6B - The Michigan Daily - SportsWednesday - January 5, 2005 Kaleniecki extends scoring streak By Seth Gordon Daily Sports Writer After leading the Michigan hockey team in goals last year, Brandon Kaleniecki found himself in a slump to start this season. But the junior forward hit his stride just in time to lead a depleted Wolverine offense in the Great Lakes Invitational at Joe Louis Arena in Detroit with two goals, earning him All- Tournament honors. "Brandon got off to a disappointing start (this season)," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "It seems like he scores in bunches. He's a streak scorer, but, once he gets going and he gets his con- fidence, it just fuels his work ethic. He's always a hard worker, even when things aren't going well. But when they are going well, he really picks up the pace. That's what you're seeing now." The disappointing start to the season was epito- mized by missed shots on open nets, shots that hit the crossbar °or shots stopped by great saves. The result was just two goals and three assists in Michi- gan's first 14 games. But Kaleniecki began to turn things around in the beginning of December. He entered the G.L.I. having scored goals in back-to-back games against Bowling Green and having totaled four points in the last four games before the holiday tournament. goal. H SPARTANS gave us Continued from page 1B solid ho When we got back there, I was going Michi to just leave it for him there and settle pionshi] it down. I think we just got tied up." early in Even before the handoff, Ruden - in a don Ka hurry to get the puck out of the Michigan Michiga zone - came around the wrong side of the ice, his goal. goalten "It was a mental error," Ruden said. "I initial s] went the wrong way when I went behind vented the net, and I was too late getting back in. and kno I am supposed to follow the play. If I fol- Frett low the play - which we're taught to do Wolveri - even if (the puck) is coughed up, I am phy bad there in net." was ple The only other goal the Spartans man- formed( aged to slip past Ruden came in the first and sev period when Miller took the puck behind senting1 Michigan's net and slid it to Michigan Junior C State forward and tournament Most Valu- "Wh able Player Jim Slater. Slater lifted the kind oft puck over Ruden's extended leg. The puck the gam hit Ruden's pad, bounced to the far post how our and slid in before Michigan defender Tim and gav Cook could fish it out. game fc Despite the two goals, Michigan coach score th Red Berenson was satisfied with Ruden's our team play. With the loss of starter Al Mon- Mich toya to the World Junior Championships, champio Berenson relied on Ruden to give his team gan Tec a chance to win its first Great Lakes Invi- night ea tational Championship since 1996. Kaleniec "(Ruden) definitely showed us that he man Br can play," Berenson said. "That was a the scor good weekend for Noah, even though he three M was a big part of screwing up that last son, Jas goal, that overtime goal. That was a gift Wolveri "At the beginning of the year, there was more pressure because I was the leading scorer," Kalen- iecki said. "As the season has gone on, and you see everyone else scoring, it takes a lot of pressure off." But just when the pressure to score seemed to retreat, Michigan lost several of its best scorers to the World Junior Tournament. "In terms of the G.L.I., I think everyone on our team knew they had to step up in their own way," Kaleniecki said. "I think when you do lose guys like T.J. (Hensick) and Kevin (Porter) - who, obvi- ously, have scored a lot of points - everyone has to try a bit harder to score goals." It would seem that Kaleniecki took the challenge personally, as he scored the opening goal of the tournament for the Wolverines in their 4-2 semifi- nal win over Michigan Tech last Wednesday. Defenseman Brandon Rogers found Kaleniecki alone in front of the net with a pass from the bottom of the right faceoff circle. Michigan Tech goalie Cam Ellsworth played the pass like a shot, which left him way out of position and gave Kaleniecki an empty net to shoot at. He didn't miss. "Both my goals this weekend were just in front of the net or right around the net, and I think I'm get- ting back to that," Kaleniecki said. "That's where I've had most of my success, so I think that's the biggest thing I've been doing - just going to the net or finding a little area around the net or in the slot a little bit more now." Applying this philosophy is just what Kaleniecki did to get Michigan back in the championship game against Michigan State on Friday. With Michigan trailing 1-0 for most of the game, Kaleniecki found himself behind the net with the puck just one min- ute into the third period. "Before the game, we talked about how their defensemen like to reverse the puck to each other, go D-to-D behind the net," Kaleniecki said. "So when I was chasing the guy on the faceoff, I knew he was going to do it. When I saw he was going to do it, I stuck my stick down back there and got lucky, and the puck was just sitting there." Kaleniecki circled to his right and jammed a backhand wrap-around shot at the Michigan State net. The first attempt didn't go in. But on the second try, the puck snuck between Michigan State goalie Dominic Vicari's pads as Kaleniecki was knocked to the ice. The two goals on the weekend extended Kalen- iecki's goal streak to four games and gave him six points in his last six games. "We had a chance to win it," Kaleniecki said. "We didn't get it done, but we worked as hard as we could and gave it everything we had. We almost came out with it." AP PHOTO Junior Brandon Kaleniecki started the season slowly but has scored in Michigan's last four games. e made some big saves, and he a chance all weekend. He played ckey." higan's lone goal in the cham- p game tied the game at one nthe third period. Junior Bran- leniecki came from behind the an State net and, while lying on poked the puck past Spartans' der Dominic Vicari. After the hot was stopped, Kaleniecki pre- Vicari from covering the puck )cked it in. er's overtime goal ended the ines' dream of bringing the tro- ck to Ann Arbor. But Berenson ased with the way his team per- despite the absence of Montoya eral other stars that were repre- the United States in the World Championships. en you win or lose in overtime, it takes away from how you played ae," Berenson said. "I really liked r team dug down and played hard e ourselves a chance. It was a good or Michigan. Although we didn't e goal in overtime, I was proud of M." igan earned the right to play in the onship game by defeating Michi- eh (1-13-0 WCHA, 1-16-1) 4-2 a rlier. Michigan scored early when cki fielded a pass from defense- andon Rogers. The Huskies evened e midway through the second, but ichigan goals by Charlie Hender- on Ryznar and David Moss gave the nes a lead they did not surrender. 0 WRESTUNG Churella leads Blue 1n comeback victory By Seth Gordon Daily Sports Writer The No. 5 Michigan wrestling team overcame a 9- 0 deficit to earn a 24-15 victory over No. 14 Central Michigan at Cliff Keen Arena on Sunday. The arena was packed with fans and was divided almost equally between Wolverine and Chippewa supporters. The highlight of the match was the showdown between Central Michigan's No. 2 David Bol- yard and Michigan's No. 4 Ryan Churella at 165 pounds. The two wrestlers emerged from the first period scoreless before Churella took control of the match with several takedowns in the second. Entering the third period with an 8-0 advantage, Churella earned one more point for riding time and earned a 9-0 shutout. "Ryan is a monster," Michigan coach Joe McFarland said. "He's really adjusted to that weight class. He just went out there and really stayed on it. He's tough on top. He's really devel- oped in all of his areas. But when he's on top, he can score a lot of points." The win gave Michigan a 14-9 lead - a lead it never relinquished. The following match at 174 pounds provided quite an encore to the featured match at 165. Michigan's No. 11 Nick Roy faced off against Central Michigan's No. 8 Mitch Hancock. After the first period saw warnings to each wrestler for stall- ing, Roy took a 3-0 lead in the second. Hancock got as close as 3-2 in the third before Roy scored a two-point takedown with just six seconds left in the match to preserve the victory, 5-2. "I thought, for the most part, we wrestled hard," McFarland said. "We wrestled intense. I just wasn't happy with the effort at a couple of those weight classes. Really, the ones we lost, I thought we were capable of winning all of those matches. That's what I'm disappointed in." After falling behind 18-9 following Hancock's loss, Central Michigan made a charge at Michi- gan with two consecutive victories at 184 and 197 pounds. No. 19 Alex Lammers earned a 4-2 victory over Wolverine Joshua Weitzel and Central Michi- gan sophomore Wynn Michalak won a 11-7 decision over senior Willie Breyer to bring the Chippewas within six points at 21-15. In a surprise move, the Chippewas sent sopho- more Bubba Gritter onto the mat against No. 2 heavyweight Greg Wagner. Central had the option to wrestle No. 11 Bill Stouffer, but went with Gritter against the undefeated Wagner. Wagner dominated the match and scored several late takedowns to earn an 8-3 decision and make the final team score 24-15. "I thought Wagner did a good job," McFarland said. "He kept the pressure on and scored a lot of points late in the match, which is important." Michigan opened the match with an unexpected move as well, forfeiting the first match and six points at 125 pounds. Junior Mark Moos - ranked No. 5 at 125 pounds by Amateur Wrestling News - made the jump up to 133 pounds to face No. 20 Jason Borelli. Moos led early in the match but eventually lost a 10-8 decision after Borelli scored a take down and several near-fall points in the final frame. "I think we're going to bump (Moos) up (to 133 pounds) for the rest of the year," McFarland said. "Mark has been having a hard time with his weight, and I think the best thing is to move him up. I think he'll be more comfortable at 133. He's just really outgrown 125." After Central forfeited the 149-pound match, No. 3 Ryan Bertin - Michigan's senior captain - squared off against unranked Eric Neil. Bertin raced out to an 8-3 lead by the second period, but suffered a deep cut over his right eye 1:48 into the period. "We kind of just smashed heads," Bertin said. "We both shot at the same time, and I caught the corner of his head, and my head split open." After a long delay to tend to the injury, Bertin returned and finished off Neil with a 16-6 major decision. Before last week, Bertin had never had the mis- fortune of having stitches before. But after a similar injury in practice a few days before, he has now had them sewn in twice in less than seven days. "It bothered me a little bit, but you just keep wrestling," Bertin said. The match was the Wolverines' first since a 40-9 drubbing of Cleveland State at home on Dec. 10, but conditioning did not seem to be a real factor after a hard week of practice following the holidays. McFarland will prepare his team for the Lone Star Duels on Saturday in Dallas. The Wolverines will square off in three consecutive dual meets that day against No. 4 Nebraska, No. 23 Army and unranked Stanford. Basketball Officials Needed! Why officiate Basketball??? ~ Very flexible scheduling ~ We provide all training -first time officials welcome ~ Uniforms provided and yours to keep! ~ Earn $7.00 an hour ~ Meet new friends REC SPORTS INTRAMURALS The University of Michigan Department of Recreational Sports Intramural Sports Program www.recsports.umich.edu 734-763-3562 REC SPORTS INTRAMURALS Entries taken: o' Mon, 01/10 ONLY 11:00 AM - 5:30 PM ""M Bu"ding ; Entry Fee: $88.00 per team Manager's Meeting: MANDATORY 3.h Wed, 01/12 6:00 PM or29:00 PM IM Building Play begins: Thurs, 01/13 IM Building & Coliseum Basketball Entries taken: Wed, 01/05-Thu, 01/06 9:00 AM -4:30 PM IM Building Entry Fee: $35.00 per team Manager's Meeting: MANDATORY ThursP01/06 x} 6:00 PM IM Building Tournament Dates: Sat, 01/08-Sun, 01/09 IM Building PreSeasonBaskedalIToumey Training clinics on: Wed, January 5* at 7:00 PM Thurs, January 6* at 7:00 PM Tues, January 11 at 7:00 PMT all at the intramural Sports Building. Please contact David Siegle at 763-3562 for further information. 8~ Entries taken: Mon, 01/10 ONLY 11:00 AM - 5:30 PM IM Building Entry Fee: $88.00 per team Manager's Meeting: MANDATORY Wed, 01/012 8:00 PM IM Building Play begins: Sun, 01/16 Coliseum Field Hockey-Indoor Entry Fee: $88.00 per to F ~Manager's Me+ MANDATOR Wed, 01/12 7:15 PM .tIM Building Play begins: Thurs, 01/13 IM Building Inner Tube Water eam eting: tY rolo Entries taken: Mon, 01/10 ONLY 11:00 AM - 5:30 PM IM Building 1\ The entry deadline for the Badminton Tournament Is Wed, Jan 19th at 4:30 PM I -- t a - - S. t Sa V a I