aJble £idciftuu Daig S PmI *R - x"S Sports desk: 647-3336 sportsdesk@umich.edu SECTION B MIZE MICHIGAN 70, IOWA 69 "Looking out the window, you'd just see guys walking on the wings of the planes, shoveling the snow off the roof of the planes. It's such a different world... " RUSsIA, IN THEIR WORDS With students on recess and the Michigan hockey team in Detroit, Mike Cammalleri, Mike Komisarek and Andy Hilbert were sleeping in a castle, half a world away. Page 8B Late 'M' Down three with nine minutes left, Blue salvages tie By Arun Gopal Daily Sports Writer rally stuns Broncos KALAMAZOO - With II minutes and 30 seconds left to play on Saturday night, Western Michigan captain David Gove gave his team a seemingly insurmountable 4-1 lead by tapping in a puck that had trickled underneath Michi- gan goalie Josh Blackburn. Gove's second power-play goal of the night electrified the standing-room-only crowd of 4,347 at Lawson Ice Arena - certainly, the upstart Broncos would hold this lead and earn a split of the weekend series. But, as the saying goes, that's why they play the game. Michigan (11-4-2 CCHA, 17-6-4 overall) staged an unlikely rally, scoring three unan- swered goals in the final 11 minutes. The last of the three, courtesy of senior Mark Kosick, tied the game with only 1:1 1 left on the clock. As a result, Michigan escaped with a 4-4 tie and won three-out-of-four points on the week- end. The Wolverines throttled Western Michi- gan (9-4-4, 16-5-4) 5-1 at Yost Arena on Friday night. The three points give Michigan sole posses- sion of second place in the CCNA, five points behind top-ranked MichiganState. "The way the game went, it could've been a weekend where we got only two points," Michigan coach Red Berenson said "I liked the way our team bounced back." For Michigan, the early portion of Satur- day's contest played out like numerous other games this season. The Wolverines came out flat and sluggish, and before they knew it, Western Michigan had taken the lead. Only 2:19 into the game, the Broncos' Paul Davies streaked down the left wing, blew by Michigan defenseman Mike Roemensky and fired a wrist shot that eluded Blackburn high to the glove side. The Broncos didn't waste much time pour- ing it on. With Kosick in the box, Western Michigan's lethal power play made the score 2- 0. Gove picked up a rebound off of a shot by Mike Bishai and fired it past an out-of-position See BRONCOS, Page 4B Jed Ortmeyer's hit on Western Michigan's David Gove got him a game misconduct. Hockey team demonstrates true res'lience in surprising comeback AP PHOTO Michigan's Chris Young reacts after Dean Oliver's missed shot at the buzzer cost Iowa the game. It was Michigan's first road win of the season. At long , rd ito Wolverines survive last-second scare at No. 16 Iowa By Ryan C. Moloney Daily Sports Writer By Dan Williams Daily Sports Writer IOWA CITY - Following its most cele- bration-worthy win of the season, a jubilant Michigan basketball team stormed the Carv- er-Hawkeye Arena court after Dean Oliver's last-ditch baseline fadeaway drew iron, offi- cially granting the Wolverines a miraculous 70-69 road victory over No. 16 Iowa. "At first I thought the shot was good," *lichigan junior Chris Young said of Oliver's miss. "I jumped as high as I could and con- tested it. I turned around and watched it hit rim, and I went crazy." The Wolverines appeared reborn as they utilized clutch shooting' and a mostly-suffo- eating defense to top the Hawkeyes (3-2 Big Ten, 14-4 overall), who were previously unbeaten at home. The Wolverines (2-3, 8-8) never trailed in an immaculate performance Ond hardly resembled the struggling team that had been lambasted in all prior road games. "We're very happy to come in one of the greatest environments you can possibly play in and get a win against a team that sits atop the Big Ten conference," Michigan coach Brian Ellerbe said. "Our kids can be very resilient when they want to be." After a dominant first half, Michigan held on for dear life in the game's waning minutes to eke out a victory. Iowa's star trio of Oliver, Luke Recker and Reggie Evans scrambled to turn a double- digit deficit into a near victory. But Evans and Oliver both misfired with less than 10 seconds remaining, leading to Michigan's post-game melee. The stunning victory potentially puts an end to the road slump that Michigan has been mired in throughout the season. "It would have really been a shame if that went in," Iowa coach Steve Alford said. "I have no intent in a team winning when they only play five minutes. I thought Michigan's kids worked harder and they deserved that win tonight." While the game's end saw Michigan hold- ing on by a fingernail, the first 20 minutes saw the Wolverines assemble their finest half of the season, thoroughly dominating Iowa in nearly every aspect of the game. Michigan led by as many as 15 points in the first half and went into halftime with a 36-24 lead. The Wolverines turned the ball over just five times and shot 48 percent from the field See UPSET, Page 58 KALAMAZOO - Eight minutes and 29 seconds into the third period Satur- day, Western Michigan's David Gove stood untouched next to the Michigan crease with the puck on his stick and saucers for eyes. Michigan's Josh Blackburn had gotten only a piece of a Steve Rymsha drive, and the sight of the country's No. 2 lead- ing scorer parked in front of an empty net looked like a snapshot destined to haunt the Wolverines in their sleep for weeks to come. After Gove's stuff, Andy Hilbert took a seat for 10 minutes after tossing a few too many choiced barbs at referee Brian Aaron. Situations in hockey don't get more desolate - down three goals, halfway through the third period, a hostile arena, a hot goalie and your best player unavail- able for nearly the remainder of the game. "Down 4-1 it would have been easy to pack it in and go home embarrassed," Michigan center Mike Cammalleri would say after the game. "Miracle" is an overused cliche in this particular sport and no one will go so far as to say it. But the last sixth of the game See COMEBACK, Page 4B No. 1len rock Bucks By Swapnil Patel Daily Sports Writer For Ohio State, what could be worse than two straight losses to its archrival, Michigan? Not even at full strength yet, the top-ranked Michigan men's gymnastics team thrashed No. 3 Ohio State for the second week in a row. After easily beating then-No. 2 Ohio State in Chicago last week, the Wolverines put forth a dominating effort on Saturday for the 1103 fans at Cliff Keen Arena, amassing a total of 215.5 points while the Buckeyes man- aged to tally only 210.4. A five-point margin of victory may not seem dominant, but in gymnastics it is similar to beating the Buckeyes by 35 in football. "Five-point-one ... I usually feel that a point equals a touchdown, so that's about five touchdowns," Michigan coach Kurt Golder said. "I'm sure they were probably mad as hell last week because we beat them when we were ranked No.1 and No. 2, especially with our rivalry. "I'm sure there would have been nothing better for them than to have come up to Ann Arbor and pull an upset, but we just got off to a good start and kept it going through the whole thing." This season's domination has taken place without injured tri-captain Justin Toman, who is recovering from reconstructive knee surgery last August and is considering red- shirtina for the remainder of the season. Ray, women ro over field By Chris Burke Daily Sports Writer On a night that was expected to showcase an individual, the Michigan women's gym- nastics team made a statement. Former Olympian and Michigan freshman Elise Ray made her debut for the Wolverines on Friday night. With Ray in the lineup, No. 11 Michigan scored 196.200 to pound No.21 Iowa and No. 9 Minnesota, which scored 194.100 and 193.675, respectively. The win served notice to the Big Ten conference that, when this team is firing on all cylinders, it is tough to beat. "It was an awesome night," Michigan coach Bev Plocki said. "Our goal every year is to not lose a meet within the conference, and both these teams that we beat tonight are very reputable programs." Ray led the way for the Wolverines with a second place all-around finish. Competing for the first time since the end of the Summer Olympics, Ray scored a 39.175 - bested only by Iowa's Alexis Maday with a 39.250. "I had a blast," Ray said of her first Michi- gan competition. "I was really nervous going in, but all of the girls were really supportive." But the debut of Ray did not take the spot- light away from the rest of the team. With solid performances across the board, the Wolverines again displayed their incredible depth. Senior tri-captain Bridget Knaeble won the uneven bars with a 9.900 and tied team- E : Tnatra'r F nnaear i.. mi rnt riAn JEFF HURVITZ/Daily I