2B — January 17, 2017
SportsTuesday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Michigan loses weekend series in Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS — After a 

turnover by Minnesota, junior 
forward Brendan Warren charged 
from center ice toward the 
ninth-ranked Gophers’ goal on a 
breakaway. 
But at the 
same time 
as Warren’s 
shot was blocked by Minnesota 
goaltender 
Eric 
Schierhorn, 

Gopher forward Tommy Novak 
hooked Warren, giving him a 
penalty shot.

With a chance to bring the 

Michigan hockey team within 
one 
with 
seven 
minutes 
to 

play, Warren needed to score 
to keep his team in the game. 
Unfortunately for the Wolverines, 
his shot went wide left.

Though Michigan may not have 

realized it at the time, Warren’s 
miss may have cost it a win. About 
a minute later, senior forward 
Evan Allen knocked in a goal from 
a long shot by senior defenseman 
Nolan de Jong to cut the lead to 

3-2. The Golden Gophers (5-1-
0 Big Ten, 13-5-2 overall) held 
strong, though, escaping with 
a 4-2 victory Saturday night at 
Mariucci Arena.

“I think our third period was 

much better today than it was 
yesterday,” De Jong said. “Both 
games came down to whether 
it was a PK or small little plays 
where we didn’t block a shot or 
box out enough. We showed good 
glimpses in both games, I think 
we definitely showed more today 
than we did yesterday, but I think 
it was just our willingness to 
stick to it through the whole 60 
minutes tonight is what gave us 
the opportunity in the last couple 
minutes to maybe tie it up.”

For the first two periods, the 

Wolverines (1-5-0, 8-11-1) simply 
couldn’t find the net. It wasn’t 
until the third that Michigan 
finally managed to put points 
on the scoreboard. Freshman 
forward Steven Merl ended the 
drought, shooting the puck past 
Schierhorn from the goaltender’s 
right side on a pass from Warren.

Minnesota spent the early 

minutes of the first period passing 
the puck around in Michigan’s 
zone. The teams looked relatively 
even, as the Wolverines took a few 
shots and the Golden Gophers 
answered right back.

Michigan 
looked 
to 
head 

into the first intermission in a 
scoreless tie. With 42.7 seconds 
left, De Jong — who received a 
game misconduct penalty Friday 
night — earned another trip to 
the box for tripping Kloos. The 
Wolverines had to play a man-
down for the remainder of the 
period, and for about 40 seconds, 
Michigan looked as though it 
would kill the penalty.

Minnesota 
forward 
Vinni 

Lettieri had other ideas. He took 
a pass from fellow forward Leon 
Bristedt from behind Michigan’s 
face-off circle and shot it right 
past freshman goaltender Hayden 
Lavigne. For the second straight 
night, the Wolverines allowed a 
goal with just seconds remaining 
in the first period.

“Those are tough goals to give 

up,” said Michigan coach Red 
Berenson. “I’ve said all along, 

first minute goals or last minute 
goals, and I think we gave up four 
of them this weekend, whether it 
was just coincidence or it was a 
breakdown or letdown, I couldn’t 
tell you. But those goals are 
backbreakers. I thought our team 
responded well.”

In the second frame, Michigan 

couldn’t hang onto the puck, as 
the Golden Gophers controlled it 
and tallied 11 shots. Meanwhile, 
the Wolverines didn’t take a shot 
for 12 minutes, and by the end of 
the period, they had notched just 
three.

Despite 
its 
difficulties 
on 

offense, Michigan hung with the 
Golden Gophers for the first 19 
minutes of the period. Lavigne 
continued his prowess behind the 
net, saving 10 shots in the second, 
including a shot near the blue line 
from Minnesota forward Tyler 
Sheehy and a one-timer from 
forward Connor Reilly on a power 
play.

Once again, though, the Golden 

Gophers found late heroics, this 
time coming from defenseman 
Ryan 
Collins. 
Collins 
found 

the net off a wrist shot near the 
blue line, taking away whatever 
momentum might have lingered 
for the Wolverines.

Early in the third period, 

Lettieri was held by senior 
forward Alex Kile on a breakaway, 
giving him a penalty shot. Unlike 
Warren, Lettieri converted the 
opportunity to give Minnesota 
a 3-2 lead. And with just 22.7 
seconds left in the game, he 
scored his third goal of the night 
to extend the lead to the final 
score of 4-2.

Still, Berenson was optimistic 

about Saturday’s result. Michigan 
remained in the game until the 
final minutes, something it could 
not say Friday night.

“They didn’t quit,” Berenson 

said. “We got a break on a couple 
shots and the puck started going 
in for us. Then we got back in the 
game and made a game of it. It’s 
too bad we couldn’t score the tying 
goal. They scored on a penalty 
shot, we missed on a penalty shot, 
it was simple. So anyway, it was 
not a good outcome, but it was, I 
thought, a better team effort right 
from the start.”

AMELIA CACCHIONE/Daily

Freshman forward Steven Merl scored Michigan’s first goal in the third period Saturday against Minnesota.

AVI SHOLKOFF
Daily Sports Writer

MICHIGAN
MINNESOTA 

2
4

As Wolverines seek answers, 

schedule won’t do them any favors

S

aturday’s win over 
Nebraska was a start, but 
if the Michigan men’s 

basketball team wants to play 
in the NCAA Tournament this 
season, the Wolverines are 
going to have to get there the 
hard way.

All but gone is the chance to 

walk into the 
tournament 
by simply 
beating the 
teams they 
were sup-
posed to beat 
— and with 
it, any benefit 
of the doubt 
they could 
have hoped to 
receive also 
disappeared.

After allowing more than 

75 points in four of its last five 
games, Michigan’s tourna-
ment hopes seem to rest on 
the chance that its offense can 
outgun opponents. The only 
problem is, the point in the con-
ference schedule at which that 
strategy was viable is essen-
tially over. And the Wolverines 
finished just 2-3 during that 
stretch.

Over the next month, Michi-

gan will be going up against 
some of the conference’s best 
teams with little time for a 
breather. The Wolverines 
will play two games apiece 
against Wisconsin, Indiana and 
Michigan State. A pair of theo-
retically winnable home games 
against Ohio State and Illinois 
will be added to the mix, but 
even then, it’s not a schedule 
that inspires confidence.

KenPom.com projects that 

Michigan will split those eight 
games to go an even 4-4. That 

would bring its conference 
record to 6-7, at which point 
KenPom projects the Wolver-
ines would lose four of their 
final five contests. They are 
currently slated to be KenPom’s 
higher-ranked team in just 
four remaining games on their 
conference schedule. It’s worth 
noting that, so far, the popular 
basketball analytics website 
has not been entirely accurate 
at predicting Michigan’s out-
comes.

But the current projections 

illustrate an important point as 
the Wolverines veer ever closer 
to panic territory: the sched-

ule’s not going to get any easier 
from here.

Michigan had its opportunity 

to load up on 
easier confer-
ence road wins 
against Iowa and 
Illinois, and it 
missed. Add in 
a blown home 
game against 
Maryland, and 
there actually 
has yet to be a 
game in confer-
ence play that 
the Wolverines could not have 
conceivably won. And only 

one — the 85-69 drubbing at 
the hands of Illinois — truly 
reached blowout territory.

But now 

Michigan finds 
itself in a precar-
ious position. At 
a time when the 
Wolverines need 
to be gearing up 
for a stretch of 
play that could 
either punch 
their NCAA tick-
et or virtually 
eliminate them 

from at-large contention, they 
are forced to split their focus by 

looking for answers.

No Michigan team in recent 

memory has seen defensive 
struggles this consistent in Big 
Ten play. Even two years ago, 
when the Wolverines limped to 
a .500 record, they gave up 80 
points just three times all sea-
son. They have already done so 
four times this year.

The offense, on the other 

hand, is actually performing 
quite well in both raw statistics 
and efficiency numbers. It has 
taken on a different character 
than other recent John Beilein 
teams in that it has two big men 
it can look to both down low 

and outside in redshirt sopho-
more DJ Wilson and sophomore 
Moritz Wagner. It’s hard to 
deny the group is still danger-
ously reliant on the deep ball, 
but with the current roster 
makeup and the head coach’s 
longstanding philosophy, that’s 
probably for the best — espe-
cially since shots have been 
falling.

In fact, according to KenPom, 

Michigan’s offense is by far the 
most efficient it has been since 
2014, when the Wolverines won 
the Big Ten. The problem is that 
the defense is the least efficient 
it has been in the KenPom era 
(since 2002).

That leaves Michigan with 

a decision to make. Either the 
Wolverines can embrace an 
identity as the most extreme 
version of the shootout style 
they have long leaned toward, 
or they can attempt a defensive 
180 in hopes of recapturing the 
potential they flashed at the 2K 
Classic in November.

It may not make a huge dif-

ference which identity they 
choose to pursue, but they will 
need to decide as fast as pos-
sible.

The next month will be 

bookended by games against 
Wisconsin, the class of the Big 
Ten. It would be neither stun-
ning nor singularly damaging 
for Michigan to lose Tuesday in 
Madison, in a road environment 
that is unforgiving to even the 
most polished opponents.

But after that, the Wolverines 

will have to figure themselves 
out in a hurry. There’s simply 
no time left to waste.

Bultman can be reached at 

bultmanm@umich.edu and 

on Twitter @m_bultman

SPORTSTUESDAY COLUMN

EVAN AARON/Daily

Michigan coach John Beilein needs to find Michigan’s identity if he expects the Wolverines to get through a tough stretch of their conference schedule this month.

MAX 
BULTMAN

The Wolverines 

are going to have 

to get there the 

hard way

Wolverines falter 
against Nebraska

Coming off a decisive victory 

against Maryland on Friday, the 
Michigan wrestling team looked 
to pull off an upset against No. 6 
Nebraska in Lincoln on Sunday. 
But after being forced to forfeit 
the 125-pound match to start the 
meet, the 13th-ranked Wolverines 
could not overcome the early 
deficit, falling 29-15.

Michigan (1-3 Big Ten, 4-3 

overall) forfeited the opening 
match after redshirt freshman 
Austin Assad got banged up in 
practice during the week and was 
unable to make the trip to Lincoln.

Redshirt 
freshman 
Stevan 

Micic 
faced 
Nebraska’s 
Eric 

Montoya in the 133-pound bout. 
Micic got off to a hot start with an 
early takedown and never let up, 
recording four more takedowns 
in the match to capture the 
decision, 13-7. Micic’s win put the 
Wolverines on the board for the 
first time, narrowing the score to 
6-3.

“Everyone saw what Stevan’s 

capable of doing when he’s firing 
off his attacks,” said Michigan 
coach Joe McFarland.

In the 141-pound match — the 

third of the day— freshman Sal 
Profaci took on Nebraska’s Colton 
McCrystal. After a very low-
scoring, defensive start in which 
both wrestlers spent most of the 
time on their feet, McCrystal took 
over in the third period with a 
decisive takedown, winning the 
match, 8-4, and extending the 
Cornhuskers’ lead to 9-3.

Minutes 
later, 
redshirt 

sophomore Zach Hall avenged 
Profaci’s loss with a 14-5 major 
decision 
win 
against 
Collin 

Purinton in the 149-pound match. 
Hall started fast with a pair of 
takedowns in the first period 
and a near fall in the second, and 
continued to be aggressive until 
the end to cut Nebraska’s lead to 
9-7.

Next up was senior Brian 

Murphy, 
who 
battled 
Tyler 

Berger in the 157-pound match. 
Murphy looked to rebound after 
starting the season with five 
straight losses, but Berger proved 
to be too much for the Michigan 
veteran. Murphy was pinned 
with 1:35 left in the third period 
after a long sprawl on the mat. 
Berger’s pin gave the Cornhuskers 
six points and a 15-7 lead over the 
Wolverines.

In 
the 
165-pound 
match, 

redshirt freshman Logan Massa 
— ranked second in the country 
— defeated Justin Arthur in a 
dominant fashion to record a 
17-4 technical fall. Massa was 
in complete control, notching 
takedown after takedown until 
the match was over in the second 
period. With his victory, Massa 
maintained his perfect record for 
the season.

After Massa’s win, redshirt 

freshman Myles Amine notched 
a takedown in the sudden death 
period of the 174-pound match 
to tie the dual at 15 going into the 
final three matches.

But 
the 
scoring 
stopped 

there for Michigan. Redshirt 
junior Ernest Battaglia, redshirt 
freshman Jackson Striggow, and 
freshman Dan Perry all lost their 
matches.

Though the team did not come 

away with a win, McFarland 
was impressed with the level of 
effort his group gave and saw it 
as a learning opportunity for his 
young team.

“I thought, as a whole, our 

guys wrestled really hard today,” 
McFarland said. “We talk a lot 
about how your effort has to 
be there every time, for seven 
complete minutes, and I thought 
a lot of our guys did a good job of 
that.

“It was a great experience 

for us to come out there and 
compete against a team like that,” 
McFarland said. “For our growth 
down the road, I thought it was 
invaluable. … We’ve got to learn 
from this, grow from this, and use 
this experience to develop and get 
better.”

ZACH GAN
For the Daily

WRESTLING

