2B — March 16, 2015
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
That feeling of heartbreak
S
omewhere in the locker
room of Yost Ice Arena,
where that feeling of
heartbreak
hurts the
most, is a list
of goals for
the Michigan
hockey team.
They’re
the same
goals that
have likely
been posted
in that same
room all
season: “Protect Yost, win the
weekend, win the GLI, win the
Big Ten.”
Saturday night, they had the
opportunity to accomplish all of
them.
The Wolverines were at home,
having won the Great Lakes
Invitational in December, with a
chance to sweep Michigan State
for the Big Ten regular-season
title. And maybe, in the process,
silence the criticism that has
followed them this season.
They faced the pressure that
comes when an entire season
comes down to one game, the
type of pressure you would
feel sitting on a 17 in blackjack.
Except, if they lost this hand,
they would lose everything
they worked so hard to avoid
repeating.
They were risking that feeling
of heartbreak.
* * *
T
wo years ago, when
Michigan fell apart
in the regular season
behind a lackluster defense and
lack of energy, it fought back into
the CCHA playoffs for a chance
to salvage the season. There was
no chance at an at-large bid into
the NCAA Tournament. If the
Wolverines wanted to make it,
they’d have to win out.
Sitting near the bottom of the
conference, team after team fell
to the Wolverines, even the ones
that had defeated them earlier
in the season, all the way to the
conference final. They clawed
back, but only to fall short in the
final period.
They cried, then fell silent and
vowed to never let that feeling
happen again.
Last year, having started the
season so well, Michigan fell
apart at the end of the season,
when it needed one win in the
Big Ten Tournament to secure
its fate in the postseason. The
Wolverines had just defeated No.
1 Minnesota the weekend before,
giving their postseason hopes
new life.
And for 96 minutes, they
fought and held on against
Penn State in the first round of
the Big Ten Tournament. They
stopped shot after shot and
came inches — literally inches
— away from doing so, only to
feel that pain
again. They
had done
everything
they could, but
they were left
helpless once
more.
They cried
again, said
even fewer
words than the last time, and
once more, they vowed to never
experience that heartbreak
again.
* * *
W
hen the final
horn sounded
Saturday, they were
heartbroken once more.
Junior forward Andrew Copp
bent over with
his stick on his
knees, gliding
from one end
of the ice to
the other.
Michigan
coach Red
Berenson and
the rest of
the coaching
staff shuffled off the ice without
shaking any of the players’
hands.
Senior forwards Zach Hyman
and Travis Lynch skated out to
the ice to be honored on Senior
Night, but with forced smiles.
They hugged teammates, waved
to the crowd and kissed the ice —
only out of tradition. They were
still hurting.
For 60 minutes, the
Wolverines played perhaps
some of their best hockey of the
season. Maybe they could have
passed the puck more sharply
or cleared the puck quicker. But
they attacked the net, held onto
the puck and didn’t stay in the
penalty box.
But when Michigan thought
it had a chance, the Spartans
were there with bodies flying
everywhere. Michigan State
goaltender Jake Hildebrand,
who has had a quiet season,
played perhaps his best game,
as if to personally say, You shall
not pass.
“I told them they did
everything they could to
make it happen,” Berenson
said. “We had the chance, the
opportunity.”
There are periods of silence
when Berenson speaks, not
because he doesn’t know what to
say but because it hurts to say it.
He looks down and around and
then finally, he says, “It is what
it is.”
And right now, it’s heartbreak.
It’s the feeling they have after
playing one of their best games
and still losing.
* * *
N
ow, as the Big Ten
Tournament looms, the
Wolverines’ past follows
them once again. They arrive
at the conference tournament
needing to win it all to make it to
the NCAA Tournament.
They vowed to end this
feeling, never to go back to that
feeling of heartbreak. It’s a vow
they’re sick of making, but it’s
one they’re going to have to
make once again.
This feeling, whether they
like it or not, is on them. Next
weekend, it’s a chance, as
Berenson puts it, “to salvage our
so-called status.” It’s time to see
whether this team is ready to
break its streak.
Whether they won or not,
they weren’t headed to the
NCAA Tournament if they won
Saturday night. And it won’t
matter how far they go in the
tournament, so long as they
make it.
After 22 years of making the
postseason followed by two
consecutive years of missing it,
the heartbreak has become all
too familiar.
But it doesn’t have to be.
Garno can reached at ggarno@
umich.edu or on Twitter @G_Garno.
JAMES COLLER/Daily
The Michigan hockey team has put itself into a now-familiar position: It must win the Big Ten Tournament this weekend to make the NCAA Tournament.
GREG
GARNO
“We had the
chance, the
opportunity.”
passion, intensity, and joy.
But the two have been apart
for nearly three years now, and
after dropping to its worst start
to the season in 28 years, Michi-
gan has made another desperate
attempt to win itself a date with
the postseason.
No one feels that desperation
quite like the seniors. They’re
the only ones who know what
it’s like to play in the tourna-
ment, making the sudden break-
up all the more painful.
As the game wore on and
another
disappointing
loss
became more of a reality by the
second, that desperation could
be seen from the seniors on the
ice. Defensemen Andrew Sinelli,
Mike Chiasson and Brennan
Serville could be seen delivering
hits and chasing down passes as
a part of a unit that surrendered
just 19 shots.
Senior forwards Zach Hyman
and Travis Lynch could be seen
corralling the puck in the cor-
ner, dashing down the ice on
breakaways
and
setting
up
shop near Hildebrand’s crease,
desperately screening and pok-
ing anything that came within
reach.
It was some of the best hockey
the fans at Yost Ice Arena had
seen all season, but after yet
another disappointing, agoniz-
ing loss that spoiled the seniors’
day, the Wolverines’ happy end-
ing is held up high on a break-
able thread as well.
“We put ourselves in a tough
spot,” Berenson said. “We have
to work our way out of it. I think
our team has put everything
they had into this weekend.
We went there and had a good
game in Lansing, and we played
another good game tonight.
“It’s
your
body of work
during
the
year, and it’s
too
bad
it
comes
down
to one game or
one weekend
to dictate your
destiny,
but
that’s
what
happened.”
Even
with
seconds to go, it didn’t seem
quite real for Michigan. A flur-
ry of shots near the net in the
closing minutes looked to be
the sequence that would finally
break Hildebrand. With Hyman
and Lynch skating freely all
around the net and getting
seemingly open looks, the fans
rose to their feet, not wondering
if a senior would rise up to be a
hero, but which one and when.
But each time, Hildebrand
was there. After allowing eight
goals in his previous two stints
against Michigan, both losses,
the netminder showed why
he’s the favorite to be Big Ten
Goaltender of the Year. The
breakaways, wrap-arounds and
one-timers the Wolverines had
used to become the best offense
in the nation fell silent when
they needed them most.
“Sometimes the puck isn’t
going to go in, and they play
well defensively,” Hyman said.
“Unfortunately, they were able
to capitalize on the little chanc-
es they had. We had a bunch of
chances, but couldn’t capitalize
on them.”
With it all on the line, Michi-
gan
lost
it,
and that was
a tough pill to
swallow. Most
fans
trickled
out
of
Yost
following the
devastating
loss. But those
who did stay
celebrated
a
senior
class
so
dead-set
on winning that they had to be
coaxed into kissing center-ice
and posing for team photos after
their final home game, a long-
time Wolverine tradition.
But
before
the
memories
so close to the team just fade
away, the seniors will have one
more shot at a happy ending and
regain the love of the NCAA
Tournament. With more goals
than any team and blowout wins
over every Big Ten team, the
Wolverines are more than capa-
ble at one final run in the Big
Ten Tournament, which begins
Thursday against Wisconsin in
Detroit.
“I wouldn’t want to play us
next week,” Berenson said. “I
think it’s a good opportunity for
us to salvage our so-called ‘sta-
tus’ whether it’s in the NCAA
Tournament or Big Ten status.”
past sophomore goaltender Zach
Nagelvoort.
“You never want to give up
a goal in the first shift of the
period, but we had a lot of time to
come back,” said senior forward
Zach Hyman. “We pressured
them really well.”
It wasn’t as if Michigan didn’t
have enough chances to find the
equalizer. It had plenty.
With
6:19
remaining
in
regulation, a loose puck squirted
out to sophomore forward Tyler
Motte. He had a wide-open net,
he ripped a shot, and he saw the
wide-open net vanish.
Hildebrand shifted from the
right
to
left
goal post, flung
his glove in the
air and Motte’s
shot somehow
landed
in
leather instead
of twine.
During the
final
minute
of regulation,
Hildebrand
stood tall against Motte once
more. A rebound opportunity was
smothered, and the Wolverines
couldn’t break through with the
extra attacker despite a lengthy
stay in the offensive zone.
“Their goalie stood on his head
and played as well as I’ve seen a
goalie play this year,” Berenson
said.
Michigan State led the entire
game and was sparked by an
early goal off the stick of forward
Michael
Ferrantino.
Midway
through the first period, just as
a Michigan penalty had expired,
Ferrantino skated through the
left circle and fired a rising shot
over Nagelvoort’s left shoulder.
The Wolverines broke through
just once, as they evened the
score at one when freshman
defenseman
Zach
Werenski
netted his ninth of the season
with 7:10 left in the second
period. Werenski corralled the
puck at the high slot, paused
momentarily and fired a shot into
the top corner.
Shortly after Ferrantino’s goal,
the Wolverines began to take
control of the game, flipping the
switch on its dangerous offense.
They peppered Hildebrand with
a
flurry
of
chances.
“Sometimes
the puck isn’t
going
to
go
in,
but
they
played
well
defensively
and,
unfortunately,
they
capitalized on
the little chances that they had,”
Hyman said. “I mean, that’s the
name of the game is putting your
chances in.”
The initial half of the second
period played to the same tune
as the final half of the first,
but Hildebrand continued his
stout
performance.
Michigan
whizzed a pair of shots wide and
couldn’t beat Hildebrand even
in the midst of a stretch where it
outshot Michigan State 6-0 in the
first 9:27 of the middle frame.
All evening, the Wolverines
won the possession battle and
finished the game with 19 more
shots than the Spartans. But not
every ending is a happy one, even
if all signs point toward such
a finish and even if Michigan
deserved one.
“I think our team has put
everything they had during this
weekend,” Berenson said. “We
went down there and played
a good game in Lansing and
we played another good game
tonight, and it didn’t happen.”
Throughout the final month
of the season, the Wolverines
controlled their own destiny
for a Big Ten title, but they fell
short. A victory one night ago
in East Lansing set the stage
for Michigan to win its first
conference championship since
2011, but it fell short.
And with a myriad of chances
to find the goal — and the words
— that would have been enough
to compose a happy ending, it fell
short.
The Wolverines’ storybook
ending was almost complete, but
sometimes the most promising of
storylines don’t pan out. It just
didn’t happen. Michigan will
have to settle for a new story — a
shot at redemption in next week’s
Big Ten Tournament.
With this fairytale in the
wastebasket, the Wolverines are
back to writing once more, but
writing a new story is better than
being unable to write anything at
all.
“We had an
opportunity to
do something
special.”
“Our team has put
everything they
had during this
weekend.”
MICHIGAN
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