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.