2B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - October 21, 2002 CLUBSPORTsWEEKLY Club icers want to forget Life and bring home title By Waldemar Centeno Daily Sports Writer Runner-up in the nation last year, Michigan's club hockey team begins the new season with a clean slate. With a completely new coaching staff and nine new players on the team this sea- son, Michigan was hoping to build team unity while it tries to recreate the chemistry it had in last year's club. "We expect to win a lot of games with our offensive power," coach Tony Jalaba said. "Our guys do a good job of handling the puck, and we want to be in possession of the puck as often as we can, especially in the offensive zone." With high standards set for this season, Michigan wants nothing less than dominance throughout its route to the National Championship, which they lost last year in New York to Life University. "So far we have a lot of guys putting the puck in the net," Jalaba said. "We are obviously 3-0 and off to a good start, however, we still have a lot to work on to become a better team. We are continuing with my expectations, and our goal this year is to win the National Championship." With some questions that needed to be answered, the team entered Saturday night's game against Ohio State - which Michigan won 9-1 - with four different goalies that are all fighting for the starting spot on the team. Michigan also has an injured captain, John Nadzam, who is still recovering from a knee injury that occurred during last year's trip to the finals Despite having a few problems, the team's chemistry already rivals last year's team. "Compared to last year's team, we Season-best By Daniel Bremmer Daily Sports Writer Sometimes even a team's best isn't enough.. That was the case on Saturday, as the No. 21 Michigan men's cross coun- try team turned in a season best per- formance, but still came away with a sixth-place finish. Racing in Terre Haute, Ind. at the NCAA Pre-Nationals, six of Michi- gan's seven runners posted their best times of the year - including four had about two lines. But this year, we are now rolling about a good three or four solid lines," Nadzam said. "We are much more talented up front. We thought our defense was going to hurt us, but we picked up a few good recruits and now we are phenomenal there." Against Ohio State, Michigan was smaller but quicker than Ohio State. With seven saves and a shutout in the first period, goalie Steve Oku- niewski did an incredible job control- ling a very aggressive Ohio State team. Continuing this trend, goalie Danny Zeldes shut out Ohio State with 10 saves in the second period. Also in the second period, Michigan forward, Ryan Anderson, scored all three of his goals to record a hat trick for the game. In the final period, Michigan was up 7-0 while Ohio State's frustration began to set in. The Buckeyes began to play dirty by throwing punches that resulted in penalties for both teams. Michigan's goalie Ryan Deery had five saves, but Ohio State did score its lone goal against him. Although Deery let up a goal that ended the shutout, Michigan's goalies did a wonderful job in hold- ing Ohio State to one goal. The rest of the defense was playing well, breaking up many passes and clearing the puck during five Ohio State powerplays. Geoff Kobayashi and Justin Kozik contributed superb play by displaying their capabilities in the game with two goals each. Michigan will play Southern Cal at home this Friday. But the games to watch this season should be Miami of Ohio on Nov. 16, and Michigan State on Nov. 7. finish is no ATHLETE OF THE WEEK Who: Jeff Tambellini Sport: Hockey Hometown: Port Moody, British Columbia Year: Freshman Position: Forward Why: Tambellini scored two goals and had one assist in his home debut this weekend against Merrimack. He was one of the few bright spots in Friday's 4-1 win over the Warriors as he was one of two Wolverines to score on one of Michigan's 13 powerplay attempts. Tambellini 'M'SCHEDULE Thursday, Oct. 24 W Tennis at Omni Hotels Regional Championship (East Lansing) M Tennis at Rolex Regional Championships (Madison) Cobi Jones (center) holds the MLS cup after the Los Angeles Galaxy defeated the New England Revolution 1-0 in the title game yesterday. Galaxy doesn't pull a Buffalo in MLS championship game Friday, Oct. 25 W Soccer at Michigan State, 3 p.m. M Cross Country at Eastern Michigan Open, 4 p.m. W Cross Country at Eastern Michigan Open, 4 p.m. Field Hockey at Penn State, 4 p.m. M Soccer at Illinois-Chicago, 3 p.m. Volleyball vs. Illinois, 7 p.m. Ice Hockey vs. Alaska Fairbanks, 7:35 p.m. W Tennis at Omni Hotels Regional Championship (East Lansing) M Tennis at Rolex Regional Championships (Madison.) Saturday. Oct. 26 Football vs. Iowa, 12:05 p.m. Field Hockey vs. Old Dominion (State College), 2 p.m. M Basketball in Maize & Blue Scrimmage, 4 p.m. Volleyball vs. Purdue, 7 p.m. Hockey vs. Alaska Fairbanks, 7:35 p.m. W Tennis at Omni Hotels Regional Championship (East Lansing) M Tennis at Rolex Regional Championships (Madison) Sunday, Oct.27 W Rowing at Head of the Elk (Elkhart, Ind.), 9 a.m. W Soccer vs. Oakland, 1 p.m. M Soccer at Northwestern, 3 p.m. W Tennis at Omni Hotels Regional Championship (East Lansing) M Tennis at Rolex Regional Championships (Madison) DAY SCOREBOARD 9 FOXBORO, Mass. (AP) - Give Carlos Ruiz enough chances, and he's going to come out a winner. Same with the Los Angeles Galaxy. Ruiz scored in the 23rd minute of overtime yesterday to give the Galaxy their first Major League Soccer title. He broke a scoreless tie to end the longest game in league history, a 1-0 victory over the New England Revolution in the MLS Cup. Los Angeles' victory was one of perse- verance - for Ruiz, who had two chances to win it earlier in overtime, and for the Galaxy, who lost three previous t enouth fo runners finishing less than 25 minutes, more than any other race this season. "When you get sixth in a race, you always feel a little bit disappointed," Michigan coach Ron Warhurst said. "But after reviewing the results of the other race and our race, I felt that we ran pretty good." Because of the enormous field of competitors, the Pre-Nationals are set up in two separate races, one for each division. The Wolverines ran in the White division. The top finisher for the Wolverines was sophomore Nate Brannen (24:21), who crossed the finish line 11th out of 244 competitors. Brannen was fol- lowed closely by freshman Nick Willis (24:27), who finished 15th. Senior Nick Stanko (24:43) and jun- ior Tom Greenless (24:52) finished 40th and 52nd, respectively. Warhurst attributed the runners' sea- son-best times to the quality of the competition. "That's why we're in sports," Warhurst said. "You've got to try and get up and get better to face better appearances in the championship game. Ruiz, the leading goal-scorer, was cho- sen the game's MVP after ending 112 scoreless minutes with a breakaway goal over the outstretched legs of goalkeeper Adin Brown. Tyrone Marshall brought the ball downfield with Ruiz on his left and only one defender, Rusty Pierce, to beat. Marshall crossed to Ruiz, who left-foot- ed a shot behind the diving Brown and into the far side of the net. "Balls like that, you just try and make yourself as big as possible and hope it hits you," Brown said. r Michigan competition, and that's what we did." Heading into the race, the coach had hoped for a top-five finish. "I thought if we were in the top five, we would have a great run," Warhurst said. "We were sixth, so we still did very well." The team got off to a very conser- vative start, which may have cost it the top-five finish that Warhurst was hoping for. By the time runners began to break from the pack, many were in lower places than they had expected. In future races, especially the Big Ten and NCAA championships, Warhurst expects the team to go out with more fire and intensity from the start. "We learned our lesson that if you want to place a guy in the top five or 10 guys, you have got to run aggres- sively and keep up with the lead pack," Warhurst said. Despite coming up short in their division, the race showed some prom- ise for the Wolverines. The team fin- ished only four points behind No. 7 Georgetown. Michigan also defeated rival Michi- gan State by 38 points. While the Spar- tans have currently fallen out of the national top-30, they were consistently ranked ahead of the Wolverines early in the season. 0 EASTERN CONFERENCE Atlantic Division W Philadelphia 3 Pittsburgh 3 New Jersey 3 NY Rangers 2 NY Islanders 2 OTL 0 0 0 0 0 Pts 8 7 6 6 5 Northeast Division Boston Montreal Buffalo Toronto Ottawa Southeast Division Tampa Bay Washington Carolina Florida Atlanta W 3 2 2 2 2 W 3 3 2 1 0 WESTERN CONFERENCE Central Division W St. Louis 3 Detroit 3 Chicago 2 Columbus 2 Nashville 0 OTL Pts 0 7 05 0 5 0 5 0 4 OTL Pts 0 7 0 6 1 5 1 3 1 1 OTL Pts 07 0 6 0 4 0 4 2 3 OTL Pts 0 7 0 6 0 5 0 5 0 3 OTL Pts 0 7 0 6 0 5 0 5 0 3 NHL STANDINGS NFL STANDINGS AMERICAN CONFERENCE East Miami Buffalo New England NY Jets South Indianapolis Jacksonville Tennessee Houston North Baltimore Cleveland Pittsburgh Cincinnati West San Diego Denver Oakland Kansas City W 5 4 3 2 W 4 3 2 1 W 3 3 2 0 W 6 5 3 a UM Northwest Division Minnesota Vancouver Colorado Calgary Edmonton Pacific Division Los Angeles Dallas Phoenix Anaheim San Jose NATIONAL CONFERENCE East W Philadelphia 4 NY Giants 3 Dallas 3 Washington 2 PF 190 217 152 95 PF 114 128 130 83 PF 104 161 110 51 PF 173 183 196 239 PF 185 86 94 115 PF 221 153 130 102 PF 203 132 132 137 PF 142 108 139 125 PA 143 214 134 169 PA 90 112 173 157 PA 111 151 112 181 PA 119 154 145 230 PA 102 98 127 167 PA 172 76 84 105 PA 154 155 189 185 PA 116 93 158 152 0 0 W 3 2 2 1 W 3 3 2 1 1 South New Orleans Tampa Bay Atlanta Carolina North Green Bay Chicago Detroit Minnesota W 6 5 3 3 w 6 2 2 1 NHL GAMES Michiganensian YEARBOOK DON'T PISS OFF THE 'RENTS Get your Senior Portrait taken and appear in the yearbook! Senior Portraits Oct 21 - Oct 25, MICHIGAN UNION Oct 28- Nov 1, MEDIA UNION Tf A TYT' A AT A n/ "TiTf1rT LT1MATrTfY AT Yesterday's games Colorado at ANAHEIM, INC. Washington at DALLAS, INC. Today's games Tampa Bay at NY RANGERS, 7 P.M. Calgary at DETROIT, 7:30 P.M. Boston at TORONTO, 7:30 P.M. Atlanta at FLORIoA, 7:30 P.M. Vancouver at SAN JOSE, 10:30 P.m. West W San Francisco 4 Arizona 3 St. Louis 2 Seattle 1 NFL GAMES 01 (White shirt, min. 144) $3.9 (White shirt, min. 72). (White shirt, min.36) Yesterday's games DETROIT 23, Chicago 20 ATLANTA 30, Carolina 0 BALTIMORE 17, Jacksonville 10 Denver 37, KANSAS CITY 34 Buffalo 23, MIAMI 10 NEW ORLEANS 35, San Francisco 27 NY JETS 20, Minnesota 7 PHILADELPHIA 20, Tampa Bay 10 ST.'Louws 37, Seattle 20 CLEvELAND 34, Houston 17 - San Diego 27, OAKLAND 21 ARIZONA 9, Dallas 6 GREEN BAY 30, Washington 9 Byes: Cincinnati. NewUEngland, NY Giants, Tennessee. Today's game Indianapolis at PITTSBURGH, 9 P.M. .Next week's games Detroit at BUFFALO, 1 p.m. Tennessee at CINCINNATI, 1 p.m. Seattle at DALLAS, 1 p.m. Oakland at KANSAS CITY, 1 p.m. Chicago at MINNESOTA, 1 p.m. Atlanta at NEW ORLEANS, 1 p.m. Cleveland at NY JETS, 1 p.m. Tampa Bay at CAROLINA, 1 p.m. Pittsburgh at BALTIMORE, 1 p.m. Arizona at SAN FRANcisco, 4:05 p.m. Denver at NEW ENGLAND, 4:15 p.m. Houston at JACKSONVILLE, 4:15 p.m. Indianapolis at WASHINGTON, 8:30 p.m. NY Giants at PHILADELPHIA, 9 P.M., 10/28 Byes: Cincinnati, New England, NY Giants, Tennessee. Prices include up to 4-color front imprint. GOD Is LOVE $LOVE is the presence of JUSTICE. ..i