The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Thursday, October 18, 2007 - 5A
Perfect penalty
kill pleases 'M'
By MICHAEL EISENSTEIN
Daily Sports Writer
ST. PAUL - At the Ice Breaker
Invitational this past weekend, the
10th-ranked Wolverines defeated
No.2 Boston College and lost to No.
5 Minnesota,
both 4-3. NOTEBOOK
But don't be
fooled by the final scores - if you
want to know how a young Michi-
gan team hung in with two of the
nation's top teams, the key statistic
is 5-4, not 4-3.
of the eight combined Boston
College and Minnesota power
plays, totaling 16 minutes the Wol-
verines were down five players to
four, Michigan didn't let a single
puck past goalie Billy Sauer.
"We respected the fact that
(Minnesota's) power play is really
dangerous," Michigan coach Red
Berenson said. "At least we got out
of the game without giving up a
power-play goal.
"We thought at the start of the
game, if we could do that we could
have a good game, and we had a
good game, but not good enough."
While most teams take time to
click on the power play, the Golden
Gophers and Eagles were excep-
tions to the rule. Each team scored
three power-play goals in their
other games this weekend.
"It's not just shots that count; we
didalotofthingsrightinthegame,"
Berenson said. "It just didn't show
up in the win-loss (column), and
that's the bottom line, but I liked
what we did this weekend."
PRIME-TIME ATMOSPHERE:
Before Saturday, the Michigan
freshmen had yet to play in front
of a loud and hostile crowd. Sure,
they've played twice in Yost Ice
Arena - but attendance was sparse
at the Blue-White scrimmage.
The Wolverines also played in
the Xcel Energy Center (home of
the NHL Minnesota Wild) the
night before, but most of the fans
there had little interest in the col-
lege game between two schools
from the East.
Well, check a huge crowd -
14,868 huge - off the list of experi-
ences the Michigan freshmen will
benefit from.
"Definitely it's pretty intimidat-
ing," freshman Matt Rust said. "On
ice, with, I don't even know how
many fans are out there, 15,000 or
something like that, it'svery intim-
idating. All those lights shining out
there, as a freshman, it's a lot to get
used to."
While the freshmen adjusted,
they weren't just dealing with the
home-team crowd and Minnesota
student band, either. The Golden
Gophers had skating cheerlead-
ers to support them, very rare in
hockey.
"As the game went on, it was
easier to focus," Rust said. "You
kind of focused more on the game
than everything else going on. But
it was somewhat of a distraction,
all those cheerleaders and stuff
like that going on."
COACHING LEGENDS CON-
VENTION: At the Ice Breaker
Invitational this weekend, half of
the top six active all-time winning
coaches were present. Of the four
teams, just Rensselaer Polytechnic
Institute did not boast a 500-win
coach.
Boston College coach Jerry York
tops that list with 779 wins. In the
tournament's first game, Berenson
and York brought a combined 1,389
wins.
The newest addition to the
group, Minnesota coach Don Lucia,
registered his 500th win on Friday
against RPI.
NEW POLLS: Michigan climbed
to No.6 in both the USCHO.com/
CSTV and USA Today Division
I college hockey polls. Michigan
went into last weekend ranked
No.10 and No.9 in the respective
polls. Michigan's upset victim Fri-
daynight, Boston College, fell from
second to fourth in both polls.
BU START TIME: The start time
for the game against Boston Uni-
versity on Saturday Oct. 27 has
been set for 8:35 p.m. The game
was pushed back because the foot-
ball game against Minnesota will
begin at 3:30 p.m.
Senior captain Jake Long and the other Michigan seniors called a team meeting after losing to Oregon to make sure the Wolverines didn't lose their competitive edge.
Meeting prevents third
By KEVIN WRIGHT
Daily Sports Editor
The seniors already saw this script.
Two years ago, the Wolverines faltered to a
7-5 record, finishing the season by blowing a
lead to underdog Nebraska in the Alamo Bowl.
That team forgot how to win, and this year's
seniors didn't want to let that happen again,
especially after a 0-2 start.
So they called a team meeting the Sunday
after the Oregon loss.
"We just want to make sure that people
weren't going to buckle," senior captain Jake
Long said. "We wanted to make sure everybody
still was buying in, wanted to come to practice,
wanted to play."
Senior captain Shawn Crable talked about
refocusing the team on winning, rather than
"the hype of us being this big, high-powered
team."
The first loss to Appalachian State left the
preseason No. 5 team in the nation with an
extremely outside chance at a National Cham-
pionship. But coupled with the Oregon blowout,
the seniors understood they had to regroup or
lose the season.
The three captains - Long, Crable and run-
ning back Mike Hart - made sure their team-
mates knew some of the season goals could still
be accomplished.
"I just wanted to make sure ... everybody
still had the mindset that we wanted to win,"
Long said. "There still was a championship out
there."
Michigan finds itself positioned quite nicely
for a shot at a conference title. The Wolverines
and Ohio State are the lone teams with unblem-
ished Big Ten records.
Michigan's offense has started to click with
its balanced display against Purdue. Senior
quarterback Chad Henne appears to have final-
ly rediscovered his touch since returning from
a knee injury. In his first three games back, he
threw six touchdowns compared to the two he
threw in the Appalachian State and Oregon
games combined.
"The most important thing was just get-
ting back on track, knowing we hurt our-
selves," Henne said. "We didn't execute well
and didn't execute the gameplan."
Most surprising, the Wolverines' defense
has dictated play in each of the Michigan's
wins. The unit has gang tackled and pres-
sured the opposing quarterback better,
which has helped it force 19 turnovers dur-
ing the streak.
The seniors all point to the well-timed
meeting as the reason for the more focused
play. Since the meeting, the Wolverines
have rattled off five consecutive wins and
regained a spot in The Associated Press Top-
25 poll.
"It's always a tough thing when you lose
a ballgame, but you don't want to lose guys
mentally, in the sense of believing in what
we do here," senior safety Jamar Adams
said. "We have a system and a structure that
we believe in here."
Across the Nation
Blue ready for new era without class of 2007
By H. JOSE BOSCH
Daily Sports Editor
The parity bug has bitten col-
lege football. This is the fewest
number of weeks it has ever taken
for every preseason top-10 team to
lose at least one game.
All these upsets have made for
compelling television, but it has
also made it hard to make picks.
Now picking national games
is more dangerous than stand-
ing between Kansas coach Mark
Mangino and a batch of cookies. 4
For better or worse, these three
weeks have had everybodyscratch-
See ACROSS NATION. Page BA
By MARK GIANNOTTO
Daily Sports Writer
On the court, it was pret-
ty clear last year's version of
the Michigan men's basketball
team was a disharmonious bunch.
The team finished the season
ranked ninth and 10th in the Big
Ten in turnover margin and assist/
turnover ratio, respectively - two
statistics that tell you if a team is on
the same page or not.
So it should come as no sur-
prise when current players
describe last year's locker room as
divided, especially between the
seniors - Lester Abram, Dion Har-
ris, Courtney Sims and Brent Pet-
way - and the underclassmen on
the team.
"(The seniors) lost their hun-
ger over the course of their
careers," said sophomore
DeShawn Sims at the team's Media
Day last week. "We came in play-
ing hard, trying to fight for minutes
and win. I think they took that as if
we were trying to steal their spots,
but we were really just trying to give
a spark and win."
DeShawn Sims also talked about
the obligation former coach Tommy
Amaker felt to play all four seniors.
Sims said whether they were merely
playing because of reputation or
because of merit caused much of the
friction within the team.
But DeShawn Sims wasn't alone
in mentioning the lack of chemistry.
Several players discussed the dras-
tic difference between early pre-
season workouts this fall and what
transpired in the past.
"We've been more together since
day one this year," sophomore K'Len
Morris said. "The whole locker room
atmosphere - last year we would
have little divisions of conversa-
tion, and now the locker room is one
giant conversation. And everyone
gets along really well. It's 110 times
better than last year."
Last season, the tensions from
inside the locker room trans-
ferred to the floor, where the
Wolverines struggled, espe-
cially once they finished their
easy non-conference schedule.
After starting the season 11-
1, Michigan faltered down
the stretch with an 11-12
record the rest of the way.
The team's lack of unity likely
cost them a spot in the NCAA
Tournament. When Michigan
needed a late-season road win to
solidify its tournament position, the
team repeatedly responded with
sloppy, turnover-laden losses.
In road defeats to Michi-
gan State and Illinois last Feb-
ruary, the Wolverines had
20 giveaways. At the Big Ten Tour-
nament, Michigan committed 16
turnovers atthe hands of Ohio State,
cementing its ninth-consecutive
season without an NCAA Tourna-
ment appearance.
In all three losses, play-
ers could never explain exact-
ly what went wrong. But in
hindsight, some think it might have
come down to the lack of account-
ability demanded by Amaker.
"Attitude and effort were
definitely missing last year,"
Sims said. "A lot was demanded
from us, but there weren't really any
consequences. Coach Beilein came
in right away and did things that
will lead up to us winning - very
little things. Last year, it wasn't
established that way, so our
mindsets are totally changed."
New Michigan coach John
Beilein provides this year's Wol-
verines a chance for a fresh start,
and the opportunity to leave the
turmoil from last year behind.
With such an inexperienced
team, Michigan will have to rely
on its upperclassmen even more
than in the past. New leaders like
senior Ron Coleman and juniors
Jerret Smith and Jevohn Shep-
herd have already emerged, but it
is yet to be seen if they can avoid
slipping back into old habits.
"I want to instill winning
most importantly," Shep-
herd said. "In previous years,
upperclassmen didn't assume
that role. They had other,
individual goals more than
team-oriented goals. Things
are different nqw with coach
Beilein."
This Weekend in
Michigan Athletics
Friday Saturday Sunday
_ October 19th October_20th October 21st
|Women's Soccer ||; Volleyball :;Women's Soccer |
5:30PM vs ||7:00PM vs. Purdue :; 1:00PM vs. |
Northwestern Men's Soccer Wisconsin
Volleyball 7:00PM|| 7:00PM vs.
vs. Indiana Northwestern
ALL EVENTS FREE FORUM STUDENTS WITH VALID M-CARD
All men's & women's soccer home games played at the Varsity Soccer Field
All volleyball home games played at Cliff Keen Arena
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