B l3 The Mi0hi n Daily - SportsMonday - October 9, 2000 Shouts from the point 1The referee did start to put the puck out, but Red Berenson is a powerful man New Hampshire THID-PACEGM 2 and overruled him. North Dakota coach Dean Blais on the coaches' decision to end the gaine without a shootout. 2 2 North Dakota2 UNIH wins penalty shootout, 1-0 Colgate 2 SMichigan 2 Colgate wins penalty shootout, 2-0 North Dakota Michigan 5 5 (OT) New Hampshire Colgate 3 I I ' UNH takes championship, routs Colgate 7-3 i Mci l hockey writers' pick fo \hhign~sthiree stars of Ihe ke reaker. IKE: (AMMALLERI - Canun alkeri's for points over the wkend led the Woverines and his go a with four minutes remaining agmst Noth Iatkota scaled the tie. Two goals 1y Langfcl i the game agami1st Cohgate were all that Michigan would scorC. They were to tic the game. AKND HLH'ERT - HIilhert notched assists on three of Michigan s g a aganmst North By Jon Schwartz Daily Sports Writer For two periods, the matchup between No. 9 New Hampshire and No. 16 Colgate for the Ice Breaker Cup Championship was everything that the tournament's three previous quite possibly the most impressive team in the field. After its defense broke down all of No. 2 Michigan's opportunities in the third period on Friday night - allow- ing only six shots to reach goaltender Jason Lefevre - the Red Raiders were up 2-0 on New Hampshire at the mid- way point of the game. Then, the defense itself games had built up. In the third, all hell broke loose. After falling behind 2-0 New Hampshire finally got on the board 10:22 into the second period. The Wildcats never FM looked back, scoring six more unanswered goals after the first, with a token C goal in the last minute by W Colgate ending the tour nament with a 7-3 New ... Hampshire victory. 9 "To win a tournament like this is a huge confi- dence booster," New Hampshire sophomore forward Larry Gare said. "There's four great teams here. If you look at what these teams did last year, all four teams were in the top 10 all year." Through the first 30 minutes of the championship game, Colgate had been R0go0 ',~i broke down. From that point on, it was all Wildcats. New Hampshire barraged Lefevre with 20 shots in the second period, only two of which made it between the posts. But the Wildcats' luck changed in the third. The team's first three shots of the period found their way between the posts, pushing the score to 5-2 only 4:12 into the third. Vaughan said. "We gave up a lot- of odd-man rushes and when we got down 3-2, we started pressing for whatever reason. I didn't think that was a real good response to that bad goal. But it certainly wasn't Jason's fault." Instead, the reason for the turn- around can be attributed to the meticu- lous conditioning training that coach Dick Umile had his New Hampshire squad performing since the beginning of the Wildcats' practice season. With this year's campaign for the Hockey East team starting a full two weeks before last year's, Umile knew that the lack of time had to be made up for in extra work. "We did a lot of conditioning this year," Gare, who along with junior Darren Haydar scored two goals in the championship game said. "Our coach did a good job making sure we were in shape." Meanwhile, the Wildcats' continu- ous speed and agility resulted in a worn-out Colgate team taking nine penalties in the final two periods: "I think the amount of penalties we took hurt us because after that when you're down all the time, you get tired," Lefevre 'said. "I thought the boys got a little fatigued. !'' F. F. Y, 'K'M''SUYOGAC"'/Daily After falling behind 2-0, No. 9 New Hampshire scored seven unanswered goals to beat No. 16 Colgate in the championship game of the Ice Breaker Tournament. Saturay' 's. Alska-Achorage, ~niinlgt (arl Sudaymorning) Mihga Mc i St., Merrimack, G a-Alas Anenorge will take '~pat inthe wo-dyevent. NoF orhDe r 0--)ted New Hamsh c2-, ie'Mchgan a5,5 N.2 002tied Colgate 2-2. No. 3 Wisconsin (2-0) def. UMass- Amherst 9-6, 3-0 No, 4 Boston Colege (000) did not play. No. SMkhi'ii e (0-0) did not play. No. St Larene (-,- 0) did not play. No. 7 Bostn University (00-) did not play. No, 8 Maine (00 ) did not play. No. 9 New Hampshire (141) tied North Daikota 2 2. oef. Colgate 7-3. No, 10 Connell (0-00 did not olav. At that point, Colgate coach Don Vaughan replaced Lefevre with his backup, freshman Dave Cann who stopped 12 of 14 shots, but the damage "It's tough when you're always killing penalties. You can't get on the offensive." But as all four teams can attest to, the hockey season is a long one, and every team still has a lot of work to do. "It's a little disappointing that we gave up seven goals," Vaughan said. "That's the only downside to the week- end. But all of the teams here this weekend are better teams tonight than they were when they got here. "We're going to continue to work on our defense. It's something we pride ourselves on, but I saw some break- downs tonight.: And while the Wildcats were elal with the championship, they too k that it was only the first step. "We're not going to be on top of the world," Haydar said. "We know it was just a weekend. It was the first games of the season. Not everyone has their lines set - we don't even have our lines set. "So we'll go back, play with things more and try and get everybody into the mold." was done. Vaughan was goalie. "It certainly quick to defend his wasn't his fault," I 'M'works out nks at Ice Breaker By Arun Gopal Daily Sports Writer Fighting Sioux begin defense of NCAA title 0 UColgat2 0 0 0-2 Michigan1.1 0 0-2 - J 5~ I Odon(9nth), 329 (pp);2. CM, ~nU 4 1C4~w. Mz<,9:15, 3. CU, Noan 2 C. - ckO~i~'. 23Ca e.slis ir~erference}, .,2-M 1 Mv vgCstci{c 6:53; CC, Sveriis .- .. , .0, -,Hutzike(obtruction hodm~,. 31*1 CuMcioiocri (cg)g, 18:31. 18<( -Pe -- C, c st~ingi, 1:25; CM. WacA~sr~ 4xxMr~,446:C, anmalleri {hgh r W{r)61 L lnto~~-) :20; CU, VarecIka CCC~ -.u~,r~~i~tt~h~j,,, 1: ,MKoisaek or~1t~r <'c e. llrl:C Lo;, rogtarg after r~Ct-~ 1. 4 I M M~r ~ ', , ngfte whNe}, 1141 CM I :~ i .1 wi~tic. 122:CU, Stay (hit 4.43c(>'3~c 0'~grh~9i-.53CC, 'Arco ~G - fBltckburn 4.7-&04 c .: -w 6,131 Nco~n~oih The new season got underway this weekend for the Michigan hockey team with the Ice Breaker tournament, with mixed results. The Wolverines ended up with no wins or losses, but a pair of ties. In the opening round on Friday night, Michigan and Colgate remained deadlocked at two after 60 minutes of regulation and a five- minute sudden-death overtime. Although Colgate advanced to the championship game by winning a penalty shootout 2-0, the game went down as a draw on both teams' official records. Then, Saturday night, the Wolverines squared off with North Dakota in a matchup of the nation's top two teams (as far as preseason polls are concerned). Once again, the game went into sudden death overtime, and once again, nobody could win the game outright. The tense, penalty-filled contest ended in a 5-5 tie, as the teams elected not to have a penalty shootout to decide third place. When all was said and done, Michigan coach Red Berenson looked back on the weekend and came to one conclusion -- his team has a long way to go before it reaches its peak level of performance. "We're about where we thought we were," Berenson said. "We think we're as good as these teams right now, but it's where we're going to go that's important. We should become a better team as the arno" "WICnt," JEFF HURVITZ/Daily As a dejected Jeff Jillson skates away following a Colgate goal, Michigan goalie Josh Blackburn watches Jilison's stick sail through the air. By Ryan C. Moloney Daily Sports Writer North Dakota coach Dean Blais walked into the make-shift press room at Yost Arena - minutes after his team's penalty-riddled, 5-5 tie with Michigan - with his standard, gap-toothed grin. "Well," he said without prompting, "that was a good opportunity to kill penalties and work on our power play" A surprisingly laid-back approach for a man who saw his team ranked No. I in the nation, come away from the weekend with twd ties instead of the Ice Breaker championship trophy as many had prognosticated. But the defending national champion Fighting Sioux never viewed the tournament as a defense to their title, but rather as a start- ing point on a long journey back to their peak form of last April. Much like the NHL the start of the collegiate season is a time for evaluation, more than anything else. "We don't have the balance that we did last year up front,' Blais said. "Defensively, we are as good as we were last year and we'll get better - but we don't have the firepower that we did." A five-goal outburst against Michigan, notwithstanding. North Dakota's forwards were handled effectively throughout even strength play by Michigan's big, physical defensemen, but worked with stunning accuracy on the power play, notching all five of their goals with the man advantage. The most obvious refute to Blais' claim came at the tail end of the first period with Jay Vancik, off for cross-checking, and Andy Burnes, in the box for interference. North Dakota, with precision passing and good puck control, made the brave but helpless penal- ty-killing trio of Mike Cammalleri, Jed Ortmeyer and Dave Huntzicker flail for the puck like a cat chasing its tail. Burnes got back on the ice, but forward Jeff Panzer finally burieA the puck over the left shoulder of a sprawling Josh Blackburn for a 2-2 tie with 2.8 seconds remaining in the period. The fact that Blackburn won the team's MVP award after giving up five goals says something. Though Blackburn's performance kept Michigan's victory hopes alive, North Dakota's junior goaltender Andy Kollar saved his team from defeat. At the 17:18 mark of the third period, Mike Roemensky took a feed at the top of the left faceoff circle and ripped a shot towards Kollar's glove side. Kollar snapped up the bullet. Then, with 41 sec- onds left in overtime and Jeff Jillson in the crease, Kollar stopped repeated stuffs by Michigan's star defenseman. Kollar was starting in place of Karl Goehring, North Dakota's number one goaltender. When asked why he started Kollar against Michigan, Blais said he was merely looking to use both goalies in the early going. That's not a decision some coaches would make, facing a No. I versus No. 2 matchup no less, but it's all part of Blais' long-term phi- losophy. "That really doesn't mean a whole lot, and we don't really look at it," Blais said about the rankings. Fully aware of the work ahead, the Fighting Sioux came away sat- isfied - if only for the experience the tournament gave them. * "I thought we had a good weekend - we played two of the top teams in the nation," forward Ryan Bayda said. "We're happy with two ties, we're still undefeated." Mi~ ~~~ S ot aoa(OT) rxoh~aota 2 2 1 0-5 M~chran 21 2 0-5 LNO iux~ C zc PL3 ~3. UM, 3 ,,~, ~ ILu'16:2~pI4. ID, Panzer &331. 3' - 0 Petibes -UND, ~e r~p~ 2 3 1.K 414~in c-ixlinI.1:22. UM, ~ -f -,. :2. CC Rn ostruction day tt792-L:UND. ixrn{ l~ , _ , u _s interference}, urn 0 RxI - lcioiALroih, rtm), - " &iu~f~' ~-~mmr [Oxey 12:09. ren~s -.5.c-n--ur ~nng; 3:9; CM, ix5~ M ~ ~a-nn I . J, C.iison lunsPtS- : ;. ;1.LC ixC lehi: g after nun 929 M, / iAayh~nx~rg -fterwhistle), Dory),9:4 rh, 9 A /o~x 4d 1MaruiM L2:41; 10. CM, Lyrimelen iiIn-r K 7 Civatie-LC, Jiison n~ng. ~3; M~A~~rn-ane 1-7: C, s iiux, ' r-2 11 umnSne r rcros-check- - re~ -C' r< nnt~rn; lJ)2UND, Panzer ii- ; '4 - I Kin.-fl-ithauscheckitg, - 9 1 Cr~ ~ - 0'rig) 171. M ilson ~ ChiA C~ i's :In -f.I127; CM. Ovtie- s+---r P _ k-- ID, Fyflig Ce~~~~~~~ cxII-iC4. .5:'I rk(,'j nwi.2:30. en- ~ '113111- ;61M,1&-16105 - AI K ILir-, : C 1; Backburn 9-11- 1. '41a year goes on. When the squads are as evenly matched as they were in this tournament, special teams are hugely important. Michigan learned that lesson the hard way this weekend - the Wolverines' 1- for-12 showing on the power play allowed Colgate to stay in the game on Friday and all five of North Dakota's goals on Saturday came on the power play. "Last night we were worried about our power play and tonight we're still worried about our power play, but now we're wor- ried about our penalty killing," Berenson said after the North Dakota game. Despite the early-season struggles, Michigan did get some solid individual r t r I i Mike Cammalleri (4 assists) and Andy Hilbert (3 assists) demonstrated play- making ability in the two games, and senior forward Josh Langfeld scored both of Michigan's goals against Colgate - perhaps signalling a return to form for Langfeld after a subpar junior year. "It's good to get off to a good start, and hopefully I can progress from here," Langfeld said. "It's good for my confi- dence, so it should help in the future, I hope." This weekend was a learning experi- ence for the Wolverines. They head to Alaska for the Johnson Nissan Classic next weekend before beginning CCHA play at Bowling Green in two weeks time. Cammalleri said the lessons gained from the Ice Breaker - particularly on the penalty kill - will prepare Michigan for upcoming challenges. "There was a lot of special teams play," Cammalleri said. "Killing penalties takes a lot out of you, and I think it shows the character that our team has, that we got out there and were blocking a lot of shots. Power-less The Michigan hockey team's special teams were, at times, lessthan-stet- lar during the Ice Breaker this week- end. Some of this can be attributed to this being the opening weekend of the season, but Michigan still has reason to be concerned. Here are some of the not-so-special details of the Wolverines' weekend: Friday vs. Collate * Michigan power play: 1-for-12, 15 shots Colgate power play: one goal scored Saturday vs. North Dakota 9 Michigan power play: 3-9, 21 shots K North Dakota power play: five goals scored North Dakota had five two-man advantages performances. Sophomore forwards e t SCCHA Standings CCHA OVERL RALL t ,_r t.. -ii)_. i 1.ig W 0 0 () 0 L 0 0 0 0 0 0 T Pts GP 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 GF 0. 0 0 0 0 0 GA 0 0 0 0 0 0 W L T 1 0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 '0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 TOURNEY Continued from Page 1B the last game's performance on the power play - only, 1-12 with an extra attacker against Colgate. Michigan capitalized on three of nine power plays on Saturday night, but it could have been more. With the first 20 minutes being dominated by the Maize and Rle, the second neriod The Wolverines dug themselves a hole once again by taking early penalties in the third period to give North Dakota another two-man advantage. But the crowd rallied behind the Wolverines as they hustled and threw them- selves in front of North Dakota's snipers - blocking 26 of the Fighting Sioux's attempt- ed shots in the game. After falling behind 5-3 on defenseman_ Chad Mazurak's second consecutive power and it wasn't fair after each team battled so hard," Roche said. Unlike their previous overtime game against Colgate (0-1-1) in the NCAAs last year, in which the Wolverines ended the Red Raiders' season - Colgate got some revenge in advancing to the championship game by prevailing, 2-0, in the shootout. It didn't go without controversy, though, as many Michigan players believed that Red Raider goalie Jason Lefevre intentionally f i I I I - I