8A - Wednesday, March 13, 2013
Sports
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Sports The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily
Senior forward Kevin Lynch scored a breakaway goal against Northern Michigan last weekend. Or at least he thinks he did.
Berenson: More odd-
man rushes?Forget it
ol
Recent spate of
breakaways is an
anomaly, coach says
By LIZ VUKELICH
Daily SportsEditor
On Friday night, while some
students tried to make the most of
the end of spring break by drink-
ing excessively, senior Kevin
Lynch had a blackout of his own
during the Michigan hockey
team's game against Northern
Michigan in the first round of the
CCHA playoffs.
Midway through the first peri-
od, the forward poked the puck
away from a Northern Michi-
gan player in the neutral zone
and went on a breakaway. As he
approached the Wildcat goal, he
faked netminder Jared Coreau
left before burying the puck in the
bottom-right corner.
It's all a blur for Lynch, though.
"I usually black out when I get
on breakaways," Lynch said. "I
had no idea what was going on. I
thought if I made a quick move,
(the goalie would) bite it. I think
he bit too hard (and) I kind of got
lucky there."
Lynch's score was the go-ahead
goal for Michigan that night, and
it was thanks to his ability to capi-
talize on the breakaway opportu-
nity.
Odd-man rushes, especial-
ly breakaways, haven't always
been good to the Wolverines this
season. Last weekend, though,
Michigan had several grade-
A scoring chances on odd-man
rushes against Northern Michi- Freshman forward Andrew Copp'sbreak
gan.
Lynch scored his goal short- weekend, Michigan coach Red
handed, and senior defenseman Berenson doesn't see the surplus
Lee Moffie barely missed the net of breakaway opportunities sus-
on a break- taining itself
away during throughout
another Michi- eq us a11 black the rest of the
gan penalty U ua~i season - he
kill. A Wildcat out when I get expects them
dragged down to become more
freshman for- o nbreakawyrsr 1 of an anomaly
ward Andrew J * as the playoffs
Copp as he progress.
approached "You're not
Coreau, resulting in a Michigan going to get as many this time of
penalty shot that Copp easily bur- year," he said. "We got a couple of
ied. weird rushes. I think teams are
Despite an apparent improve- playing really good defense."
ment on odd-man rushes over the Though the team oractices
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
away led to a penalty shot and a Michigan goal against the Wildcats at Yost Ice Arena.
breakaway chances two to three
times a week, Berenson says
there's nothing they can really
do to create odd-man rushes in
games - they're situations that
arise on their own, a matter of
luck more than anything else.
"In these games, a bounce of
the puck or a quick good play and
you could get an (odd-man rush),"
Berenson said. "The (players)
don't know what's going to hap-
pen in the game. We're just going
to have to play our game and see
what happens."
Berenson cited Western Michi-
gan's goals-against average (sec-
ond in the CCHA) as the chief
reason why he's not putting too
much attention on odd-man rush-
es for this upcoming series. Since
goals will be precious this week-
end anyway, Berenson doesn't
want to risk sloppy play on the
small chance that the breakaway
will pay off - especially since the
Wolverines gave up eight goals the
last time they played in Kalama-
zoo in January.
"We sure can't go in there
sacrificing defense on the road,"
Berenson said. "So we've got to
play smart and be on the right
side of the puck. Then we've g6t to
make our chances count and play
ugly hockeyif we have to."
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