Blue offense falters against Lakers

After cruising through its first 11 games with an average of five goals per game, the Michigan hockey team came to a screeching halt after it ran into a wall that bore a striking resemblance to Lake Superior State's goalie, Jayme Platt.

The weekend series was more than a little frustrating for the most prolific offense in college hockey. Michigan (7-3 CCHA, 10-3 overall) recorded only two goals against the Lakers (5-3, 5-5), both of which came in the second period of the second game.

In fact, Platt held the Wolverines scoreless for 85:37 - an impressive feat, considering Michigan's forwards have outscored their opponents 57-30 this season. But as the Wolverines said, it was just one of those weekends.

DANNY KALICK/Daily Michigan defenseman Bob Gassoff takes out his frustration while the offense didn't to convert against Lake Superior.

"There are nights when the passing is off, the shots are off and you're just out of sync," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "That's exactly how our team played. You don't do it by design or intentionally and then things happen in the game and things just don't go your way."

Being shut out at home on Friday Michigan was a touch more desperate at game time Saturday. To compensate the coaches made some line changes and even switched starting goaltenders giving L.J. Scarpace the nod in net.

Yet nothing worked, and the shots just would not go in.

Granted, Platt was a big thorn in Michigan's side rejecting 69 attempts en route to being named the No. 1 star in both games.

"We couldn't score, and (he) had some big saves," injured Michigan goaltender Josh Blackburn said. "It was him. We had some great opportunities but he came up big."

Regardless of the team's results, Michigan center Mike Comrie still leads the nation in points with 24. But the most glaring image from the weekend was what didn't happen. Comrie, who is the definition of a scorer, had nine shots and for one reason or another not one worked its way into the net.

"We didn't do what we were supposed to do," Comrie said. "(He) is a good goalie, but we shot at him. We shot to shoot, but we didn't shoot to score. That's one of the things that made us such a good team a the start of the year.

"We didn't come prepared to play this weekend. Both games we didn't get a few bounces, but we didn't play our game. You always want to contribute to the team, but scoring points isn't the only way to do that. If you play well and play hard the points will come."

Perhaps the reason the weekend's results came as a shock to Michigan fans was because heading into the series, the Wolverines looked unstoppable. The only game they had lost was a 4-2 road decision to Alaska-Fairbanks.

But Michigan captain Sean Peach had other ideas.

"The season has been going smoothly, but we've had some bumps along the way," Peach said. "Things like this will catch up to you sometimes. We've been careless defensively. We can't give up that many goals and expect to score when we give them up. It's tough to play from behind."

In the meantime, the Wolverines must learn some valuable lessons from the weekend and move on. Fortunately for them, first place Michigan State had a rough weekend, too. The Spartans lost twice to Miami, so second place Michigan remained six points behind them in the CCHA.

"This is behind us now; we can't do anything about it," junior winger Scott Matzka said. "It's disappointing that we lost. But, you lose your confidence pretty easily. When you're scoring you feel like you can score from anywhere."

When you're not scoring, Matzka said, "You lose your confidence out there. The net shrinks down, the goalie looks a lot bigger and you seem to shoot it into his pads a lot."

The Wolverines will look to improve their scoring over the Thanksgiving weekend, when they will host two WCHA opponents, Wisconsin and Minnesota in the Ameritech College Hockey Showcase.

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