° ' The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com January 22, 2008 JS NOTIN TME NOTRE DAME I JUiST N11 T ME III The Michigan hockeyteam had plenty to celebrate this weekend, including a last-second win over Notre Dane Friday Caporusso nets The best? J clincher for 'M' wa By ANDY REID Daily Sports Writer AUBURN HILLS - Louie Capo- russo has plenty to be excited about. Two game-clinching, fist-pump- preceding goals can make for a pretty memorable weekend. The Wolverines won 3-2 Friday and 5-1 Saturday. Michigan is off to its best start in the program's 85-year history: 22-2. At first, Friday's game looked like it would have anything but a storybook ending. The Fighting Irish clearly dominat- ed the first period of the match, jump- ing all over the top-ranked Wolverines to the tune of two goals and a myriad of scoring chances. Notre Dame was also stout on defense, limiting Michi- gan to just nine shots on goal. That left 40 minutes for the Wol- verines to complete the most excit- ing, dramatic comeback of the season - and they needed every one of those 40 to do it. With less than 30 seconds left in the game, Caporusso, found a rebounded shot from forward Brandon Naurato and poked it past goaltender Jordan Pearce. The lamp lit with just 20.3 seconds showing on the scoreboard as Caporusso crashed headlong into the boards, surrounded by a massive pile of maize-and-blue-clad celebrators. The Yost Ice Arena crowd went ber- serk, igniting in chants of, "It's great to be a Michigan Wolverine," as the last seconds ticked away. "I think if we would've got off to a better start, we wouldn't have had to end it like that, even though it was exciting." Caporusso said of the white-knuckled third period. "It was definitely one of the biggest goals of my career." But Michigan almost didn't have a chance to notch the game-winner. With 17 minutes left, sophomore Chris Summers took a five-minute major and a game-misconduct for checking from behind. With the Irish offensive pressure on full tilt, the Wol- verines struggled to clear the puck, defending their own zone for almost the entire five minutes with very few line changes. The Michigan defense methodical- ly blocked shot after shot, killing each minute with increasing ease. See IRISH, Page 2B AUBURN HILLS - umber 1? Not yet. After this weekend's sweep of Notre Dame, it's easy to see how Michigan, once a warm- . and-fuzzy sur- prise story, is now the nation's top-ranked team by a convinc- ing margin. The Wolverines - epitomize team- COURTNEY work. They're a RATKOWIAK group of selfless,- talented kids .without egos or superstardom. And if you pick an athlete at random, there's a 50-percent chance he's a freshman - which makes this start that much more impressive. Yes, this Michigan team is some- thing special. All right. That's easy to say. But the rationale isn't very interesting. This team may be 22-2, but six minutes into their first legitimate CCHA test, the Wolverines were imploding. An own-goal. A frazzled, vulne: Two scores down the Wolverines need shot at the confereni ' And it looked like to lose - badly. In the end, when] slapped the puck int the net with 20 seco Yost Arena crowd ex exciting game of Mi (no, the double-over Michigan Tech to w LakesInvitational d to this) proved what been saying for awh The Wolverines a best in the nation. A because they can be Michigans or Lake S the world. It's because theyc ute majors inthe thi toughest game whil( returning to full str the ones with the ed chance to win. It's because theyf crowd and each oth See RATE Beilein to focus on 'D'- in future Michigan's rocky start can be attributed to less-than-stellar defense, especially in the post By H. JOSE BOSCH Daily Sports Editor During yesterday's pre-practice press conference Michigan men's basketball coach John Beilein's body language was clear: He was more interested in going RODRIGO GAYA/Daiy over film with his team than answering questions. IOWA 68 But three days after MICHIGAN 60 another conference loss, 68- 60 to Iowa, questions are all Athat surround the Michigan basketball team. u s t Why are the Wolverines inconsistent on offense? Why is the defense struggling? Why is this transition so difficult? But the most pressing question is: How can the Wolverines put themselves into a position to finish the season strong? "We've been in the situation where we haven't pulled the game out, and I think that wears on you," redshirt junior C.J. Lee said. "The tougher the game gets, the tougher we have to get. I think we're fighting rable goalie. through that but obviously not well enough to win the against a team game." led to beat for a Iowa's duo.of Tony Freeman and Cyrus Tate was ce title. Michigan's biggest problem Saturday. they were going Freeman led all scorers with 28 points, more than half of which came from the outside. Tate dominated Louie Caporusso under the basket, scoring 21 points and collecting 11 o the back of rebounds. nds left and the But Freeman and Tate are just two more players xploded, the most on a long list who've put up big numbers against the chigan's season Wolverines in conference play this season. time win against Wisconsin's Jon Leuer (25 points), Purdue's Keaton in the Great Grant (17), Indiana's Eric Gordon and D.J. White (23 idn't come close and 21, respectively) and Illinois' Brian Randle and the polls have Shaun Pruitt (19 each) have all taken advantage of ile now. both good luck and bad defense. re among the Beilein said Monday Michigan's defense is his big- nd it's not gest concern. at the Western "It's not a coincidence," Beilein said. "I mean, peo- uperior States of ple are shooting 41 percent from three on us. That can't be a coincidence." can kill five-min- He wasn't quite sure what the problem was, but he ird period of their believed factors like size and strength disadvantages e tied and, after may be a reason opposing players have played so well engh, they're against the Wolverines. [ge and the best Michigan hasn't been helped by their zone defense. Since most zones give up the three-point shot, oppo- feed off the nents will have more open looks from beyond the arc er. As Michigan than usual. KOWIAK, Page 5B With the Wolverines struggling to play consistent offense, any hot streak by an opposing team will be difficult for Michigan to overcome. In Saturday's game, the Hawkeyes scored the last eight points of the first half to take a 29-27 lead. That carried over into the second frame where the Wolver- ines were outscored 21-9 in the first fifteen minutes. Once Michigan finally woke up, it was too late. Freshman Manny Harris and sophomore DeShawn Sims led the late-game charge, scoring 18 of Mich- igan's 24 points in the final five minutes. Freshman Kelvin Grady scored the other six. The biggest play of the night came with less than a minute and ahalf left and Michigan trailing 58-50. Harris sent the near-sellout crowd into a frenzy when he hit his 3-point shot and drew a foul. He completed the four-point play to cut the Hawkeye lead in half The Wolverines traded baskets with Iowa on the next two possessions, and a Sims 3-pointer made it 63- 60 with less than forty seconds to play. But Michigan failed to create a turnover, and the Hawkeyes putthe game away with free throws. "We still lost," Sims said following the game. "We were looking to win this game more than anything, and (the comeback) does nothing for our confidence." ROB MiGRIN/Daily Heading into tonight's game at Wisconsin, the big d to just five points in question will be: If Michigan can't find confidence n State. now, when can it? Nittany Lions shut down Phillips en route to victory Without presence in paint or perimeter game, M' falters By CHRIS MESZAROS Daily Sports Writer STATE COLLEGE -It's easy to stop the Michigan women's basketball team's offense. All you have to do is shut down center Krista Phillips MICHIGAN 57 and the Wolverines' confer- PENN STATE 68 ence-best 3-point shooting. It might be easier said than done, but Penn State did both. After its miracle comeback last Thursday at Wiscon- sin, the Wolverinesowere unable to pull off a win in State College, losingto Penn State, 68-57, at the Bryce Jordan Center. Michigan's offense (4-3 Big Ten, 11-6 overall) strug- gled in the second half, turning the ball over 10 times. The Wolverines' shooting also cooled off drastically after halftime - Michigan made 37.5 percent of their shots compared to 58.3 percent in the first half. Phillips led the team with 18 points and 11 rebounds, but scored 13 of her points in the first half. The Penn State defense tightened on Phillips in the second, limit- ing her to just five points. "We were banging around down low and trying to keep her off the block," Penn State center Janesse Wolff See NITTANY LIONS, Page 2B Sophomore Krista Phillips was limited the second half of Sunday's loss at Pen . i