2B — Monday, January 22, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Pearson’s plan already paying off

M

el Pearson has always 
had a plan.

It involved over-

hauling an entire offense — as he 
had at previous stops — with a 
group primar-
ily made up of 
veterans who 
were used to a 
different style 
of hockey.

By his own 

admission, 
and under-
standably, that 
plan takes 
time. It’s one 
that he admits 
the Wolverines struggled with 
over the first half of their season.

But, if the last few weeks are 

any indication, that plan is finally 
coming to fruition.

And to anyone outside Yost Ice 

Arena with reasonable expecta-
tions for this team with largely 
the same personnel as last year, 
that progress happened a lot 
quicker than they could have 
expected.

With this weekend’s sweep 

over No. 12 Penn State, Michigan 
already surpassed its 2016-17 con-
ference win total. A week prior, 
the Wolverines went to Minne-
apolis and left having recorded 
their first sweep of the conference 
season against then-No. 9 Min-
nesota. It was the first time in 41 
years that they swept the Golden 
Gophers at Mariucci Arena.

If that wasn’t significant 

enough, when the horn sounded 
on Saturday night’s victory over 
the Nittany Lions, it marked the 
first time Michigan swept back-
to-back weekends in three years.

The weekend was by no means 

perfect.

There were still defensive zone 

turnovers, though goaltender 
Hayden Lavigne largely rendered 
them irrelevant.

The only time he didn’t was 

late in the third period Saturday 
night, when Penn State pulled its 
goaltender for an extra attacker 
and turned a 3-0 blowout into a 

3-2 nail-biter with 53.3 seconds 
remaining.

And then there was the second 

period, one in which the Nittany 
Lions outshot Michigan, 17-8. In 
that frame, Pearson admitted that 
the Wolverines “took a little bit of 
a step back” from the systems that 
have yielded their recent success.

Overall, though?
“We’re getting there,” Pearson 

said.

That they are. The fact remains 

that Michigan went toe-to-toe 
with the top-ranked offense in 
college hockey this weekend. The 
Nittany Lions entered the series 
averaging four goals and 40 shots 
per game. Not to mention they 
seven goals in two games when 
the teams met in State College in 
October.

Some of that remained the 

same, some of it didn’t.

Penn State stuck to its identity, 

letting 79 shots loose on the week-
end. But Michigan shut them out 
Friday night, and was just under 
two minutes away 
from doing so 
again Saturday.

The perfor-

mance on the 
opposite end was 
equally represen-
tative of progress.

The Wolver-

ines got only one 
goal from their 
top line, a power-
play goal by Dex-
ter Dancs in the second period 
Saturday night. Michigan’s two 
Hobey Baker candidates — Coo-
per Marody and Tony Calderone 
— didn’t record a single point on 
the weekend.

Instead, for the first time this 

season, Michigan got most of its 
contributions from somewhere 
else.

Freshman Dakota Raabe 

scored his first 
goal of the season 
Saturday night 
in what would 
end up being the 
game-winner. A 
night prior, fresh-
man Jack Becker 
found twine 
twice, despite 
lighting the lamp 
only once enter-
ing the series.

Holistically, the Wolverines 

have come a long way since Sep-
tember.

But that’s all a part of Pearson’s 

plan, too. And as he describes it, 
he needed Michigan to buy in at 
the beginning.

“I think that’s the biggest 

thing,” he says.

In part, “buying in” comes with 

breaking habits. Pearson isn’t 
willing to call them bad habits, 
per se. But the habits may run 
counterintuitive to the larger sys-
tem. Early on, when the going got 
tough, those habits resurfaced. 
They’re still not entirely gone 
either — Saturday night’s second 
period being Pearson’s evidence 
of such.

But with consecutive sweeps 

and two narrow losses to Notre 
Dame in the last three weeks, that 
system has been validated.

“It’s proven now,” Pearson said. 

“We can lean on them a little bit 
more now and say, ‘Hey, we play 
like this, here’s the results. If we 
don’t here’s the period we can 
have.’ It’s good. But we’ve got to 
make sure our guys — our scorers 

who maybe have a tough night 
— they’ve got to continue to play 
the way we’ve been playing. And 
they’ll be reminded of that this 
week.”

Added Lavigne: “I think there 

was definitely a little bit of frus-
tration with the hot and cold 
streaks we were having earlier in 
the year. Now we’re kind of seeing 
the benefits of it (and) it’s more 
motivating to stay with it. And we 
know that what we’re up to now 
is working and in the long run can 
lead to good things.”

It sure looks like it.
So ask Mel Pearson if he 

expected this much progress this 
quickly, and he’ll admit that it 
takes time. He’ll say he needed 
the buy in. He’ll say he needed to 
break habits to get here, and that 
it’s easier for his team to under-
stand it when the results come 
with it.

But those results are coming 

now.

Michigan split with Minnesota 

in November, then swept the 
Golden Gophers last weekend. 
Michigan split with Penn State 
in October, then swept them this 
weekend, too.

Of course, that doesn’t mean 

Pearson’s work is done. 

“We saw six consecutive games 

where we’ve come out hard and 
played well, and played collective-
ly as a team for a full 60,” Lavigne 
said Saturday. “I think that’s kind 
of showing us that we can play at 
any level with anybody here. The 
Big Ten’s extremely strong this 
year and we’ve seen that we can 
compete within our conference. 
So the next step is getting into 
that tournament and competing 
nationally.”

Maybe they won’t make the 

tournament. Maybe they won’t 
win the Big Ten, either. 

But with every plan comes 

measured steps. Consider step 
one a success.

Santo can be reached at 

kmsanto@umich.edu or on 

Twitter at @Kevin_M_Santo.

EVAN AARON/Daily

Michigan coach Mel Pearson has the 20th-ranked Wolverines on a roll in his first year behind the bench; Michigan has now swept two consecutive series.

KEVIN
SANTO

Pearson needed 

Michigan to 
buy in at the 
beginning.

Raabe’s reward: anatomy of a first goal

On 
a 
Tuesday 
afternoon 

following a preseason practice 
in September, Michigan hockey 
coach Mel Pearson was asked 
about the potential impact of the 
Wolverines’ incoming class of 
freshmen.

Pearson 
highlighted 
the 

obvious names — forward Josh 
Norris, a first-round NHL Draft 
pick last June, and defenseman 
Quinn Hughes, a likely top-
10 selection next summer — 
calling them “worth the price 
of admission.” But alongside 
those two blue-chip prospects, 
Pearson also brought up a lesser-
known newcomer.

“We’ve got a kid named 

Dakota Raabe,” Pearson said, 
“who’s shown really well so far.”

A dedicated observer might 

have 
been 
familiar 
with 

Raabe’s skill and skating ability. 
The 
5-foot-9 
forward 
from 

Capistrano Beach, Ca. spent 
three productive years with the 
Wenatchee Wild of the BCHL, 
where he notched 58 points in 58 
games his final season.

However, through Michigan’s 

first 23 games, the casual or first-
time hockey spectator would 
have had a hard time detecting 
Raabe’s presence. If one only 
looked at the boxscore, they 
might not have noticed him at 
all. Coming into this weekend, 
Raabe was the only Wolverine, 
save 
goaltenders 
Hayden 

Lavigne and Jack LaFontaine, 
to not have registered a single 
point.

But that’s not what Pearson 

or Michigan’s coaching staff 
focused on.

On Friday night, freshman 

forward Jack Becker scored 
the Wolverines’ first two goals 
in a 4-0 rout of Penn State — 
the first multi-goal game of 
his career. After the game, 
Pearson was asked if Becker’s 
performance was indicative of 
players growing into their roles, 
something Pearson has stressed 
constantly.

“Some nights you’re rewarded 

offensively with some points, 

and others you’re not, but you 
still have to bring it every night,” 
he said. “It’s good to see guys 
rewarded for all their hard work. 
I thought Dakota Raabe — I don’t 
know if Dakota’s got a point 
yet, but I had someone call me 
this week and say, ‘Wow, who’s 
that 12 (Raabe’s jersey number) 
playing at Minnesota? I mean, he 
was all over the 
place!’

“He’s 
doing 

some 
good 

things, 
killing 

some 
penalties. 

He’s not maybe 
putting up the 
points, but his 
contributions 
aren’t 
unnoticed.”

To a trained 

eye such as Pearson’s, those 
contributions 
have 
been 

on full display the past few 
weeks. During the third period 
last 
Saturday 
at 
Minnesota, 

Michigan’s third line of Raabe 

and sophomores Adam Winborg 
and James Sanchez suffocated 
the Golden Gophers with a 
clutch, 
45-second 
shift 
in 

which the puck never left the 
Minnesota zone.

Raabe has found a home on the 

Wolverines’ penalty-kill as well. 
The unit was languishing before 
this weekend, having stopped 

just 75 percent of 
their opponents’ 
chances 
— 

ranking 
among 

the 
five 
worst 

teams 
in 
the 

country.

The 
Nittany 

Lions 
— 
who 

rank 
sixteenth 

in the nation on 
the 
power-play 

— had five such 

opportunities against Michigan, 
and failed to capitalize on a 
single one. Raabe played an 
integral role in all of them, 
making crucial clearances on a 
number of chances, and swiftly 

skating all over the ice to stifle 
Penn State’s attack.

“He’s 
done 
a 
good 
job,” 

Pearson said Saturday. “He’s 
given us some speed, but … 
he’s playing grittier. Getting 
involved, he’s got a good stick. 
He was a good scorer in junior 
hockey last year, he’s capable and 
he killed penalties. So he’s smart 
enough, he can understand on 
the PK what to do.”

Pearson’s 
final 
comments 

Friday 
expressed 
optimism 

about Raabe’s future.

“You’d like to see him get 

rewarded,” Pearson said, “and 
he will eventually.”

With just under six minutes to 

go in the third period Saturday, 
Michigan led Penn State 2-0. 
An earlier roughing penalty 
on 
sophomore 
defenseman 

Griffin Luce, coupled with an 
interference call on Nittany 
Lion forward Andrew Sturtz, 
had resulted in two minutes of 
4-on-4 hockey, half of which had 
already elapsed.

Penn State forward Liam 

Folkes chased the puck towards 
the boards behind the net, 
but 
Michigan 
defenseman 

Sam Piazza got there first. 
Piazza chipped it left towards 
sophomore defenseman Luke 
Martin, who put his stick on the 
puck and turned up the ice.

Looking up, Martin saw Raabe 

streaking ahead 
of everyone near 
center-ice. With 
three 
players 

on either side of 
the passing lane, 
he would need a 
perfect effort to 
hit his target.

Martin 
took 

four 
strides 

forward 
and 

let fly near the 
right circle. The puck found the 
sweet-spot of Raabe’s stick like a 
quarterback hitting a receiver on 
a fly pattern. A picture-perfect 
“dime,” to borrow more from 
football terminology.

It was clear no one was going 

to catch Raabe from behind. 
Peyton Jones, the Penn State 
goaltender, was the only chance.

Raabe turned up the ice and 

towards the net. When he was 
about three feet in front of Jones, 
he held the puck out to his right. 
Then, just as soon as it was there, 
Raabe pulled it away.

The next time 

Jones 
saw 
the 

puck, it was in 
the back of the 
net.

Yost Ice Arena 

erupted. 
Raabe 

raised both his 
arms in jubilation 
as his momentum 
carried him into 
the 
embrace 

of 
Piazza 
and 

sophomore forward Jake Slaker. 
The Wolverines led the No. 12 
team in the nation by three goals 
with five minutes to play.

The goal itself was such a 

textbook finish, you’d think 
Raabe had done it before. Raabe, 
in fact, couldn’t even recollect 
the play.

“Honestly, 
I 
don’t 
even 

remember it,” he said. “I think I 
blacked out when I did it. Great 
pass by Martin and it was a great 
experience for sure.”

But 
while 
he 
may 
not 

remember 
exactly 
how 
it 

happened, 
Raabe 
certainly 

remembers the fact that for the 
first time in his college career, 
he had scored a goal. All his 
hard work killing penalties and 
chasing pucks around the ice had 
been rewarded.

Not only that, the Nittany 

Lions scored two goals in the 
game’s 
final 
two 
minutes, 

making Raabe’s first collegiate 
goal a game-winner.

It appears 23 goalless games 

were worth the wait.

“It was frustrating for sure,” 

Raabe said. “A lot of it was just 
— I think it’s just little things 
and I was trying to stay positive. 
At times, negatives would creep 
in, but I would just try to play it 
simple and just do what I could 
and what Mel wanted me to do.

“And it finally paid off.”

JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Writer

EVAN AARON/Daily

Freshman forward Dakota Raabe scored his first career goal in the third period of No. 20 Michigan’s 3-2 win over No. 12 Penn State on Saturday night.

“It’s good to see 
guys rewarded 

for all their 
hard work.”

“I think it’s just 
little things and 
I was trying to 
stay positive.”

