Icers earn Showcase sweep

Muckalt's 4-point weekend leads Blue over WCHA rivals

Edges are fundamental to hockey. Without an edge, skates wouldn't go very far or very fast on the ice. Without an edge, sticks wouldn't be able to make a clean swipe at the puck.

Without an edge, the Michigan hockey team ... well, the Wolverines probably don't know what they'd do without an edge, because they've been living on it all season long.

And this weekend's College Hockey Showcase was no different. Michigan (11-3-1) played Minnesota (4-10-0) on Friday and Wisconsin (7-3-0) yesterday at Yost Ice Arena. The Wolverines won both games by air-tight margins, beating the Golden Gophers, 4-3, and the sixth-ranked Badgers, 2-1.

EMILY NATHAN/Daily Michigan forward Bill Muckalt squeezed by the Badgers yesterday to score the

"Heart-attack hockey - we're playing it every week," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "We're not playing teams where there's much of a difference between the two teams. That's what you're going to get, you're going to get close games."

There may not have been much of a difference between Michigan and the other teams, but there were two differences - Michigan goaltender Marty Turco and forward Bill Muckalt.

Turco - as usual - was phenomenal in both games. The senior made 29 saves against Minnesota and 25 against Wisconsin, including a crucial stop late in the contest, after the Badgers had pulled goalie Mike Valley.

While Turco kept the pucks out of Michigan's net, Muckalt was busy putting them into the opponents' nets. Muckalt accounted for half the Wolverines' offensive output in each game, scoring two goals against the Gophers and one against Wisconsin.

Muckalt scored Michigan's first goal of the afternoon, yesterday against the Badgers. At 5:43 in the first period, while the Wolverines were on the power play, Muckalt skated down the right wing, toed the goal line and beat Valley five-hole with a backhand shot.

The Badgers answered back 10 minutes later during a power play of their own, when Craig Anderson blasted a slapshot past Turco from the point, tying the score, 1-1.

But at 3:55 in the second period, Michigan's freshmen - who had gone the entire weekend without scoring a goal - finally took charge by scoring the game-winner. After Wisconsin's T.R. Moreau was given a five-minute major for cross-checking, Michigan's Josh Langfeld scored his sixth goal of the season on a shot from just behind the net. Mark Kosick and Mike VanRyn - two more Michigan freshmen - were credited with the assists.

"The goal tonight helped," Langfeld said. "Geez, it's been about since Alaska since I scored ... I was pretty happy about it."

Wisconsin has a reputation as a physical team, but the Wolverines were able to match the Badgers' physical style of play and came out primed to knock them from their high ranking in the polls.

"Coach Berenson said, 'Don't worry about it, you guys can go out there, and you can be more physical than them. We're in our own building, don't let them run us out of our own building,'" Berenzweig said. "That's what we went out there to do, and we took it to them, instead of them taking it to us."

Friday night, Michigan didn't come out quite as strong. Minnesota opened up the scoring at 16:39 in the first period with a goal from Wyatt Smith during a Minnesota power play. Each of the Gophers' three goals on the night came with a man advantage.

Muckalt had his own success on the power play, however, beating Minnesota goaltender Steve DeBus top-shelf 15 seconds later during a Michigan power play.

After a Minnesota goal late in the first put the Gophers up, 2-1, Muckalt made himself heard again. At 2:41 in the second, Muckalt snuck a backhander by DeBus to tie up the score.

Michigan's Greg Crozier gave the Wolverines the lead in the opening of the third period, after his shot from behind the net deflected off a Gopher and trickled in over DeBus's shoulder. Kosick racked up an assist on the power-play goal, giving the center four assists on the weekend - the most impressive offensive performance from a Michigan freshman in the Showcase.

A shorthanded goal by Michigan's Bobby Hayes at 10:44 in the fourth was enough to put the game out of reach.

After Hayes blocked a Minnesota shot from the point, he skated ahead of two Gophers, beating them to the goal and beating DeBus with a pretty deke. Although the Gophers managed to tally a goal of their own just 30 seconds later, the goal from Hayes gave Michigan the edge over Minnesota - barely.

"I don't look at it like we beat them," Berenson said. "I look at it like we played in two real good games, and we found a way to win. But we didn't beat Wisconsin or beat Minnesota.

"We're lucky we didn't get beat."

12-01-97