4B — March 28, 2016
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Then 
Michigan 
found 
an 

answer from its junior captain.

With 5:33 off the clock in the 

second 
period, 
JT 
Compher 

collected a puck from Motte along 
the right boards. He carried it 
across the top of the circle to the 
point and sniped the top shelf with 
a sea of players in front of net.

With 45 seconds left to play, 

Compher attempted to clear the 
puck through the middle of the ice 
with a backhand. North Dakota 
forward Luke Johnson picked off 
the pass easily, and he punished 
the Wolverines for their captain’s 
rare mistake.

Yet Michigan had one more 

comeback left, and it came out 
looking rejuvenated to begin the 
final frame. The Wolverines looked 
like the antithesis of the team that 
played a late overtime game the 
night before, and they finally had 
the benefit of their first full power 
play of the game at the 13:47 mark.

As the two minutes with a man 

advantage started waning away, it 
looked like North Dakota would 
avoid any danger and kill the 
penalty with ease. The Fighting 
Hawks 
weren’t 
allowing 
the 

Wolverines to set up their power 
play, and things were looking bleak.

It only took one chance, though. 

Michigan established formation 
and rotated the puck until it landed 
on Compher’s stick. The Wolverine 
captain fired and found the back of 
the net to even the game at two.

“JT gave us as good of leadership 

as we had in a long time at 
Michigan,” Berenson said. “When 
the game is on the line and we were 
behind, it was JT Compher that 
kept getting us back in the game. 
His will is tremendous.”

But that was the closest the 

Wolverines would come to the 
Frozen Four.

Less than 90 seconds later, 

Rhett Gardner added another to 
North Dakota’s total with a shot 
from the point, before the Fighting 
Hawks notched a fourth.

And 
finally, 
after 
Racine 

abandoned the net, came the fifth 
an empty-netter from Paul LaDue 
that snuck narrowly inside the right 
post and simultaneously pulled the 
plug on Michigan’s season.

The 
comebacks 
ended 
in 

Cincinnati. And Motte was just 
left there, with his stick in the ice.

MICHIGAN
From Page 1B
Michigan has nothing to regret

C

INCINNATI — The 
buzzer sounded at U.S. 
Bank Arena on the 

Michigan 
hockey team’s 
season-
ending loss 
to North 
Dakota, 
and like 
after every 
game, the 
Wolverines 
emptied off 
the bench to 
give Steve 
Racine a helmet-to-mask tap 
before getting in line to shake the 
opposing team’s hands.

While every Michigan player 

gave Racine a tap, he didn’t 
move, seemingly frozen in time. 
Racine’s head hung down. His 
body stood still.

But after the game Michigan 

played, against the opponent that 
it played, there is no reason for 
Racine to hang his head.

Yes, the Wolverines season 

ended, and yes, Racine’s career 
at Michigan was over, but North 
Dakota was the better team on 
the ice.

While the Wolverines gave a 

valiant effort, the Fighting Hawks 
were just too much to handle.

And they knew that early 

on, too.

“After all our first shifts (we 

knew),” said senior forward 
Boo Nieves. “They were hitting 
us, they were getting shots on 
net, and we couldn’t get out of 
our zone.”

Added Racine: “I think (I 

knew) about a minute in. Their 
pace in the game was way faster 
than any game we’ve played so 
far this year.”

And if it wasn’t clear to anyone 

watching, the shot totals after 
the first period were 24-8 — a 
definitive indication of North 
Dakota’s dominance.

The problem, though, wasn’t 

lack of effort by Michigan. The 
Fighting Hawks were just too 
good.

Not only does North Dakota 

have the second highest scoring 
line in the nation in forward 
Brock Boeser, Nick Schmaltz 

and Drake Caggiula, they also 
have a goaltender who boasts the 
second-longest shutout streak 
in NCAA history as well as a 
relentless defense that allowed 
freshman phenom Kyle Connor 
little room to operate all night.

Combining all that, the 

odds were stacked against the 
Wolverines.

And to add to that, Michigan 

played three and a half periods 
of a close hockey game the night 
before, while the Fighting Hawks 
cruised to a blowout victory.

But despite that, the Wolverines 

went into the break down by only 
a goal, spirits unbroken.

“After the first period, coach 

Powers came in and said ‘Hey, 
that’s the best they’ve got. 
We’ve survived that period,’ ” 
Nieves said.

And while it might’ve been 

the best the Fighting Hawks had, 
they were able to keep their play 
consistently at that level for three 
full periods.

In the second period, the tide 

started to turn for Michigan 
as it tied the game. But a bad 
giveaway by the Wolverines with 
45 seconds left in the period gave 
North Dakota the lead right back.

Even after one of 

Michigan’s strongest defensive 
performances, if not its best, 
the scoreboard still favored 
North Dakota after two periods 
— another sign that maybe the 
Wolverines were overmatched.

Of course, Michigan kept it 

close, even tying the game 8:39 
into the third period.

But North Dakota was 

relentless. Its forecheck worked 
even harder, and it continued to 
pepper shots at Michigan’s net.

And while Michigan boasts 

four lines that can score at any 
time, North Dakota let its four 
lines do its talking, especially in 
the third period.

The Fighting Hawks got goals 

from forward Rhett Gardner, a 
second-line winger, and forward 
Coltyn Sanderson, a third-line 
center, to grab hold of the lead 
for good.

“I don’t think they have any 

player on their team — four 
lines and six (defenseman) — 

that wouldn’t be first liners on 
any other team,” Racine said. 
“They’re a heck of a team. You 
have to tip your hat to them. They 
had a great game.”

There just wasn’t a lot 

Michigan could do.

“There have been some players 

that we’ve seen (that have been 
able to skate with us), but not 
collectively as a team, and I think 
that’s something that definitely 
killed us,” Nieves said. “We’re not 
used to playing teams that are as 
fast or faster than us.

“Speed kills, and if you’re not 

skating faster than the other 
team, then they’re going to 
control the puck.”

After the game, a popular topic 

of conversation in the press box 
was which Michigan players 
would leave early for the NHL.

But for the players who come 

back, the season-ending loss will 
make an impact heading into 
next season.

“I’m jealous of them,” said 

senior forward Justin Selman. 
“They are going to have the 
opportunity to know what it takes 
now. I never got that experience 
until this year of knowing how 
hard tournament games are and 
what these games mean. 

“Hopefully this lights a fire 

under their butt, and they get a 
crack at these guys next year.”

Maybe they’ll be the better 

team next year. But for now, 
Michigan should have no 
regrets following its NCAA 
Tournament exit.

Because after winning the Big 

Ten Tournament, after defeating 
Notre Dame in the first round of 
the NCAA Tournament and after 
going toe-to-toe with one of the 

best teams in the country for two-
plus periods, the Wolverines have 
nothing to hang their heads over.

They were simply beat by a 

better team.

Minh Doan can be reached 

via e-mail at minhdoan@umich.

edu or on Twitter @_minhdoan.

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Michigan bowed out of the NCAA Tournament Saturday after twice overcoming 
one-goal deficits but then falling down the stretch to North Dakota.

MINH
DOAN

Compher shows composure in defeat

By JUSTIN MEYER 

Daily Sports Writer

CINCINNATI — A walk from 

the ice to U.S. Bank Arena’s 
Dressing Room No. 7 is roughly 
40 steps: through the bench, into 
the metal tunnel littered with duct 
tape, past the dividing curtain and 
around the corner to the left.

That lonely route was the exit 

JT Compher used Saturday night 
to leave the game one last time 
this season.

With just over eight minutes 

to play in the NCAA Midwest 
Regional final, an outmatched 
Michigan 
hockey 
team 
was 

hanging with the top seed, North 
Dakota — the score tied at two.

But in a span of just 74 

seconds, there was one goal, 
and then another, before a late 
penalty and a long empty-net 
score sealed the 5-2 victory for 
the Fighting Hawks.

Compher watched from the ice 

as the final horn sounded and the 
North Dakota bench emptied. He 
skated to console his goaltender, 
taking his spot at the end of the 
handshake line.

Then he climbed onto the 

bench, walked through the tunnel 
and turned around the corner 
to the left. Those 40 steps were 
nearly all the time the Wolverines’ 
captain had to compose himself. 
The rest of his night was dedicated 
to everyone else.

Compher was whisked through 

the curved concrete underbelly of 
the arena to take a seat alongside 
Michigan coach Red Berenson 
at the press conference — two 
spokesmen for a team that had no 
games left to play.

“That’s a really, really good 

hockey team that we just played,” 
Compher said. “I’m really proud 
of this team. To get back to the 
tournament and to win the Big 
Ten Championship, it’s a big deal.

“But right now, it’s tough to 

talk.”

Compher, though, made time to 

talk anyway.

He made teary eye contact 

through 
the 
glare 
of 
the 

spotlights, 
answering 
with 

patient, deliberate speech when 
asked what Michigan could have 
done to win the game and whether 
his team was outmatched.

Afterward, Compher retraced 

his steps to the dressing room 
to join his teammates. He didn’t 
prepare a grand speech, saying he 
preferred to take the time to talk 
to the guys individually.

Roughly an hour after nearly 

willing his team to a Frozen Four 
berth with the best game of his 
career, Compher still wasn’t done.

North Dakota’s captain, Gage 

Ausmus — a former teammate and 
close friend from the duo’s days 
at the USNTDP program in Ann 
Arbor — met him in the hallway 
and the two embraced.

Compher 
flashed 
a 
wry 

smile as the pair chatted in the 
hallway, staffers whisking by 
as they hurriedly tore down the 
tournament decorations.

The conversation didn’t last 

more than a few minutes — both 
players 
had 

places 
to 
be. 

Ausmus 
was 

off to captain 
his team at the 
Frozen 
Four, 

while Compher 
was 
headed 

home.

“I just told 

him good luck 
with whatever 
he does next year — if he decides 
to come back or sign pro,” Ausmus 
said. “I’ll see him on the flip side.”

It must have stung to see his 

former teammate off to his third 
Frozen Four in three years, but 

Compher’s face didn’t betray a 
hint of jealousy.

“(Compher) was our captain in 

Ann Arbor,” Ausmus said. “He’s a 
guy that everyone looked up to — 
that I looked up to. Just the way he 

carries himself. 
He 
does 
the 

right 
thing 

every time, all 
the time.”

Even 
on 

nights 
like 

Saturday.

The 

composure 
was only more 
impressive 
to 

watch because Michigan’s junior 
captain isn’t usually much of a 
talker. 
He’s 
brash, 
supremely 

confident and competitive almost 
to a fault, but no one would call him 
long-winded.

Instead, Compher has been the 

type of leader that creates high 
expectations for the people around 
him with his own performance.

This weekend, he certainly did 

that.

Friday night against Notre 

Dame, after being frustrated all 
evening by the Irish’s physicality, 
Compher 
won 
the 
game 
in 

overtime with a perfect no-look 
pass to linemate and junior 
forward Tyler Motte.

With a trip to the Frozen Four on 

the line Saturday night, he netted 
both of the Wolverines’ goals — 
each of them tying the game.

In the end, though, Michigan 

didn’t have enough. Even with 
the sting of loss painfully fresh, 
Compher understood his new role.

The junior stepped out of the 

locker room as a team spokesman, 
determined — in Ausmus’ words — 

to do the right thing.

When Compher was named 

captain last summer, he took over 
a team lacking consistency and 
a program reeling from a deeply 
introspective identity crisis.

For one reason or another over 

the previous three seasons, the 
Wolverines’ leadership had failed 
to root out a culture of frustration 
and disappointment. Compher 
changed that.

“If you lead the team right and 

get everyone on board, you have 
the chance to be a good team,” 
Berenson said in the week before 
the NCAA Tournament. “I don’t 
think it happens from day one, 
but even in the fall, word was 
leaking out that the players have 
never gotten along better. We just 
seemed to think that this was the 
right group.

“You can’t just create that; you 

can’t draw it up or force it.”

The success this season — a Big 

Ten Tournament championship 
and an NCAA Tournament berth 
— is at least in part a testament 
to the stability Compher brought 
the Wolverines.

As Ausmus headed back to 

his own locker room, Compher 
swung his bag over his shoulder 
and headed down the stairs. 
He 
walked 
past 
the 
North 

Dakota fans lining the walls and 
disappeared into an expansive 
garage — his job complete.

Back inside U.S. Bank Arena, 

the ice was still shining under 
the overhead lights, but the flame 
of Michigan’s season had been 
snuffed out.

As the Wolverines boarded the 

bus and headed back to Ann Arbor, 
there were unanswered questions. 
What could’ve been different, and 
did they ever stand a chance?

But the real question — the one 

that Michigan has been trying 
to answer for three years — is 
to whom the team can turn in 
moments of desperation and doubt.

This 
weekend, 
and 
all 

season, JT Compher provided a 
resounding answer.

JAMES COLLER/Daily

Junior forward JT Compher proved his worth as a captain with his resiliency after one of the toughest losses of his career on Saturday against North Dakota.

“He does the 
right thing 

every time, all 

the time.”

