6A — Thursday, December 10, 2015
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Line changes spark explosion for ‘M’
Kile, Nieves,
Selman unite to
form powerful
second line
By MINH DOAN
Daily Sports Editor
Two weeks ago, after the
No. 9 Michigan hockey team
played a weekend series against
Dartmouth,
the
Wolverines
switched up their top two lines.
Junior forward Alex Kile
moved to a line with senior
forwards
Boo
Nieves
and
Justin Selman, while freshman
forward Kyle Connor joined
junior forwards JT Compher
and Tyler Motte.
And it worked.
Michigan scored 12 goals this
weekend, and the top two lines
were involved in nine of them.
“The coaches saw something
that even us players didn’t
notice,” Selman said. “It’s just
that little tweak, that one player,
that one kind of thing, which
opened up the scoring for both
of the lines.”
More importantly, Selman’s
line, which had scored just three
goals in the last six games, found
its scoring spark once again.
Friday, Selman scored the
goal to tie up the game at four,
and Connor scored an empty-
net goal to finish off the Badgers.
But the line felt they were
clicking, and it showed early
Saturday night.
Just 1:29 into the game,
Selman found himself wide
open in the left circle and fired
the puck at the Wisconsin
net. Badger goaltender Matt
Jurusik made the initial save but
couldn’t corral the rebound, and
Nieves was able to put the puck
away to put Michigan up early.
Selman gave a lot of credit
on the goal to his new linemate,
Kile, who made the cross-ice
pass to Selman to start the goal-
scoring play.
“(Kile’s) a really, really skilled
player and makes some great
plays,” Selman said. “On Boo’s
goal, that first one, he made a
great pass and hit me coming
down the ice. He’s really skilled,
he’s easy to play with. He’s
physical too, so he plays really
hard on both ends.”
But the trio wasn’t finished.
Just three minutes later, the
line went on the penalty kill.
Once again, Nieves and Selman
found themselves on an odd man
rush. But this time, Selman took
the initial shot and cleaned up
the rebound to
put Michigan
up
by
two
goals less than
five
minutes
into the game.
The
line
also scored the
Wolverines’
third goal of
the night when
Selman again
finished
off
a play, putting Michigan up by
one after Wisconsin tied back
up the game at two.
“(The adjustment period) was
maybe two drills in practice,”
Selman said. “We kind of even
said like ‘Wow, we’re kind of
gelling pretty good.’ I think
we found chemistry through
the weekend, and we kind
of expected to have a good
weekend after making some
good plays earlier in the week.”
But Selman noted that while
on the stat sheet the change
seemed
to
make
a
big
difference,
there
wasn’t
much
of
a
difference
between Kile
and Connor.
“Kile plays
a
similar
game to Kyle
Connor,”
Selman
said.
“He is that skilled, crafty, shifty-
type forward mentality.
“I can’t really put my finger
on
the
difference
between
(Connor and Kile), but they’re
both really, really good players.”
For Kile, though, playing on a
line with Nieves and Selman was
a little different than his old line.
“On Motte and JT’s line, I
was waiting for the puck to
come to me,” Kile said. “They’re
two players who like to grind
in the corners and work for the
puck. Playing with Boo, he adds
a little bit of speed. I like to try
to keep up with him. I’ve always
liked playing with fast players.”
Even after the statistical
success of his newly minted
lines,
Michigan
coach
Red
Berenson
wasn’t
completely
pleased with them after the
game.
“I can’t say I didn’t like them,
but I can’t say I did like them,”
Berenson said after Friday’s
game. “I thought it was a real
scramble of a game.”
But even if Berenson wasn’t
completely pleased with his
new lines, the changes brought
offensive success.
And with a big series against
Minnesota
coming
up,
the
Wolverines will take scoring
anywhere they can get it.
Results mixed for Flaherty
Sophomore scores
33 at Princeton,
improving on last
trip to home state
By BRANDON CARNEY
Daily Sports Writer
Sunday’s loss to Princeton may
have been the Michigan women’s
basketball team’s first game of
the 2015-16 season outside the
state of Michigan, but Katelynn
Flaherty enjoyed having a home
crowd of her own.
The Point Pleasant, N.J.,
native returned to the Garden
State for the second time in her
career and scored 33 points —
the second-most in her career
— in the Wolverines’ 74-57 loss.
With
family
and
friends
in the stands, Flaherty was
determined to put on a better
show than in her previous
appearance in her home state.
In last year’s visit to Rutgers,
the then-freshman laid an egg,
shooting 1-for-5 from the field
and finishing the night with
just four points off the bench.
It was one of Flaherty’s worst
performances in the season she
was named Big Ten Sixth Player
of the Year.
This time around, Flaherty
impressed everyone in Jadwin
Gymnasium
at
Princeton.
Despite being double-teamed
and physically challenged, the
sophomore stepped up and put
on one of the best performances
of her career.
“It shows how much I’ve
grown since freshman year,”
Flaherty said. “I think coming
back was much more of an
enjoyable experience this year,
just because I’m more confident
and more into the flow of the
game. I had a lot of fun playing
this year compared to last year
when I was more nervous.”
But Flaherty wanted not just
to put on a memorable individual
game, but help her team earn a
signature win.
Her 33-point night wasn’t
enough to lift the Wolverines
past the Tigers, who sit just
outside the top 25 in this week’s
polls. Outside of Flaherty’s 11
made field goals, Michigan
shot 25 percent from the field,
and no other scorer reached
double digits.
Flaherty’s zero assists and zero
rebounds added to a frustrating
night for the Wolverines. Besides
her point tally, the sophomore
accumulated just two other
statistics — two steals and four
turnovers.
It looked like the rest of the
team was struggling in ways
Flaherty did in her first trip
back home against the Scarlet
Knights, especially freshman
guards
Nicole
Munger
and
Boogie Brozoski — who were
also making homecoming trips.
Munger and Brozoski — from
Doylestown, Pa. and the Bronx,
N.Y., respectively — showed
their freshman inexperience and
struggled in their first trip back
to the Northeast in performances
similar to Flaherty’s last January
in Piscataway.
The freshmen combined to
shoot 1-for-6 and turned the ball
over five times in 27 minutes on
the court.
Now,
having
shown
she
can
personally
handle
the
homecoming,
Flaherty
will
have to take on a new challenge
before the Wolverines return in
February to take on Rutgers in
their regular-season finale.
The
amount
of
regional
high-school accolades between
Flaherty, Munger and Brozoski
can’t be counted on one hand,
but the number of wins in the
Northeast for Michigan can’t be
counted at all.
It’s up to Flaherty to change
that. If she can help her
teammates make the leap she’s
made between her two trips
home, then come February, the
Wolverines likely have what it
takes for the current group to
earn its first win in New Jersey.
“Katelynn cares about the
team first,” said Michigan coach
Kim Barnes Arico. “She knows
she’s going to need to be able to
have nights like that. We need
to get everyone on the team
involved for us to be successful
as well.”
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Junior forward Alex Kile moved to a line with Boo Nieves and Justin Selman, and the results were overwhelmingly positive.
SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily
Katelynn Flaherty scored 33 points in her return to her home state Sunday.
“The coaches saw
something that
even us players
didn’t notice.”