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2B - October 4, 2010

The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com

Blue blows four-goal lead Hagelin's early exit
B ,hurts Wolverines

Daily Sports Editor
Michigan hockey coach Red
Berenson entered the Wolverines'
season opener on Saturday need-
ingjust one win tobecome the sixth
coach in
history to MERCYHURST 4
reach 700 MICHIGAN 4
win1s. -
But at W. ONTARIO 2
the end MICHIGAN 4
of No. 4
Michigan's 4-4 tie to Mercyhurst,
he accomplished a far less honor-
able milestone. After going up 4-0
midway through the second peri-
od, the Wolverines (0-0-1) gave up
a four-goal lead for the first time
since 1988. Berenson had just 48
wins back then.
Michigan rebounded with a 4-2
win over Western Ontario on Sun-
day, but the game was an exhibition
and doesn't count toward Beren-
son's win total.
"It's going to happen, we've got
all season," Berenson said. "But we
don't want to be talking about it a
few weeks fromnnow. Thisshould've
happened tonight, and it'll happen,
but I'm not worried about that. I'm
just worried about our team playing
well."
Penalties derailed the Wolver-
ines' offensive momentum Satur-
day. After taking only one penalty
in the first period, the team took six
in the second, including a five-min-
ute major and a game misconduct
on senior left wing Carl Hagelin.
The Wolverines killed off the major
and over a minute of five-on-three,
but midway through the second, the
Lakers finally capitalized.
Almost a minute after senior
center Matt Rust's shorthanded
marker made the lead four, Mer-
cyhurst's power play completed
three quick passes, resulting in a
backdoor goal that left senior goalie
Shawn Hunwick helpless.
The first goal was the only one
the Lakers scored on their eight
power play opportunities, but it was

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Senior given But the poison that cost the
Wolverines - besides their 31
me misconduct minutes of penalties - was their
defensive assignments. Whether
igainst Lakers it resulted from a lack of commu-
nication, unfamiliarity with new
By MARK BURNS linemates or just mental lapse;
Daily SportsEditor the Lakers capitalized on out-of-
position Wolverines all night.
ior forward Carl Hagelin, "We made a lot of mistakes
ommitted the fourth-few- tonight," Berenson said. "You're
enalties of any Wolverine going to make some mistakes in
ason, is known as a classy a game when it's early on in the
y player. game. But you just don't want
it was certainly a surprise them to come back and bite you
day night against Mer- like tonight."
st during the Michigan In the opening minutes of the
cy team's NOTEBOOK third period, Laker forward Paul
ir season TE K Chiasson received a thread pass
-opener that sent him streaking down the
the Sodertalje, Sweden ice. And with junior defenseman
was whistled for a five- Brandon Burlon taking the angle
e major for checking from on Chiasson, it seemed like Bur-
d and given a game miscon- Ion would steal a golden scoring
opportunity. But Chiasson toe-
t ask senior center Matt dragged Burlon at the bottom of
Hagelin's linemate. the right face-off dot and whis-
r Carl to take that sort of tied a wrist shot over goaltender
:y is like, 'You've got to be Shawn Hunwick's glove.
ig me', because it's Carl," he To Burlon's credit, there was a
defensive lapse all the way back
gelin's exit early in the in the offensive zone, where a
d period looked as if it Michigan defenseman pinched
n't be that much of an on the end boards without any
considering the Wol- support, leaving Burlon out to
s held a 4-0 lead at the dry.
ay point. But in the lat- It's plays like these - and there
ages of the middle period were quite a few of them against
uring the entire third - in Mercyhurst - that led to the
the Lakers tallied four Laker come-from-behind effort
to tie the score - Hagelin's and a less-than-pleased Rust in
ce was felt. the post-game press conference.
ording to Rust, the mixing "I think we did well for the
atching of the lines without most part - until we choked."
ason's leading scorer com- NOTES: Senior forward
sed the flow of the game. Scooter Vaughan tallied his first
u've got guys that may be goal of his career in Yost Ice
e confused out there... The Arena against Mercyhurst. He
stry gets all jumbled." has three career goals ... In the
RGOTTEN ASSIGN- two games this weekend, every
TS: With the score 4-1 in Wolverine saw playing time
gan's favor it looked as if except senior forward Ben Win-
blverines had set the switch nett and freshmen Kevin Clare,
ise control. Jacob Fallon and Adam Janecyk.

Senior Carl Hagelin scored a goal against Mercyhurst before being kicked out for a checking from behind penalty.

enough to change the momentum.
"The sign ofagood team is not to
let a waterfall effect happen," Bust
said. "When they got that first goal,
the flood gates just opened. It was
a stupid play that we wouldn't no-
mally make."
Michigan took two more penal-
ties in the third to slow down its
offense further. It ended up play-
ing nearly half (29 of 60 minutes)
of regulation with a man in the box.
Mercyhurst cut the lead to one just
27 seconds after the final penalty.
The Wolverines took an extra two
minutes in the overtime to finish
with 31 penalty minutes in tota l.
Mercyhurst had it.

"I think the penalties might
have taken their toll on our play-
ers," Berenson said. "But still, we
had enough chances to win and we
gave up too much. You can't expect
to wils games when you give Up four
goals."
As the game went into overtime
Michigan had more chances to
get Berenson his 700th win. The
Wolverines fired four shots in the
extra period. And in the fiial min-
utes, senior right winger Scooter
Vaughan hit the post after afaceoff
win.
But Mercyhurst also had their
opportunitvtoy get their coach, tick
Gotkin, a milestone winl. With Got-

kin looking for his 400th win, the
Lakers had a final rush down the
ice after Vaughan hit the post. After
a shot from the left side, the puck
sat in the crease to Ilhunwick's left.
Senior defenseman Chad Langlais
doe and swiped the puck away to
save the tie.
The teams had a shootout, which
Mercyhurst won 2-1, but it was only
a "try-out" shootout since the game
was smm-conference.
"We had good chances - isolated
good chances - sometimes they go
in, sometimes they don't," Berenson
said. "'Then, they had a couple, too.
... We can't do some of the things we
did tonight and get away with it."


A frustrating draw for Michigan

In adverse conditions,
freshman notches late
game-tying goal
By CAITLIN SMITH
DailySports Writer
The Michigan women's soccer
team returns from Evanston, Illi-
nois with a tie. But for the Wol-
verines, the stalemate sure felt
like a loss.
North-
western MICHIGAN 1
(1-1-1 NORTHWESTERN 1
Big Ten,
5-4-3 overall) gained an early lead
on their home field after capital-
izing on a scramble in front of the
Wolverines' net. Despite facing
strong winds and a slick field, the
Wolverines (0-1-1, 5-2-3) found the
equalizer and sent the game into
double overtime. But even after
110 minutes of play, neither team
could connect for the win.
"It was disappointing," Michi-
gan coach Greg Ryan said. "I
thought we were really the team
worth the win tonight. North-
western is a very solid team and

it was really a tough game, but
I though we actually created
enough chances to put it away."
Michigan did have its share of
opportunities, led by freshman
forward Nkem Ezurike. Ezurike,
who has already established her-
self as an offensive powerhouse
early in the year, tallied her sixth
goal of the season to tie up the
game in the second half.
Ezurike tied the game up after
collecting the ball deep in the
Wildcat box. After spinning off
the opponent, she defiantly placed
the ball past Northwestern's div-
ing goalkeeper. The freshman
spectacle continued throughout
the snatch, but was dampened, to
put it simply, by bad luck.
The Wolverines managed to
clang two shots off the goal post
during the two sets of extra time,
one of which was followed by two
unsuccessful, rebound opportu-
nities.
Ezurike also netted the appar-
ent game-winner within the final
ten minutes of regulation, but the
goal was not counted due to an
offside call.
"You know, it is (luck)," Ryan
said. "Whether you're in soccer or

Late save preserves
close victory for M'

JAKE FROMM/I
Freshman Nkem Ezurike, shown here, scored the Wolverines' lone goa1

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UNIVERSITY . \1" MIH. GAN

hockey, a lot of times it's the post
and in. In tennis it's the net and
over. And that ball certainly could
have went in."
on the defensive end of the
field, the Wolverines showed
great discipline with their one-.
on-one matchups. Michigan con-
trolled the ball effectively on the
ground, but it was redshirt soph-
omore goalkeeper Haley Kop-
meyer who kept the game within
reach by making a season-high
eight saves.
"Always out of those eight
(saves), there are one or two
that she has to make," Ryan said.
"And she made it. She made good
decisions in a game that was very

slick and windy. She was focused
on making sure she didn't give up
any rebound, really protecting
the goal well."
In a game that was decorated
with a variety of environmental
elements, Michigan still managed
to play with great focus and inten-
sity. If this style of play continues
throughout the season, the Wol-
verines could arise as a dominant
force in the Big Ten - as long as
they leave the bad luck behind.
Michigan continues its confer-
ence play next Saturday at home
against Michigan State, contrib-
uting to a sports weekend marked
by the intrastate rivalry against
the green and white.

By CAITLIN SMITH
Daily Sports Writer
Redshirt junior goalkeeper
Chris Blais knew that Sunday's
contest _
against PENN STATE 1
Penn MICHIGAN 2
State
would be a word-fought battle
from the start. But he couldn't
have predicted that a diving save
during a last-ditch scrambleby the
Nittany Lions in the final seconds
of the game would seal the 2-1 win
at the the U-M Soccer Complex.
Looking at this Big Ten match-
up in advance, many Wolverine
fans would have predicted a game
driven by revenge - as Penn State
eliminated the Wolverines last sea-
son during conference tournament
play. But the Michigan men's soc-
cer teamhad an alternative agenda.
"Since they got us out of the Big
Ten Tournament last year, we defi-
nitely talked about it," Blais said
after the game. "But again, that's
last year, a different team. That
game hurt, we'll all remember it
- but this is now. This game is all
that matters."
The Wolverines (1-0 Big Ten,
C-2-3 overall) played true to this
mantra, gaining an early lead as
freshman forward Soony Saad set
up his brother, sophomore mid-
fielder Hamoody Saad, for a goal.
The Saad brothers have been a
spectacle this season, together
tallying 10 goals and managing to
score in six of Michigan's 10 games.
Although the Wolverines
seemed to have the game at their
feet, they struggled to capital-
ize on several close offensive
attempts. Unable to secure a
healthy lead, Michigan went into
the second half with its advantage

in jeopardy.
Penn State (0-2-0, 6-3-0) was
awarded a controversial penalty
kick just minutes after the start-
ing whistle. The Nittany Lions
took advantage of this, netting the
equalizer.
At this point, emotions began to
show and the game's tempo picked
up, Aggression surfaced, and by
the end of the game the two teams
had racked up a total of 41 fouls
and seven yellow cards.
"That's just the Big Ten sea-
son for you," Blais said. "Guys are
sliding, there are stupid fouls, and
there is a lot of stuff after the play.
People's feet are constantly get-
ting stepped on, but that's justpart
of Big Ten soccer and you've got to
deal with it."
Despite the roughhousing,
Michigan managed to take final
control of the match. With 15
minutes left in regulation, senior
defender Chase Tennant lofted
the ball over the defense to senior
forward Justin Meram. Meram
chased the ball down and thread-
ed it through the legs of Penn State
goalkeeper Warren Gross.
"Whenever a player scores a
goal, I think the whole world goes
blank and they just run and cel-
ebrate," Michigan coach Steve
Burns said. "That's the great thing
about our sport. The same thing
holds true for a coach but you only
celebrate for a second or two and
then you quickly have to look at any
adjustments you need to make."
Sitting on a one-goal lead, the
Wolverines focused their efforts
on keeping Penn State out of scor-
ing position for the final 14 min-
utes of the game. No one wanted
to chance another Nittany Lion
comeback. The Michigan defense,
which fended off 14 shots during
the course of the match, showed
its strength is the final seconds of
the contest.
Penn State was awarded a cor-
ner kick with 20 seconds remain-
ing and put together an assault to
try to send the game into overtime.
The ball was delivered deep inside
Michigan's six-yard box and wild-
ly bounced around, hitting limbs
on both teams. During the scram-
ble, Blais made the game-winning
save, divingtoblock aballthat was
inches away from the goalline.
"This is a signature win for our
season," Burns said. "And I think
whenever a win like that happens
in a season, you'll see that the
team willgain confidence and gain
momentum and will really startto
roll. And that is what we expect to
see from our guys."

~ @michdailysports

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