8A — Wednesday, March 18, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Goaltending solution a key
before Big Ten Tournament

By ERIN LENNON 

Daily Sports Editor

Though 
this 
year’s 
Big 

Ten field looks far different 
than it did in the conference’s 
inaugural season of hockey 
competition, one thing has 
stayed 
the 

same: 
strong 

goaltending.

Michigan State goaltender 

Jake Hildebrand stole the show 
in the regular-season finale 
against Michigan to secure 
his title as both the Big Ten 
Goaltender and Player of the 
Year. In doing so, the junior 
became the second straight 
netminder to earn both honors 
after Minnesota’s Adam Wilcox 
did last year.

If the Wolverines can get 

past 
Wisconsin’s 
standout 

goaltender 
in 
senior 
Joel 

Rumple — who led the Badgers 
to a Big Ten Championship and 
an at-large bid to the NCAA 
Tournament last season — they 
will face Hildebrand for the 
sixth time this season in the Big 
Ten semifinals Friday.

Of course, Michigan will have 

to overcome its own goaltending 
woes if it hopes to advance past 
Thursday’s first-round contest.

Having played 52 percent of 

the 
Wolverines’ 
goaltending 

minutes, junior Steve Racine 
carries the league’s worst save 
percentage (.892) among Big Ten 
netminders who have logged 
significant time. And though his 
counterpart, Zach Nagelvoort, 
is currently the conference’s 
second-best 
netminder 
on 

paper, the sophomore hasn’t 
been 
consistent 
enough 
to 

prevent Michigan from falling 
off the NCAA Tournament 

bubble.

In two starts last weekend, 

Nagelvoort 
allowed 
five 

goals. Saturday, he gave the 
Wolverines one of his best 
performances but was bested 
by 
Hildebrand 
in 
the 
2-1 

goaltending battle. He wasn’t 
stellar, but he kept Michigan in 
the game — something coach 
Red Berenson has been looking 
for in a starter all season.

But 
against 
proven 

postseason 
goaltenders 
in 

Rumple 
and 
Hildebrand, 

the 
Wolverines 
will 
need 

to be stellar if they want a 
championship of their own.

“I’m 
a 
one-goalie 
coach, 

but we’ve got two goalies,” 
Berenson said.

WOLVERINES 
DRAW 

WISCO: As the No. 3 seed for the 
second straight year, Michigan 
will play the conference’s last-
place finisher. This year, the 
Big Ten bottom feeder was 
Wisconsin by a landslide.

On paper, the quarterfinal 

matchup — which will take 
place Thursday night at Joe 
Louis Arena in Detroit — 
should mean an easy ‘W’ for the 
Wolverines. Michigan swept 
the Badgers in four games this 
season. And Wisconsin won 
just two conference matchups, 
compiling 
a 
4-25-5 
overall 

record and marking one of 
the worst seasons in program 
history.

Then again, that’s what was 

said about Penn State one year 
ago.

In their second year as a 

varsity program, the Nittany 
Lions entered the tournament 
having 
dropped 
16 
of 
20 

conference games — despite 
picking up two wins against 

Michigan — before playing 
spoiler in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Like 
Wisconsin, 
Penn 

State had skated with teams 
like Minnesota all season, as 
the Nittany Lions had eight 
conference games decided by 
one goal. They, too, were a young 
team improving by the day.

Two 20-minute overtimes 

later, Michigan walked off the 
ice having been stunned, its 
postseason plans erased.

So with nothing in terms of 

reputation or “status” to lose 
and a surprise Big Ten automatic 
bid to gain, the Badgers are as 
dangerous as anyone heading 
into the first round of the 
conference tournament.

“The last two games they 

played 
here, 
they 
were 
a 

different 
team,” 
Berenson 

said. “I think they got a little 
confidence here even though 
they lost.”

COMPHER 
COMING 

BACK?: Forward JT Compher 
is listed as day-to-day, Berenson 
said Monday. The sophomore 
left the game in the second 
period after taking a hard hit 
into the boards in East Lansing 
on Friday.

He did not return in the third 

period and missed Saturday’s 
season finale at Yost Ice Arena.

Compher has held one of 

Michigan’s hottest sticks down 
the stretch, having notched 
two hat tricks in his last five 
games. After a quiet first half, 
Compher — last year’s Big Ten 
Freshman of the Year — scored 
seven goals in four games to tie 
his career record for goals in a 
season (11).

The final decision on his 

return will be made Wednesday 
after practice, Berenson said.

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Zach Nagelvoort hasn’t been consistent enough to nail down Michigan’s starting job this season.

NOTEBOOK

Baxter building special 
teams from ground up

The coordinator 

is focusing on 

teaching the basics 

this spring

By ZACH SHAW

Daily Sports Writer

The Michigan football team 

didn’t make a single field goal 
in 
practice 

Tuesday. 
But 
for 

special 
teams 

coordinator 
John 
Baxter, 

things 
are 

going just as 
planned.

A 
year 

removed from 
his last stint 
at 
Southern 

California, Baxter is building 
his special teams unit from the 
ground up. After losing punter 
Will Hagerup and kicker Matt 
Wile to graduation, Baxter has 
his hands full tweaking the 
replacement candidates.

“What we’re doing is what 

pro baseball players call ‘the 
bullpen,’ ” he said. “They’re 
just spinning balls into the net, 
they work the mechanics from 
the ground up, and that’s what 
we’re doing here. I’m taking 
these guys, and they’re kicking 
way less than they probably ever 
have, and we’re rebuilding them 
from the ground up.

“Once the season gets going, 

it’s going to get hot out there, 
its going to get dicey, and if you 
can’t bring a kid back to some 
place he’s familiar with, he’s 
going to spend the fall lost.”

Anticipated starter Andrew 

David doesn’t arrive on campus 
for a few months, but in the 

meantime, Baxter is treating 
all of his players like starters. 
Sophomore 
Kyle 
Seychel, 

freshman Ryan Tice and senior 
Kenny Allen are all getting 
equal reps — albeit into the net.

In addition to the kicking 

game, 
Baxter 
tried 
out 
14 

Wolverines in the kick return 
position Tuesday.

“My job at this point is not 

to pick a starter, name a starter, 

or 
even 

think 
about 

a 
starter,” 

Baxter 
said. 

“My 
job 
is 

to 
build 
as 

much 
depth 

as 
possible. 

I’m just trying 
to build a GM 
car, 
where 

you can take 
a 
carburetor 

on an Olds, put it on a Buick 
and keep going — build as much 
depth as possible.

“Someone will be standing 

out there at the stadium in Utah, 
but I’m not sure who it’ll be.”

Regardless of who it is, there’s 

a good chance Baxter will know 
him well. The only coach who 
didn’t go on any of the team’s 
flurry of recruiting trips, Baxter 
stayed in Ann Arbor to help 
implement his trademarked and 
nationally utilized “Academic 
Gameplan” 
program, 
which 

focuses on strategizing academic 
success.

With many players taking 

extra credits to create wiggle 
room in the fall, Baxter knows 
that building a program from the 
ground up requires persistent 
support both on and off the field.

“(In the past,) we were 

drinking out of a garden hose. 
Today they’re drinking out of 
a fire hydrant,” Baxter said of 

academics today. “So we need 
to help them sort through that 
chaos. It’s one thing to say we 
have student-athletes — it’s 
another thing to live it.”

On 
the 
field, 
Baxter’s 

grassroots 
special 
teams 

campaign involves a lot of 
strategizing, but not a lot of 
results. Not yet, at least.

“Imagine being a swing coach 

in golf,” Baxter said. “If you’re 
going to break a guy’s swing 
down and make changes, you 
can’t expect him to be hitting 
great drives down the middle 
right away. There’s going to be 
some glitches.

“But it’s March. I’m not 

really worried about March, I’m 
worried about September. So if 
we don’t take this time to make 
fundamental changes — their 
mobility, their core, all that kind 
of stuff — then we’ll never have a 
chance to change them.”

For a team that made just 

71.4 percent of its field goals and 
ranked 127th out of 128 teams 
in return yardage last season, 
Baxter knows the ‘swing’ won’t 
come right away. But with plenty 
of depth in all units returning 
to campus, he feels that the 
talent is there, it just needs to be 
discovered.

“If you’re going to work on 

their swing, you’ve got to take 
the results away, because they’ll 
worry about the results,” Baxter 
said. “I’m not worried about 
the results. I’m worried about 
getting that swing right. The 
results will be there.

“There are guys out there 

right now that you’ll say they’ll 
never see the field that will be on 
the field. There’s a guy that you 
don’t even know his name that’s 
going to make the play of the 
season, and I don’t know who it 
is either.”

FOOTBALL

“So we need to 
help them sort 
through that 

chaos.”

