8B - The Michigan Daily - SportsMonday - November 14, 2005
'Puckheads'
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By H. Jose Bosch
Daily Sports Writer
MARQUETTE - As freshman goalie
Billy Sauer came out onto the ice in the
Berry Events Center, he was greeted by a
large man in a baby diaper.
The diaper, which had a
crossed out block 'M' on
the front and "Baby Goal-
ie" written on the back was
just one of many props used
to make fun of the goalie's
youth - baby bottles and
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RODRIGO GAYA/Daily
Alternate captain Brandon Kaleniecki scored Michigan's first goal in the Wolverines' game against Northern Michigan on Friday.
a large towel with the Gerber logo were
among the others.
"I didn't even think I could get into the
building tonight with what I was wearing,"
said Northern Michigan senior Erich Merril,
who goes by the nickname "Average Jo." "I
almost made it through the first period (with
just a diaper on), so I was doing pretty good."
Arena officials eventually made Merril
put pants on.
But chants of "baby goalie" aren't new
to Northern Michigan. Four years ago, the
chant started when another Michigan baby
goalie, Al Montoya, made his college debut
in Marquette.
Costumes and heckling are all part of
being a Puckhead, an elite group of fans in
the Northern Michigan student section who
are in charge of creating different chants
and cheers to pump up the crowd.
"We're like the leaders, and we get every-
body going," Merril said. "Every cheer that
gets going, we start it most of the time. This
year, more of the student section has helped
out, and it's expanded to where we have peo-
ple in other sections helping us so we don't
have to do everything ourselves."
The Puckheads are the brainchild of a
man who is known only by his nickname
"Mojo."
Stationed in Omaha with the Army during
Northern Michigan's national championship
title run in 1990-91, Mojo went to a Omaha
Lancer hockey game. While there, he noticed
how rowdy the crowd got, and he saw a few
fans wearing hardhats with pucks stuck on
the top. The combination of the atmosphere
and goofy headwear was enough inspiration
for him to start the same thing at Northern
Michigan.
The Puckheads have created an atmo-
sphere that makes the Berry Events Center
one of the most entertaining and frustrat-
ing road trips for other teams in the CCHA.
Mojo - along with his right-hand man, Cujo
and his right-hand woman, Lujo, started the
group seven years ago.
"A lot of players will say they think we're
funny," Cujo said. "Wherever we go, some-
times (the players) come up and do a few
demonstrations with the stick. We know
they hear us."
The original Puckheads decided to hang
~hallenge
up the hard hats this past season and leave it
up to what they call the "new generation" to
continue the legacy.
"The only requirement to be a Puckhead
is that you love Northern hockey, you're not
afraid to show it, and win or lose you smile
and you move on," Mojo said.
In Saturday night's game against the Wol-
verines, with the score tied at three late in
the third period, Puckheads, new and old,
helped pump up over 4,000 fans to decibel
levels that rivaled the 6,000-plus at Yost Ice
Arena.
And despite the 4-3 loss in overtime,
most fans still left the arena with smiles
on their faces, happy to see a good college
hockey game.
The smiles on everyone's faces were
proof of the effect Puckhead legacy has and
will continue for years to come - ready for
Michigan's next baby goalie.
PUT ME IN COACH, I'M READY TO PLAY: This
weekend was interesting for freshmen Jack
Johnson and Mark Mitera and sophomores
Kevin Porter and Chad Kolarik, hope-
fuls for this year's U.S. Junior National
Team. Northern Michigan coach Walt Kyle
will also be the head coach that will lead
the team when they play in the 2006 IIHF
Junior World Championships in British
Columbia in December and January. Many
in college hockey circles have said that Kyle
has delayed the announcement of his team
for a chance to see the four Wolverines up
close and personal. But Kyle denounces
those rumors.
"The plan is we're going to announce the
team in early December, (and) we're going
to announce the team all together," Kyle
said. "We want to create a team and not an
elite society."
Elite society or not, the team sent yearly to
the World Junior Championships consists of
the country's best hockey players. Johnson,
Mitera, Porter and Kolarik have been among
those thought to be top candidates to repre-
sent the Red, White and Blue this year.
"They're all very good players, and
they're all very live candidates to make the
team," Kyle said. "We'll make those deter-
minations as we go along, but they're very
much in the pool right now."
NOTES: In Friday night's game against the
Wildcats, junior David Rohlfs was trying to
clear the puck down the ice and, instead, sent
the puck flying into the Wolverines bench,
glancing Michigan coach Red Berenson's
jaw. An unfazed Berenson coached the rest
of the game and came back on the bench Sat-
urday despite having a mark on his chin....
Friday night's game marked just the second
time this season Michigan has not scored a
goal in the first period. The other time was
the season's first game against Quinnipiac
on Oct. 8.... During the second period of
Saturday night's game, the two teams had a
combined 42 penalty minutes.
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WILDCATS
Continued from page 1B
toward Zaniboni that bounced off his trap-
per and into the net - a shocking turn of
events considering the dozens of big saves
that Zaniboni made on the weekend.
After Naurato's goal tied the game at
two, Michigan notched its sole power play
goal in 10 tries when Matt Hunwick found
freshman Jack Johnson open between the
circles for an easy tally, giving the Wolver-
ines a 3-2 lead. Although a 1-for-10 show-
ing on the power play seems a far cry from
the national-best 33-percent clip heading
into the weekend, the stat seems less woe-
ful when the 10 chances added up to just
12:37 of time on the power play. It was
the 11th straight game in which Michigan
scored a power play goal. Johnson's goal
came sandwiched between the two major
penalties given to Turnbull and Bailey,
both of which were killed off by the Wol-
verines, giving Michigan a huge momen-
tum boost.
"I think our team really rallied around
the five-minute kills," Berenson said.
"That seemed to get us going, and we
played good hockey."
But in the third, Michigan's penalty kill
cracked and gave up the tying goal after
senior Brandon Kaleniecki was whistled
for tripping. As the Northern Michigan
fans began booing their power play unit
when it couldn't manage a shot through to
Sauer in the first minute, Wildcat forward
Dirk Southern found senior Andrew Con-
tois in the slot. Contois promptly turned
and put it past Sauer before the goalie had
a chance to react. That tied the game at
three with 12 minutes remaining.
In the closing minutes of regulation,
Northern Michigan continued to put pres-
sure on Sauer, but the freshman stood tall
- turning aside several chances from
point-blank range, including a last-ditch
effort with 12 seconds remaining. North-
ern Michigan junior Rob Lehtinen was
impeded when defenseman Jason Dest
made a great play to force a manageable
shot for Sauer and another where a heads-
up play in front of the net by junior David
Rohlfs cleared the puck out of the Michi-
gan zone.
"(Sauer) gave us a chance to win,"
Berenson said. "That's what it came down
to. He made save after save on some great
scoring chances, otherwise the game might
have gone the other way."
Once the game made it to overtime, the
Wolverines managed to control the puck for
the majority of the time and easily broke
up the Wildcats' chances, giving Naurato
the chance to nail down the win.
Led by alternate captain Brandon Kale-
niecki's power play goal, his first goal in
four games, the Wolverines pulled out a
3-1 victory on Friday night. Kaleniecki's
goal helped to relieve some of the tension
that built up during his slump.
"Obviously you get a little frustrated
when you're not producing like you want
to," Kaleniecki said. "It was nice to get
one. Anytime I can help out the team, it
means a lot."
0 VOLLEYBALL
Blue gets revenge
in win over Indiana
By John Gels,
For the Daily
Sometimes, history doesn't repeat
itself. The Michigan volleyball team
proved that this weekend, avenging
its early season
loss to the Indi-
ana Hoosiers with
a dominating 3-0
(30-22, 30-18, 30-25) victory at Cliff
Keen Arena on Friday.
"We felt like we had something to
prove," Michigan coach Mark Rosen
said. "We knew we didn't really
take care of business there, and we
had to make sure we did it this time
around."
The Wolverines (7-9 Big Ten, 13-
12 overall) played with a chip on
their shoulder all night, overpower-
ing Indiana (2-13, 9-18) with their
passing on offense and their increas-
ingly stout defense. Michigan had a
robust 0.346 hitting percentage - a
far cry from its .222 in the early sea-
son defeat. On the defensive end, the
Wolverines held Indiana to an abys-
mal .119.
Everything came together in the
second game. Michigan lost the first
point, got two quick points with a
kill and block from middle blocker
Lyndsay Miller, and then never
trailed again, rolling to a 30-18 vic-
tory. It posted a match-high .400
hitting percentage, while limiting
Indiana to a dreadful -.027 mark.
"We served well, we played
defense well - everyone went up
and hit," setter Mara Martin said. "It
was in et agreat night."
first. The Wolverines traded points
with the Hoosiers for most of the
first game, finally settling into a
tie at 14-14. Michigan then went on
an 11-3 tear, effectively ending the
game. Outside hitter Katie Bruzdz-
inski spearheaded the effort, notch-
ing five of her match-high 16 kills in
the streak.
"Katie was really good tonight,"
Rosen said. "Her and Lyndsay (Mill-
er) played really well."
Miller and Bruzdzinski came up
for the team when it mattered most.
The third game played itself out much
as the first had, with the teams trad-
ing points for most of it. Finally, with
the score knotted at 20-20, Michigan
went on a 5-1 run featuring two of
Miller's 15 kills and one of Bruzdz-
inski's. Indiana could never make up
the lost ground, and the frame ended
with a 30-25 Michigan victory and a
sweep of the match.
"We really had our flow going,"
Miller said. "We just came out and
put them away."
Next, the Wolverines bring their
three-game winning streak to No.
17 Wisconsin on Nov. 18 in a critical
Big Ten match. Rosen hopes some
of the lessons the team has learned
from this game - and their recent
streak - continue to help them.
"We really need to keep taking
care of the process," Rosen said.
"Things like hitting percentage,
defense, and outdigging our oppo-
nents. When we take care of those
things, the wins take care of them-
selves. Right now, we're taking care
nf thone thins . and the wins are ta k-
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SHUBRA OHRI/Daily
Junior Kaitlyn Brady won two individual events and participated on two winning relay teams in Michigan's dual-meet win over Ohio State on Friday.
Tough Tanker4
By Max Kardon
Daily Sports Writer
COLUMBUS - Attitude is everything.
For the No. 14 Michigan women's swimming and
diving team, a dual meet in Columbus on Friday after-
noon was not an opportunity to suspend the team's
demanding conditioning schedule. With more than four
months left in a grueling season, mental and physical
toughness is the key to competitive progress for coach
Jim Richardson's squad.
Friday morning a rigorous dry-land routine got
s split three-te
rounded out the quartet that finished in 1:43.14 and
shaved four tenths of a second off the team's best mark
of the year, a full second ahead of second-place finisher
Purdue.
In the meet's final race, Michigan capped the day
with a thrilling victory. Smith, the team captain and
unit anchor, managed to overcome Purdue's lead in the
final leg of the 400-yard freestyle relay.
"The relays are a lot of fun," Smith said. "I just
like the intensity, and it's usually a close race. Being
able to go up against a group of fast people with your
teammates is always exciting. Everybody gave a great
,am du meet
best illustrated by the gutsy performance of fresh-
man Emily Brunemann. Brunneman - who spent
Thursday night at the doctor's office - employed
a healthy stroke to battle the competition in tandem
with antibiotics to fight her illness on her way to an
impressive second-place finish in the 400-yard indi-
vidual medley and a fourth-place finish in the 1,000-
yard freestyle race.
The undefeated Boilermakers (5-0 overall) emerged
from the pool with two victories - overcoming the
Wolverines, 156-144, and the Buckeyes, 231-69 - to
continue a strong start to the young season.
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