68 -- November 24, 2008 )rtsMond.ay The Michigan Daily -- michigandaily.com 4 68- November 24,2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom N 14 ICE HOCKEY Offense stalls with lack of confidence SAID ALSALAH/Daily beniorgoaltender Billy Sauer and sophomore defenseman Scooter Vaughn defend the goal in Michigan's 2-0 loss to Miami (Ohio) on Friday. OXFORD - he Michigan hockey team, down 2-1 late in the second period, was kill- ing off a five- minute major penalty and struggling to clear the puck. ' Then, senior forward Tra- vis Turnbull brokefreeafter M intercepting a MICHAEL Miami (Ohio) EISENSTEIN pass along the blue line. He had lots of open ice and just RedHawk freshman goalie Con- nor Knapp to beat. As Turnbull sprinted towards the net, he went forehand to back- hand before Knapp stuffed the shot with his right pad. Turn- bull pulled his stick back over his head, looking frustrated and on the verge of slamming his stick. It was a great play, but Turnbull was aggravated he couldn't tie the game for Michigan and spark its desperate offense. Before this weekend, the Wol- verines had never been held to just one goal in a weekend series dur- ing Michigan coach Red Beren- son's 25-year tenure. This year's offensive frustra- tion stands in stark contrast to last year's success, led by Hobey Baker winner Kevin Porter and fellow senior Chad Kolarik. The Wolverines don't have any offensive leaders to turn to when they're getting stuffed, no one player or line to count on to con- sistently spark the offense. "Right now, I don't think any- body's really stepped up and said, 'Hey, lift all the weight on my shoulders,' " sophomore top-line center Louie Caporusso said. "I think scoring is something that comes in bunches and you can't really pinpoint someone out and say, 'Hey, you're going to lead our team in goal scoring this year.' "It doesn't work like that." At first glance, Caporusso, the nation's leading goal scorer, would seem to be that player, but that's not quite the case. Capo- russo has scored sporadically this season. Seven of his 12 goals have come in three games. He has also had zero points in six games this year. And you have to have more than just one scorer. "We don't have the offensive depth or the offensive leader- ship that we had from Porter and Kolarik," Berenson said Friday. "We have to make up for that. We have players trying to fill those gaps." Missing the offensive leader- ship has had a bigger impact on the rest of the team than most anticipated. Exasperation such as Turnbull's was rarely evident last season. Sure, frustration is natural, but having a level-head is crucial to capitalizing on the isolated chanc- es. Michigan isn't converting, and right now it doesn't have the offensive leadership to facilitate improvement. Years of playing sports and watching as a fan have made it pretty clear that anger is not a motivatorformost.JohnMcEnroe, infamous for throwing tantrums on the tennis court and then pull- ing out heroic wins, is the excep- tion, not the rule. It's not that the Wolverines aren't putting out the effort or are playing poorly. But think of an athlete's focus as a bag of marbles that gets big- ger and bigger as they gain confi- dence. As soon as they letout that cry of frustration and let their focus slip, the marbles goflyingall over. Most can be recovered, but it's very dif- ficult to regain full intensity. And if you're not at your most intense,you won't play poorly, but you won't have an easy time capitalizing on those isolated chances, either. Sure, getting a little puck luck will give the Wolverines some con- fidence. offensive weapons like Turnbull and sophomores Matt Rust and Carl Hagelin have scored two combined goals since Michi- gan was crushed 7-2 at Boston Uni- versity amonth ago. But in the long term, produc- tion on offense must emerge if this team is going to turn around its six-loss year, the same number it lost all last year, and eliminate the forwards' desperation. It's possible, but with Wiscon- sin, No. 1 Minnesota and a series with Michigan State looming, the Wolverines have to turn it around quickly and in the tough- est stretch of the season. - Eisenstein can be reached at mseisen@umich.edu. Michigan and Miami (Ohio) escape worst-case scenarios By GJON JUNCAJ game scoreless during a chaotic Daily Sports Writer 1:48 sequence. "At first, I was like, 'Oh crap, this OXFORD - On three separate is going to suck,' " Sauer said Fri- occasions during Miami (Ohio)'s day. "I just had to take it one shot sweep of the Michigan hockey at a time. (Miami) has one of the team this week- top power plays in the country." end, a worst-case NOTEBOOK The scene repeated itself in Sat- scenario mani- urday's first period with Hogan in fasted itself: back-to-back penal- net. The Highland native was pep- ties resulting in a 5-on-3. pered with shots while RedHawk And all three times, the offend- players tried to screen him. But ing team breathed a heavy sigh of Hogan was solid, deflecting pucks telief. and keeping Miami at bay. The Wolverines killed 5-on-3 Michigan's extra-man attack, RedHawk power-plays in each a unit that has shown marked game. Miami's penalty-killers improvement in the past three overcame their two-man disad- weeks, squandered its 5-on-3 vantage during Saturday night's opportunity in Saturday's second second period. Each 5-on-3 lasted period. The Wolverines appeared more than one minute. tentative throughout the 1:25 two- While the circumstances were man advantage, cycling passes equally dire for both teams, there along the boards and blue-line, was a huge disparity in execution. but not attacking RedHawk goalie Senior and sophomore goalten- Connor Knapp. ters Billy Saner and Brian Hogan Miami also managed to get to were put under relentless pressure loose pucks and clear them several throughout both of Miami's 5-on- times as crucial seconds ticked 3 chances. In Friday's first period, away. During its 5-on-3, Michi- Sauer stopped two point-blank gan's power-play lines looked shots while sprawled out on his nothing like the group that had hands and knees. tallied eight goals in its previous After Michigan committed seven games entering Saturday. penalties 12 seconds apart, Sauer COSTLY PENALTIES: The dvercame his nerves and kept the RedHawks' two-man advantage Saturday resulted from a checking- from-behind penalty by sophomore center Matt Rust. During a first-period battle for the puck along the boards, Rust nailed a Miami player, who went headfirst into the glass. Rust was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct. The Bloomfield Hills native, a key penalty killer and faceoff man, vehemently protested his ejection to the official as he left the ice. With 3:29 remaining in the third period Saturday and Michigan down by a goal, freshman defense- man Greg Pateryn met a RedHawk in the slot trying to handle a pass and threw an elbow in his face. Forced to play in their own zone and without a skater late in the con- test, Michigan's offense couldn't get into a rhythm. LET'S NOT GET CARRIED AWAY: Sweeping the No. 9 team in the nation, and outplaying them both nights, had to do wonders for Miami's confidence. Some even think the pair of victories, spurred by key goals and saves from under- classmen, could spring the Red- Hawks to historic heights. A reporter asked Miami coach Enrico Blasi Saturday if the Red- Hawks' talented youth are pushing Miami "that much closer to being able to establish yourself as a true dynasty." Blasi, in his 10th season at the helm in Oxford, is already in the upper echelon of college hockey coaches.Hereceivednationalcoach of the year honors in 2006 after leading Miami to its second CCHA regular season title in program his- tory. Blasi has led the RedHawks to four NCAA tournament berths. But with Miami yet to make its first Frozen Four appearance, Blasi knows his program is a few national titles away from earning the D-word moniker. "Those are questions thatare not for us to answer." Blasi said. "We have to live it every day. Those are questions that come down, hope- fully, 100 years from now, when they start putting your name on a box." STRONG BETWEEN THE PIPES: Michigan coach Red Berenson has said that all you can ask of your goaltender is to give the rest of the team a chance. Sauer and Hogan lived up to their end of the bargain in Oxford, surrendering just two goals apiece and stopping 57 of 61 shots against what was the CCHA's top offense entering the weekend. 4 'M' scores just one goal as RedHawks sweep CLUB SPORTS 'Hockey on horseback': Michigan club polo team puts in long hours in Milan stables By KATIE FIELD as the players are. When in the Daily Sports Writer arena without a rider on her back, she can't keep still. Like all eques- MILAN - Members of the trian activities, polo has its risks Michigan polo club admit their for both the players and horses. sport isn't for everyone. Protective coverings on the hors- "It's definitely crazy," club es' legs prevent injuries from the president Julia Schroeder said. "I mallets the players use to hit the alwayssaycrazypeopledoit.When ball. you're out on the horse, you're rid- A unique characteristic of inter- ing this huge thing, you're hitting collegiate polo competitions is people, you're hitting a ball, you're that the teams sometimes switch leaning off the horse, and you're horses after the first two chukkers galloping. It's all this stuff at once and play the second half of the and it's such an adrenaline rush." game on the opposing team's hors- At its barn and arena in quiet es. For sophomore Oleg Kolbasob, Milan, the 20-member team hits a member of the men's club team around mini soccer balls with mal- that hopes to compete at regionals, lets while sitting atop their ponies. being a novice rider definitely has Schroeder likens the ancient sport its disadvantages. of polo to hockey on horseback. In "Sometimes, a horse catches me intercollegiate arena games, riders by surprise," Kolbasob said. "At try to score goals during four peri- (Michigan State), we switch horses ods of seven-and-a-half-minute and a lot of them will start bucking play called chukkers. when they canter. The first couple Polo players are certainly a of minutes of that chukker you unique breed, and so are their spend getting used to the horse." horses. Unlike many other sports, in "The polo horses are pretty which athletes can hang up their hot horses," Schroeder said. "The helmets at the end of practice and way we ride them is a really high- go home, members of the polo club strung game and it's a really fast- spend countless hours tending to paced game." their horses and maintaining the Marie, one of the team's most barn. Kolbasob estimates that half difficult polo ponies to ride, is just the team's time is spent riding and about as excited to play the game the other spent cleaning. Keeping weight on the horses during training periods in the tough Michigan winter requires constant dedication. Previously, the horses stayed outside all win- ter long. Now in its sixth year, the team has the facilities to keep all of its horses in individual stalls. This makes caring for and maintaining the horses' health much easier. "We wouldn't be here without our horses," Schroeder said. "We keep them in the best shape we can and take care of them as best as we can. It's so mentally intense for them. You try to keep them just happy. You don't want to fry them because sometimes it's just like a person at school - you can get fried easily." The polo club owns seven of its 13 horses and borrows the remain- ing six. Most are acquired through donations from professional polo players, who can't use the ponies. Because arena polo has a slower pace than outdoor polo, the team can use the older and slower hors- es that the professional players no longer need. Even to an untrained eye, it's clear the horses love the game. "It's so cool to watch them," Schroeder said. "Some of our horses are better at the game than we are. I learned on some of these horses, and when the ball went one way, they went with it even if I thought I was supposed to go the other way." The team enjoys increasing awareness of the sport through providing lessons for 4-H mem- bers and high school teams. They make a priority to introduce not only kids but curious college stu- dents to the sport as well. Well aware of the costcof their sport, the club strives to make it affordable to anyone who wants to play. "We do a lot of payment plans so that everyone can come out and play," Schroeder said. "Horses are so expensive, so this year we did a huge benefit game at the MSU Pavilion against MSU and we raised $11,000." Although the team has tried to make the sport accessible to the masses, the dangers and inherent risk will certainly cause the meek to shy away - or at least to take in this intense and exciting sport from outside the arena. "The best polo players are the people who aren't afraid of getting hurt," Schroeder said. "It's alot of leaning off your horse. You're not sitting perfectly still and you don't look pretty. Really, the best type of rider is just anyone that can stay on." REDHAWKS from Page 1B the first time all weekend. Michigan's last-ditch efforts in Saturday's final period proved futile as shot after shot was deflected, stopped or clanged loudly off the post. The Wol- verines won just 40.3 percent of faceoffs in that contest, and most of the losses came atkey moments during Michigan power plays. "It sucks," sophomore center Louie Caporusso said. "When you don't win draws late in the game, and you're down by a goal, it sucks." Berenson has said it all season, and he said it again this weekend: Goals are precious. But taking care of the puck to prevent goals against is valuable, too. Miami's goals came off good positioning, lucky bounces and, most significantly, Wolverine turnovers. Michigan had trouble clearing pucks out of its defensive zone all weekend, a problem that has persisted since senior defen- seman Mark Mitera and junior defenseman Steve Kampfer went out of the lineup with injuries in the season's opening weekend. Sophomore Aaron Palushaj said a major difference between the teams was that Miami's defensemen could clear pucks out of their zone, and Michigan's couldn't. "I think we were lackadaisical at times," senior goaltender Billy Sauer said after Friday's loss. "There were times we thought we had the puck out or guaran- teed the time to get it out, and ... we were just thinking we had it out when we didn't. Then, we end up scrambling, and everyone has to come back and help out." on both nights, Michigan turnovers led directly to Red- Hawk goals. Miami coach Enrico Blasi said Saturday his team has to execute when it forces turn- overs, which it did. "Anytime you turn the puck over in your own zone, it's a change of possession and opens a scoring chance," Berenson said. Berenson said the turnover that led to Miami's second Satur- day goal cost Michigan the game. Losing Friday night games has been a trend for the Wolverines this season, but they have often come back to split series with Saturday wins. Not this weekend. Not even with 25 shots on goal on Saturday, many of those good scoring chances. Not even with sophomore goalie Bryan Hogan's career-best 32 saves. Not even with dominant penalty killing. The RedHawks (8-2-2, 8-3-3) remained atop the CCHA with the sweep, which was the first time Michigan has been swept on the road since Dec. 2-3, 2005. That series was in oxford, too. If the Wolverines had won this weekend's series, they would have inched within one point of Miami and become a top con- tender in the conference. Instead, they are nine points behind the RedHawks. Yet surprisingly, after the loss, the Michigan players seemed positive. Summers and Caporus- so spoke of the improvement they saw from Friday to Saturday and how they felt they played well enough to win. "I thought maybe Friday night we didn't play as well, but (Sat- urday) we played a solid game," Summers said. "The difference is going to be that they capitalized on their opportunities and we didn't on all of ours."