Comrie rocks, but defense impresses

NOTRE DAME - Everyone knows Mike Comrie can score. He proved it last season when he became Michigan's top point scorer with 43 in the regular season.

But Friday night against the Fighting Irish in South Bend, Comrie set a new standard. His first career hat trick gave him a total of eight points in five games against Notre Dame.

The hat trick was all the more impressive because Comrie's final two goals were unassisted and came within 23 seconds of each other (with 11:24 and11:01 left in the third period.)

Comrie "was able to put the puck in the net and make the difference in the game," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "Your best players have to be your best players.

"He's a dangerous player. With the puck he might be as good as anybody we've seen in the league."

DANA LINNANE/Daily Geoff Koch (18) sparked the Michigan offense to 11 goals over two games against Notre Dame. The winger tallied the CCHA's first goal of the season.

Dominant Defense: Granted a couple of weeks ago, those words may have seemed oxymoronic as far as the Michigan hockey team was concerned.

The Wolverines had lost three key defensemen in the off-season and to top it off, senior captain Sean Peach went down with an injury.

As a result, the media vulture had a field day preying on the Wolverines' supposed weak link.

Oh how the tides have turned.

After Friday's 6-1 and Thursday's 5-3 victories over Notre Dame, people can't seem to get enough of those Michigan blue liners.

The six players who comprised Michigan's defensive unit in the series held the Fighting Irish scoreless for 53:04 over the two nights.

"The defense made a statement this weekend that these guys can do the job," Berenson said. "They impressed me. They didn't break down and just played within themselves."

A Place That Could Be Called Home?: Notre Dame's Joyce Center is hardly a prime location to play hockey. In fact, the domed arena could be better described as a convention center with a hockey rink plopped down right in the center of a bunch of tables.

Nevertheless, for a special type of Michigan player, the unusual confines of the Joyce Center could even be called friendly - or perhaps just lucky.

On January 30, 1998, Krikor Arman, in his first game in a Michigan uniform, had to date the most productive offensive night of his career.

Arman notched two goals in the first period and one assist in the Wolverines 7-2 victory over the Fighting Irish.

Last year, defenseman Dave Huntzicker, who also walked-on to the team, scored his first goal at the Joyce Center.

This past weekend Notre Dame and the golden dome were friendly to all of the Wolverines. But freshman defensive walk-on Brad Fraser was treated with a little extra kindness.

Fraser, who filled in for injured captain Sean Peach notched the first points of his Michigan career recording an assist on Comrie's first goal in the first period of Friday's game.

Take The Fight Out of the Irish: Notre Dame coach Dave Poulin has seen it all. Through 17 seasons as a player on both the college and professional levels and five years coaching his alma matter, he's taken the good in stride with the bad.

Still, after the weekend's losses, Poulin was thrown for a loop.

"We weren't good at all," Poulin said after Friday's game. "I'm very disappointed. We didn't compete. In the past, we didn't know we' d win every night. But the one thing we could count on was that we'd compete every night.

"I'm very concerned right now with that. I've been through it as a player much more than I've been through it as a coach... (This slump) happens to teams, but when it happens at the very start or the very end of the year, the effect's magnified. At the start it's like 'wow', but we'll go back to basics from here."

Talk about ugly: Whenever there's a heated rivalry between two similar squads, you can expect that things might get a little rough. But this weekend's series between Michigan and Notre Dame redefined the term ugly - well, as ugly as the NCAA allows college hockey to get.

The teams spent 66 minutes in the penalty box.

"It wasn't always pretty hockey," Berenson said. "... It was a rough weekend. Notre Dame plays an aggressive, physical game. But our players may not be big, but they play big.

"You're not going to intimidate our team, and you're not going to intimidate any player out there. They paid the price, that's what it's all about, paying the price to play well or paying the price to win."

10-11-99