4B - Februaury 6, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 4B - Februaury 6, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 0 Michigan outlasts physical Miami JED MOCH/cily Michigan coach Rled Berenson made it clear that he didn't want to discuss the CCHA officials' performance in the Michigan-Miami (Ohio) series at Yost Ice Arena. Let's not talk about the officiating R ed Berenson stepped to' in the spirit of reticence, I too ask "We'll keep sending the infor- emotion to match what Hunwick the microphone following that you not question me about mation to the league, but the described as a playoff atmosphere. he No. 7 Michigan hock- the officiating. I'm not goingto league hasn't responded," Beren- That emotion started with Beren- ey team's sweep of No. 18 Miami say anything aboutjunior Chris son said. son. (And yes, it ended with the (Ohio) on Saturday, and before Brown's fight at the end of the Of course, the officials wouldn't ejection of Pateryn and the sus- he even sat game, exceptto say that it was the have had to deal with any of this pension of Brown, but you know down, stated product of Michigan's newfound had Blasi controlled his team, enough by now to not ask me flatly, "Don't intensity and emotion. so let's take this time to not talk about the officiating.) ask me about Also, please don't ask me about the grudge between Beren- On the other end of the emo- the officiat- about the following: Whether the son and Blasi. tional spectrum was Miami, dis- ing." officials allowed Miami to take When speaking about the playing what Berenson described Berenson ,-.- runs at senior goaltender Shawn Wolverines' struggles against the as frustration after the game got then spent Hunwick on Friday night. I won't RedHawks on Thursday, Beren- out of reach. some of the answer that. son looked like a man preparing And the RedHawks were cer- remaining ZACH Or whether any of the three for a root canal. As the questions tainly frustrated. After Friday's 3:56 of the HELFAND hits on Friday that knocked Hun- continued, Berenson finally saw game, a loud thud emanated from press confer- wick on his back and into the goal fit to mention Blasi's record at the Miami locker room - some- ence saying should've warranted a major pen- Yost Ice Arena (3-13 at the time, body had just thrown something, things like this: alty. Nuh-uh, my lips are sealed. 3-15 now). and hard. A security guard "You shouldn't have to kill that Nor about the rule that stipu- Still, Berenson had only one walked away a few moments later, many penalties in a game like lates that Brown will be suspend- win in his past eight games his shift over, and said, "you did that." ed for the opening game of the against Miami entering the series, not want to go in there." Or, he was explaining that the CCHA series against Michigan and that probably gnawed at him. After Friday's game, Blasi violence at the game's conclusion State, while his fellow combat- As he walked into his office after promised that his team's behav- was inevitable because of "the ant Will Weber will serve out his answering questions, Berenson ior would improve. We all know way the game was being handled." suspension in an ostensibly mean- stopped, looked back, and said how that turned out. Berenson Then, about Miami coach Enri- ingless non-conference tilt next "this series isn't about Miami. It's had some choice words for Blasi's co Blasi: "The score was out of weekend. Mum's the word. about Michigan." inability to control his players reach - that stuff shouldn't hap- To be clear, I'm not accusing Berenson's been doing this after Saturday's game. pen. There's no fighting in college the officials of one-sidedness, coaching thing for a little while "A smart coach knows how hockey, let's face it. If you want to and I don't think Miami gained now, and it turns out, he was important his players are and they have a fight, go out in the parking any sort of edge from their calls. right. Michigan took it to Miami. have to stay in the game ..." Beren- lot after the games." Their no-goal call on a borderline In the teams' first meeting, son said. "We're the ones that are Despite forbidding any ques- Miami goal, one that they had to Miami physically dominated going to pay for it." tions on the matter, that Berenson review twice, left Blasi furious. Michigan in the opening minutes The loss of Brown shouldn't spent much of his time speaking Rather, the officials' mis- and set the tone for the whole matter if Michigan brings the about officiating and takingshots handling of more than a few series. Not so at Yost. The Wol- same intensity they played with at Blasi (after a dominatingsweep, situations created an atmosphere verines outworked, outskated and this weekend. The Wolverines are no less) says quite alot. where retribution was inevitable. outskilled the RedHawks. Players probably the most talented team Referees Brian Hill and Keith I'm talking about situations like who didn't even register a point, in the CCHA, and the best, too, if Sergott lost control of the game, Curtis McKenzie's hit on Hun- such as sophomore forward Derek they play with emotion. Blasi lost control of his players, wick that sent his helmet flying DeBlois, dove to knock away loose Of course, that should be irrel- and Michigan was the team get- and left the goalie down on the ice pucks. The penalty kill was suf- evant. Miami and Blasi ran up ting penalized. For those keeping for nearly a minute. focating. Skill players, like junior a big tab of transgressions this track at home, yes Keith Sergott McKenzie got a minor pen- forward A.J. Treais and Brown, weekend. is that Keith Sergott, the one who alty onthe play, but so did senior played selfishly - in tgood way. And they stuck Michigan with presided a particularly touchy and defenseman Greg Pateryn, and They showed the confidence to the bill. By EVERETT COOK Daily SportsEditor What a difference a couple months make. The Michigan and Miami (Ohio) hockey teams first played each other in November, with the RedHawks sweeping the Wolver- ines in Oxford. In the first game of that series, Miami came out and hit Michigan in the mouth, never looking back after scoring a goal less than two minutes into the game. That game, and that series, started a month-long slide for the Wolverines, where they didn'twin agame until Dec. 3. Fast forward to February. The Wolverines, coming off a bye week, took it to Miami the entire weekend, and earned a sweep of their own. They showed off a physical style of play that appeared two weeks ago at Notre Dame but hadn't been a charac- teristic for most of the season. Michigan played like a team that had something to prove, punishing the RedHawks when- ever they had the opportunity and refused to back down from one of the most talented teams in the CCHA. "This isn't women's tennis, this is CCHA hockey," said junior forward A.J. Treais. "We might not be the biggest team in the league, but we can hang with those guys." On Friday night, Michigan scored three goals in the first period. They weren't fancy or finesse goals. These were, near- the-crease punishing goals. To set up the second goal of the period, senior captain Luke Glen- dening delivered a massive check that sent Miami defenseman Ben Paulides sprawling to the ice. Treais was left with empty space between him and goaltender Cody Reichard, said "thank you very much" to Glendening, and finished top right on Reichard. A pretty goal, yes, but not one Michigan would have scored in November. "It's something that Red always says - when you are focusing more on defense, and when you go out there working as hard as you possibly can, the bounces kind of go your way," said junior defenseman Lee Mof- fig- Surprising to no one that has seen these teams play, Fri- day's game had some extra- curricular activities. Senior goaltender Shawn Hunwick took a couple minutes to get up after being blasted in the crease, and the referees had to break up play- ers after almost every save. But Friday night was just a warm-up to the shenanigans that plagued Saturday night's contest. The game was a dogfightfromthe beginning, and only got worse as Michigan's lead got bigger. The Wolverines had a dumb- founding six penalties in the first period, earning their first with less than a minute off the clock. The penalties didn't hurt Michi- gan, though, as it ended the first period up 1-0 after a shorthanded goal by Moffie. The series was physical, but didn't get out of hand until the third period of Saturday's con- test. The two teams combined for 16 penalties, with most of those coming after the game was out of reach. With only one minute left, a scrum broke out after a save by Miami goalie Connor Knapp. Freshman forward Alex Guptill was the first Wolverine in the brawl, but junior forward Chris Brown finished off the job. Miami defenseman Will Weber and Brown - dropping their gloves and taking swings well after the whistle had blown - would have torn each other to pieces if not for the referees. A total of nine penalties were given out after the fight, putting a sour ending on a hard-fought game. "I thought we played a good game," Berenson said. "Disap- pointing at the end. The score was out of reach - that stuff shouldn't happen. There's no fighting in college hockey. Let's face it, if you want to fight, go out to the parking lot after the game." Because of his disqualifica- tion penalty, Brown will be sus- pended for Friday's game against Michigan State. The Wolverines lose one of their best offensive players in one of their most important games and Miami loses its captain against non-conference oppo- nent Alabama-Huntsville. The series was a war that Michigan battled through, dis- pelling any notion that this team isn't physical enough for the post- season. Michigan didn't allow a goal on Saturday, despite finish- ing with 52 penalty minutes. This isn't the same Michigan team that Miami saw in Novem- ber. physical Michigan-Notre Dame series two weeks ago. So, in honor of Berenson and the game continued as if the play didn't happen. This has happened before. score, where earlier they had been timid. Michigan played with the Helfand can be reached at zhelfand@umich.edu. WOMEN'S BA SKET BAL M loses redemption chance against MSU Hunwick, penalty kill key sweep ByMATT SPELICH Daily Sports Writer For the briefest moment, it seemed that fortune was smil- ing upon the Michigan women's basketball team. MSU 657 A hard- MICHIGAN 63 fought sec- ond half against Michigan State culminated in a tie, 63-63, with less than 30 seconds left on the clock. Then, in a most inexpli- cable way, Courtney Boylan's defender went head first into the hardwood, leaving the senior guard open to deliver a 3-point dagger. But her shot clanged off the back iron, and was picked up by the Spartans. Down at the other end, Spar- tan guard Porshe Poole dropped a 15-foot jumper, stopping the clock at four seconds - just enough time for a Hail Mary attempt from junior guard Jenny Ryan. But when the clock ran out, the scoreboard read 65-63. Even lady luck couldn't stop the Spartans. "We had a wide-open shot," said Michigan coach Kevin Borseth, "If we made that shot, it would have been on the other hand, but we didn't make it. I thought we played really well. I don't think that there's much else that we could have done. "Sure, we can look back to a specific turnover or a missed shot early on. We can beat that dead horse and ask ourselves, 'what if?' but at the end of the day, (Michigan State is) a great team and they played a great game." No matter how "great" of a game the match-up was, it was without a doubt a dramatic one. The event played out like a soap opera, only with more knock- down, drag-out moments - the kind reserved for the National Hockey League. In the first four minutes, Michigan State went on a shoot- ing spree with an 11-0 run. Three minutes later, the Wol- verines tied it up at 15. After an unproductive first half at Crisler, the Spartans' Lyk- endra Johnson - last year's Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year - woke up in the second for an aggressive back-and-forth with junior center Rachel Sheffer. Sheffer racked up 13 points and three blocks for the Wolverines. In spite of everything, the Wolverines still found them- selves up by five points with 5:30 left on the clock. The last five minutes was a dead heat between Michigan's power pair, Boylan and Sheffer, and Michigan State's, Johnson and Poole. Then came the open shot, and the rest was history. "It didn't feel good going off my hand," Boylan said. "But you have to take that shot. When you're wide open at the end of the game, you don't know if you'll get another chance. You got to put it up. I just couldn't get it to go in." By LIZ VUKELICH Daily Sports Writer The defensive corps continued to show up for Michigan's series this weekend. Sure, the back lines for the Michigan hockey team are physi- cally present every game. But NOTEBOOK in thisweekend's series against Miami (Ohio), the defensemen helped carry the Wol- verines to decisive 4-1, 3-0 victo- ries - and you could see that they were engaged for the full 120 min- utes. It started on Friday, when the defense was able to weather a sec- ond period that saw only one shot from the Wolverines. Michigan's offense was a little more productive on Saturday. But the defense still held stable, and the Wolverines have their second line to thank for that. Since the return of sophomore defenseman Jon Merrill, Michi- gan's goals against per game aver- age has decreased dramatically from 2.60 to 1.25. That statistic is certainly a confidence booster. "With Jonny in the lineup, he upgrades our defense a lot," said Michigan coach Red Berenson. "He gives us another puck-han- dling defenseman. He's a big part of it. (He) makes a difference." It's the way Merrill reads the ice that makes him such a valuable player, according to sophomore forward Luke Moffatt. Merrill tallied two assists over the week- end simply because he effectively worked the puck from the point before finding an open man. "(Merrill) shoots it where he wants it," Moffatt said. "The power of the shot doesn't matter if .. Iva 0 0 JED MOCH/Daly Fifth-year senior goalie Shawn Hunwick collected his fifth shutout of the season on Saturday against the Red Hawks. you (can't) get it there." But don't forget about Merrill's partner-in-crime, junior defense- man Lee Moffie. Moffie scored two of the Wolverines' three goals on Saturday, one of which came shorthanded. "We're not planning on our defense scoring goals," Berenson said. "All the goals the defense scores are important goals. It's good to get some offense from our defense once in awhile." HELPING HUNWICK: His fifth shutout of the season was just another game in the life of senior goaltender Shawn Hunwick. Hunwick stopped 29 shots en route to Michigan's win. But his biggest stop of night came on a shot that could've been a serious game changer. His two defenders left him out to dry - Merrill broke his stick at an inopportune moment and Mof- fie was nowhere to be found - as a RedHawk took advantage of a breakaway. Hunwick made the stop with his pads, but somehow, the puck managed to squirt through and rest on the goal line. The Miami bench insisted it crossed the line. The referees took several minutes to review the play before confirming the no-goal rul- ing, which was made much to the RedHawks' dismay. ' "If 6,000 people sigh, it's a pretty good chance the home team knows that it's a goal," said Miami coach Enrico Blasi. "We gotta accept that and move on." Hunwick and the Wolverines caught abreakwiththe ruling. But the path to a shutout does not run smoothly - literally. "A big problem we've been having all year is Shawn getting bumped," Moffie said. "(Hun- wick's) on his back." Hunwick had several run-ins with the RedHawks on Friday, though his contact with them on Saturday was limited to just one knock down. After being ejected from a game against Northern Michigan earlier this season, Hunwick has learned his lesson about fighting back, let- ting his defensemen get physical for him instead. But Miami goal- tender Connor Knapp wanted to get right in on all the action. Knapp left the net when, as the third period was winding down, a brawl broke out around him, and he started shoving Moffie. When asked if he ever consid- ered leaving his net to go fight the 6-foot-6 Knapp, Hunwick laughed. "He'd beat me up," Hunwick said. "He'd kill ya. You know how big he is? Have you seen Rocky 4?"