2B — October 26, 2015
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
An old adage with new meaning
T
hree seasons ago, it was
hard to imagine the
Michigan hockey team
would end up
here. Three
seasons ago,
the Wolver-
ines missed
the NCAA
Tournament
with a loss
in their last
game of the
season, and
then it hap-
pened again
in 2014, and again in 2015. All of
a sudden, none of the players on
their current roster have played
in the NCAA Tournament.
“I’ve never had a taste in the
tournament, and I’ve been here
almost four years now,” said
senior forward Boo Nieves on
Wednesday. “It’s definitely hard-
er, because every year it feels
like I’ve been getting farther
and farther away. We need to
make sure we do things right the
first time so we don’t find our-
selves digging ourselves a hole.”
That three-year skid is a dubi-
ous one, but if you’ve followed
the program at all, you know
about the one that came before
it. From 1991 to 2012, Michigan
reached 22 consecutive NCAA
Tournaments.
There’s a fine line between
trying to forget that streak and
trying to emulate it. It can be
the Wolverines’ worst enemy
or their best friend. On the one
hand, it seems more than any-
thing like the elephant in the
room. On the other, it’s part of
the tradition of the program,
and it’s better to have that tradi-
tion and try to build on it than
not to have it at all.
“We don’t want to over-dwell
on last year or the year before,”
said Michigan coach Red Beren-
son. “This is a new team, a new
season and a new schedule. But
we know as coaches we’ve got
to get off to a better start, and
we’ve got to be a better team for
the whole season.”
But no one on this year’s team
has played on an NCAA Tourna-
ment team, and if that remains
the case next spring, the senior
class will be the first one in a
quarter-century to graduate
without an appearance. Six play-
ers on the 2015 roster were 14
the last time Michigan played in
the NCAA Tournament, and that
statistic will only get bleaker if
the streak continues.
Fortunately for the Wolver-
ines, the brighter days aren’t
too far in the past yet, and the
coach at the helm knows how to
get them back there. The biggest
key Michigan has talked about
so far is taking care of business
in early-season non-conference
games, which it hasn’t done in
recent years.
“It’s been tough trying to
wait until the last minute the
last three years,” Nieves said.
“This year, it’s my last year, so
I want to make sure that we get
off to the right start so we’re not
stuck on our heels in the Big Ten
Tournament.”
Nieves remembers those situ-
ations well, as they have come in
the past two years (before that,
it was the CCHA Tournament
that decided Michigan’s fate).
The Wolverines know what
forced them to go down to the
wire: They didn’t win the non-
conference games they should
have.
In the past three seasons,
when Michigan missed the tour-
nament, the Wolverines were
19-13-2 outside their conference,
excluding postseason contests.
In the previous four years, when
they made the tournament in
each one, they went 22-10-3 in
the non-conference.
One game per season might
not seem like a big difference,
but when you consider the mar-
gin by which the Wolverines
have missed the NCAA Tour-
nament, it’s all the difference.
Sure, Big Ten Tournament losses
to Penn State (2014) and Min-
nesota (2015) were the imme-
diate causes, but Michigan’s
struggles dated back far earlier.
The Wolverines can’t win the
Big Ten Tournament in October
or November, but they can put
themselves in a good position
by winning games against non-
league opponents.
“I think I can speak for pretty
much anyone that’s played for
Michigan hockey that you’re
not going to take a game for
granted,” said junior forward JT
Compher. “That’s the way we’re
playing this year — you’re not
taking any game for granted.”
That emphasis shows up in
several areas. Michigan is work-
ing harder to score first this
season, but also to win the third
period and hold down leads.
The Wolverines also know they
have to protect their home ice,
where they dropped games to
New Hampshire, Penn State and
Michigan State last season.
Nieves said that new mindset
has made a difference in the
team’s energy so far this season.
No longer can the Wolverines
lose focus early in the season
and make up ground in March.
Through two weeks of the
season, they have avoided dan-
ger. They escaped Mercyhurst
at home twice, 3-2 and 6-4, and
then came away from upstate
New York with a 5-5 tie against
Union and a 5-2 win over Rens-
selaer.
None of those results will put
the entire country on notice,
but Michigan has taken its new
attitude and used it to avoid a
potentially résumé-killing loss
in the first two weeks. Maybe
that’s good enough for now.
Berenson doesn’t have to go
back far in the history books to
find a time when they failed to
do even that. Last year, a tal-
ented team dropped the opener
at Ferris State, lost at Boston
University three weeks later and
then suffered two blowout losses
at Michigan Tech.
At that point, the Wolverines
were 2-5, and as Berenson said
Wednesday, “All of a sudden,
we were on our heels. We really
never recovered from those.”
Two years ago, Michigan
went 8-4-2 in non-conference
play but fell to Penn State in the
Big Ten Tournament, dropping
out of the NCAA Tournament
field.
“That’s how one game can
change your whole RPI and your
season,” Berenson said. “We’ve
got to worry about every game.”
“Every game counts” is an old
adage that almost every coach
uses, but the Michigan hockey
team knows it better than any-
one else. Three years of heart-
break will teach you that.
Lourim can be reached
at jlourim@umich.edu or
on Twitter @jakelourim.
SPORTSMONDAY COLUMN
JAKE
LOURIM
JAMES COLLER/Daily
Michigan coach Red Berenson has encouraged his team to put greater emphasis on early-season non-conference games to prepare for the NCAA Tournament hunt.
and we couldn’t get out of the
zone.
“So that’s where we were tired
and we just couldn’t get off to
change. It was a little bit of a test
for our team, and we got away
with it.”
Yet the next day, the Wolverine
blueliners held RPI to just two
goals on 21 shots — making their
defensive performance on Friday
appear to be an anomaly. They
tallied 18 blocked shots, cleared
the
puck
more
effectively,
ramped up the physicality and
limited the same turnovers that
plagued them against Union.
Friday night’s foe was the
stronger one. RPI is unranked,
while Union is the 18th-ranked
team in the nation. After the
Engineers beat then-No. 1 Boston
College on Oct. 11, though, there
was no question that RPI had
talent — regardless of ranking
— that needed to be contained.
That makes Michigan’s defensive
inconsistency
even
more
puzzling.
“Our team defense was better,
(we had) more backcheck, more
shutdown and more playing the
way we can play,” said freshman
forward Brendan Warren. “We
kept pucks out of the net, and
that let us play more offense.”
Michigan didn’t pay for its
costly mistakes this time around,
but without consistent defensive
play, the Wolverines might not be
so fortunate next time.
Young talent on
display for ‘M’
Six of seven
Wolverines finish
5K race in under
18 minutes
By TOR THORNE
For the Daily
As
the
No.
2
Michigan
women’s cross country team
looks ahead to the Big Ten
Championships
next
week,
Friday’s EMU Classic gave some
of the team’s younger and more
inexperienced
members
an
opportunity to showcase their
development
and
continued
improvement.
The
Wolverines
did
not
disappoint
in
the
5,000-
meter contest, as dry course
conditions propelled six of the
seven Wolverines to finish the
race in under
18 minutes. All
seven finished
within the top
25 runners.
More
so,
several of the
Wolverines
met personal
goals
in
Friday’s race,
according
to
Michigan
coach Mark McGuire.
Leading the way for the
Wolverines
was
redshirt
sophomore Corrine Florie, who
placed
sixth
overall.
Florie
missed the cut for this year’s
postseason roster and came into
Friday’s race with something
to prove. She clocked in with
a personal record of 17:41.6,
about 26 seconds faster than
her 5,000-meter time at the
beginning of the year.
“You can’t let the pressure get
to you,” Florie said. “You still
have to come out and perform,
and it’s the time and the results
that matter.”
Trailing just a few seconds
behind
Florie
was
redshirt
junior Gina McNamara, whose
17:48.7 time was a new personal
best on the course, placing her
eighth to narrowly beat out
fifth-year senior Laura Addison
(17:48.9).
Other notable performances
came in the form of new top
5,000-meter times for redshirt
freshmen Ellie Leonard and
Holly Petrusson, who finished
11th
and
14th,
respectively.
Sandwiched between them was
senior Olivia Bracket, who came
in 12th.
Rounding out the Wolverines
in
uniform
was
redshirt
freshman Sydney Badger with a
time of 18:26.6 and a 22nd-place
finish.
Following the race, McGuire
reiterated
the
significance
of
Friday’s
meet
for
the
development of his program.
“We’re going to have some
people
step
into
some
new
roles,”
McGuire said.
“This type of
meet serves as
a benchmark
for people that
will move on
and could very
possibly
be
going to the
Big Ten meet
next year.”
According to McGuire, for
many of the race’s participants,
the EMU Classic will be the last
race they run this fall before
track and field begins in the
winter.
As a result, the runners
treated the race like it was
the
postseason.
Regarding
individuals in Friday’s race,
McGuire had a resoundingly
positive outlook for the team’s
future and the young talent it
currently possesses.
“We will have athletes that
ran today run in the Big Ten
meet next year, I can tell you
that for a fact,” McGuire said.
WOMEN’S CROSS COUNTRY
“We’re going to
have some people
step into some
new roles.”
and often, forcing turnovers and
turning clearing the puck into
a virtually impossible task for
RPI. Michigan connected well
through center and outshot the
Engineers (1-4-1), 6-4.
Though the shot difference
between the two clubs wasn’t
significant, RPI’s carelessness
with the puck and the Wolverines’
defensive
pressure
allowed
them to enjoy the majority of
possession.
“We were coming off a hard-
fought game last night, and I
think that helped us get a good
start,” said Michigan coach Red
Berenson. “We had the juices
running, we got into playing a fast
game last night, and I think that
really helped us.”
The
Engineers’
most
dangerous
opportunity
came
with 8:31 left in the period, when
RPI broke out on a three-on-two
counter. Forward Travis Fulton
received the puck in the circle
and fired a shot on net, but junior
goaltender Zach Nagelvoort was
up to the task.
Michigan
answered
its
captain’s call for energy to begin
the second period as well.
Just 28 seconds into the frame,
junior
forward
Tyler
Motte
carried the puck through the
right circle before backhanding
it from his knees inside the far
post. With his spectacular effort,
Motte put the Wolverines up 2-0
against the Engineers.
Each side notched another
goal in the period — RPI’s after a
combination between Fulton and
Zach Schroeder, and Michigan’s
coming
off
the stick of
sophomore
forward Tony
Calderone.
The
Engineers
looked
more
comfortable
in
their
offensive zone
in the second,
accumulating
three more shots than they had in
the previous period. Yet the same
could be said for the Wolverines,
as they tallied 11 shots compared
to their total of six in the first.
The third period remained
quiet on both ends until the 13th
minute, when RPI forward Jake
Wood found twine during a
power play to reduce Michigan’s
lead to one. The goal gave the
Engineers new life, as they looked
more threatening on the offensive
end. But they never mustered the
tying goal before the Wolverines
could respond with a lamp lighter
of their own five minutes later.
Michigan iced the game with
1:34 left to play, finishing an
empty-net breakaway for its fifth
goal of the game.
Nagelvoort
was
impressive
throughout the contest, tallying 10
saves. Though the second goal he
conceded could have been saved,
the first goal he surrendered was
largely due to
an impressive
effort
by
Fulton.
The
RPI
forward drew
Nagelvoort
out of position
while
in
possession,
before
laying
the
puck
in
front
for
an
easy tap in.
With the victory over RPI, the
Wolverines finished their upstate
New York road trip with a win
and a tie — and in the process
have accomplished one small
thing to begin the season that
Boston College couldn’t.
“These were two tough teams
in two tough buildings (this
weekend),” Berenson said. “This
is good for our team to get a
positive feel about our own team
on the road. We had a lot of young
players play well, and so I’d say it
was a good experience for us.”
BY THE NUMBERS
Michigan Hockey
37%
Of Michigan’s 19 goals scored this
season have come from freshmen
6
Team-high point total for senior Justin
Selman through four games
10%
Michigan’s success rate on the power
play through four games
2-0-2
Record of Robert Morris, which comes
to Yost Ice Arena this weekend
DEFENSE
From Page 1B
“We were
coming off a
hard-fought
game last night.”
HOCKEY
From Page 1A
RYAN MCLOUGHLIN/Daily
Sophomore Zach Werenski leads a retooled defense for the Michigan hockey team.