4B — January 26, 2015
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
It’d be a damn shame
M
ADISON — The
Michigan hockey
team can score goals
at an unprecedented rate. The
Wolverines can overcome a 4-1
deficit with a
snap of a fin-
ger. And this
team is start-
ing to look
as powerful
as the 1997-
98 national
championship
team, accord-
ing to Michi-
gan coach Red
Berenson.
“We’ve got a long way to go,”
Berenson said, “but right now, in
recent weeks, we’ve looked like
the team we had in 1997.”
Still, a postseason berth is far
from certain. And that’s a damn
shame.
That’s not just because the
Wolverines haven’t advanced to
the NCAA Tournament the past
two seasons. Instead, Michigan
is the most exciting team to
watch in the country, and college
hockey fans deserve to see
this team’s offense against the
nation’s best defenses.
The Wolverines average a
nation-leading 4.36 goals per
game. The next-highest team
averages 3.73. And in nine
Big Ten games, Michigan is
averaging 6.5 goals per game
and boasts the conference’s top
four point leaders in Big Ten
play in senior Zach Hyman (19),
freshman Dylan Larkin (18),
sophomore Tyler Motte (14) and
junior Andrew Copp (13).
Michigan is able to roll out
four lines and expect a goal from
each every game. Because of
that depth, Michigan was able to
win the Great Lakes Invitational
without four of its best players,
and it hasn’t lost since.
The players know they are
part of a one-of-a-kind offensive
team. Michigan’s players can’t
recall being part of an offense
that scores this easily.
“I can’t say I have. It’s pretty
fun, though,” said freshman
defenseman Zach Werenski
when asked if he has been on a
team this talented offensively.
It’s definitely fun every night.”
But his team still knows a
postseason berth is far from
certain.
Unfortunately for Michigan,
the Big Ten has been a below-
average conference this season.
Michigan State, Ohio State
and Wisconsin are a combined
18-39-7. Only Minnesota
seems like a worthy opponent
at this point, and even the
Golden Gophers have had an
uncharacteristically bad season.
Even a loss to a surprisingly
good Penn State team would be
hurtful.
“It’s just motivating for us that
every game matters so much,
because you lose one game and
you can drop four or five spots,”
Hyman said. “It’s just more of a
desperation thing, and we need
to win every game.”
One loss in the Big Ten could
spell doom for this team. A loss
to Wisconsin this weekend
would have plummeted No. 12
Michigan well out of the top 16 in
the PairWise Rankings, in which
the Wolverines need to finish to
make the NCAA Tournament.
The same can be said for
potential losses to Michigan State,
Ohio State and Wisconsin when
they travel to Ann Arbor. But if
this weekend was any indication,
the Badgers aren’t even in the
same league as Michigan. Not
many teams are, and Michigan
should be the favorite to win the
Big Ten Tournament.
But college hockey is tricky and
funny; each game seems like a flip
of a coin. Berenson knows that
better than anyone. And it’d be
damn shame if one loss puts the
Wolverines in a win-or-go-home
mentality heading into the Big
Ten Tournament. College hockey
fans deserve to see the beauty
that is the Michigan offense.
College hockey fans deserve to
witness Zach Hyman’s incredible
senior season. It has been a
campaign in which he seemingly
puts the puck in the back of the
net each game thanks to his
incredible speed and willingness
to play in the dirty areas.
Hyman’s 1.59 points per game
through 22 contests is greater
than that of Kevin Porter (1.47)
in his Hobey Baker-winning
season in 2008.
College hockey fans deserve
to see freshman sensation Dylan
Larkin, who manages to put up
multiple points per game and
dazzle every time he touches the
puck with vision and hockey IQ
well beyond his years.
College hockey fans deserve
to see the 17-year-old Werenski,
who has stick skills that are
unprecedented for someone his
age — not to mention that he, too,
is a threat to score each time he
touches the puck, netting two
goals Saturday at Wisconsin.
Oh, and if a team manages
to contain those three players,
Michigan still has Copp, Motte
and sophomore forwards
JT Compher and Alex Kile.
Compher led the Wolverines
in points last year; Kile has 20
points this season. And in case a
team contains those four players,
junior forward Justin Selman
netted a hat trick this weekend.
The Wolverines’ offense is
truly remarkable — it’s on pace to
score the most goals in a season
nationally since 2004. But one
loss in Big Ten play could make
things problematic for this team.
And it’d be a damn shame if
that causes Michigan to miss the
tournament.
Jason Rubinstein can be reached
by email at jasonbr@umich.edu
and on Twitter @jrubinstein4.
JASON
RUBINSTEIN
PAUL SHERMAN/Daily
Michigan is still the nation’s highest-scoring team, but the Wolverines haven’t yet secured an NCAA Tournament bid.
Michigan completes
sweep of Wisconsin
By ERIN LENNON
Daily Sports Editor
MADISON — It’s easy to forget
the Michigan hockey team ranks
47th nationally in team defense,
say nothing of its unreliable
starters in net. It’s easy to forget
because, in two road wins over
Wisconsin, the 16th-ranked Wol-
verines scored 13 times against
one of the nation’s most proven
netminders.
This offense is so good it hard-
ly needs stable goaltending.
Michigan (7-1-0 Big Ten, 15-7-
0 overall) completed its second
series sweep in conference play
with a 6-0 win over the Badgers
on Saturday. It was the first time
the Wolverines have done so
since 1975.
Senior forward Zach Hyman
scored a pair of goals, extending
his goal-scoring streak to seven
games. The streak is the longest
since Brendan Morrison’s eight-
game stretch during the 1995-6
season.
Morrison is one of just two
Hobey Baker Award winners in
program history.
Riding the nation’s longest
winning streak, Michigan has
now scored 33 goals over its last
five contests.
Following an ominously slow
start Friday, the Wolverines set
the pace with a five-goal outburst
in the first 22 minutes of regula-
tion. Meanwhile, the defense —
which had allowed four goals in
that same timespan the previous
night — held Wisconsin (0-5-1,
2-15-3) without a goal through
two periods.
“That was the key to the
game,” said Michigan coach Red
Berenson. “I thought our team
really was focused and prepared,
and to score the first goal was
huge.”
Then, after cruising through
most of the third frame, fresh-
man defenseman Zach Werenski
added Michigan’s sixth goal, all
but silencing a dwindling crowd.
Werenski was one of eight Wol-
verines
with
multiple-point
games on the weekend.
“(An early lead) kinda makes
it easier on the defense,” he said.
“We don’t like giving up goals,
and that’s kind of our problem
right now. But when you have
forwards putting up six or seven
goals, it helps us get more confi-
dence.”
It took the Wolverines fewer
than three minutes to net their
eighth and ninth goals of the
weekend against Wisconsin goal-
tender Joel Rumpel.
But what was more impres-
sive was the fact that both tallies
came from a single shift, with
both plays created by Hyman.
Hyman found freshman Dylan
Larkin down for the early lead
before finding twine with his
now-signature move — muscling
through traffic around the net
with his back turned, centering,
squaring and firing top shelf.
The early lead also allowed role
players in sophomore defenseman
Nolan De Jong and freshman for-
ward Alex Talcott to play valuable
minutes. Talcott, in particular,
had several scoring chances in
second half of the game.
“He got some good ice time,
and I know he can help us,”
Berenson said. “We’re hoping
those guys are going to grow and
get some experience.”
For the Badgers and their
10,000-plus fans in attendance,
the loudest cheer of the night
came in the second period —
when the Kohl Center video
board showed Wisconsin basket-
ball securing an overtime victory
over the Wolverines from Ann
Arbor.
And half of the student sec-
tion had dissipated by the third
period.
ICE HOCKEY