With new lines, 'M' reinvents powerplay By Uma Subramanian Daily Sports Writer COLUMBUS - When it was all said and done, exhaustion was all that lingered. As they strolled out of the visiting lockerroom at Ohio State, all the Michigan hockey players wanted was to go home. The Wolverines had just come out on top, 6-4, over the Buckeyes in the longest, possibly most brutal contest they had played all year. After the game, there was no jubilation in the air and no sense of victory. Michigan was just tired and frustrated. "It's a disappointing way to finish a game off," Michigan captain Sean Peach said. "That team has got no class whatsoever. It's frustrating when your star players get hacked all night and you can't do anything about it." But ironically, or perhaps justifiably, it was the Buckeyes' penalties that led to their demise and the rebirth of Michigan's power play offense. Though the game was brutal, there were a couple of bright spots that must have made Michigan coach Red Berenson smile - at least a little bit. Michigan's power play, which has been noticeably stagnant, finally emerged from its two-month hibernation. In past seasons, Michigan has typically lingered around a 20-percent power play conversion percentage. So, the 18.3-percent tally that the Wolverines carried into Friday's game didn't appear all that low - at least on the surface. But the fact is that through 11 games in mid-November, the Wolverines had converted on 25.3-percent of their power play opportunities and scored 24 times on the man-advantage. Then, suddenly, power play production fell off and Michigan only converted nine times in 13 games. All that changed Friday when the Wolverines used Ohio State's ill-advised penalties to their advantage and scored four clutch goals to put the Buckeyes away. The penalty killing unit was also effective as Geoff Koch opened the scoring with a short-handed goal 15:12 into the first period. Last week in practice, Michigan coach Red Berenson tweaked the power play units and created offensive machines. The first power play unit now consists of Andy Hilbert, Mike Comrie and Geoff Koch - Michigan's top line that has notched 34 goals - plus freshman Mike Cammalleri, who has 11 tallies of his own. The second unit features Michigan's junior line of Josh Langfeld, Scott Matzka and Mark Kosick. Freshmen Jed Ortmeyer and Mark Mink rotated into the fourth forward spot on the line. Berenson's new units were successful - each recorded two goals. "The puck started to go in and both units had good puck control and moved it well," Berenson said. "If you have that many power plays (11) and you score on the first couple, you get some confidence." Also, junior Josh Langfeld, who led last year's squad in goals but has struggled this season, recorded his sixth goal in Friday's win. "It feels great when you score, especially when you haven't been scoring for awhile," Langfeld said. "It was a big goal; it put us up by two. It felt good - really good. But we gave up a lot of opportunities tonight. There was a lot of cheap stuff going on and the game took a little too long." Originally on page 4B in the 1-24-2000 issue of the Daily.