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.”