4B - March 30, 2009 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4 EISENSTEIN From page 1B ice since Marty' Blackburn were pipes in the latel 2000s: A goaliet enough to carryl the NCAA Tours Turco is theo Michigan coach: has made it to th pionship game. T won on both trip Blackburn, nowt teer goaltending Frozen Four twic than his fair shar heroics from 199 But Michi- gan, despite consistently gettingstrong goaltending throughout the regular season in recent years, hasn't found another goalie since Blackburn the high-pressus ment. In 2005, Al M in a row, givings rebounds to surr against Colorad Noah Ruden, wh with then-freshr surrendered five Dakota. And the Saueritis strucki The now-senior; goals in 2007's f and three in the year's Frozen Fo And that's wh loss all the more omore goalie Br: a season-endingblow. And Air Force played great defense down the stretch, clearing outrebounds Turco and Josh almost perfectly. between the What's frustrating is that once 1990s and early again, the Wolverines don't have hat is good that shutdown goalie - that net- Michigan through minder that could steal a game like nament. Turco or put up career-best save ly goalie under numbers in the tournament like Red Berenson who Blackburn. Michigan got to wit- e NCAA Cham- ness that type of performance, but 'he Wolverines it was on the wrong end of the ice. s in 1996 and 1998. Hogan faced just 13 shots, so he he team's volun- couldn't have "stolen" the game. coach, wentto the But a save percentage of .846 will ce and had more only get you a chartered flight e of tournament home a night early. 8 to 2002. It's not teachable, and there's no science to it. In the last few weeks Michigan needs a of the season, coaches say to let solid goalie to 'win goalies just do , their ownthing championships. to keep up their confidence. And a hot goalie canbe untouchable. that thrives in Boston College rode John Muse re NCAA Tourna- and his 1.67 goals-against average and .942 save percentage in the ontoya let up four single-elimination bracket last up a few too many season to a national championship. -ender a 3-0 lead And Michigan fans know all too o College. In 2006, well about Spartan goalie Jeff Lerg. so had splitctime His 1.25goals against and .954 save man Billy Sauer, percentage in the 2007 tournament goals to North speak for themselves: Michigan next two seasons, State won the whole thing. in the postseason. But damn, you have to hope Jack gave up seven Campbell, one of the country's top irst-round loss prospects, has got it in him when . first period of last he comes to Ann Arbor in 2010. ur. Because, as everyone knows, hot at makes Friday's goaltending means you're filling frustrating. Soph- the trophy case. Anything else, and yan Hogan didn't you're reading columns like this. A RIEL BO D/Daily Sophomore Bryan Hogan faced just 13 shots but let in two goals, finishing with a dismal .846 save percentage in Michigan's 2-0 loss to Air Force. Inabilitytoconvert By GJON JUNCAJ times, it looked as if the Wolverines Daily Sports Writer were skating with the puck glued to their sticks. BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - Last Fri- The Wolverines attempted 86 day, it appeared as if Air Force hock- shots to the Falcons' 30. Michigan ey coach Frank Serratore's worst officially tallied 14 grade-A scor- fears were coming to fruition. ing chances (open shots in the area On the Wednesday before his between the crease and the faceoff fourth-seeded Falcons upset top- circle dots), which Berenson said seeded Michigan 2-0in the opening is "the most you're going to get in round of the NCAA East Regional, any game." The Wolverines fired Serratore watched the gamefilm 17 shots on Falcon goalie Andrew from the Wolverines' CCHA playoff Volkening from inside 20 feet. run. He said he immediately regret- What the Wolverines sent at ted it. Volkening was the hockey equiva- Despite having the sixth-best lent of a 60-minute firing squad. scoring defense in the nation, Serra- Yet while everything seemed to be tore said he lost sleep from wonder- going right for Michigan, nothing ing how his team could slow down actually was. what he called "the fastest group in Whenshots weren'tgoingstraight the country." into Volkening's chest, they were For Michigan coach Red Beren- getting deflected or knocked away son, everything went right for his by defenders. Air Force blocked 18 fifth-ranked offense - except in the shots Friday, often setting three end, nothing actually did. Michi- skaters up in a loose triangle in front gan outshot Air Force 43-13 for of the net to crowd the shooting the game, but that statistic alone lanes. And when a pass or rebound doesn't capture how one-sided the set up a Michigan scoring chance in game seemed. front of the crease, the Wolverines' Michigan completely controlled sticks were often tied up. the game's pace from start to finish. And as ridiculous as it sounds, The Wolverines nearly doubled the despite letting 43 shots reach Volk- Falcons in faceoff wins, 41-22. At ening, the Falcons played a solid defensive game. "When you look at the game, they had a lot of shots," Serratore said. "But how many second shots did they get? How many outnum- bered situations did they have? ... The entire game, how many back- door shots did they get? How many rebound chances did they get? "You can't hold ateam like that to no shots. But we said, 'If they score, they're going to have to score one- shot goals.' And scoring one-shot goals on Andrew Volkening is not an easy task." When Air Force took a 2-0 lead seven minutes into the second peri- od, Michigan's poise turned into urgency, and thaturgency gradually devolved into frustration. When an official would remove a Wolverine from the faceoff circle for being too quick on the draw, players on the bench would throw their arms up in disbelief. With 4:45'remaining in the game, sophomore forward Matt Rust went in alone on Volkening and had the junior netminder beaten with his patented forehand-to-backhand move. But the shot went off the high post. As he watched the puck bounce into the opposite corner, moments of the meet came during the 1,650-yard freestyle. As senior co-captain Matt Patton stepped on the block for his last race as a Wol- verine, the entire Michigan team lined up along the pool deck and cheered him on for his 14-plus min- ute race. He finished first in his heat and swam his best time by three sec- onds. While the parents in the stands and his teammates whistled, cheered and clapped, the notoriously quiet Patton simply nodded his head and pointed his finger toward his team. Patton's sixth-place finish earned him All-American honors. Though the Wolverines had ini- tially hoped for a top-four finish after finishing sixth last season, Patton said the team's entire season mustbe considered in order to put the team's performance at this meet into per- spective. "There are so many things we as a team had to overcome," he said. Rust raised his arms above his waist, as if someone had just played a joke on him. Facing elimination with two minutes left, freshman defense- man Brandon Burlon received a quick pass at the point and saw Volkening out of position, giving way to an open net. After the shot whizzed over the crossbar, Burlon turned and cocked his stick behind his head, ready to slam it on the ice before he remembered play was still going on. As the shots continued to hit everything but the back of the net, Berenson's hands were tied. What does a coach tell his players when everything is going their way, except on scoreboard? "It's not a matter of working hard," Berenson said. "It's about working smart, doing the things that got us here, moving the puck wide. We're a good team when we use our outside speed and go to the net, and we had trouble getting past their D." Ultimately, it was a lack of puck- luck that doomed the Wolverines. And for all his concerns heading into the game, Serratore would finally be able to get some sleep. "We lost our best swimmer, really, when (Scott Spann) transferred to Texas. We graduated a two-time NCAA champion (Alex Vanderkaay), and we lost our coach (Bob Bow- man). But we all swam better than last year, and that defines what this year's team was all about." Taking some time to reflect at the end of his first season as Michigan's coach, Bottom said he was happy with the team's development but called the meet "very educational" for his own approach to coaching. "This year has been a time where I've sat and watched and next year is going to be a time of action," Bot- tom said. "The guys will be seeing a different Mike. The team will be reminded daily about what this meet was like. It gave them all a new per- spective on their swimming, but if we are going to be the team I know we can be, they need to be reminded of this experience every day." lose the game for Michigan, by any means. Berenson didn't like either of the goals Hogan let in, but when you have the CCHA's best offense, two goals feel like a paper cut, not FALCONS From page 1B Multi-line scoring was the Wolverines' mantra, and it worked for a while. They even found success for two periods against Notre Dame last weekend - their two-goal lead came from their first and third lines. But despite outshooting Air Force by 30 shots Friday, Michi- gan came up empty. It tallied 43 shots on Volkening. It dominated time of possession, even posting a stretch of almost four minutes where the puck didn't leave the Air Force zone. Friday's game marked the sixth time this sea- son in which Michigan outshot its opponent but lost the game. The Wolverines demonstrated the speed, skills and playmaking ability to win the game, but their luck ran out against a white-hot goaltender. "We got 40-some shots, we probably had 10 or 12 Grade- A scoring chances," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "That's the most you're going to get in any game. We didn't capitalize on them. Then their goalie played a terrific game. It's as simple as that. "Somebody told me a long time ago, when you get to this tour- nament, the team with the best goalie wins." His team echoed many of his sentiments after the season-end- ing defeat. Sophomore forward Aaron -Eisenstein will still bein D.C. for the Frozen Four because he's going home for Passover. He can be reached at mseisen@umich.edu. Palushaj said it was quite appar- ent that the Wolverines out- played Air Force - the bounces just didn't go their way. Sophomore forward Matt Rust said he and his teammates had enough scoring chances to win the game, but running into a hot goalie made the task nearly impossible. Junior co-captain Chris Summers, who usually cracks light-hearted jokes at press con- ferences, gave short, one-word answers to reporters after Fri- day's game. When asked how he felt following the loss, Summers simply glowered. His deadly glare seemed to showcase a variety of emotions - from anger to disap- pointment to sadness. And there's no doubt that, on paper, the loss was shocking. A No. 4 seed knocked off a No. 1 seed. Air Force, a team that had- never won a tournament game, beat Michigan, a team with nine NCAA Championship titles. It would have been easy for the Wolverines to overlook the lowly Falcons. It would have been easy for them to chalk it up as a crazy upset. But for Berenson, it was neither. He stood firm, stat- ing repeatedly that his team had been well-prepared. "We expected a tough game, so this wasn't an upset," Beren- son said. "This was a real good Air Force team. ... I can tell you, (my) team did not look ahead. We put everything we had into this game, and the puck just didn't go in." NCAAS From page 1B the overall team standings with 248 points, with Auburn winning the national title (526). It was the Wol- verines' ninth consecutive top-10 NCAA finish. The meet got off to an unfamiliar start for Michigan. The majority of the team's races ended with personal- best times and even school records, but after the prelims for many events, several Wolverines found themselves watching the finals from the bleach- ers instead of swimming in them. Bottom said his team was "shell- shocked" by the meet's intense com- petition. But Michigan pointed to junior Chris Brady's butterfly leg of the 200-yard medley relay at the start of day two as a turning point. "To be honest, we were a little down after the first day," freshman Dan Madwed said. "Mike told us we weren't swimming as well as we should be, and when we saw Chris had the fastest butterfly leg of any relay, it really inspired us all to do well." And the Wolverines, led by Clary, did finish strong. Clary won a second individual NCAA championship and set another NCAA record in the 200- yard backstroke, becoming the first Wolverine to win the national title in that event since Ed Bartsch in 1963. He was also named national Swim- mer of the Year at the conclusion of the meet. Madwed finished 12th in the 200- yard freestyle, and Brady set schools records as he took fourth in the 100- yard butterfly and the 400-yard freestyle relay, consisting of senior co-captain Bobby Savulich, Brady, Clary and redshirt senior Evan Ryser. One of the more emotional 4 4 4 4 4 Fro ItorationalUP) 1 05-.64