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

