October 28, 2008
A Lot of Questions
by Nicole Auerbach/CHN Reporter
BOSTON — Michigan's first visit to Boston University in 18 years was a forgettable one.
The 7-2 trouncing by the Terriers left no doubt that BU is one of the top teams in the nation, and left nothing but questions for Michigan.
"As Jackie Parker said, this was a real 'brand-name' college game," Michigan coach Red Berenson said Monday. "But I don't think we played up to our part."
Bad luck struck Michigan twice in its opening weekend. Senior captain and top defenseman Mark Mitera suffered a torn ACL injury in the first period of the season-opener. Then, after a being a victim of an off-ice assault, Michigan junior defenseman Steve Kampfer was hospitalized with a skull fracture.
Without the two Michigan veteran blueliners, the defense corps has struggled to find cohesive pairings and stay out of the penalty box. Against BU last weekend, over half of the Wolverines' penalties were called on defensemen.
Though giving up seven goals says a great deal about the inconsistency of Michigan's goaltending, Berenson said the blame for goals against could be spread across the team.
"It was a little bit of everything," Berenson said Saturday. "I can't fault our goalies. A lot of (BU's) goals were tic-tac-toe plays. Our goalie would have had to absolutely stand on his head to make a difference on some of those shots. Our defensemen's sticks were not where they had to be."
Still, the goaltending situation is rearing its ugly head again. Billy Sauer seemed to have everything straightened out last year, forced to be <em>the</em> goalie when freshman Bryan Hogan came down with mono early in the year. He performed great, until, oddly enough, the NCAA semifinal game against Notre Dame. So the question was, what would carry over, if anything?
Berenson has been alternating starts between Sauer and Hogan. After Sauer let up four goals to the Terriers through the first two frames, Berenson replaced him with Hogan, aiming to "change the momentum of the game."
But with 6,400 jeering fans and a four-goal deficit on the scoreboard, Hogan was unable to provide the spark for Michigan. The confidence he had displayed in previous starts was gone, and he let up three goals on just nine shots in Saturday's third period.
So, coming off the team's worst loss in two years, Michigan needs to address a lot of problem areas in its game.
It needs a consistent goalie. It needs its defense to be a dominating presence. It needs to score earlier, not just when the other team has a firm grasp on the game. It needs a better penalty kill unit. It needs to convert its own opportunities on power play.
On Monday, Berenson again said the loss served as a "wake-up call" for the Wolverines, and that these concerns have been identified and will be the focus of upcoming practices.
"We can learn from it," Berenson said. "It's one game. It's a bad loss, but we need to take everything we can out of that game and make sure it doesn't happen again."
