4B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - February 4, 2002 0 Slap shouts "I did get bored." - Michigan goalie Josh Blackburn after facing just 14 shots in Michigan ' 1-0 win over Lake Superior Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena. THURSDAY'S GAME Michigan 5 Lake Superior 0 SATURDAY'S GAME Michigan 1 Lake Superior 0 Key play Saturday, 2:23 into the first Michigan freshman Eric Werner deposited a rebound into the net for Michigan sfirst and only goal of the night. It was his fourth point of the weekend. 01 I1 THE DAILY'S STARS The Michigan Daily hockey writers' picks for Michigan's three stars of the weekend. Eric Werner Defenseman The freshman scored a powerplay goal last night, and assisted on three of Michigan's goals Thursday night to fin- ish with four points on the weekend. John Shouneyia Forward Centering the first line, Shouneyia scored an unassisted short-handed goal and had two assists this weekend. Josh Blackburn Goalie Blackburn stopped all 29 shots he faced on the weekend, recording back- to-back shutouts for the first time this season.. 'M' SCHEDULE This week: Friday vs.kNebraska-Omaha Yost Ice Arena, 7:05 p.m. Saturday vs. Nebraska-Omaha Yost Ice Arena, 7:35 p.m. Now just two points behind Michigan State, the Wolverines will welcome a streaking Nebraska-Omaha team to Ann Arbor for a two-game weekend series. The first of the two will be televised on Fox Sports Net. Currently, Michigan holds a 1-0-1 record against the Maver- icks this season. With just six CCHA games left, every game is a must-win for Michigan. HOW THE TOP 10 FARED No. 1 Denver (23-3-0) lost to Colorado Col- lege 3-2, lost to Colorado College 4-2. No. 2 New Hampshire (18-4-2) lost to Maine 6-3, tied Maine 2-2. No. 3 Minnesota (18-5.4) lost to Minnesota- Duluth 5-2, def. Minnesota-Duluth 2-1. No. 4 Michigan State (19-5-3) tied Ohio State 3-3, tied Ohio State 3-3. No. 5 St. Cloud (20-.2) def. Alabama- Huntsville 3-0, def. Alabama-Huntsville 7-2. No. 6 Maine (17-7-2) def. New Hampshire 6-3, tied New Hampshire 2-2. No. 7 Northern Michigan (16-8-2) def. Ferris State 6-4, lost to Ferris State 4-1. No. 8 Colorado College (14-8-5) def. Denver 3- 2, def. Denver 4-2. No. 9 Massachusetts (16-7-1) def. Merrimack 5-2 No.10 Boston University (14-6-2) def. Merri- mack 3-2. FRIDAY'S GAME Michigan 5, Lake Superior 0 Old-school rivalry no longer a fan favorite By Chris Burke Daily Sports Writer TOM FELDcAMP/Daily The road jersey that Michigan junior John Shouneyia is sporting has been kind to the Wolverines this season. leers b-ring 'A'game on the road Werner electrifies powerplay, tallies four points for the weekend Michigan 1 1 3 Bowling Green 0 0 0 -5 -O By Seth Klenpner Daily Sports Writer DETROIT - The Michigan hockey team won't admit it, but it seems more at home on the road than it does at Yost Ice Arena. When the Wolverines get into the bus to travel to an opposing arena, they seem to bring their "A" game. Michigan has a pristine record when playing on the road (9-1-3), with its one blemish com-_ ing against Western Michigan in its HOCKEY fifth game of the season. Add a 2-2-0 record at neutral sites, and the Wolver- Notebook ines are 11-3-3 away from Yost. The Wolverines are currently on a 11-game road-CCHA unbeaten streak (9-0-2) with just one conference road game remaining. Michigan even picked up a 5-0 road victory, Thursday night, in Taffy Abel Arena (Lake Superior's home ice), an arena in which Michigan has not won since 1997. "This is a big victory for us to come up here," Michigan coach Red Berenson said after Thursday's shutout. "It's important to play well on the road and renew that feeling again that we're a good team defensively. The thing I like most about the victory is that we didn't give up any goals." Perhaps the stellar road record can be attributed to an increased emphasis on defense. The Wolverines have a 2.59 goals against average at Yost while giving up 2.29 goals per game. "I don't know what is with our team, but we have this mindset on the road that we like," said freshman Milan Gajic, who scored a powerplay goal in Thursday night's game. "(Our road mentality is) that we have to work hard and not put on a show for anybody. It is all about hard work and it works." That hard work has paid off for the Wolverines, as they have picked up nine more points on the road than they have at home. Michigan is currently 5-5-2 at home with.five of its remaining seven games to be played at Yost, not including a possible first round CCHA Tournament series at home in the middle of March. "I think we kind of solved (our problems at home)," Gajic said, referring to Michigan's back-to-back losses against Alaska-Fairbanks and 11th place Bowling Green. "We had the loss to Alaska and we had the loss to Bowl- ing Green, and those games we just didn't come out ready. I think if we come out ready (we can win). What we need to do is come* out ready at home the same way we do on Statistic Record Goals against Average Goals per game Powerplay goals Shutouts Home 5-5-2 2.58 3.16 11 1 Night and day, home and away The Wolverines have a 11-game unbeaten streak (9-0-2) away from Yost Ice Arena, but have not been able to bring that success back to their home rink. Michigan plays five of its last seven games at Yost. Away from Yost 11-3-3 2.29 3.53 14 3 Rrstpedod- 1. UM, Shouneyia8(unassisted), 3:26 (sh). PenUies-UM, Henderson (holdingthe stick), 2:10;LSSU, wilson (charging), 4:53; LSSU, Mushaluk(crosschecking), 6:18; UM,Vancik (holding), 10:10. Second peiod -2 UM, Gajic 6 (werner), 15:02 (pp). Penal- ties-LSSU, Mnuson (interference), 2:37; UM, Henderson (hooking), 10:45; UM,Vancik (checking from behind), 12:12; LSU, tearn(too manyon ice), 14:28. IM* peulod -3. UM, Ortmeyer8 (Nystrom, Komisarek), 6:46 (pp); 4. UM, Nystrom 10 (Werer, Shouneya), 9:41; 5. UM, Komisarek 9 (Ortmeyer, Werner), 18:01. Penates- LSSU, Cheesman (roughirg), 3:45; UM, Martens (roughing), 3:45; LSU, Thompson (high-stickirg), 5:52; UM, Matens, (higJhstickirg), 12:01; UM, Werner (hooking), 15:42. Shots ongoal-UM,105-10--25; LSSU,465--15. PowerPlays-UM, 2of5; LSSU,0of6. Saves-UM, Blackburn -15-15; LSSU, Violin - 20-25. Rem- Brian Aaron Lesenen-Paul Tunison, Bruce Vida At: Taffy Abel Arena, Sault Ste. Marie. Attendance:2,705. SATURDAY S GAME Michgan 1, Lake Superior 0 DETROIT - Entering the CCHA Tournament final in 1994, Lake Superi- or goalie Blaine Lacher had put together a Herculean streak of 375 minutes with- out allowing a goal. But, the Lakers were matched up with an incredibly powerful Michigan team that had not been shut out all season and had rolled to a 32-6-1 record and a CCHA regular season title. In addition to that, the Wolverines had defeated Lake Superior in all three of the teams' battles during the regular season. In the title game, it was Michigan goalie Steve Shields who stole the show. The Wolverines finally broke Lacher's scoreless stretch, and Shields pitched a shutout of his own for a 3-0 Michigan win and a CCHA title as the Wolverines continued their domination of Lake Superior on the season. But just one week later, Lake Superi- or turned around and stunned the top- seeded Wolverines in the NCAA Tournament. The Lakers scored 2:31 into overtime for a 5-4 win in the second round of the tournament, preventing Michigan from capturing its fifth - and most important-win over the Lakers. It was simply another benchmark in a rivalry that had become one of the coun- try's best during the early 1990's. "(Lake Superior was) the front-runner in the league for a while," said former Michigan captain and current Michigan administrative assistant Brian Wiseman, whose career ended in the overtime loss to Lake Superior. "They had been a nemesis of ours, especially back then, for quite a while. They had a lot of local guys that always wanted to play well LAKERS Continued from Page 1B "(Werner) is getting a little more confidence," Berenson said. "His goals have been more rebounds than big shots. He has that sixth sense as to when there's something going on." After Werner's goal (his fourth point of the weekend), the game turned into a defensive struggle, as Denike and Michigan goalie Josh Blackburn turned into human back- stops. Denike stoned 29 shots and kept his team in the game, helping to kill four Michigan powerplays. "We didn't give up a lot of great opportunities and we are proud of that," Lake Superior coach Frank Anzalone said. "That is how we began (our program's turnaround) in 1982-83. We were determined to protect our goaltender and give him total respect and ask him to make five or six big saves, and that is what Terry did for us tonight." But Blackburn and the Michigan defensive unit were not to be out- done by the Lakers' backup goal- tender. The Wolverines allowed just 14 shots on Blackburn, as they clamped down and protected the one-goal lead. "Lake State may not be as good of an offensive team as some, but still, they're playing hard, they're going to the net, and they put some pressure on us," Berenson said. "Our defense against Michigan and they seemed to get the best of us more times than not" From 1984 to 1992, Lake Superior lost to Michigan just eight times in 42 games. Even when the Wolverines finally broke through in 1993-94, dominating the Lakers with those four regular sea- son wins, Lake Superior again came out on top. After stunning Michigan in the tournament, Lake Superior went on to capture the national championship. The frustration that the Lakers dealt Michigan made them one of the Wolverines' most hated opponents. "It was a lot like what we saw with Michigan State a couple of weeks ago," Wiseman said. "The crowd was really involved and into it, and that's how the crowd was when Lake Superior came into Yost" But in 1996-97, Michigan took every contest from Lake Superior and thus signaled the end of what had been an exhilarating rivalry. Since that season, Michigan has recorded a 14-5 record against its former rival from the north. The second win by the Wolverines this weekend served as a microcosm for how much luster the rivalry between the two schools has been lost in the past few years. Saturday's game at Joe Louis Arena drew an announced attendance of just 7,928. In addition to being small, the crowd was quiet and disinterested. "It saddens us that we don't have a big crowd, but I don't think we are the draw that we used to be;' Lake Superior , coach Frank Anzalone said. "Joe Louis helped us an awful lot years ago, so as long as they want us to do this for the next couple years, we are pleased to do it" the road." BIG MAN ON CAMPUS: One of the biggest surprises from Michigan's freshman class has come in the form of one of the smallest players on the team. Listed at 5-foot-8 and 155 pounds, Eric Werner plays like a spark plug and has provided much-needed offense for Michigan over the past few weekends. The freshman has tallied a point in four of the last five games with two goals and four assists in that time period. This offensive surge has catapulted him to fifth place on the team in points with 17. Of those 17 points, 14 have been assists. "On the powerplay, he can be looking one way and thread the needle the other way," fellow freshman Michael Woodford said. "Teams will underestimate him as a fresh- man running the powerplay from the point, but he can really hurt them." Werner provided Michigan's only goal on Saturday, when he pinched in and picked up the rebound off Craig Murray's shot from the point on Michigan's first power- play of the game. "I was trying to put it on net. It was a good shot by Murray, and I was lucky to get the rebound and put it back in," Werner said. STREAKING: Michigan continued its strong performance on the penalty kill as it shut down all four of Lake Superi- or's powerplays Saturday. The four kills ran Michigan's penalty-kill streak to 46 while bringing its penalty-kill percentage down to 11 percent. The last time the Wolverines allowed a powerplay goal was more than a month ago, against North Dakota in the Great Lakes Invitational. "Our penalty killing has been really good of late," Werner said. "We were taking a lot of penalties but our penalty killing is getting better and better. Right now we have (a lot of) confidence in that facet of our game." PAIRWISE RANKINGS The Pairwise Rankings are based on the ranking system used by the NCAA selection committee to deter- mine which 12 teams will partici- pate in the NCAA Tournament. Team Record PWR 1. Denver 23-5-0 29 2. St. Cloud 22-5-2 28 3. New Hampshire 19-5-3 27 4. Minnesota 19-6-4 26 5. Michigan State 19-5-5,25 6. Colorado College 18-8-2 24 7. Maine 16-7-5 23 8. Boston University 16-7-2 21 9. Cornell 15-5-1 21 10. Northern Michigan 18-8-2 21 11. Massachusetts 16-8-1 19 12. Michigan 16-8-5 17 13. Nebraska-Omaha 18-9-3 16 14. Mercyhurst 17-5-2 16 15. Alaska-Fairbanks 16-10-2 15 1 Michigan Bowling Green 1 0 0 0 0 0 -1 -0 Fstpedod- 1. UM, Werner 3(Murray,Shouneyia), 2:23 (pp) Penalties-LSSU, Micek (high sticking), 1:44; UM, Martens (interference), 4:04; LSSU, Nightingale (holding), 12:09; LSSU, Thompson (high-sticking), 16:57. Second peiod-No scoring Penties- UM, Burnes (high- sticking), 6:32; LSSU, McNamara(checking from behind), 12:28. UM, K oisarek (holding), 16:42. Third pedod - No scoring Penalties- UM, Wemer (high- sticking),12:27; LSSU, Reid (interference), 16:40. Shotsongoal-UM, 12-99-30; LSSU, 356-14. PowPlays -UM,lof5; LSSU, 0of4. Saves- UM, Blackburn-14.14; LSSU, Denike - 29-30. Rieke-Steve Mclnchk Lkernen-John LaDuke, Terry Sheen At Joe Louis Arena, Detroit Attendance: 7,928. STATE WATCH The Spartans, who'began the week- end four points ahead of Michigan, tied Ohio State twice in Columbus. The Buckeyes came back from a two-goal deficit Friday night to tie 3-3. Saturday, the Spartans returned the favor, coming from down 3-1 to take two points away from the weekend. Michigan State now holds a slim, two-point lead in the CCHA standings over Michigan. AROUND THE CCHA Nebraska-Omaha is on a roll heading into this coming weekend's series with Michigan at Yost Ice Arena. The Mavericks (12-7-3 CCHA, 18-9-3 overall) have won a school record eight consecutive games and have climbed their way tn sole nssession of third nlace in Blackburn fights boredom to sink Lakersn By Naweed Sikora Daily Sports Writer DETROIT - Saturday night at Joe Louis Arena, Michigan goalie Josh Blackburn wrapped up his second shutout of the week- end against Lake Superior. But even though it was a rare weekend sweep for the Michigan hockey team - a sweep it needed to keep pace with Michigan State in the CCHA standings - the senior was a little bored. "The guys played unbelievable defense," Blackburn said. "It was probably the best we played all year, as you can see by the shots I faced. It didn't make my job too hard. "I did get bored." But even though he wasn't ecstatic, Black- burn maintained his focus. The senior turned aside all 29 shots he faced over the weekend and maintained his composure Saturday night when the Wolverines were struggling to find the net. "We knew it would be a close game," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "You never know how the game's going to go, but you have to take care of your own end. I thought Blackburn made a few key saves and our defense did a good job around him." Michigan jumped out to an early lead wheel defenseman Eric Werner scored on the pow- erplay just over two minutes into the game, but its defensive pressure did not waver. The Wolverines allowed just three shots in first, while collecting 12 of their own. The next two periods were more of the same. Michigan struggled to score despite numerous even-strength and powerplay opportunities. But Blackburn, backed up by the defense, denied Lake Superior any chance to score a goal. The Lakers' best chance to relieve their drought came in the second period during a pile-up in front of Michigan's net. But a div- ing save by Blackburn prevented Lake Supe- rior from tying the game. This weekend was not the first time Black- burn has dominated the Lakers in goal. The last time he earned two shutouts in a weekend sweep was last season against Lake Superior, and five of his 13 career shutouts have come against the Lakers. Blackburn was careful not to take any credit after the game; instead he praised his defense. "Every time they came on the ice, we had guys picking up their guys," Blackburn said. "It was a good defensive effort. The shutouts this weekend belong to the guys because they are the ones who earned it." With 13 career shutouts, Blackburn is just two shy of former Michigan goalie Marty Turco's record of 15, set from 1994-1998. Michigan has seven regular season games left this season, plus any CCHA or NCAA tour- nament games that may occur in the future. This gives Blackburn an opportunity to tie, or even pass Turco in the record books. When Blackburn earned his 11th shutout against Alaska-Fairbanks on Jan. 11, it was mistakenly announced that he had tied Turco's record, which was thought to be 11. "If I get to 15 shutouts, (the record) will probably turn to 20," Blackburn joked. "You don't want to jinx yourself. If it happens, it happens. No big deal." did a nice job this weekend, and they got some help from the forwars." In Thursday night's game, the Wolverines utilized a total teamO effort, as Mike Komisarek, Eric Nys- trom, Jed Ortmeyer and John Shouneyia each tallied a goal and an assist. The Wolverines scored two powerplay goals, including Milan Gajic's sixth goal of the season - which ended the freshman's six game pointless streak. "Gajic's effort - that's not some- thing you practice," Berenson said. "He beat his man one-on-one and then beat the goalie." 'of a TOM FELDCAMP/Daily Blackburn stopped 29 shots this week- k-to-back shutouts. 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