The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com March 25, 2013 - 3B Senior defenseman Mac Bennett consoles freshman goalie Steve Racine after Michigan's 3-1 loss to the Fighting Irish on Sunday afternoon. l Rke g close against Notre Dame 'O' sputters in Motor City By GREG GARNO desperation set in. Yet even DailySports Writer then, Michigan played exasper- ated during the end of the third DETROIT - Justminutes into period. The Wolverines played the second period of Sunday's 3-1 without sophomore defenseman loss to Notre Dame, the Michi- Mike Szuma for more than half gan hockey team drove the puck of the third period, alternating down the middle and into the five worn-down defensemen to opposing zone. bring the puck up and skate back Carrying a 1-0 lead but being in odd-man rushes. heavily outshot, it needed some- When Michigan needed its thing to preserve the game and a energy reserves the most, it was berth into the NOTEBOOK left stalling. Even if it was in the NCAA Tour- opposingzone. nament. END OF AN ERA: Michigan's Skating faster then anyone unprecedented run of 22 consec- else, junior forward Luke Mof- utive appearances in the NCAA fatt took a stab at the goal before Tournament came to a close on being denied. But his speed and Sunday, but another streak ended an opposing defenseman drove as well. him into Fighting Irish goal- The CCHA concluded the final tender Steven Summerhays, chapter of its 42-year history prompting a whistle. Moffatt with the Fighting Irish's victory was called for interference on the on Sunday. The 11 teams remain- play, forcing the Wolverines to ing in the conference will leave play without a man. for different conferences next More importantly, it forced year. The Wolverines will leave Michigan back into its own zone for the Big Ten Conference in again when it needed shots the its first year, while Notre Dame most. heads to the Hockey East Asso- "Even though the game was ciation. tied, they were right there, and The CCHA's first tournament they were all over us," said Mich- was held in 1972 when Ohio State igan coach Red Berenson. "They broughthomethe hardware after didn't give us much, and we defeating Saint Louis. The tro- didn't get much, and that is how phy was later named for former the game went on." Michigan State, Bowling Green Although time of possession and Lake Superior State coach isn't measured, the Wolverines Ron Mason, who has won 13 found themselves skating in their championships. Michigan coach own zone, trying to clear the Red Berenson, who coached puck away from the net for much in the CCHA his entire career, of the game. has been at the helm for all nine Junior defenseman Jon Mer- Michigan Mason Cup victories. rill and sophomore defenseman "I think it will take awhile Brennan Serville struggled to before the smoke clears," Beren- handle the puck near the net, son said. "The CCHA can be givingup easy turnovers to Notre proud of all the team members Dame's strong forechecking for- and all the championships. The wards. great players they've produced It didn't help the offense when and the great people they pro- senior defenseman Lee Moffie duced as student-athletes and took another penalty with Mof- not just NHL players. fatt still in the bench. "It's been a great league. They "It's tough to get off," Beren- have nothing to apologize for, it's son said. "You're playing and just too bad it's over." playing and playing and you can't MORE HARDWARE: Not all change and they played tired." of the Wolverines went home Looking fatigued and pan- empty handed. icked, the Wolverines allowed With red faces and their shoul- their first goal of the game ders slumped in defeat, three minutes after Moffie's penalty freshmen represented Michigan expired, unable to clear the puck on the CCHA All-Tournament they poked away in their own team. Forward Andrew Copp, zone. defenseman Jacob Trouba and The offense never recuper- goaltender Steve Racine were all ated in the second period, and honored for their performances not until the third period when this weekend. Freshman goalie bails out the defense, faces 33 shots on Sunday By LIZ VUKELICH Daily Sports Editor DETROIT - When the clock reached triple zeroes and the reality of the Michigan hockey team's 3-1 loss to Notre Dame in the CCHA Championship game finally started to sink in, senior captain A.J. Treais went over to freshman goalie Steve Racine. He was the first teammate that Treais saw, but Treais knew that Racine would need a little extra consolation after the game - the goalie was carrying the weight of the team's loss on his shoulders. Treais later said that Michi- gan wouldn't have been in the game if it weren't for Racine. And though Racine is certainly part of the reason for the Wol- verines' appearance in the CCHA finals, he was also the reason why Michigan was able to stay in the game. The game was close until it wasn't. Though the score was knotted at one entering the final period, the Wolverines were outshot, out-chanced and out- played for the remainder of the game. The Fighting Irish's go- ahead goal came less than 30 seconds into the final frame, and the Wolverines couldn't gener- ate enough offensive opportuni- ties to match it. But until that point, Michigan managed to skate with Notre Dame. And the team can thank Racine for that. Playing in what Michigan coach Red Berenson called his goalie's "best game of the sea- son," Racine faced a total of 33 Notre Dame shots and came up with the big saves during the first two periods to stymie an aggressive Fighting Irish offense. "(Racine) was sharp, good for him," Berenson said. "We need- ed that and any time a team out- shoots you like that in the first period, you've got to be ready and he was ready." The emergence of Racine as Michigan's first choice behind the crease for the last 10 games has been unexpected to say the least, considering his less-than- ideal start for the Wolverines in the first two months of the sea- son in which he gave up an aver- age of over three goals per game. The Fighting Irish outshot Michigan, 18-6, in the first frame, a period which was almost exclusively played in the Wolverines' zone. Though the defense took extra care to care- fully clear the puck and limit the number of turnovers in front of the net, Racine was there to catch the mistakes, including corralling his own rebounds. But if Racine was tested in the first period by a constant peppering of shots from Notre Dame, then it became even more evident in the second frame when Michigan took three pen- alties. For the second consecutive game, the Wolverines scored shorthanded. Junior forward Derek DeBlois tallied his third shorthanded goal of the year, tying him for second in the country. But perhaps more important than the offensive chances gen- erated by the penalty kill was the way it stepped up defensively. Berenson always says that a team's best penalty killer is its goalie, and though Racine made the penalty kill's life easier by coming up with the big saves, the unit in turn tried to lessen Racine's load by stepping up its level of play. "I think guys just getting in front of shots and playing desperate hockey," said senior forward Kevin Lynch on the penalty-kill unit's performance. "We're just trying to get in front of shots to take some of the heat off Steve. If you block a shot, sometimes you can catch a break. We had a couple of those." With a little more than a min- ute left in the game and Michi- gan down by one, Racine looked to the bench. He saw the signal and skated off the ice, so the Wolverines could try and find an equalizer with an extra attacker. But as he was halfway towards the bench, Notre Dame gained possession of the puck and skated into Michigan's zone. Racine saw what was happening and skated back to the crease for dear life in a last-ditch effort to try and stop the empty-net goal. And Racine, who hadn't missed a beat all game, was a few paces too short. 'M' comes back twice to sweep home opener By ERIN LENNON story of non-conference play, it Daily Sports Writer was the offense that bailed out the Michigan aces in the Big Ten In a tie game with one out and two runners on base in the bottom of the seventh inning, the choice was all but made for Purdue pitcher Lily Fecho: walk fresh- PURDUE 0 man short- MICHIGAN 9 stop Sierra Romero. PURDUE 5 It was the MICHIGAN 13 fourth time - had been PURDUE 7 walked in MICHIGAN 8 the second of game of a doubleheader on Sat- urday. In the previous two games of the home opener, the freshman went 7-for-7 with three home runs - improving her slugging percentage to .883 - before the Boilermakers stopped pitching to her. The move brought junior first baseman Caitlin Blanchard to the plate. "It was about one-pitch focus," Blanchard said. "That's what I've been working on. See ball, hit ball." Michigan coach Carol Hutchins slotted Blanchard in the cleanup role in place of sophomore pitcher Sara Dries- enga after the first game of the doubleheader, placing Blanchard behind Romero for the first time this season. A walk-off single up the mid- dle from Blanchard ensured Hutchins' decision was the right one, as the Wolverines (3-0 Big Ten, 24-7 overall) completed their first season sweep. Though pitching had been the opener. And it was a performance Hutchins was pleased to finally see. "I gave our offense a lot of credit," Hutchins said. "I said to them, 'I don't always like your softball but I really like this group' They just kept fight- ing and chipping away, so I was pleased that our offense picked up our defense all around." In the second game of the day, Driesengawatchedtwoballs land in the right-field bleachers to give the Boilermakers a7-0 lead in the top of the second inning. Even though four of the runs were the product of four Michigan errors, Driesenga was relievedby sopho- more pitcher Haley Wagner in the third inning. Through the first few innings, only sophomore catcher Lauren Sweet was able to connect for a hit. Sweet drove a home run high into the last row of the right-field grandstand to put Michigan on the board. "I had seen she was throwing first-pitch strikes so when I went up there, I knew to be aggres- sive," Sweet said. "Out of all of my at-bats, I felt like that was the one where I was ready to go." Down 7-2 in the fifth inning, the Wolverines threatened sev- eral times with the bases loaded, but were held to two runs off a single from senior second base- man Ashley Lane. She came through again in her next at- bat, driving a sixth-inning pitch into the right-field grandstand to plate Blanchard and Romero, PATRICK BARRON/Daily Freshman shortstop Sierra Romero went 7-for-7 on the weekend before getting intentionally walked in her last four plate appearances. tying the game at seven. "(Offense) is a huge thing for us this year," Sweet said. "We have offense and defense. It was great to see that fight today." Added Hutchins: "It's been the theme of our season, everybody contributing. Blanchard and oth- ers stepped up big today. Caitlin has been working hard this, she's been trying to get her swing big- ger, and I was really excited for her." Despite an early 5-0 hole, the Wolverines paired a six-run fifth inning with four runs in the sixth to secure the 13-5 mercy rule victory. Though Wagner would make an early exit of her own in the fifth inning - with Driesenga coming on in relief - the offense had an answer for Purdue in the bottom of the inning. Freshman left fielder Sierra Lawrence was the spark in the fourth inning, splitting the out- fielders for a two-out, two-run double. She finished the com- back with an RBI single to force the mercy-rule walk-off in six innings. In the inning, Romero contributed her third home run of the weekend - her 11th of the season - to dead center field in the fifth. The story was much simpler on Friday afternoon, and much more chocolatey, as the Wol- verines needed just five innings and eight runs to shut out the Boilermakers. In keeping with her tradition of M&M giveaways to home run hitters, Hutchins had to give away three packs of M&Ms to home-run hitting play- ers as they rounded third base. Romero had her second multi- home run game while Blanchard hit her first homer since April 2, 201L "You could see the kids were excited to be out there today," Hutchins said. "I think being at home, especially the kids who've been in the program, realize how special it is to play at Alumni Field. And we're contagious. Sierragave us some energy with that big swing in the first inning, and they all caught it." An offense that has relied pri- marily on Romero will have to catch fire on its own moving for- ward in Big Ten play. For at least this weekend at Alumni Field, contagion contributed to the Wolverines' 29 runs and seven home runs in 18 innings.