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.”