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.”