbert, then John Shouneyia and finally
Mike Camalleri netted their first goals.
"It was good to see Camalleri score, because he's a
scorer," Berenson said. "Shouneyia's a scorer and
Hilbert's a scorer too. In fact, of the six freshmen, those
three came in with the highest scoring credentials and
they were the last three to score."
Camalleri had been credited with a goal on Friday
night, but upon further examination, captain Sean
Peach was awarded the goal.
Regardless, most classes do not achieve the feat of
having every member score.
"It was an amazing feeling, it was great (to score his
first career goal)," Shouneyia said. "I was trying really
hard and Langfeld made a real good play to me, and I
just got lucky.
"We were the last three freshmen to score. It was
pretty exciting. We were really happy for each other
and the team was really happy for us too."
ROUGHED UP: This season the NCAA and the
CCHA have instituted new rules which Brian Hart,
director of officials for the CCHA, said were enacted
because hockey was getting too rough.
The officials have started calling much the games
much tighter as a result of the new restriction. But this
weekend the penalties seemed to be out of control as
the Wolverines and the River Hawks spent a combined
123 minutes in the penalty box through both games.
Hart said that even in the second period of Saturday's
game, the referees had called four or five penalties that
wouldn't have been called last year.
"Early in the season, there were a few undisciplined
penalties," said Stan Matwijiw, the new Michigan
goalie coach. "That's a situation that the coaches will
try to rectify. Later on in the season, those are the
penalties that can really hurt you."
In Friday night's victory, the penalties against Lowell
helped the Wolverines to convert on seven of 12 power
plays. Saturday night the calls went the other way, but
Michigan's penalty-killing unit rose to the challenge.
"We (the penalty killing unit) had our fair share of
work out there." Michigan junior Geoff Koch said after
Saturday's 5-1 victory. "Last night it went the other
way, but tonight we had a lot of calls against us. It was
good practice."
CURSED?: Perhaps a black cat walked in front of the
Michigan hockey team last summer. First the team lost
three defensemen in the off-season, to the pros, acade-
mic ineligibility and to another school. Then, in during
the preseason exhibition games, Camalleri and Peach
were injured and unavailable to play in the team's reg-
ular season openers at Notre Dame.
Last week starting goalie Josh Blackburn suffered a
freak injury that will keep him out until January.
Once again, this past weekend, injuries plagued the
Wolverines.
Midway through the second period junior Dave
Huntzicker went down with a separated shoulder. Late
in the final period, junior Bob Gassoff was driven
headfirst into the boards by a high hit from behind.
Gassoff has a serious concussion.
The injured players are both questionable for this
weekend's games at Alaska-Fairbanks.
MICHELLE SWELNS/Daily
Mike Cammalleri who was injured In last weekends wins over Notre Dame, was
the final freshman to score when he netted a goal In Saturday's victory.
Power play unit leads 'M' to win
LOWELL
Continued from Page 11B
The three newcomers all got the first goals of their
careers solidify the Michigan victory 5-1, and remain
undefeated on the season.
And even though this win may have not come as easy
as the Wolverines had hoped, it brought the team back to
reality and gave the freshman a chance to show their worth.
"I think the difference in our team was (Friday) night,"
Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "Maybe the puck went
in to easy. No matter what you say to your team you know
that they've lost a little bit of respect for their opponent.
Tonight I think they got us back"
It was the strong play of O'Malley and the power play
line that seemed to make scoring look easy on Friday
night.
The power play unit was responsible for seven of the
team's eight goals.
The only even strength goal of the game came one
minute into the first period.
Freshman Jed Ortmeyer gave the Wolveriens the early
lead when he scored his first goal of his career to put
Michigan up 1-0.
The Wolverines skated to a 2-0 lead until Lowell junio
Jeremy Kyte blind-sided O'Malley.
"It was coming from my left and it hit their guy in thl
leg, landed in front of the net, and went off the side of hi
shin," O'Malley said. "I didn't see it, but that doesn't mat
ter because all we have to do is score more then they do.'
Michigan answered Kyte's goal with six of its oW
"Once the game started, everyone got comfortable i
ing," Ortmeyer said. "We have great goal scorers on ou
team and they are going to go out and bury the puck."
Jeff Jillson, who also had three assists on the night
answered Kyte's goal early in the second period.
Mike Comrie also added two goals to take th<
Wolverines into their final period ahead 7-1. Comrie'
seven goals leads the CCHA in that category.
Michigan brought in Junior goalie L.J. Scarpace for thi
third period. In Scarpace's first game of his career a
Michigan, he shut the River Hawks out.
Freshman Mark Mink's goal would be all the scS,
that would occur in the third period, as Michigan wte mk
win the game 8-1.
"We had a lot of offensive firepower," Ortmeyer said
"But we play D first. We didn't give up many goals. W
play good defense which created the good offense."
Michigan 8, Mass-Lowell 1
Mass-Lowell 1 0 0 - 1
Michigan 2 5 1 - 8
First period - 1. UM, Ortmeyer 1 (Hilbert,
Shouneyia) 1:38; 2. UM, Koch 2 (Huntzicker,
Jillson) 4:00; 3. Mass~, Kye 1 (Reed) 8:52.
Penatties - Mass, Fontas (hooking) 2:13; Mass.,
Hainsey (hooking) 5:22; UM, Gassoff (holding the
stick) 7:47; UM, Matzka (cross-checking) 13:23;
Mass., Allison (cross-checking) 13:23: Mass.,
Campbell (interference) 15:30: Mass., Kotyluk
(roughing) 16:52; UM, Langfeld (roughing) 16:52;
Mass., Rouleau (roughing) 20:00; UM, Langfeld
(roughing) 20:00.
Second period - 4. UM, Jillson 1(Kosick,
Huntzicker, Hilbert) 4:14; 5. UM, Peach 1 (Hilbert)
4:59; 6. UM, Kosick 3 (Langfeld, Comrie) 12:04;
Michigan 5, Mass-Lowell 1
Mass-Lowell 0 1 0 - 1
Michigan 1 1 3 - 5
First period - 1. UM, Koch 3 (Matzka,
Jillson)12:55; Penalties - Mass., Bertram (hook-
ing) :47; UM, Shouneyia (tripping)4:28; UM, Comrie
(roughing) 8:45; UM, Peach (high sticking) 11:22;
Mass, Slonina (slashing) 14:10; Mass., Kotyiuk
(tripping) 17:26; UM, Cammalleri (holding) 19:30.
Second period - 2. UM, Comrie 7 (unassisted)
10:30; 2. Mass., Schomogyi 1 (McGrane) 18:1 .
Penalties - UM, Shouneyia (hooking) 15:05: Mass.
McGrane (hooking) 8:27; UM, Jillson (hooking)
9:48; Mass., Bertram (cross checking), 13:45;
Mass., Rooney (hooking) 14:21; UM, team (too
many men) 15:39; Mass., Boulanger (slashing),
18:07; UM, Gassoff (roughing), 18:07; UM,
Berenson taps
Compuware team
agam, gams verbal
With four former players from the
North American Hockey League's
Compuware Ambassadors already on
its roster, Michigan is set to add anoth-
er next fall,
Compuware defenseman Andy
Burnes verbally committed to
Michigan accnrdin to a statement
Blackburn now accepting role as far
BLACKBURN
Continued from Page 18
before he can begin rehabilitation. Pre-operative team esti-
mates put the Oklahoma native back on the ice in the middle
of January - roughly 20 games or three months away.
"We're hopefully looking at the second game of the Miami
series." Blackhrn sid "Its early now hut that's what we're
injury have been completely normal.
"A player goes through so many things after being injured:
Berenson said. "First he's angry about things and then a littl<
mad. That anger usually turns to depression as a player begin:
to wonder what his life will be like for a while without hock
ey. After that you realize there's nothing to do except wait anc
work on coming back, that's probably where Josh is right now.'
Dlenite his outloono nw machrn said cnminer to term.