The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
March 14, 2016 — 3B
Michigan cruises
on Senior Night
By KEVIN SANTO
Daily Sports Writer
As the number of games
remaining on the Michigan
hockey schedule has dwindled,
a shroud of
uncertainty
has
gradually
begun to descend upon the
Wolverines.
Unlike in recent years, it
hasn’t been one about their
NCAA Tournament fate. They
will be among the 16-team field
— that much is certain.
Rather,
there
have
been
questions
about
whether
Saturday night’s regular-season
finale against Penn State would be
Michigan coach Red Berenson’s
last time behind the bench at
Yost Ice Arena — the place he has
called home while building an
illustrious 32-year career as the
program’s patriarch.
But regardless of the rumors,
the
Wolverines
made
one
thing certain: If this was their
coach’s last game on home ice,
he was going out in a fashion
emblematic of his entire career.
Behind a dominant second-
period
effort
and
a
lethal
power-play performance, No.
9 Michigan cruised to a 6-1
victory against the 14th-ranked
Nittany Lions (10-9-1-1 Big Ten,
20-12-4 overall).
The sweep was a much-
needed result for Michigan,
which was in the middle of a
debilitating
three-game
skid
entering the weekend.
“It’s important,” Berenson
said. “We’ve been in different
situations in different years.
Sometimes
it’s
hard
to
manufacture momentum if you
really haven’t earned it, and I
think this team has earned it.
We can talk about last week,
and how we took a big step
backwards. I thought this week
we took a big step forward.”
Kyle
Connor
opened
the
scoring for the Wolverines (12-5-
3-2, 22-7-5) in both the first and
second period. The two finishes
put the freshman forward at the
30-goal mark, and Connor is the
first player in the nation to reach
the milestone this year.
His second-period goal came
in a way that has become all too
familiar to opposing teams.
Six minutes into the frame,
Michigan
rotated
the
puck
around its offensive zone on
the power play until it landed
on the stick of sophomore
defenseman
Zach
Werenski.
The blueliner dished a cross-ice
pass to Connor, who fired a one-
timer past Penn State goaltender
Eamon McAdam.
The finish gave the Wolverines
a 4-1 lead, and they didn’t take
their foot off the pedal for the
rest of the contest.
Just a minute and a half
later, with Michigan still on
the power play, junior forward
JT Compher lit the lamp for his
team once more. After two shots
by Werenski and junior forward
Tyler Motte, the puck laid in the
crease, inches away from the
goal line.
Compher
cleaned
up
the
garbage
easily,
and
chased
McAdam with the goal, as the
Nittany Lions replaced him with
Matthew Skoff.
Though
the
first
frame
featured three goals from Connor,
junior forward Max Shuart and
senior forward Boo Nieves, the
Wolverines outdid their opening
performance
by
every
other
measure in the second.
The Wolverines closed out
their job from there, notching one
more goal off the stick of Nieves
in the third period and holding
the Nittany Lions scoreless.
The horn sounded, and the
stands began to ring out in
unison, “Thank you, Red!”
“Well, they’re thanking me,”
Berenson said. “But they don’t
know and neither do I.”
That’s the last he mentioned of
his possible retirement.
But after the Senior Night
presentations, Berenson exited
the ice. He started his walk
toward the locker room at Yost
Ice Arena for what may be the
final time, with a scoreboard
looming overhead, reading 6-1 in
favor of his team.
With every step he took, it was
hard not to remember his lasting
creation — a program with two
national titles, 11 Frozen Four
appearances,
11
conference
championships and 22 NCAA
Tournament berths.
There’s no telling if the coming
weeks will be his last push for
postseason hardware.
But
if
tonight
was
Red
Berenson’s goodbye, it sure was
a sweet one.
PENN STATE
MICHIGAN
1
6
Connor deserves the Hobey
R
ed Berenson said
Kyle Connor lacked
confidence when he first
donned the
Michigan
sweater. That
was back in
October when
Connor was
skating on the
second line
and didn’t
even have the
most points
among his
freshmen
teammates.
But a move to the first line
in early December changed
the narrative, and Connor’s
confidence is now at an all-
time high. Friday, before
Connor could even answer a
question on whether that’s the
case, senior forward Justin
Selman interrupted and agreed,
pointing to Connor’s new
European-style haircut as the
only evidence you need.
With the regular season now
over, Connor’s 61 points lead
the nation, as do his 30 goals.
And with another four tallies
to cap this weekend, Connor
has nearly perfectly positioned
himself to win the Hobey Baker
award — a feat only Michigan
greats Kevin Porter (2008) and
Brendan Morrison (1997) have
accomplished.
There’s no question his
numbers are astounding — his
1.79 points-per-game average
is the highest for a freshman
since superhuman Jack Eichel
registered 1.83 a game last
season. Eichel won the Hobey
Baker Award.
And Connor should, too.
Sure, it’s easy to chalk
up Connor’s success to his
linemates, juniors JT Compher
and Tyler Motte, who boast 52
and 50 points, respectively. And
to some extent, that may be true.
Compher leads the nation with
39 assists. But Connor leads that
three-headed monster, coined
the CCM line.
Connor commands the
attention, allowing room for
his linemates and when all the
defensive attention comes his
way, he has no problem feeding
Compher and Motte.
“He’s such a dangerous player
with the puck,” Berenson said.
“You don’t know for sure what
he’s going to do, what he’s going
to pull off. One thing is sure:
If he gets a scoring chance, it’s
going in the net. And when is
the last time we had a 30-goal
scorer? Let alone as a freshman.”
Porter was the last player to
notch 30 goals in a season; he
scored 33 times in 43 games. He
was a senior and won the Hobey.
Whereas Connor, just a freshman,
has scored 30 goals while playing
in nine fewer games.
Connor is guaranteed at least
two more contests, and it’s not
unreasonable that he matches
Porter’s total in those games —
in fact, most fans would assume
he does just that.
Critics may say Boston College
netminder Thatcher Demko,
who has posted an incredible
10 shutouts and a .939 save
percentage, deserves the award.
But he also benefits from one of
the nation’s best defenses that
has allowed 1.89 goals per game.
And while those stats
do warrant consideration,
the committee isn’t keen
on handing the award to
netminders — mind you,
Connor Hellebuyck registered
a mind-blowing .952 save
percentage for UMass-Lowell
back in 2012-13. He didn’t win
the Hobey Baker Award.
New Hampshire’s Andrew
Poturalski kept pace with
Connor for much of the season.
In 37 games, the sophomore
notched 52 points. But much of
that total stems from playing
a weak schedule. And just this
last week, Poturalski opted to
ditch the final games of the
season, and the last two years
of his college career, signing a
NHL contract with the Carolina
Hurricanes.
Unfortunately for Poturalski,
whose stats had him very much
in the race for the award, the
decision committee also takes a
player’s character into account
— and bolting early certainly
shows how much regard
Poturalski holds for college
hockey. Sure, he was realizing
his dream, but he could have
waited a couple more weeks, and
I’m confident Carolina would
have too.
By all means, it must be
frustrating for the committee to
hand the award to a freshman,
let alone having to do it two
years in a row. Before Eichel
won last season, Paul Kariya was
the lone freshman to accomplish
the feat after he had 100 points
playing for Maine in 1992-93.
Connor’s stats mirror
Eichel’s. Connor’s impact on
his team is similar to that
of Eichel’s. And he dazzles
everyone who watches him play,
just like Eichel.
“He’s one of those players,”
said senior forward Boo Nieves,
“when he gets the puck, you hold
your breath.”
And when it comes time to
announce the 2016 Hobey Baker
Award Winner, Michigan fans
shouldn’t have to hold their
breath.
Because Kyle Connor is far
and away the most deserving
player to win the award.
Rubinstein can be reached
at jasonbr@umich.edu and on
Twitter at @jrubinstein4.
JASON
RUBINSTEIN
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Kyle Connor’s 61 points and 30 goals have put him up for the Hobey Baker Award.
Michigan scores in two events
By SYLVANNA GROSS
Daily Sports Writer
Even after his team finished
the
2016
NCAA
Indoor
Championships in Birmingham,
Ala., tied for 58th place, scoring
just two points, Michigan men’s
track and field coach Jerry Clayton
found a way to stay positive.
“It’s twice as much as last
year!” Clayton joked.
The nation’s top 16 athletes
and top 12 relay teams were
invited to compete at the meet.
Senior Steven Bastien — who
competes in the heptathlon — and
the distance medley relay team
were Michigan’s only athletes to
qualify. The relay team comprised
of junior Connor Mora in the
1,200-meter leg, freshman Taylor
McLaughlin in the 400-meter,
sophomore Brennan Munley in
the 800-meter, and fifth-year
senior Mason Ferlic in the 1,600-
meter anchor.
Any
individual
or
relay
that placed eighth or above
automatically earned first team
All-American honors. Clayton
set a goal for the team that for
every athlete would come back
as an All-American.
And the team met that bar, as
both Bastien and the distance
medley relay team placed eighth.
Bastien, who transferred to
Michigan as a junior, has set
and re-broken the Wolverine
heptathlon
program
record
three times. He did it again this
weekend, earning his second-
consecutive All-American honor
and finishing with a total of 5,810
points. That total bested his
previous record at the Big Ten
Championships last month.
“I was super happy and felt
really blessed to have it all work
out,”
Bastien
said.
“There’s
so
many
opportunities
for
something to go wrong. I felt
really fortunate to have this
work out this was especially
there with all my family and
friends watching and to be able
to to do it two years in a row.”
According
to
Clayton,
this is the deepest and most
competitive the heptathlon event
— which occurs over both days of
competition — has been since its
start 12 years ago.
“People
look
at
(the
heptathlon) as seven individual
events, but it’s not,” Clayton
said. “You have to think of it
as one. (Bastien) has a good
temperament
and
mentality
about the event. He understands
that you can’t be too high from
the high or too low from the low.
You have to move on. You want
to use that energy and move on
and refocus. The good (athletes)
have
a
really
good
ability
regardless of how the last event
went to move on.”
Two potential factors could
have contributed to Bastien’s
success. The first is that Bastien
is
a
transfer
student
from
Samford University, just down
the road from the Birmingham
Crossplex. His familiarity with
the facility definitely did not
hurt him, nor did it against the
distance medley relay team — the
indoor track and field facility in
Ann Arbor is modeled after the
Birmingham facility.
Second, his dad was ranked,
for the heptathlon, at one point
in the top 25 internationally
and competed at the 1984 U.S.
Olympic trials.
Both he and Bastien’s mom —
natives of Saline, Mich. — made
the trek to support their son
in Alabama, a daunting road
trip to say the least. In addition
to
Bastien’s
parents,
the
Michigan
fanbase
was
extensive.
“We had a
really
good
turnout
of
Michigan
fans,” Clayton
said. “It was
real
exciting
to have them
there cheering for the athletes.
Before I came to Michigan, (the
turnout was) something I had
observed. It’s not typical of most
programs.”
Historically,
the
turnout
makes
sense.
It
was
the
University of Michigan Athletic
Director Donald B. Canham who
founded and served as director
for
the
first
NCAA
Indoor
Championships.
The distance medley relay
team paralleled Bastien’s success
despite an early fall in the first
leg. The team finished in 9:37.45,
10 seconds slower than the
program record it had set earlier
this year.
The
major
obstacle:
Mora’s
fall.
An
athlete
ahead of the
Wolverine
pack stumbled
and took Mora
and
three
other
teams
with him. But
out of the four
teams
that
went down, Michigan was the
only one to get competitive again.
“It would have been easy
to think that their dream of
winning or finishing top three
were gone, and it would have
been easy for them to mail it in,”
said Michigan assistant coach
Kevin Sullivan. “It’s a testament
to those guys that they didn’t.”
To make up for the tumble,
McLaughlin
had
the
fastest
400 split time of the field.
And, predictably, Ferlic pulled
through in the end.
“I’m so incredibly proud of these
guys,” Ferlic said. “In this sport,
and in sports in general, there are
uncontrollable circumstances and
it’s all about how you respond and
get back into it.
“Coming
in,
we
had
expectations to finish higher
and I honestly believe we could
have mixed it up with the best
of them today, but to finish All-
American today … leaves me
feeling very proud.”
Going forward, Clayton and
the Wolverines have their eyes
set on having more athletes
compete and increasing their
chance to place higher overall.
Clayton is in his third year at
the helm of the program, and he
emphasizes that he has placed
in the top 10 with school he’s
coached. He thinks Michigan
can do that, too, as it starts to
emphasize the team rather than
the individual awards.
But for now, the All-American
honors will have to suffice.
AMANDA ALLEN/Daily
Steven Bastien placed eighth in the heptathlon at the NCAA Championships.
“There’s so many
opportunities
for something to
go wrong.”
ICE HOCKEY