The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com I October17, 2007 Ice breaker: Meet Blue's newfound grit By ANDY REID The Golden Gophers (2-0) were Daily Sports Writer clearly the more athletic team, and that was most apparent in the ST. PAUL - It wasn't pretty. first period. While each team tal- But it didn't need to be. lied nine shots in the first stanza, In front of almost 15,000 hostile Minnesota's were much more well- Minnesota fans Saturday night at timed and planned, resultingintwo the Xcel Energy Center, a young goals. and inexperienced Michigan hock- Midway through the first, ey team battled back from an early Gopher defenseman R.J. Anderson two-goal deficit only to lose 4-3 in took the puck near the blue line the championship game of the Ice and ripped a shot past Michigan Breaker Invitational to tournament goaltender Billy Sauer to give the host, No. 5 Minnesota. Gophers a 1-0 advantage. The Wol- verines couldn't find their rhythm in the first period and looked timid at times against the more physical Gophers. But all of that changed after the first intermission. The Wolverines (1-1) came out with more intensity, and Minne- sota felt it - on the receiving end of hard-hitting open-ice and board checks. The new, physical strat- egy put the Gophers on their heels, See HOCKEY, Page 3B AP PHOTO Freshman Matt Rust scored his first two career goals in a4-3 loss to Minnesota in the Ice Breaker Invitational Championship. MICHIGAN 48, PURDUE 21 FULL OF HART New team shows mettle ST. PAUL - he weekend was sup- posed to be a rude welcome to Division I hockey for Michigan's 12 fresh- men. It turned out the youngsters had already let them- - selves in the back door, NATE grabbed SANDALS some cups and tom- Ener mandeered Sandman the keg. Right away, they were at home. Despite its underdog status, the Michigan hockey team hoped to come away from last weekend's Ice Breaker Invita- tional with the championship trophy. But beating then-No. 2 Boston College and hang- ing close in what was, for all intents and purposes, a road game against then-No. 5 Min- nesota, is about the best start imaginable for this inexperi- enced team. Maybe the freshmen just didn't know any better. "(The freshmen) haven't seen it, and, obviously, they played not intimidated," Michi- gan assistant coach Billy Pow- ers said. "So we were happy with their effort all weekend." That's not to say the 4-3 overtime upset of the Eagles and the hard fought 4-3 loss to the Gophers were just the product of dumb luck. The Wolverines had one asset you don't need experience or skill to use: hard work. Beginning with the opening period against Boston Col- lege, the Wolverines threw themselves around the ice with seemingly no concern for bodily harm, deflecting shots and backchecking recklessly. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. In that one period, Michigan showed more defensive effort than it showed for months at a time last season. T.J. Hensick, Jack Johnson and Andrew Cogliano are gone, but there are still 21 guys in winged helmets who know one crucial fact of hockey: If you play physical, more often than not, you'll have a chance to win. "I thought everyone played the body pretty well tonight, and I thought that was a big help for us," Michigan senior captain Kevin Porter said."(Minnesota has) aslot of skilled guys, and when they get hit, they don't like it." For all the effort the fresh- men put in last weekend, it wouldn't have been nearly as fruitful without Porter's lead- ership. After falling behind 2-0 in the first period against Minne- sota, Porter's line set the tone for the rest of the game during the first shift of the second stanza. Though Michigan's first goal didn't come for another eight minutes, it was clear from those 45 seconds that the Wol- verines can matchup with the best teams in the country. Michigan fought back from two-goal deficits three separate times against the Gophers. It See SANDALS, Page 3B CHO/Daily Senior running back Mike Hart had two touchdowns on 102 yards in the first half before being injured against Purdue Saturday. Wolverines finally put the pieces together Teammates say Hart will return for Illinois By DANIEL BROMWICH Daily Sports Editor Michigan running back Mike Hart's teammates said at Monday's press con- ference that he will be sufficiently recov- ered from injury to play this Saturday at Illinois. But it was a scary couple of days. When Hart hobbled off the field late in the first half of last weekend's game against Purdue, nobody cared Michigan had a giant lead against a team consid- ered a Big Ten contender. Nobody cared the Wolverines' defense, which had struggled against Northwestern and Eastern Michigan, had shut down the conference's highest scoring offense. And certainly nobody cared that the offense, slow-starting in recent games, had tallied its highest scoring first quar- ter of the season. The cheers for Mario Manningham's touchdown catch that completed the drive after Hart left were noticeably sub- dued. "Anytime you see a guy get hurt, your heart stops," Michigan offensive coor- dinator Mike DeBord said. "You feel for them and for the whole team." All the fans wanted to know was whether their star running back and Heisman Trophy candidate was going to be OK. So when he came backto the Michigan sideline late in the third quarter, albeit in street clothes and with a slight limp, the fans, coaches and team breathed a See FOOTBALL, Page 4B Remember way back on Sept.1I when Michigan was ranked No. 5 in the nation? Now, after two blowoutvictories and three grind-it- out wins, Michigan once again cracked the Associated Press Top 25 poll this past Sunday. KEVIN No. 24 doesn't WRIGHT seem that impres- sive, but if you The consider where Sophomore this team has come from, the ranking is much more of an accomplishment. How did the Wolverines, a dismayed group after an 0-2 start, win five in a row and find themselves one of just two unbeaten Big Ten teams in conference play? It started with a shift in focus. The story has been told more than once. This edition of the Michigan foot- ball team immediately turned its atten- tion tothe only realistic goals left on its list after the dismal start tothe season. To win a Big Ten Championship, the Wolverines needed to find the consistent play expected from a preseason No. 5 team. "We knew when we had those two non-league losses that we still had the Big Ten Championship to look forward to," senior quarterback Chad Henne See WRIGHT, Page 4B Laytos's OT goal makes 'M' Big Ten champs has adju in th, recoi hoc "I you adju wha the ter," guys By GJON JUNCAJ After the Wolverine offense For theDaily was stifled in two halves by Indiana goalie Haley Exner tichigan coach Nancy Cox Friday afternoon, Michigan stressed the importance of midfielder/forward Paige Lay- sting - no matter how late tos finally found daylight nine e season or the opponent's minutes into the first over- rd - to her No. 5 field time. All alone on a breakaway, key squad all season. the sophomore flicked the ball once you figure out where over a charging, diving Exner. size up, you start making The shot slowly trickled into stments and start doing the goal, giving the Wolverines twe do everyday, andthat's (5-0 Big Ten, 11-4 overall) a 1- process of getting bet- 0 victory and at least a share Cox said. "Luckily, these of the Big Ten Championship have embraced that." on Senior Day at Phyllis Ocker Field. The conference title is the team's first since 2004. Laytos's third goal of the season also gave Michi- gan its ninth straight win. Exner stopped eight Michigan shots, several of them sprawl- ing on the ground. With the Michigan offense aggressive but frustrated, Laytos remem- bered her coach's advice while streakinginonthegoal,theHoo- sier goalie standing between her and a conference title. "We've been working on ... getting the ball up in the air because we know that Haley Exner likes.to ground herself, and she certainly demon- strated that she was successful with it," Cox said. "Paige Lay- tos got the ball in the air and managed to score. Imagine that. Exactly what we've been telling them to do all week." The Wolverines played ontheir heels throughout the final 12 minutes of regulation, as a Hoosier offense that was pas- sive and, at times, anemic in See FIELD HOCKEY, Page 2B CLIFREEDEtR/Daily Sophomore Paige Laytos's stored the game-win- ning goal against Indiana to clinch a share oftthe Big Ten Title, Mich- igan's first since 2004.