The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com SportsWednesday January 4, 2017 — 3C ICE HOCKEY Marody makes return to the ice for Wolverines Coming into the 2016-17 season, the Michigan hockey team expected sophomore forward Cooper Marody to be a main contributor on a team losing much of its scoring from the previous year. But after having academic issues last season, Marody was deemed ineligible for the first semester of this year, which meant that he would be unable to play in the Wolverines’ first 16 games. Marody finally returned to the ice Thursday in the Great Lakes Invitational. But while he had been practicing with the team all season, in his first game — against Michigan Tech in the semifinal of the tournament — the sophomore showed some signs of rust. Marody wasn’t alone. Michigan’s entire offense was stymied by the Huskies, producing just 23 shots on goal with zero goals. Marody led the Wolverines with five shots on goal, but that effort wasn’t nearly good enough, as Michigan Tech won, 2-0. “It’s hard to show up and play his first game in probably nine months and make an impact,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson after Thursday’s game. “He’s worked hard all semester in practice. I think he’ll help our team, but it wasn’t to be tonight. He had a lot of chances, a lot of guys had chances — what if — but it never happened.” Friday against Michigan State, Marody and Michigan’s offense flipped the script. The Wolverines notched five goals in all, with Marody earning three assists. One of the beneficiaries of Marody’s playmaking was senior forward Alex Kile, who was on the same line as Marody in both games. Kile scored two goals against the Spartans, both off assists from Marody. And though the GLI served as the first time the two have played together this season, their improvement from one game to the next was noticeable. “The first game back, it’s going to be a lot different than just practicing,” Marody said. “It’s been a while since I played a game and really got up to that speed. And I think after a day of playing together, me and Alex have gained great chemistry. And I think as a team we just played better, which helped us play better.” Added Kile: “I think time will tell with our chemistry. But we’re two players that want to play with each other, and any time you have that, I think chemistry will form right off the bat. So, I mean, we’ve still got 20-plus games left, and I think as the season goes on we’re just going to get better.” Michigan can only hope that the two will be able to develop that relationship, and that Marody will continue to improve as the season goes on. Not only did Marody provide another scoring threat on offense, but he also provides experience on defense. The sophomore wasn’t on the ice for any of the six goals scored against the Wolverines this weekend, and though plus-minus can be a flawed statistic, Marody’s presence was surely felt. And on a team looking for answers after the first half of its season, Michigan will hope to ride some momentum from Marody’s return. With a majority of the Big Ten season left to play, coupled with the Wolverines’ inconsistency thus far, they need a boost from somewhere. MIKE PERSAK Daily Sports Editor “I think he’ll help our team, but it wasn’t to be tonight.” Michigan finishes third at Great Lakes Invitational DETROIT — With the score knotted up at 4-4 at the end of regulation, the Michigan hockey team found itself in a five-minute overtime period in its first battle of the season against in-state rival Michigan State on Friday. It would take only one goal to determine the winner of the first of five meetings between the two foes this season. That determining goal came from junior forward Tony Calderone. Assisted by junior forward Dexter Dancs, Calderone was able to clean up a loose puck and put it in the back of the net with 2:02 remaining in the overtime period. With his tenth goal of the season, Calderone helped Michigan stun the Spartans, 5-4. The Wolverines (1-3-0 Big Ten, 8-9-1 overall) took home a third-place finish in the 52nd annual Great Lakes Invitational with their victory over Michign State (0-2-0, 4-11-1), after a 2-0 loss to Michigan Tech on Thursday. “This was a learning experience,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson. “Sometimes we leave here with a lot of confidence, and I think we’re going to leave (the Great Lakes Invitational) with some resolve and some awareness. We can look at this and say, ‘These were the areas we’ve got to fix.’ If you’ve got a car with a flat tire and you won’t admit it, you’re not going to get very far. We’re going to stop and fix the flat. “It’s not as easy as that, but that’s what we’re going to take from this tournament.” Four of the game’s nine goals were scored in the first period, three of which came from the Wolverines. The first came 3:57 into the game, when sophomore forward Cooper Marody attempted a shot that landed behind Michigan State goaltender John Lethemon. Calderone was there to clean it up, though, opening the scoring. Michigan’s second goal came from freshman forward Will Lockwood, who managed to score a clean, unassisted wrister just two minutes later. The goal marked his seventh of the season and was his first since November 11th, when he tallied a goal against Boston University. It also put Lockwood at second for most goals scored, only behind Calderone, who has 10. For a few minutes afterward, the Wolverines were able to keep the Spartans contained without allowing any quality chances. That was until Michigan State defenseman Carson Gatt corralled the puck on the Spartans’ end and sent it down the ice to forward Logan Lamdin. Lambdin shot the puck into the net from the left faceoff dot and whittled Michigan’s two-goal lead down to one. Senior forward Alex Kile tacked on the final goal of the period on an assist from Marody and freshman forward James Sanchez. Kile pushed the puck through a crowd of players in front of Lethemon for the Wolverines’ third goal. The second period started with 4-on-4 play, as senior defenseman Kevin Lohan and Michigan State’s Jerad Rosburg both earned a trip to the penalty box for roughing after the whistle at the end of the first. This play decreased to 3-on- 3 when junior forward Cutler Martin and Spartan forward Patrick Khodorenko were both called for tripping. Despite the calls, though, both teams killed off the penalties without allowing any goals. Senior goaltender Zach Nagelvoort made critical saves throughout the period, one of which was when Spartan forward Connor Wood brought the puck into a dangerously close position in Michigan’s zone. Nagelvoort deterred the shot, and managed another quick save soon thereafter to maintain the Wolverines’ two- goal wlead. Kile was the only player on either team to find the net in the second period, with 6:41 left on the clock. While standing near Michigan State’s net, junior defenseman Sam Piazza generated a shot, and Kile tipped the puck into the net while it was still in the air. This gave Michigan a three- goal lead heading into the third period, but it took Spartan forward Mason Appleton just seven seconds to decrease the lead to two. After corralling the puck off the initial faceoff, Appleton scored on a breakaway to push the score to 4-2. At the 14:50 mark, Gatt left the Wolverines clinging to a one-goal lead after scoring from a wrister. “There’s a sense of confidence when you’re up 4-1, but Michigan State is a team that loves playing against us and they’re obviously not going to give up, especially in an enviroment like this, you can never count them out,” Kile said. “It was a good start for us, getting to 4-1, but it was a really bad third period for us, letting them get three straight. Moving forward, that can’t happen.” In an attempt to strengthen his team’s lead, Calderone took the puck down to Michigan State’s net and passed it to freshman forward Jake Slaker at the last moment in a desperate attempt to get the puck past Lethemon, but it was no good. In the final seconds of the period, Michigan State forward JT Stenglein skated through a crowded Michigan defense in front of the net to finish off a loose puck and score the tying goal. But Calderone took advantage of the overtime period to put the Wolverines on top in this matchup of in-state and conference rivals. “Even though they took it to overtime, it’s a good learning lesson for our team,” Marody said. “There’s going to be times in the future when we’re going to have leads going into the third period, and we learned our lesson that the other team is going to come hard and they might score a couple of goals, but we finished hard at the end of the game. It was a good lesson.” LANEY BYLER Daily Sports Editor After falling to Michigan Tech on Thursday, the Wolverines recovered to defeat Michigan State in overtime on Friday. SAM MOUSIGIAN/Daily Junior forward Tony Calderone scored the game-winning goal to defeat the Spartans and lead Michigan to a third-place finish at the Great Lakes Invitational. Thome shines in victory against the Badgers While the Michigan women’s basketball team is known for its depth and ability to spread the ball around to a variety of contributors, one individual performance stood out for the Wolverines (2-0 Big Ten, 13-3 overall) in their 73-56 road win over the Badgers (0-1, 5-9) to start the new year on a high note. Sophomore forward Hallie Thome scored more than half of Michigan’s points — 37 to be exact. That feat lands Thome at No. 2 on the list of most points during a single game in Wolverine history, a fact she knew nothing about over the course of her dominant showing. “I had no idea,” Thome said. “(Junior guard Maria Backman) tried to tell me at one of the timeouts, and I was like, ‘Maria, don’t tell me, I don’t want to know.’ I don’t like knowing the points, I just like playing the game and doing my own thing.” Though Thome pushed the statistics to the back of her mind during game time, she was pleased to learn the final tally once the contest had come to a close. While Thome averages 14.6 points per game so far this season, her accuracy took her to the next level Sunday, as she shot 13-for-15 from the floor. “She hasn’t really had a breakout game in a while,” said Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico. “So hopefully this really elevates her confidence, because she was sensational.” At 6-foot-5 — the tallest of the Wolverines — Thome used her height and length to her advantage in controlling the paint and making layups look effortless. She found her way to the free-throw line often and made the most of it, going 11-for- 13 on the afternoon. Thome not only led the team in points, but achieved a double-double by tacking on 14 rebounds. “Being aggressive and wanting to go get them (made the difference),” Thome said. “It was a close game, but we just had the will to want to go and get it. I think that’s what our whole team had.” Junior guard Jillian Dunston played a major role on the glass as well, contributing nine defensive boards and preventing Wisconsin from gaining second- chance attempts. “That was our number one goal today, to just rebound the basketball,” Barnes Arico said. “We knew we were going to be undersized against them, and Jillian Dunston did a great job.” Freshman guard Kysre Gondrezick was another bright spot on the court for Michigan on Sunday, tallying 16 points and five rebounds of her own. As a newcomer to the Wolverines, Gondrezick has quickly made a name for herself in the conference, earning recognition as the Big Ten Freshman of the Week twice already this season. She has also recently broken into the starting lineup, as this was just her second time on the court from the opening tip. She joined the starting five for the first time on Dec. 28 against Rutgers. Against the Badgers, Gondrezick’s three 3-pointers in the fourth quarter solidified Michigan’s win over Wisconsin, proving that she might stay in the starting lineup for good. The Wolverines’ leading scorer, junior guard Katelynn Flaherty, became Michigan’s fifth-highest scorer in program history with her eight-point performance. Yet it wasn’t the level of play that can usually be expected from Flaherty, who averages 17.9 points. Flaherty’s eight points make this her fourth straight game with fewer points than her season average, following her totals of eight against Vermont, 17 against American and 13 against Rutgers. “As a player, you have a couple games like that, you start questioning everything you do,” Barnes Arico said. “You start pressing, you’re questioning when your shot is released, pretty much everything. “But she’s a tremendous player. … She’s going to play herself out of this.” While Flaherty has still managed to be productive, Michigan is expecting much more from its consensus All-Big Ten first-team player. She went 0-for-7 on 3-pointers against the Badgers, which leaves plenty of room for improvement. But while the Wolverines wait for Flaherty to regain the shooting stroke and confident approach that have characterized her career, they have capable players who can make up for the deficit. With her performance Sunday, Thome proved that she can take control and lead Michigan to victory on her own. MAGGIE KOLCON Daily Sports Writer CLAIRE MEINGAST/Daily Sophomore forward Hallie Thome scored more than half of Michigan’s points in the Wolverines’ win against Wisconsin.