4B — Monday, February 5, 2018
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wolverines haunted by missed opportunities, fall to Wisconsin, 4-2
The adage “three strikes and
you’re out” may have originated
with baseball, but it works fairly
well in hockey too.
One minute into Saturday’s
game,
Michigan
defenseman
Sam Piazza motored around to
the left circle, where his shot
rebounded off of Kyle Hayton’s
pads. The puck then bounced
to a wide-open Cooper Marody
with the Wisconsin goaltender
nowhere near the play. Marody,
a Hobey Baker Award nominee,
normally puts away chances like
those in his sleep. His attempt
flew past Hayton — and the pipe.
Not
long
after
Marody’s
near-miss, senior forward Tony
Calderone poked the puck away
from a Badger near the blue line.
The Wolverines’ leading scorer
had a clean breakaway, but
Hayton stonewalled him deep in
the crease.
A third opportunity — while
not quite as golden as the first
two — came a minute later.
On a three-vs-two, freshman
forward Josh Norris laid the
puck off to freshman forward
Dakota
Raabe,
who
cruised
unchallenged
into
the
slot.
Again,
Hayton
made the save.
When
Wisconsin
forward
Trent
Frederic slipped
the
puck
past
Hayden Lavigne
four
minutes
later, the tone was set. The
Badgers made the most of their
chances. The Wolverines didn’t.
Thusly, Wisconsin (8-9-3 Big
Ten, 14-13-4 overall) came away
with a 4-2 win Saturday night
at Yost Ice Arena, splitting a
crucial Big Ten series between
two teams neck-and-neck in the
conference standings.
Despite
winning
5-3
on
Friday, Michigan (8-10-2, 13-13-
2) was seemingly
outplayed
for
long
stretches,
especially
during the third
period.
The
opposite was the
case
Saturday.
The Wolverines
consistently
controlled
the
puck and outshot
the
Badgers,
34-33, including a high volume
of grade-A opportunities.
“I thought we had a better
effort tonight. I thought we
played a better game,” said
Michigan coach Mel Pearson.
“We
created
more
offense
tonight than we did last night.
Had some golden opportunities,
especially that first five, six
minutes, we came out and were
all over them played in their
zone. ... We put one of those in, I
think you see a totally different
game tonight.”
Instead,
Hayton,
who
replaced Friday night starter
Jack Berry, was up to the task
all night for Wisconsin. Brilliant
with both his glove and his pads,
the ECAC goalie of the year last
season at St. Lawrence posted 32
saves to keep the Wolverines at
bay.
“We had all the opportunities
in the world to make it a 5-4
game for us and he stood on
his head, made a few really
good saves and hurt us,” said
sophomore forward Jake Slaker.
“But it comes down to us. It’s not
really what (Hayton’s) doing, it’s
what we’re doing.”
Michigan suffered some self-
inflicted wounds, too, but none
hurt more than Wisconsin’s
second goal, which came against
the Wolverines’ shaky penalty
kill. Thirteen minutes into the
first period, Badger forward
Ryan Wagner stretched out his
stick and sent a slow roller into
the crease that had no business
finding the net. But junior
defenseman
Nicholas
Boka
couldn’t clear it, Lavigne didn’t
see it in time, and the puck
crawled past them both.
Just 56 seconds later, forward
Cullen Brady lasered a wrist
shot from the right circle past
Lavigne. In the span of six
minutes, the Badgers had taken
a 3-0 lead.
Michigan went on the penalty
kill early in the second period,
again with disastrous results.
Defenseman
Wyatt
Kalynuk
scored on a rip from the blue
line just five seconds after
the initial face-off, prompting
Pearson to insert sophomore
Jack LaFontaine
between
the
pipes in relief of
Lavigne.
“I
just
wanted
to
get
(LaFontaine) in
the net,” Pearson
said.
“Just
to
get
him
some
minutes and see
how he was, and
I thought he did
an outstanding job. He gave us
a chance to come back in this
game.”
Michigan
took
advantage
of that chance. Slaker found
the net midway through the
second with an angled shot off
a pass by senior defenseman
Sam Piazza. Eight minutes into
the final stanza, Jack Becker
lit the lamp on a power play to
pull the Wolverines to within in
striking distance. Meanwhile,
LaFontaine stopped all 18 shots
that were sent his way.
But it takes more than one
strikeout to lose a baseball
game,
and
the
same
logic
applies
to
hockey
as
well.
The three opportunities the
Wolverines had early in the
first period weren’t the only
strikes they took — for them,
missed opportunities defined
the contest.
When Kalynuk went to the
box early in the third period,
the ensuing power-play proved
to be a microcosm of all of the
chances Michigan had to take
control of the game. Freshman
defenseman
Quinn
Hughes
missed the net wide right.
Calderone fanned on an open
shot from the slot. Hayton
extended an elastic reach to
deny Slaker from straight on.
The misses kept coming up
until the final horn. On a two-
on-one, Norris hit Slaker with a
perfect pass, but his effort sailed
high.
After
the
Wolverines
pulled
LaFontaine
in
desperation
mode in the final
minute,
junior
defenseman
Joseph Cecconi’s
shot went wideby
mere inches. And
that was that.
“Frustrating,”
Pearson
said.
“That’s the best
word to describe this evening.”
Added Piazza: “I thought
we had a really good start, we
played well enough to win. Just
really unfortunate we couldn’t
put the puck in the net early, and
they got a few crappy bounces.
Just one of those nights.”
EVAN AARON/Daily
Mel Pearson and the Michigan hockey team split their weekend series against No. 18 Wisconsin after a 5-3 win on Friday and a 4-2 loss on Saturday.
JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Writer
“It’s not really
what (Hayton’s)
doing, it’s what
we’re doing.”
“...They got a few
crappy bounces.
Just one of those
nights.”
No. 20 Michigan fell two spots in the PairWise Rankings after splitting its series against the 18th-ranked Badgers
No. 13 Michigan’s offense listless in loss
Where
has
the
Michigan
women’s basketball teams offense
gone?
The 13th-ranked Wolverines’
scoring touch was nowhere to
be found in their 63-56 loss to
Rutgers (6-5 Big Ten, 18-7 overall).
Unfortunately for Michigan, this
has been the case since the fourth
quarter of its loss to Purdue on
Thursday.
Entering Sunday’s game, the
Wolverines
(8-4,
19-6)
were
ranked fifth in the Big Ten in
scoring, averaging 77.1 points per
game. The 56 point total was their
third fewest of the season.
The struggles were apparent
from the opening tip. Michigan
scored just seven points in the
first quarter while Rutgers played
solid defense on the Wolverines’
all-time leading scorer, senior
Katelynn Flaherty. The guard
wasn’t able to find her rhythm,
shooting just twice in the opening
period and scoring zero points.
While Flaherty and Michigan
were able to pick up their output in
the second, the team still amassed
just 14 points in the third quarter.
The Wolverines were, however,
able
to
execute
defensively,
holding the Scarlet Knights to 13
points. Despite the ineffective
play, Michigan was down just
seven at the half.
The
Wolverines’
biggest
struggle was their inability to
take care of the ball. Michigan
committed 26 turnovers, well
over its season average of 16.1.
And Rutgers capitalized on their
mistakes, scoring 26 points off
the Wolverines’ turnovers. The
biggest culprit was Michigan’s
main ball handler — Flaherty —
who committed a staggering 10
turnovers.
“I think we turned it over
trying to get out in transition,” said
Michigan coach Kim Barnes Arico.
“Watching them play Maryland
(on Thursday), Maryland was
really able to get out in transition
and score some easy buckets that
way. And (Rutgers) is a team that
makes you play in the half court,
and if they make you have to grind
it out we thought that would be
tough.”
“You can’t win a game with that
many turnovers.”
The
Wolverines
did
show
glimpses of solid play in the
second half, partially returning to
form with 35 points. But it wasn’t
enough. Michigan shouldn’t be
too surprised, though, as the
Scarlet Knights have the top-
ranked defense in the conference,
allowing just 57.1 points per game.
The
staunch
defense
and
the hostile road environment
undoubtedly took a toll on the
Wolverines’ bench, which scored
just four points. The first player off
the bench, freshman guard Deja
Church, was the only Michigan
non-starter to score.
A positive takeaway for the
Wolverines was their ability to
shut down Rutgers best player,
Tyler Scaife. Despite averaging
19.2 points, the senior guard was
held to just two field goals, totaling
seven points. However, the Scarlet
Knights found an unlikely hero
in sophomore Ciani Cryor. The
guard, who averages 6.6 points,
had a career day with 16 points
and four assists.
“I think every team goes
through this,” Barnes Arico said.
“It’s like, now you have to keep
your confidence, now we have to
get back to work (and) we have to
get better. Let’s not lose our mind,
I mean we’ve lost two games. The
world is not coming to an end.
Let’s regroup. Let’s figure out how
to get better.”
Special teams play significant role in
weekend split with No. 18 Wisconsin
Earlier in the week, Mel
Pearson said he expected the
series against No. 18 Wisconsin
could get a little “chippy.”
With conference points at
stake for both the Badgers and
the
20th-ranked
Michigan
hockey team this weekend, the
presence
of
physicality
and
emotions was almost inevitable.
What Pearson couldn’t have
foreseen,
though,
was
that
Friday night’s game would have
a penalty summary lengthy
enough to look like a team roster.
The night witnessed a grand
total of 48 penalty minutes
— with 17 separate players
receiving penalties — and 24
of them were doled out during
the first period of the game.
The Wolverines accounted for
just over half of these minutes,
putting Wisconsin on the power
play seven times in the game.
“Discipline was not good,”
Pearson said. “You could see
right at the start of the second
period after we got the lead that
(Wisconsin) was going to come
out and play physical and try to
get us off our game a little bit,
and they did a good job. And we
fell right into it, and took some
penalties in the second and the
third and that gave them some
momentum and some life. And
that’s what they wanted to do.”
Added sophomore forward
Jake Slaker: “We took way too
many penalties and I think it’s
unacceptable on our part.”
And
though
Michigan
gave the Badgers many man-
advantage opportunities that
played a part in their third
period resurgence, when they
rallied for two more goals, the
Wolverines largely stood their
ground on the penalty kill.
Wisconsin converted on just
one of its seven special teams
showings.
On
the
other
side
of
Michigan’s special teams, there
was a stark contrast from last
weekend’s lifeless power plays in
Ohio State and the general trend
of this season. The Wolverines
lit the lamp twice, constituting
just under half of the goals in
Michigan’s 5-3 win.
The first time came just over
halfway into the first period,
when junior defenseman Joseph
Cecconi took the puck into the
Badgers’ zone and slapped a
strong shot into the top-left
shelf. Then, on another power
play with under three minutes
remaining in the same period,
Slaker — set up perfectly outside
of the crease — knocked the puck
in.
“The power play is just a huge
momentum swing, and when
we’re not scoring it’s tough,”
Slaker said. “… You know it
hasn’t been our strongest aspect
of the game, but it showed up
big for us tonight. And it shows
we’re working hard in practice
and sticking to details for that.”
The next night, though not
nearly as physical as Friday and
with less than half the penalty
minutes, the ability to perform
on both sides of special teams
again proved crucial.
But
Saturday
night,
the
Wolverines’
penalty
kill
—
which sits second to last in the
conference with an effectiveness
of 75.90 percent — wasn’t as
resilient as it had been just a day
earlier.
With
five
man-advantages
during the game, Wisconsin
found the net on two of them, all
before Michigan put anything
on the scoreboard to show for its
efforts.
On
the
Wolverines’
first
penalty of the game, the Badgers
were able to convert and bring
their lead to two. Then, just
over three minutes into the
second period, when sophomore
forward James Sanchez was
called
for
unsportsmanlike
conduct, Wisconsin defenseman
Wyatt Kalynuk sent the puck
past
sophomore
goaltender
Hayden Lavigne just seconds
into the penalty. This was
enough to bench Lavigne for the
remainder of the game, as the
netminder allowed four goals off
16 shots.
The night before told a very
different story for Lavigne. The
goaltender largely bailed his
team out Friday, as the Badgers
fired double the amount of shots,
forcing Lavigne to make 37 saves
in the showing.
Pearson noted Lavigne has
seen better nights, but attributed
the Wolverines’ early deficit to
poor timing with penalties. And
Michigan never recovered.
“We were (more disciplined),
but still, a couple bad penalties,”
Pearson said. “… It happened at
bad times too, when we were
trying to get back in the game.
And we would take a penalty,
and lose all of that momentum.
So we have to understand how to
manage the game better in those
situations.”
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Michigan guard Katelynn Flaherty was held in check as the Wolverines fell, 63-56, to Rutgers on Sunday.
HUNTER SHARF
Daily Sports Writer
ANNA MARCUS
Daily Sports Writer
ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Jake Slaker believes his team took too many penalties in Friday’s game.