The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
February 22, 2010 - 3B
Injured Cameron
was the difference
TOREHAN SHARMAN/Daily
Sophomore Luke Glendening has primarily served as a defensive forward this season for the Wolverines, playing a key role on
the Wolverines' penalty kill. Michigan coach Red Berenson has made special teams a key concern this season.
SPower play keeps
Blue from slipping
By MARK BURNS PP ... and tonight we shot it more junior forward Louie Caporusso
Daily Sports Editor and got some goals, so that was said. "Lebler made a great pass.
good for our team. Chad did a great job of finishing it.
Sophomore Luke Glenden- Winnett's fifth goal of the sea- Sometimes you'll see that pass, but
ing thought to himself, "Man, we son sent the Wolverines into the it never gets finished."
should shoot it more." second intermission with a 3-2 The Wolverines' power play
Glendening, normally a penal- lead, and in firm possession of the has been streaky all year, at times
ty-killing specialist for the Michi- momentum. But after Michigan showing signs of greatness and
gan hockey team, doesn't spend (13-12-1-0 CCHA, 18-16-1 overall) sometimes, just being downright
much time on the power play. So surrendered two goals in a span average. But against the Wild-
he's been able to watch the last few of 1:14 early in the final stanza, the cats (11-9-6-3, 15-11-8), Michigan
games as the Wolverines' woes Wolverines found themselves in showed why it has the fourth-best
with the man-advantage were a hole once again. It was the sec- power play in the CCHA.
I made obvious. ond time in the game the team fell The unit spends every day in
Entering Saturday's contest behind and had to come back from practice working on the man-
against Northern Michigan, the a deficit. advantage and Michigan coach
Wolverines had converted on just Still behind with about 12 min- Red Berenson has said throughout
2-of-21 chances in their previous utes remaining in the game, Mich- the year that he has worked on the
four games, with eight of those igan went on its sixth power play power play more with this team
missed opportunities coming of the contest. than any in recent memory. And
in the previous night's matchup Senior forward Brian Lebler it has many different options that
against the Wildcats. corralled a loose puck in the offen- it can rely on with the power play.
Sitting above the left face-off sive zone and, while stationed in "We haven't been consistent on
dot with about six minutes left in the right corner, sent a cross-ice the power play and yet our num-
the second, junior forward Ben pass to a streaking and wide-open bers tell us we're decent on the
Winnett sent a simple wristshot Chad Langlais. power play," Berenson said. "But
over goalie Brian Stewart's block- The Spokane, Wash. native one- really, the timing of when you
er. Glendening finally saw some- timed the puck past Stewart to tie score on the power play is huge....
thing the team had been missing. the game up at four. Tonight, the power play was a big
"It's always a process," Glen- "Sometimes (the power play) factor in helping us come back and
dening said. "I watch a lot of the clicks, sometimes it doesn't," win that game."
After the No. 3 Michigan men's
gymnastics team lost by a little
more than four-tenths of a point to
No.2 Oklahoma on Saturday after-
noon, it was hard not to wonder one
thing.
What
if Chris AMY
Cameron PARLAPIANO
was at full
strength? On Men's
Cameron, Gymnastics
who was just
named to the
U.S. Senior Men's National Team
for the third consecutive year, has
placed in the top five individual
scores on the floor, pommel horse
and parallel bars in each match he
has performed in at full strength,
dating back to the home opener
againstPenn State on Jan. 24.
His injury, which he described
as a sprain of the middle and index
fingers, kept him from competing
in all three of those areas on Sat-
urday.
And in what could be seen as
a direct result of his absence, the
team's weakest events on Saturday
were the pommel horse and the
parallel bars, where the Wolver-
ines scored a 56.650 and 55.900,
respectively. Compare that to'
when Cameron led the Wolver-
ines to a 57.750 on the pommel
horse and a season-high 58.450 on
the parallel bars Jan. 30, and it's
obvious that his absence had an
impact.
Afterward, Cameron expressed
frustration at not being able to
compete, but was optimistic about
the team's strength. He noted that
the team scored one of its lowest
scores of the season on the pom-
mel horse and still tied Oklahoma
in that category.
"We definitely could have won
without Chris's other events,"
senior Mel Anton Santander said.
It's safe to say that's true. Had
they eliminated the bobbles on the
parallel bars and perfected their
dismounts, the Wolverines likely
would have picked up that extra
.45 that would have given them
the victory.
"But Chris could have been a
huge factor into winning today,"
Santander continued.
Also true. His presence on the
parallel bars and pommel horse
was definitely missed.
The main question here is not
how weak are the Wolverines
without Cameron, but how much
better than everybody else would
they be with him?
Michigan and Cameron will
attempt to answer that question
as Cameron said he continues to
take all the necessary precautions
to heal his hand as quickly as pos-
sible in the five weeks leading up
to the Big Ten Championships.
And when they arrive April 2, he
will be out there competing in all
six events, "no matter what."
The bottom line is that the dif-
ference between Michigan and
Oklahoma's final score was assmall
as four tenths of a point. The dif-
ference between Michigan being a
great team and being the best team
in the country is as big as Chris
Cameron.
'M' ice dancers, Davis and
White, stand in second place
after original dance round
VANCOUVER, British Colum-
bia (AP) - Sizzle beats buzz.
Canada's Tessa Virtue and
Scott . Moir won the original
dance Sunday with a sultry, fiery
flamenco number that reduced
the uproar over the Russians'
aboriginal routine to background
noise.
Virtue and Moir, medalists
at the last two world champi-
onships, scored 68.41 points to
edge Americans Meryl Davis and
Charlie White. With 111.15 points
overall, Virtue and Moir lead
Davis and White - their training
partners - by 2.60 points going
into Monday night's free dance.
Davis and White's Bollywood-
style dance is a feast for the
senses, packed with so many
interesting body movements
and complicated steps that one
almost doesn't know where to
look. Make no mistake, though,
they did more than just look
pretty.
They were so fast they prac-
tically sprinted across the ice,
yet they stayed in character
throughout and never once lost
the playful facial expressions
that transported the audience to
a wedding in Mumbai. And for
anyone who questions whether
ice dance is a sport, just watch
their twizzles - spinning turns
- that they paired with arm and
hand movements. Know how
hard it is to pat your stomach and
rub your head at the same time?
It's like that. Only on skates.
(6-8, 13-13) has lost a game by fewer
than six points. Missed shots down
the stretch, not making a key stop
with 14 seconds left in regulation -
it was all too familiar to Beilein.
"This is a perfectexample isn't it?
A perfect example," he said.
ktt tRE OND/Dal fC [ ° More photos at
Senior DeShawn Sims was unable to heister thehDailyo
Wolverines' offense on Saturday. M1Chigan~aily.com
STAPLETON
From Page 1B
facet of the game.
"The imperfections that
you try to cut down during the
season," Michigan coach John
Beilein said. "When a few of them
happen again, it's very frustrat-
ing."
After shooting a combined 47
percent from the field in those
two road wins and 51 percent
from 3-point land, Michigan
returned to its old ways this
weekend, shooting 35 percent
from the field and 21 percent from
beyond the arc.
It's tough to say a team's shoot-
ing deteriorated because it's not
necessarily something teams can
control. But still, it looked like the
team was breaking out of its sea-
son-long shooting slump-over the
past two games. After Saturday,
we can draw the conclusion that
the "slump" is simply the way
things are, and any night the per-
centage is above 40 percent from
the field and 30 percent from long
range is just an anomaly.
But it was easier to see the
regression in other aspects of the
game. Perhaps the most evident
was Michigan's defense.
Other than Darius Morris,
who played lockdown defense
on Penn State star Talor Battle,
the defense went the way of the
offense: streaky.
"When we haven't shot well,
we are a distracted team," Beilein
said. "Now you're thinking about
the missed shot and not getting
the loose ball. You're thinking
about it on defense."
This has been a problem the
entire season. When Michigan
shoots poorly, its defense suffers.
And this is literally the exact
opposite of the way a basketball
team needs to operate. It's easier
said than done, but when a team
misses shots, it needs to play even
harder on defense to make up for
it. It's true you can't control when
shots fall, but you can always
control defense. It's what coaches
tell you in the third grade, and
it's still true in college. Michigan
seems to still be figuring it out.
After keeping the rebounding
margin relatively close the past
two games, on Saturday, the Wol-
verines were outrebounded by 14.
While it's true that Michigan was
missing more shots than Penn
State - which gave the Nittany
Lions more opportunities for
defensive rebounds - that's still
a pretty big number. Not many
teams can win when they get out-
rebounded by that margin.
So where exactly is rock bot-
tom? Is it losing at home to a team
that had one Big Ten win this sea-
son before Saturday? I'm not sure.
Right now, rock bottom looks a
lot like a bottomless pit.
PENN STATE
From Page 1B
come down to the wire. The Nit-
tany Lions had just earned their
first victory in conference play, and
OKLAHOMA .
From Page 1B
high bar.
"If we could have performed
on one more event like we did
on the high bar I think we
would have come away with a
victory."
Michigan faced a marginal
deficit going into the final rota-
tion, down by 3.5 points.
The high bar has always been
a strong routine and after sweep-
ing the event with top perfor-
mances by Kelley, redshirt senior
Ryari McCarthy and senior Mel
Anton Santander, it looked like
the Wolverines were going to
make a comeback. They came up
just short.
Kelley was a bright spot for
the Wolverines placing first in
the still rings and high bar, and
second in the parallel bars and
all-around competition.
Other bright spots for the
Wolverines included Santander's
first-place finish in the pommel
NORTHERN;
From Page 1B
from a secondary scorer. It was
truly a team effort to make the
comebacks. And the goals weren't
exactly tic-tac-toe plays - they
were dirty, workman-like goals.
The Wolverines made their own
luck Saturday after not having
much on Friday. In the first game+
of the series, Michigan fell down
0-2 in the middle of the first period
and couldn't score more than one
goal on 39 shots. The Wolverines
ended up losing the game 3-1.
The power play especially
struggled on Friday as Michigan
finished the game 0-8 with the
man-advantage with 16 shots. But
the Wolverines used the power
play to come back Saturday and
scored two crucial goals. One gave
Michigan the lead in the second
period, and the other was Lan-
glais's tying goal in the third.
The poise and energy with
which Michigan played Saturday
to come back is something the
Wolverines have been trying to
harness all season. The Wolver-
ines have been improving in that
they hadn't won a game at Crisler
in more than a decade. Meanwhile,
Michigan had just reeled off two
straight road wins for the first time
in the Beilein era. But after a four-
day layoff, the momentum didn't
seem to carry over into Saturday's
horse and third-place finish in
the high bar.
Prior to Saturday's loss, Mich-
igan hadn't really been tested
much all season.
"It was the first meet where
somebody came in here and they
could beat us," Cameron said.
"It's just fun to have that excite-
ment and that motivation behind
you."
With another challenge ahead
for the Wolverines next week,
facing No. 4 Stanford in Palo
Alto, Calif., they will need to be
more successful in some aspects
of their routine to a legitimate
contender.
Michigan will look to use
this narrow defeat as fuel for its
upcoming schedule which only
gets tougher.
"As a team it was slightly dis-
appointing," Santander said.
"We could have done a lot better.
We're just going to have to prac-
tice in the gym and transfer our
training in the gym into compe-
tition when the pressure is actu-
ally on."
area, though. And junior forward
Carl Hagelin said that the team has
been playing better from behind
since winter break.
Friday's 0-2 deficit just ended
up being too large of a mountain
to climb. Michigan dropped to
0-9 on the season when the oppo-
nent scores the first two goals of
the game, and the team was 2-12-
1 entering the weekend when its
opponent scored first. Comebacks
have not been common.
Now, with just one more regular
season series remaining against
Notre Dame next weekend, the
Wolverines are almost out of
chances to improve their seventh-
place standing in the CCHA.
The interesting question going
into the Notre Dame series and
the CCHA Tournament will be
whether the Friday night Michi-
gan squad or the Saturday night
comeback kids come to play.
And to think that all of those
comebacks were almost for naught
if Olver was able to put away his
final chance. It sure makes the Wol-
verines that much more humble.
"You just feel like it's a lucky
win," Berenson said. "But it's
important that we won."
game against Penn State (2-12 Big
Ten, 10-16 overall). That, in itself,
was a cause for frustration.
"Very irritating," Harris said.
"We're all disappointed."
Saturday's loss marked the sev-
enth time this season that Michigan
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