2B - October 20, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 26 - October 20, 2010 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom It's time to relax, at least we have the bye week A fter another rough BigTen loss, anocher game thac saw Denard Robinson fin- ish on che sidelines and another performance that felt oh so much like 2009, one thing is for sure. The bye week could not come any sooner. Don't let any- one fool you; the Wolverines are definitely_ reeling. Denard RYAN Robinson looks KARTJE more human, acting anxious in the pocket on more than a few occasions in the last two weeks. Michigan coach Rich Rodriguez says he can't fix a defense that even Vince Lombardi couldn't fix. And Greg Robinson is still Greg Rob- inson. So what now? First, it's time to take a few breaths. Inhale. Exhale. Don't you feel better? Now let's takea step back and be honest. I have no idea what's going to happen after the bye week. I was on the same bandwagon that thought Denard Robinson was a mutant sent from Sector 9 to destroy all defenses that stood in his path. I thought Rich Rodriguez was a lock to keep his job after the season when he registered five wins to start the year. I thought Greg Robinson ... well ... maybe I didn't have many expectations for him. But tm just as shocked and appalled as any of the 5-0 opti- mists. The glass is probably half empty for most of you now, and you're entitled to that. There's no reason to give up on this season just yet, though. Take Michigan's two losses. Michigan State is actually a really good team and in all honesty, the Spartans will probably win the Big Ten if they beat Iowa on Oct. 30. The Hawkeyes are no slouches either; doubters are quick to forget that the Wolverines scored 18 more points than Iowa had given up on average over the first six games. The problems with Denard are real, though. After the Michigan Wolverines win* to take lead in the conference Freshman Mack second half. Her scrappy play put records hat trick, her around the ball again, this time with a goal off a penalty overtime winner corner. She set her teammates up, securing four points on the day, By STEVEN KELLNER two for the goal and one on each For the Daily assist. The goal was Laytos's first of the season. Last Friday, the No. 12 Michi- Senior forward Marnie Rob- gan field hockey team took the bins scored her third goal of the pitch day for Northwestern to tie the against NORTHWESTERN 3 game 3-3 early in the second half. North- MICHIGAN 4 Michigan had multiple oppor- western tunities in overtime. These for a battle that would put the included two breakaways, one by winner in prime position to win senior Alicia Mayer that rolled the Big Ten regular season. right of the goal, another by The Wolverines entered the junior Hannah Dawson, which home contest the Wildcat goal- having won nine ie kicked away. of their previous a Ten minutes 10 games, with "We had a three and 20 seconds the lone loss com- into overtime, ing in a heart- versus one on the Wolver- breaking 4-3 loss ine tandem of to No. 1 Mary- the goalie, we Mack, Laytos land. The Michi- and Mayer led gan team (4-0 Big had to score." a charge down Ten, 10-5 over- the field that the all) knew how Wildcats could important this not contain. game was; with only two remain- Mayer passed to a streaking ing conference games left in the Mack, who netted her third goal season, Michigan could hardly of the day, in the back left corner afford to drop one at home. of the cage. And it didn't, beatingthe Wild- "We had a three versus one cats (2-1, 10-5) in a 4-3 game. on the goalie, we had to score," The game started with a flur- Mack said. "We lost the ball, got ry of offense from both squads. it back and attacked hard." Northwestern scored in the Mayer found an open Mack, fourth minute of the game, but who closed outa hat-trick perfor- freshman forward Rachel Mack mance with a pile of Wolverines took a rebound from senior Paige on top of her. Laytos for a goal one minute later. "The coaches were telling me Laytos and Mack did not ease all game to go around her, to the up on the Wildcats, as the two outside, soI did," Mayer said. paired up for another goal with Despite giving up a hat trick, eight minutes left in the first goalie Haley Jones came up with half, on a rebound from Laytos to two crucial saves in overtime, Mack. improving to 9-1 as a starter this The goal was Mack's 10th on season. the season and it would not be Teammates Mack and Mayer her last of the day. Michigan out- acknowledged their friendly shot the Wildcats 10-5 and 6-1 on competition. penalty corners in the first half, "Me and Rachel are compet- though Northwestern tied it up ing for goals on the team," Mayer at two going into the half. said. "I figured I would help her Laytos stepped up again in the out today, give her a head start." ARIEL BOND/Daily1 Sophomore Denard Robinson hurt his throwing shoulder in the third quarter of Michitan's loss to Iowa last Saturday. State game, Robinson apologized to his teammates for his mistakes on the field, saying he'd put the team on his back to lead it to vic- tory. But that might be the problem. Everyone overlooks the fact that Robinson has seven total starts. And when the pressure became more intense, Robinson has taken on an exponentially larger burden, especially in the last two games. Robinson is too humble, too strong-willed and too much of a leader to ever admit to having too much of the burden, but it's unfolding in front of our eyes. He overthrew balls, he threw a few downright terrible passes. He just can't do it all himself - no matter what he tells his teammates after a loss. It's becoming increasingly clear that Rodriguez has put all of his eggs into the Shoelace basket, and it may be hurting the team. The running game, outside of Robin- son, hasn't taken over any games like they have in Michigan football years past, accounting for 76 yards and 83 yards against Michigan State and Iowa, respectively. Robinson tried at the beginning of the game Saturday to put the ball in his running backs' hands, but it didn't work out the way Rodriguez or Robinson may have hoped. These backs just either aren't game-changers at all or don't function as well with Robinson as former West Virginia ballcarrier Steve Slaton functioned with Pat White - not even close. It's safe to say we all had sky high expectations after the first five weeks. Denard Robinson was on his way to the Heisman. Rich Rodriguez was comeback coach of the year. And Michigan was ready to turn a corner back toward national prominence. So on our journey back to reality, let's take another deep breath. In fact, spend the bye week remem- bering the good 'ol times: the final-drive win at Notre Dame, the demolition of Connecticut, the Heisman hopes. Maybe they're all in the rear- view for now. But this season is far from over. This team will go to a bowl game, even if that's the smallest marked improvement that it can make from 2009. And Rich Rodriguez still has his job, even if the heat under his seat was cranked up a few notches. For now, just take a breath and thank God for bye weeks. Kartje can be reached at rkartje@umich.edu Hunwick sets career high in saves in first true road test Senior Scooter Vaughan, shown here ina previous game, has twogoals in four games for Michigan this season. Vaughan's versatili provides a boost for Wolverine offense By MICHAEL FLOREK Daily SportsEditor DURHAM, N.H. - Senior goaltender Shawn Hunwick is used to saving goals for the Michigan hockey team. But just over a minute into overtime against New Hampshire, Hun- wick had to save something else - the game. Saturday, the Wolverines were deadlocked at three with then- No. 9 New Hampshire after three periods. In the extra period, junior forward David Wohlberg skated across the Wildcat goal- mouth and shoved a backhand on net. After a stop and a quick outlet pass, the New Hampshire's Dalton Speelman had a step on Michigan's defense. Junior defen- seman Greg Pateryn got back into the play enough to disrupt Speel- man, but the Wildcat cut hard to the left and fired the shot. Hun- wick kicked out his right pad to make the stop and preserve the tie. "At that point, you're not really thinking," Hunwick said. "Break- away in OT, you're just trying to react. Greg did a good job forcing him to his backhand, and I just tried to take away as much net as I could." The ston was one of Hunwick's eight in overtime. His counter- part, New Hampshire's Matt DiGiorlamo, had to make just one stop in overtime. After coming in late last season due to an injury, replacing start- er Bryan Hogan, Hunwick was charged with making the routine saves to keep the Wolverines in the game. Saturday, while locked in a battle for the starting goalie spot, Hunwick made the spec- tacular stops to carry the team. Michigan (2-0-0 CCHA, 2-0-2 overall) was outshot by 18, but Hunwick responded by making a career-high 45 saves. All in his first true road test. Before playing in the Whit- temore Center Arena, Hunwick had only played one other away game on a campus site - last year at Notre Dame. But Notre Dame didn't have the rabid student sec- tion singing, "Won't you be my sieve?" directly behind Hunwick for two periods that New Hamp- shire (1-1-1) did. "We're lucky we had Hunwick out there today - he really saved us - I don't know how many stops he had, but it was enough to keep us in the game," senior captain Carl Hagelin said. Despite the game-saving breakaway stop in overtime, Hunwick made his biggest contri- By CASANDRA PAGNI Daily Sports Writer DURHAM, N.H. - The No. 3 Michigan ice hockey team features a number of distinct offensive weapons on all four of its lines. NOTEBOOK But with minor team injuries, the need to get young players into game action and experimentation with line chemistry, coach Red Berenson has had to shake up his lines on occasion this season. With the recent changes, Beren- son has has challenged senior right wing Scooter Vaughan to take on various roles for the Wolverines (2-0-0 CCHA, 2-0-2 overall). And line adjustments haven't affected Vaughan's ability to perform in games. The senior has two goals to his name this season, including one in Saturday's contest against New Hampshire (0-0-0 Hockey East, 1-1-1 overall), matching his goal total from last year in only four games. "He's been really good for us since the start of the season," senior left wing Carl Hagelin said. "He's working hard, he's a great skater, and he's been scoring for us too, so that's key for us. He's an impact player and he is just trying to move up in the lineup. He's been doing a good job showing coach every day in practice and in games that he belongs up there." Vaughan's goal on Saturday it came on Michigan's first power play of the game and gave the Wol- verines the 1-0 lead on the road. Junior right wing Luke Glenden- ing backhanded a pass to Vaughn at the bottom of the right circle and Vaughan netted it for the first score of the game. "(Vaughan) had a good game, (it was) good for him," Beren- son said. "He played well, scored the first goal. He's a good skater, and I think a big rink like this lends itself to akid that can really skate." NO RUST FOR RUST: After going down with a lower body injury one week ago against Bowl- ing Green, senior center Matt Rust missed Tuesday's contest against the U.S. National Team Develop- ment Program and didn't skate in practice until late in the week. But after some rest, Rust returned to his regular spot in the Wolverines' lineup on Saturday. Rust, Hagelin and sophomore right wing Chris Brown make up one of Michigan's most danger- ous lines. The trio has netted four goals and seven assists in the Wol- verines' four games. Hagelin said he didn't feel like he played well against USNTDP, and while he couldn't attribute his performance completely to Rust's absence, there is no denying the line is more prolific when Rust is in his usual spot. Having Rust back on the ice benefitted the Wolverines on Saturday, as the whole line was involved in Brown's first goal of the season in the second period. Rust's pass from behind the goal set up Hagelin's feed to Brown for the goal. "(Rust's line) played pretty well," Berenson said. "They played a lot against (New Hampshire's) top line - DeSimone's line - so you're playing against one of the top lines in college hockey." FRESHMEN GETTING THEIR SHOT: Berenson made it a prior- ity to get the younger Wolverines some significant ice time in Tues- day's game against the USNTDP, and freshmen Derek DeBlois, Jacob Fallon and Kevin Clare all earned line spots in Saturday's game as well. DeBlois and Fallon took the wing spots on Michigan's fourth line with senior Ben Winnett at center, while Clare, a defenseman, played with junior Greg Pateryn. While these freshmen were kept off the stat sheet on Satur- day, they now have two consecu- tive experiences in live games - and Berenson knows the depth that the younger icers give the Wolverines will be crucial down the stretch. "(The freshmen) got an expe- rience (at New Hampshire)," Berenson said. "Another good experience, especially on the road, when you come and play in a place like this, this is a good team. You've got to be at your best. I hope they got something out of that game." bution in the second period. Fac- ing back-to-back 'five-on-threes, Hunwick jumped into a higher echelon of goaltenders. He was a goalie who could steal a point on the road. Midway through the two straight minutes of the then- third-ranked Wolverines being down two men, the Wildcats stick handled around a defenseman out of the corner and tried to stuff a backhand through Hunwick's five-hole. But Hunwick got his stick down to make the stop. A half- minute later Hunwick was forced to make a point blank stop from the top of the circles after a New Hampshire defenseman walked around a diving senior forward Scooter Vaughan. Hunwick made nine stops on Michigan's four shorthanded stretches in the second, leading the Wolverines into the locker room up by a goal. "That's when you really rely on your goalie, and he was as good as it gets," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. As the goaltending battle con- tinues later into the season, per- formances like this leads* to a higher chance of Hunwick hav- ing more opportunities to save games. .w Senior Shawn Hunwick, pictured here at Yost, made nine stops while the Wolverines were shorthanded in the second period.