4 2B- February 2, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 2B - February 2, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom snaps losing streak 'Clammy Sosa'mascot p mirrors dominating Wolverine victory By JOE STAPLETON Daily Sports Writer3 Early in the second half of theK Michigan women's basketball game T yesterday against Wisconsin, a base-e ball-playing clam mascot named "Clammy Sosa" walked onto the . court during a timeout. The clam walked over to a Wisconsin student assistant and promptly "ingested" him. According to the official Clammy Sosa website, the mascot "slurps up ; and swallows everything in sight."p The clam walked off the court- when the timeout ended, the assis- tant still trapped inside of it with his feet dangling. Like Clammy Sosa, Michigan swallowed the Badgers - figuratively, of course - winning the game 70-42 to snap their six-game losing streak. Former players Katie Dierdorf and Krista Clement, both 2008 graduates, were in attendance, and they had no doubt the Wolverines would come out strong.. "We are completely confident they can pull it out tonight," Clem- ent said before the game. "They killed us a few years ago, so we have some bad memories of Wisconsin." Michigan didn't disappoint. Wisconsin (4-9 Big Ten, 14-10 overall) may have been at Crisler Arena physically, but it didn't appear to mentally show up. The Badgers were held went scoreless in the SAID ALSALAH/Daily first five minutes of the game while Senior Melinda Queen was Michigans most effective presence in the paint Sunday. Michigan (3-8, 10-12) jumped out to "We put a great deal of emphasis on The Wolverines hadn't scored 70 a quick 9-0 lead. getting it in there and being strong points since their second game of The Wolverines found success by with the ball" the season, in a 70-60 win on Nov. deviating from their normal game The Wolverines didn't let up in 15 against Kentucky. After watching plan. Instead of desperately jacking the second half, drawing five Wis- the offense stall out in so many of its up 3-pointers, they drove into the consin fouls in the first seven min- closelosses,thiswas exactlythe kind lane and scored inside. Senior Carly utes. Senior Melinda Queen led the of offensive performance Michigan Benson scored half of Michigan's charge in the paint and finished needed to get back on track. first 14 points and found her touch with 11 points. She was one of five Everything seemed to go right inside on two nifty left-handed Wolverines to score in double digits. for the Wolverines yesterday. Hicks hooks. "That's the ticket," Borseth said. hit two 3-pointers that seemed to The first half ended with Michi- "If you've got five players in double bounce around on the rim forever gan holding a commanding 16-point figures in every game, then you're before falling through. lead, thanks in part to a 58-percent good." "I like to think of it as shooter's shooting percentage and 11 Wiscon- Sophomore Veronica Hicks led touch," Hicks joked. "As long as it sin fouls. the way with 15 points, but Michi- goes in, I don't care if it bounces "They're hard to score on inside," gan made a point of spreading the around 20 times, that's good enough Michiganenh KevinBrsethsnid weanlth.form" Keep Yost a hands-on arena No touching" is the rule for visitors at prisons, at least if Arrested Devel- opment can be trusted. But the Michigan Athletic Department sent an email to students this week that threatened to take the first step toward making Yost Ice Arena a hands- off venue. To set the context for f those of you who have been under a rock for over a week .now, here is a NATE brief history S of whathap- pened: Late in last Saturday night's 5-3 win over Michigan State, two Spartans viciously attacked Michigan defenseman Steve Kamp- fer. As Kampfer lay motionless on the ice, a very loud chant started rumbling from the student section. "F.Y.S."would be an appropriate acronymfor the chant. Minutes later, Kampfer's father, Bruce, entered the visiting locker room and went after one of the Michigan State players involved in the incident. On Thursday, the Athletic Department announced increased security standards around the visit- ing locker room at Yost. That same day, students received the afore- mentioned e-mail with the not-so- coded subject, "Fan Behavior." Here is the key excerpt from EISENS From page 1B meaning there wasn't enough video evidence to overturn the call. "If that would have been reviewable - the camera couldn't see it - it would not have been a goal," Berenson said. Still, it's tough to argue the referees mangled the entire game with one bad call eight minutes and 15 seconds into the game. Michigan had plenty of time to even up the score. But the only thing to excuse Aaron's premature blowing of the whistle with less than a minute left in the game is blindness. Hell, that might not even be a good enough explanation. As junior defenseman Steve that e-mail: "We believe the fan conduct last week was not appro- priate to Michigan standards and will not be tolerated in the future. The actions on the ice do not excuse what was heard or displayed.... We will eject, with- out warning, individuals who use profane language and/or make obscene gestures." That's all well and good in theory, but part of being a fan at a sporting event is reacting to what takes place on the ice. Clearly, what the Michigan State players did was serious. Otherwise, they wouldn't have been suspended for the rest of the season. When something serious happens in the course of a game, the players, coaches and referees have an avenue to respond. But so do the fans - and they have to do it with words instead of actions. When tensions are high on the ice, they should be high in the stands, too. If the fans weren't meant to have a voice in how a game plays out, why would the Athletic Department be shelling out free tickets to men's basketball games, giving out thunder sticks at hock- ey games and sending out count- less e-mails urging students to go to women's basketball games? The Athletic Department knows fans are important to cre- ate a winning environment for its teams, but now they're trying to tie fans' hands. Whatever the terms and condi- tions listed on the back of each ticket, the events at the end of last Saturday's game more than war- ranted the response the student section gave. It's probably a small miracle the animosity didn't man- ifest in more dangerous ways. And the real reason the Ath- letic Department is so upset is that "FY.S." was clearly audible on television and YouTube videos that have been viewed more than 300,000 times. Of course, the Athletic Depart- ment has the right to eject any fan, at any time, for any reason. But going too far down that path threatens to take awayone of the pillars of Michigan hockey - the Yost student section. No one is saying the student section is perfect. Chants often go over the line. But the well-rea- soned majority always manages to rein in the outliers. When some students threw objects on the ice after last Saturday's game, their peers booed them. The student section has proven capable of policing itself. If the Athletic Department wants to play assistant principal from here on out, well, there's not much the students can do. But the Athletic Department has a choice here, and the right one is to keep Yost a hands-on arena. - Sandals can be reached at nsandals@umich.edu. 4 4 4 TEIN Refs stay out Kampfer poked away at a loose puck next to sprawled-out Notre Dame goalie Jordan Pearce, Aaron blew the whistle because he sup- posedly saw the net come loose. For what it's worth, he was standing 60 feet away at the blue line, and a scrum occurred in front of the goal, obstructing Aaron's view. Philo, who was positioned right next to the goal, didn't make a call on the play.. And a split-second later, Kamp- fer put the puck into the net, potentially tying the game and causing senior forward Travis Turnbull to throw his hands up into the air in celebration. But the play was ruled dead, and Aaron reviewed the play and waved off the apparentgoal. The Wolverines had to settle for-the split when they had a legitimate shot at mak- ing a run at another conference title. "Now, if the net comes off because their player pushed it off, I mean that's a serious infrac- tion in the last two minutes of the game," Berenson said. "But I don't know (whether) they pushed it . off or if it was just the scrum that pushed it off." And he probably doesn't know because not a soul in Yost Ice Arena saw that post move a hun- dredth of a centimeter except Aaron, and that cost the Wolver- ines the game. How did he end up with a whistle? - Eisenstein can be reached at mseiseniumichedu. 4 4 4 Junior forward Brian Lebler reaches for the puck in Saturday's loss to Notre Dame at Yost Ice Arena. FIGHTING IRISH From page lB appear to contest Aaron's ruling, which was upheld after an official review. The decision halted the Michi- gan comeback and effectively ended the game. Saturday's final frame, where Michigan outshot Notre Dame 14-3, marked the best period the Wolverines played all weekend. The Wolverines set up three scoring chances in front of the net with crossing passes in the game's final minutes, but couldn't get a shot off any of them. "You're never safe in this build- ing," Notre Dame coach Jeff Jack- son said of Yost. "(The Wolverines are) a momentum team. The crowd gets them going." Michigan coach Red Berenson said last week that he didn'tbelieve in a "switch" that talented teams can "turn on" during moments of crisis. But if such a thing exists, it certainly appeared off as the Wol- verines entered the third period down by three goals. Tied for fourth place in the CCHA standings, the Wolverines are in good position for a first- round bye in next month's con- ference tournament. "Urgency" remains the operative word for the second half of this season, and Michigan showed plenty of it dur- ing Saturday's final 20 minutes. "I think we played'with more desperation in the third," Beren- son said. "But you can't play one period against a team like Notre Dame." Turnovers and defensive break- downs throughout the first two periods proved to be Michigan's undoing. Eight minutes into the game; Irish forward Calle Rid- derwall intercepted a Miller pass inside the Wolverine blueline. Rid- derwall then slid the puck to.for- ward Billy Maday, who redirected it with his skate past sophomore goaltender Bryan Hogan for the critical first goal. Four minutes into the second period, Notre Dame forward Ryan Thang took an outlet pass in front of Kampfer, who was out of posi- tion, and raced to the net. Kamp- fer hooked Thang down before he could get a shot on Hogan, draw- ing a penalty shot. Thang made good on his second chance, beating Hogan glove-side. It was the first penalty-shot goal against the Wolverines since 1997. The Irish, hailed last week by Berenson as the best forecheck- ing team in the conference, played excellent positional hockey during Saturday's first 40 minutes. Notre Dame's forwards harassed Michi- gan's skaters as they tried breaking out into transition, and packed the neutral zone to get into the passing lanes and disrupt the Wolverines' timing. "That's where they generate so much of their speed," Jackson said. "Michigan's a great team.... They're great offensive speed in transition and they're very skilled. They take full advantage of it." Wolverine acting captain Chris Summers said Michigan simply put on a better effort during the final 4 20 minutes. Palushaj and Czarnik also indicated that the Wolverines suffered from lapses in intensity in the first and second frames. Despite missing a golden oppor- tunity for a sweep, the players seemed to take solace from their third-period performance. "We showed glimpes of(energy) in the first and second," Palushaj said. "We showed a couple shifts here and there, but it wasn't a full two periods. (If) we come out like we did in the third, we're a tough team to play against."