4B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - March 22, 2004 Friday's game NORTHERN MICHGAN WIUCATS NhOGAN WOLVERINES 1 5 Saturday's game OHIO STATE BUCKEYFs MIcHIGAN WOLVERINES 4 2 SATURDAY'S GAME Wildcats 'host' Blue in first round Ohio Stae 3, Michgan 2 Ohio State 0 3 1 Michigan 0 0 2 - 4 - 2 First period - No scoring. Penalties -Chris Osgard, OSU (hooking) 2:28. Second period-1. OSU, Paul Caponigri 17 (Rod Pel- ley); 2. OSU, Doug Andress 4 (Matt Beaudoin) 4:04; 3. OSU, Dan Knapp 13 (Andress, Caponigri) 19:27. Penalties--Brandon Rogers, MICH (roughing) 2:29; Olsgard, OSU (hooking) 2:29; Reed Whiting, OSU (obstruction tripping) 16:08; Jason Ryznar, MICH (holding) 18:39. Third period -4. MICH, Milan Gajic 13 (Nick Martens, Andrew Ebbett) 10:40; 5. MICH, Rogers 7 (Jeff Tambellini, T.J. Hensick) 13:06; 6. OSU, Andress 5 (unassisted) 19:29. Penalties - Dan Knapp, OSU (holding) 18:39; Matt Hunwick, MICH (holding) 11:40; Olsgard, OSU (roughing) 19:06. Shots on goal: MICH 5-9-14 28; OSU 17-9-6 32. Power plays: MICH 0-3; OSUJ 1-1. Saves: MICH, Al Montoya (25-11-2) - 28; OSU, Dave Caruso (9-2) - 26 Referee: Matt Shegos. At: Joe Louis Arena Attendance: 17,895 FRIDAY'S GAME Michigan 5, Northerm Michigan Northern Michigan 0 0 1 - 1 Michigan 0 1 4 - 5 First period - No scoring. Penalties - Pat Bateman, NMU (high sticking) 4:29; Patrick Murphy, NMU (roughing contact to the the head) 7:02. Second period - 1. MICH, Brandon Kaleniecki 17 (Eric Werner, Milan Gajic) 10:14. Penalties - Kale- niecki, MICH (holding) 1:18; Rob Lehtinen, NMU (obstruction-hooking) 8:07; Mike Brown, MICH (interference) 11:17; Geoff Waugh, NMU (tripping) 18:40. Third period -2. MICH, Kaleniecki 18 (T.J. hensick, Gajic) 00:28; 3. MICH, Jeff Tambellini 15 (Hensick, David Rohlfs) 8:42; 4. MICH, David Moss 8 (Jason Ryznar) 9:23; 5. MICH, Hensick 12 (Tambellini, Rohlfs)11:15; 6. NMU, Dave Bonk 4 (Matt Hunter, Bobby Selden) 18:26. Penalties - Ryznar, MICH (interference) 11:43. Shots on goal: MICHI13-6-15 34; NMU 8-8-4 20. Power plays: MICH 1-4; NMU 0-3. Saves: MICH, Al Montoya (25-10-2) -19; NMU, Tuomas Tarkki (4-1-0) - 29, Brian Garavaglia - 0 Referee: Matt Shegos At: Joe Louis Arena Attendance: 11, 651 SUPER 6 RESULTS Saturday's results: Ohio State 3, Michigan 2 Miami 4, Northern Michigan 0 Friday's results: Michigan 5, Northern Michigan 1 Ohio State 4, Miami 3 Thursday's results: Northern Michigan 2, Michigan State 1 By Michael Nisson Daily Sports Writer For the first time in several years, the Michigan hock- ey team is the underdog heading into the first round of the NCAA Tournament. The Wolverines earned the No. 2 seed in the Northeast region, meaning that their opening game will be played in Manchester, N.H. They will face host New Hampshire - which is 14-5-2 this season when playing in front of a home crowd - at 3:30 p.m. on Saturday. Although the contest will be played at the Verizon Wireless Arena instead of the Wildcats' normal home rink - the Whit- temore Center in Durham - the game is essentially a home contest for New Hampshire. This postseason marks the first time in three years that the Wolverines will not host a regional game at Yost Ice Arena. In each of the past two years, Michigan's home- ice advantage has helped it advance to the Frozen Four. "I think, personally, it's good for us," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "I'm tired of hearing how we're the favorite team week after week, game after game. All it's done is hurt our team." Near the end of February, the Wolverines seemed to be destined for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Michigan was riding a streak in which it had won 13 of its last 14 contests. At one point during that span of games, the Wolverines added nine straight victories to the win column. But then, all of a sudden, their hot streak turned to a dry spell. The team lost five of its last nine contests. Four of those defeats came either at Joe Louis Arena in neutral site games or on the road, including a pair to Notre Dame, who was ranked in the middle of the CCHA standings at the time. In spite of the recent defeats, the players themselves do not seem to be fazed about heading into the hostile environment in Manchester. Instead, they are just happy to be one of the 16 teams in the field. "Just being in the tournament is exciting," junior forward Dwight Helminen said. "We're all fired up. It'll be different not playing here at Yost (Ice Arena), but no matter where we're playing, it's an NCAA game. (It's) single elimination - we know we have to be prepared." "It doesn't matter who we play, or who's there," alter- nate captain Brandon Rogers added. "We just need to stick together and play well as a team." New Hampshire finished the regular season with a 10- 8-6 record in the Hockey East Association. The mark was good enough to put them in fourth place overall in the conference. "They're an offensive, speed (oriented team)," Beren- son said. "They're a real good skating team." Both of the other teams in Michigan's draw are squads that the Wolverines have met earlier in the season. Boston College - the Hockey East regular season champion - is the top seed. The Eagles beat Michigan 4-1 at the Great Lakes Invitational in December. After staying with Boston College for much of the game, the Wolverines gave up three goals in a five-minute span of dr'- the third period and could not recover. For that game, Michigan was without goalie Al Montoya, forward Jeff Tambellini and defenseman Matt Hunwick - each of whom was playing at the World Junior Championship in Finland. The final team in the region is Niagara, a team that Michigan coach Re the Wolverines squashed 6-2 on Oct. 4 at Yost. to Ohio State. Bere BUCKEYES Continued from Page 1B Jeff Tambellini scooped up the puck at center ice and defenseman Brandon Rogers pinched in to create a two-on- one. Tambellini undressed Ohio State defenseman Sean Collins with a spectacular spin move, and made the perfect pass to Rogers, who lifted a backhand shot over a diving Caruso. Buckeyes coach John Markell quickly called time- out, as the largely pro-Michigan crowd of 17,895 at Joe Louis Arena had been whipped into a frenzy. "It was a fantastic effort on Michigan's part," Markell said. "It's hard to put teams (like Michigan) away." With 6:54 left in the third, it seemed only a matter of time before Michigan scored the equalizer. Perhaps the best chance was with just over two minutes left in regulation when Caruso tried to play the puck behind his net, and did- n't see Moss coming right at him. The two became entan- gled along the boards as the puck squirted out in front of the crease. It came right onto the stick of senior Andy Burnes, who tried to fire a shot at the open net. But the puck got lost in the bodies of Ohio State defensemen diving to cover the exposed net. "I was trying to shield (Moss) off and try to chip it, and I DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daly was hoping one of our guys would come in, but I didn't ve Caruso in send it up (the ice)," Caruso said. "It was pretty much my y's semifinal win. fault, but it all worked out." 91 DANNY MOLOSHOK/Daily d Berenson Instructed Dwight Helminen in Saturday's 4-2 loss enson and the Wolverines will face New Hampshire on Saturday. Michigan's last chance came when the Buckeyes' Chris Olsgard was whistled for cross checking with 53.1 seconds left in regulation. Berenson decided to pull Michigan net- minder Al Montoya to give the Wolverines a 6-on-4 advan- tage. On the ensuing powerplay, Michigan threw everything they could at Caruso, hoping for a miracle. With time wind- ing down, the puck cycled to Tambellini along the boards, and he found a seam towards the net. His stick broke as he began to wind up though, and Ohio State defenseman Doug Andress collected the misfire and fired the puck the length of the ice to score the empty-net tally, sealing the victory. "We played a great third period, and the puck was in their zone for about 18 (of the 20) minutes," Tambellini said. "But in this game, you have to play 60 minutes, not just 20." Ohio State was playing in its third game in three days, with the first two going into overtime before the Buckeyes could advance. This fact alone should have given the Wolverines a major edge, but in reality, it took an adverse situation to bring out the urgency in Michigan's play. Michigan almost seemed to be two different teams on Sat- urday - one that was dominated for the first two periods, and a second that controlled play in the third. "Ohio State was playing with a.lot of emotion coming off two big overtime wins and we didn't catch up to that emotion until maybe the middle of the third period," Beren- son said. "We never gave ourselves a chance. "It's embarrassing for our team. ed I'm pretty sure of one thing. If they do option Wolver- for another strike of the snooze bar, I find it But, it hard to believe that the thousands of Yost faith- Michi- ful (Michigan's most intense and loyal fans) e will accept an apologetic email. *I Ohio State 6, Notre Dame 5 'M' STATS Player GP G A Pts +/- Hensick 41 11 30 41 6 Ebbett 41 8 27 35 11 Helminen 39 17 11 28 9 Gajic 38 12 16 28 2 Kaleniecki 41 16 11 27 7 Tambellini 37 14 10 24 3 Nystrom 41 10 12 22 -1 Werner 40 8 14 22 5 Rogers 41 6 16 22 7 Moss 36 7 12 19 -3 Ryznar 34 6 10 16 12 Hunwick 39 1 14 15 13 Brown 40 7 5 12 11 Rohlfs 41 7 4 11 8 Martens 29 3 4 7 4 Dest 40 1 6 7 13 Woodford 38 1 5 6 -4 Henderson 12 2 2 4 2 Kautz 6 1 2 3 3 Burnes 37 0 2 2 11 Cook 24 0 2 2 6 Ruden 8 0 1 1 - Wyzgowski 3 0 0 0 -2 Montoya 38 0 0 0 - PIM Sht 36 122 91 59 4 112 32 113 38 130 16 175 50 79 36 69 44 66 18 69 28 49 60 43 49 88 24 57 36 27 29 25 51 53 8 18 4 8 26 27 28 14 0 0 42 32 0 744 1405 Junior Brandon Kaleniecki, left, tries to score on Ohio State's Dar Saturday's CCHA Championship. Kaleniecki scored twice in Frida TOTALS 41 138215353139' Player GP GA Avg Ss Pct Mins Montoya 38 83 2.18 891 .9152750:22 Ruden 8 12 3.01 86 .878 230:29 Mayhew 1 1 3.54 12 .923 16:56 TOTALS 41 96 2.34 989 .912299747 CCHA LEADERS Through Mar. 22 - Conference games FILICE Continued from Page 1B Rudy spontaneously combust had he been in attendance. Players donning maize and blue called the performance a disgrace - alternate captain Eric Nystrom questioned the Wolverines' man- hood. Everyone hoped that this "wakeup call" would serve to jumpstart the team. Not quite ... Snooze bar 10:15ish, the following night: Wakeup call No. 2. Michigan came out with a bit more fire, but dropped a 5-2 decision to Notre Dame. Coach Red Berenson said of the winless weekend: "I think it's a wakeup call for our team." This is true, Red. But was it an effective wakeup call? Snooze bar 10:30ish, Saturday night, March 6: Wakeup call No. 3. Michigan failed to take care of business, los- ing to Michigan State. While the Spartans cele- brated their victory (which came one night after a 4-4 tie against Michigan), the Wolverines were forced to sit around and wait for the result of the Miami-Ohio State game, which now served as the deciding game in the race for a CCHA title that once sat in Michigan's back pocket. Ohio State won, crowning the Wolver- ines the regular season champion. But there was no celebration on the Michigan side - the Wolverines were just relieved that Ohio State had ... (gasp) ... helped them out. Jeff Tam- bellini even admitted that the team had been snooze-barring it for the last few weeks, saying: "I think it might have hurt us knowing that (prior to the weekend series against Notre Dame) we had four chances because it's, 'Okay, we can pass this on and pass the next one on,' and it came back and got us." Having relied on others, including Brutus, to help them hoist the regular season trophy, the Wolverines had to wake up, right? Snooze bar. 10:30ish, Sunday night, March 14: Wakeup call No. 4. Definitely the most jolting alarm of them all. This was like my roomies yelling obscenities at me. The Wolverines had just escaped becoming the first No. 1 seed to lose its first round matchup with the No. 12 seed since the current CCHA playoff system was adopted in 1983-84. And they did it in heart-attack fashion, overcom- ing a 2-1 Nebraska-Omaha advantage entering tus) and the "Buckeye Battle Cry" reign supreme. Ohio State prevailed over the N ines 4-2 in the CCHA tournament final.I wasn't the loss that upset anyone on theI gan side, rather the lackluster attempt th Wolverines had displayed for most of the "I don't think we gave it our all for the two periods," junior Jason Ryznar said.' second half of the third period, we picke and played our kind of hockey." Sophomore Jeff Tambellini echoed his "We didn't show up the first 40 minutes. was embarrassing to be down 3-0 like th Tambellini again recognized that snoo action had been in full effect. "Usually before the games, you can te kind of effort is going to be put forth," T bellini said. "Some nights, the guys are r intense and you can see that right in thef period. When the puck dropped (Saturda night), we didn't have that edge and that dence about us." e game. first "The d it up words: That at." ze 11 what am- really first y confi- Gennaro Filice can be reached at gfilice@umich.edu. Player G 1. Derek Edwardson, MIA16 2. T.J. Hensick, MICH 20 3. Greg Hogeboom, MIA 15 4. Jim Slater, MSU 10 5. Mike Kompon, MIA 10 6. Rob Globke, ND 14 7. Aaron Gill, ND 10 8. Scott May, OSU 11 9. Vince Bellissimo, WMU 10 9. Kelly Czuy, UAF 11 9. Ryan Campbell, UAF 12 9. Andrew Ebbett, MICH 6 A 19 24 17 21 19 14 17 15 16 15 14 20 P 35 34 32 31 29 28 27 26 26 26 26 26 el the third period of the series' definitive third So, what's next? Snooze bar? It's hard to say. game, and winning 5-2. I could picture Michigan The Wolverines seem to be in a pretty deep captain Andy Burnes yelling at his slumber-rich sleep. I hit the snooze 27 times, while Michigan teammates: "WAKE THE (EXPLETIVE) UP!" has done so just four times. But, with a first- Snooze bar round matchup set for next Saturday against 10:00ish, last Saturday night, March 20: New Hampshire in Manchester, N.H., one more Wakeup call No. 5. snooze tap and the Wolverines have officially Michigan players trudged to the bus outside slept through the final third of the season. TONY DING/Daily Joe Louis Arena, heads down, while, in the next So will they get out of bed or attempt to Ever since the series against Bowling Green, room over, hugs, hats (boasting champion sta- sneak in a few more Z's? I have no clue. But, Michigan hasn't been the same. Up NEXT AP PHOTO New Hampshire's Steve Savano leads all Wildcats in scoring this season. NEw HAMPSHIRE After losing to Minnesota in the NCAA AL I