The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsWednesday
January 9, 2019 — 3B

Michigan falls to Merrimack, 4-2

After 40 minutes of play, 
Michigan (7-8-6) and Merrimack 
(6-15-1) were deadlocked at one 
goal apiece. Forward Derek Petti 
was able to break the stalemate 
with a goal just seconds into the 
third period that allowed the 
Warriors to take the lead and 
eventually the victory, 4-2.
Entering 
the 
final 
period, 
Merrimack was on the power 
play 
as 
a 
result 
of 
senior 
defenseman Nick Boka taking an 
unsportsmanlike conduct penalty 
at the end of the second period. 
And just 17 seconds into the man 
advantage, Petti skated into the 
slot untouched and fired a shot 
past freshman goaltender Strauss 
Mann to put the Warriors up by a 
goal.
“The second goal, we take a bad 
penalty at the end of the period,” 
said Michigan coach Mel Pearson. 
“A real bad penalty, and they 
convert on it. A real soft goal.”
Merrimack added another tally 
moments later to stretch its lead to 
two.
Michigan struck back just over 
two minutes later, when freshman 
defenseman Jack Summers’s shot 
was tipped into the net by junior 
forward Adam Winborg, but the 
late-game goal proved to be not 
enough for the Wolverines. They 
fell to Merrimack, which entered 
the game ranked 52nd in Pairwise 
— out of 60 teams — and have 
now won just one of their last five 
games.
“(The 
Warriors) 
played 
desperate, and that was the 
difference,” Pearson said. “They 
played desperate, they played like 
their life depended on it. We played 
like it was just another game. We’re 
not good enough to just show up 
and think we’re just going to come 
out and play … We’re going to have 
to play a lot harder.”
The matchup was rife with 
odd-man rushes and breakaway 
chances, 
but 
neither 
team 
consistently capitalized on those 
chances.

Just over two minutes into the 
game, forwards Jordan Seyfert and 
Patrick Kramer found themselves 
in a two-on-zero breakaway ahead 
of Michigan’s defense. Mann had 
little hope of stopping Kramer’s 
shot, and Merrimack took the early 
lead.
But after that, the Warriors’ 
odd-man chances frequently found 
the end boards, not the back of the 
net.
Early in the second period, 
freshman 
defenseman 
Nick 
Blankenburg nearly ended up on 
the wrong side of a one-on-zero 
breakaway, but he used his skating 
to force the Merrimack player to 
the side of the net and prevent a 
goal.
For 
Michigan, 
breakaway 
chances were no more fruitful.
“We missed the net a lot,” 
Pearson 
said. 
“(Merrimack) 
blocked a lot of shots, but we missed 
the net a lot. Over the net, wide on 
grade-A 
scoring 
opportunities. 
We’re not a gifted team as far as 
scoring goes. We have to really 
work for our goals and tonight we 
had to really work for our goals.”
Minutes after the Warriors 
found twine, freshman forward 
Garrett van Wyhe and sophomore 
forward Dakota Raabe came close 
to an odd-man rush of their own, 
though goaltender Drew Vogler 
was able to make a straightforward 

save on Van Wyhe’s shot.
It took more than a period 
for the Wolverines to equal the 
score. In the second period, junior 
forward Jake Slaker fired a shot 
from just outside the right circle. 
Goaltender Drew Vogler tried to 
make the save, but Slaker’s shot 
tucked underneath the top of the 
net for his eighth goal of the season.
“(Junior 
defenseman 
Luke 
Martin) made a nice play to me out 
wide,” Slaker said. “I thought I had 
a step on their defenseman. I was 
getting a lot of shots all night and 
I finally saw an opportunity to get 
a good shot and luckily, it went in.”
Just three days before the loss to 
Merrimack, Michigan defeated No. 
9 Notre Dame 4-2 — in South Bend. 
And three days after the loss to 
the Warriors, the Wolverines will 
face No. 4 Ohio State in Columbus. 
Last season, Michigan fell to the 
Buckeyes all five times the two 
teams met. 
The seven teams of the Big Ten 
are separated by just 10 points, 
with three teams tied in the middle 
at 15 points each — including the 
Wolverines.
Michigan now has just three 
days to bounce back from the loss 
and get ready for a trip to Ohio 
State. 
Its performance in Columbus 
could set the course of the rest of 
its season.

One step forward, two steps back

At the final buzzer, Jake 
Slaker could only slam his stick 
down at the ice in frustration, 
shattering it in two.
The junior forward recorded 
six shots on net and a goal in 
the Michigan hockey team’s 
4-2 loss to Merrimack Tuesday 
night. His efforts helped give 
his team a chance to win the 
game. The defense, however, 
lost it.
The play that preceded the 
stick break wasn’t necessarily 
either 
one’s 
fault. 
Who 
could see a game-clinching 
empty-net goal, as freshman 
goaltender 
Strauss 
Mann 
skated away from the post, 
coming? But it was a situation 
the Wolverines should have 
avoided in the first place.
Throughout 
the 
game, 
defensive struggles, ones that 
Michigan coach Mel Pearson 
thought had ceased coming 
out of Saturday’s game at 
Notre 
Dame, 
reappeared. 
Breakaways, 
unmarked 
attackers and easy shots on 
goals — all things that the 
opposing team shouldn’t have 
had. Yet, the Warriors had 
it all. On the flip side, the 
Wolverines had to scrape by for 

every chance they generated, 
and even more so on the ones 
they converted.
“You can’t give up the easy 
goals like that,” Pearson said. 
“Especially when you have to 
struggle so hard to score, like 
we do right now, but you can 
just tell, it’s just a little bit 
intensity. We’re not a gifted 
team as far as scoring goes. 
We have to really work for our 
goals and tonight we had to 
really work for our goals.”
As the team tried to take a 
step forward after its match 
up with the Fighting Irish, the 
defense took two steps back.
The 
play 
that 
best 
exemplified 
this 
happened 
close 
to 
puck 
drop. 
A 
Merrimack skater flipped the 
puck away from the defensive 
zone and into neutral ice. 
It dropped between senior 
defenseman 
Nicholas 
Boka 
and junior defenseman Griffin 
Luce. Neither made the push 
for the puck, and an easy 
possession turned into a sprint 
to stop the breakaway attempt 
for the Warriors.
The 
defensive 
regression 
proved costly minutes after 
when Merrimack scored the 
first goal on a breakaway. 
It all began when freshman 
defenseman Nick Blankenberg 
left his assignment to make an 
on-puck play.
The switch up left Warrior 
Patrick 
Kramer 
open, 
and 
senior 
defenseman 
Joseph 
Cecconi couldn’t rotate in time. 
Merrimack’s Jordan Seyfert, 
who 
broke 
from 
pressure, 
found him, and he scored.
“We just had a defenseman 
leave the middle of the ice and 
come all the way across the ice 
to try and make the play and 
they got a breakaway,” Pearson 
said. “They got a (two-on-one), 
it should’ve been a two-on-four 
the way it was shaping up, but 
because we left an area.
“Never should have done 
that. That’s not a good play. And 
now it gives the momentum. It 

gives them some energy.”
Added Slaker: “Once we 
go down, we know that their 
goal was probably a defensive 
let-down and we were making 
mistakes in the D-zone.”
But Michigan cleaned up. 
With Slaker’s top-shelf goal 
and tightened-up defense, it 
tied the game at one apiece. 
An unnecessary play by Boka, 
however, turned the tides. Boka 
got into a scuffle at the end of 
the second period, committing 
an unsportsmanlike penalty 
in the act and putting the 
Wolverines at a disadvantage 
coming out from the final 
intermission.
“We take a bad penalty at 
the end of the period, a real bad 
penalty, and they convert on it, 
a real soft goal,” Pearson said. 
“We didn’t give them much, 
but we made some key errors 
at critical times, and that cost 
us.”
The special team defense 
had committed too many men 
to the battle near the boards. 
The puck was lodged against 
it, and three of the four skaters 
for Michigan were actively 
trying to poke it away. While 
the Wolverines were pursuing 
the puck, an unmarked Warrior 
skater curled away from the 
battle and stationed himself 
in front of the net. As the puck 
leaked out toward him, there 
was nothing between him and 
the goal besides Mann, and a 
simple shot through Mann’s 
legs created the late deficit.
“Not prepared to play, and 
that’s up to each player to be 
ready to play,” Pearson said 
on Michigan’s performance. 
“Couple comments from our 
team, ‘We didn’t take them 
serious’ or whatever. I don’t 
know how you can because 
we’re not that good. We have to 
take every team serious to have 
a chance to win.
“I thought we made some 
progress at Notre Dame, you 
know, and I thought we took a 
step back tonight.”

 

ATLANTA — Chase Winov-
ich took a deep breath and 
thought. 
Really, truly 
thought.
He had 
been asked by 
a reporter — 
shortly after 
Michigan was 
dismantled by 
Florida, 41-15, 
in the Peach 
Bowl — to 
assess the state of the program.
A fifth-year senior, Winovich 
is often pegged to speak to these 
types of big-picture questions, 
both because he understands 
the program better than just 
about anybody and because Jim 
Harbaugh, the man at the top, 
won’t engage them.
So they get thrown on Win-
ovich. All year. And to his 
credit, less than an hour after 
his college career ended in a 
distasteful crescendo, the de 
facto spokesman obliged. Just 
weeks prior, Winovich chose to 
describe the loss at Ohio State 
as a “mirage” and, well, that 
explanation was no longer on 
the table. Where does that leave 
this program now?
“I caught a lot of flak a couple 
weeks ago because I said ‘We’re 
building a powerhouse.’ I used 
some pretty heavy words,” 
Winovich said, striking an 
uncharacteristically tepid tone. 
“My motivation behind that was 
really trying to get a recruit that 
decommitted to come back. So, 
it worked. I meant what I said, 
just not—we’re building a great 
team. This thing takes time. In 
hindsight, coming to Michi-
gan, I maybe underestimated 
the amount of time and effort 
it would take to get over that 
hump. We’ve been chasing this 
for quite some time.”
Then a sigh.
“We’re close. We’re clawing 
at it.”
Then a question brings Win-
ovich back to the present. The 
Gators posted 427 total yards 
— 257 on the ground — outscor-
ing Michigan 35-5 after the first 
quarter. What surprised him 
about the 26-point loss?
“I’m kinda stoic in the sense 

that a lot of this stuff, especially 
playing as many years as I have, 
kinda stoic in the sense that a lot 
of this stuff is already accounted 
for,” he said. “I’ve already 
accounted in my head that cer-
tain things might happen.”
His response was in the con-
text of what the Gators did on 
the field Dec. 29. But it’s hard 
not to extrapolate that to the 
bigger picture. Chase Winovich 
played at Michigan five years, 
and in that span experienced 
more highs and lows than 
most programs go through in a 
decade.
His first year on campus, 
as a tight end, Michigan went 
5-7 and fired the coach that 
recruited him. Then the Savior 
Of The Program came in and 
turned the place upside down. 
In Harbaugh’s first year, the 
Wolverines won 10 games. The 
next year, inches of JT Barrett’s 
extended arm separated Michi-
gan from a Big Ten title game.
All the while, Winovich 
somehow blossomed into an 
All-Big Ten defensive end. Then, 
slowly but surely, the outward 
face of the team. He came back 
to school unabashedly clear 
about his Big Ten title and Col-
lege Football Playoff goals. 
He coined the now-infamous 
Revenge Tour. 
Which brings us to the Peach 

Bowl — an unceremonious end 
to a one-of-a-kind career, and 
the unequivocal plateau of a 
program seemingly incapable of 

climbing higher.
Just minutes prior, a couple 
hundred feet down the hallway, 
Harbaugh had expounded the 
obvious.
“My feeling about the team 
is we’re right there to the top, 
but we have to put it over the 
top,” the coach who has lost his 
final two games each of the last 
three seasons said. “Especially 
in the big games at the end of 
the year.”
He’s not wrong, of course. 
Michigan under Harbaugh has 
the seventh most wins in that 
span in the country. Prior to his 
arrival, the Wolverines had just 
four seasons with double-digit 
wins since the turn of the cen-
tury. Under Harbaugh, Michi-
gan now has three in the last 
four years.
But after the undressing 
that has been the last month of 
Michigan football, those win 
totals ring hollow. Michigan 
hasn’t won a game later than 
Nov. 19 since the Citrus Bowl 
after the 2015 season. Its signa-
ture win of the last 4 years is … 
Wisconsin in 2016? Penn State 
this year? Bueller?
“Next year, we’re not going to 
try to go backwards,” Winovich 
said, speaking of the program 
he’s now leaving.
While Winovich might be 
correct that regression seems 
unlikely, the Harbaugh era has 
become increasingly defined 
by one question: Is progression 
really any more likely?

Wolverines squeak out win, 79-78

For the second game in a 
row, the Michigan women’s 
basketball team watched as a 
potential game-winning shot 
pinballed around the rim at the 
final buzzer.
This time, the bounce went 
in its favor.
After rallying from an eight-
point fourth-quarter deficit, 
the Wolverines (11-5 overall, 
2-2 Big Ten) clinched a 79-78 
win 
against 
Northwestern 
(9-6, 2-1) in overtime after 
Wildcats 
sophomore 
guard 
Jordan 
Hamilton’s 
shot 
ricocheted off the rim three 
times before harmlessly falling 
into the hands of freshman 
forward Naz Hillmon as the 
buzzer sounded.
 Senior guard Nicole Munger 
hit two free throws with 51.8 
seconds to go to put Michigan 
ahead for good, maintaining 
her 
perfect 
shooting 
percentage from the line.
“It was great to be on the 
winning side,“ said head coach 
Kim Barnes Arico.
The first half was tightly 
contested, with the Wolverines 
trailing, 40-38, at intermission. 
However, scoring woes in the 
first quarter prevented the 
team from entering the locker 
room ahead. Michigan went 
on 
a 
three-minute scoring 
drought, 
and 
found 
itself 
clinging to a slim 16-14 edge at 
the end of the quarter despite 
Northwestern’s 
inability 
to 
make a field goal for three and 
a half minutes.
Down 56-50 entering the 
fourth 
quarter, 
Michigan 
got big plays from Munger, 
Hillmon and senior forward 
Hallie Thome to salvage what 
had been one of the team’s 
sloppier efforts of the season. 
Thome 
opened 
the 
period 
with an open layup, and two 
possessions later saved a loose 
ball from going out of bounds 
to set up a 3-pointer from 
sophomore 
forward 
Hailey 
Brown. Munger added a big 
bucket of her own when she 
knocked down a corner triple 
to cut the Wildcats’ lead to 

63-60.
Hillmon 
outmuscled 
defenders 
off 
her 
missed 
free throw to draw a foul on 
a putback attempt, causing 
Pallas 
Kunaiui-Akpanah 
to 
foul out. A play later, Munger 
found Thome on a gorgeous 
bounce pass inside to cut the 
lead to two. Hillmon knotted 
the score at 67 apiece on the 
next 
possession, 
supplying 
the 
Wolverines 
with 
the 
spark that they had been 
searching for the entire half. 
When discussing her 21-point 
performance, which included 
a whopping seven offensive 
rebounds, Hillmon said that 
her mindset never changed, 
even during some of the game’s 
key moments.
“The entire game I was 
getting putbacks and trying 
to get to the basket, so I tried 
to keep that same mindset so 
that I didn’t worry myself,” 
Hillmon said.
However, 
the 
Wildcats 
responded with three quick 
points to take the lead back. 
After Hillmon split a pair of 
free throws, Michigan was 
whistled for a foul on a loose 
ball, much to the chagrin of 
the crowd. After the Wildcats 
converted on both of their free 
throws, Thome notched a layup 
with 25 seconds left to cut 
the lead to two after Hillmon 
shielded an errant pass from 
being picked off.

Hillmon produced another 
big play on the Wolverines’ 
next 
offensive 
possession. 
Following two missed free 
throws from Northwestern, 
battling inside to secure a 
putback off of her own miss to 
tie the score up at 72. 
“Even if it was a bad pass 
(Hillmon) would come to get 
it,” Brown said. “And even 
if she missed she’d get the 
rebound.”
Michigan forced an airball 
on 
the 
ensuing 
Wildcats 
possession to send the game 
into overtime. After the game, 
Munger noted that the team’s 
defensive 
effort 
down 
the 
stretch was instrumental in 
kickstarting its comeback. 
“If we’re not scoring we 
have to make sure they’re not 
scoring,” she said.
Northwestern 
gained 
the 
edge with a minute to go in 
overtime when it sunk two 
free throws following a foul, 
but 
Munger 
returned 
the 
favor to regain the lead. When 
sophomore guard Deja Church 
was whistled for an offensive 
foul with 12 seconds left, it 
gave the Wildcats one final 
chance to win the game and 
the Wolverines a chance for 
one last stop. After Jordan 
Hamilton’s 
layup 
bounced 
off the rim, Michigan found 
itself basking in the glory of a 
thrilling 79-78 victory.

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Senior defenseman Nick Boka’s unsportsmanlike-conduct penalty led to a Merrimack goal in Michigan’s 4-2 loss.

What now?

MAX

MARCOVITCH

ALEXIS RANKIN/Daily
Chase Winovich played his last game in Michigan’s Peach Bowl loss.

TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer

TEDDY GUTKIN
Daily Sports Writer

ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Senior guard Nicole Munger hit two free throws with 51.8 seconds to go. 

