4B — February 4, 2019
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
MINNEAPOLIS
—
Across
the first 10 games of the season,
Michigan’s power play scored 15
goals. In the ensuing 17 games,
the Wolverines tallied just five
goals on the man advantage.
This
weekend
against
Minnesota, the Michigan hockey
team had 12 opportunities on the
power play, including three with
a two-man advantage. But in the
27 minutes the Wolverines spent
with an extra man — or two —
across the two games, they failed
to convert a single time.
While Michigan was struggling
to find success on the power play,
the Golden Gophers converted
on four of their 11 chances with
an extra man. The Wolverines’
penalty kill held strong in some
moments, particularly in Friday
night’s win, but the following day,
it was the penalty-killing unit
that allowed Minnesota’s game-
winning goal.
“It
was
a
special
teams
weekend,” said Michigan coach
Mel Pearson. “We were 0-for-
whatever and they were 3-for-
whatever and that’s the story.
That’s the headline, that’s the
story of the game. That’s it.”
Michigan
knew
coming
into the series that the Golden
Gophers’ power play was highly
efficient — it entered the weekend
converting at a 30-percent clip in
Big Ten play.
And despite Pearson’s repeated
messages about the importance
of staying out of the penalty box,
the Wolverines were whistled for
13 penalties over the course of
the weekend. Freshman forward
Dakota Raabe was called for four
in the second period alone on
Saturday night — one of which
resulted in him being ejected
from the game and a five-minute
power play for Minnesota.
As soon as the five-minute
major penalty was announced,
the crowd seemed to be waiting
for the Golden Gophers to score a
goal. It felt all-but-inevitable.
But
Michigan’s
penalty
kill remained composed and
methodically
eliminated
the
extended man advantage. In the
third period, though, it broke
down and allowed the Golden
Gophers to score the game-
winner.
“We talked about it that we
couldn’t take penalties and it
ended up killing us at the end,”
Pearson said. “Just took too
many penalties and the last one
caught us. It’s no secret. Eight
power play goals for them now in
three games, you have to learn. …
They’re not learning. Gotta put
guys in the lineup who are gonna
learn and do their job.”
The Wolverines got another
chance after allowing that goal
to Minnesota’s power play, but
as it did throughout the series,
Michigan’s power play couldn’t
convert when it had a chance.
With just over a minute left,
Gopher defenseman Tyler Nanne
was sent to the penalty box for
slashing. The Wolverines trailed
by one goal, and the power play
— their seventh of the game —
offered an opportunity to send
the game to overtime.
Pearson
pulled
freshman
goaltender Strauss Mann for an
extra attacker seconds before
the penalty was called and opted
to leave him on the bench so
his team could have a two-man
advantage.
It almost worked.
Junior forward Nick Pastujov
got a look at a wide-open net as
goaltender Mat Robson slid out
of position, leaving the right side
of the net free. But Pastujov’s shot
went just wide and Minnesota
was able to clear the puck down
the ice, ending Michigan’s final
scoring chance of the game.
“We had our chances,” Pearson
said. “Pastujov at the end there,
pass comes right through the
crease, backdoor, and we whiff
on it. We were just a little off.
We were just a little off tonight,
and you can’t be just a little off or
else you’re not gonna win in this
league.”
Pastujov’s wide shot was just
one in a line of near-misses for the
Wolverines on the man advantage
over the weekend. Michigan
created opportunities with the
man advantage — it just struggled
to finish them.
“I think we had some chances,”
said
sophomore
defenseman
Quinn Hughes on Saturday. “I
know I could’ve scored at least
three in that second period, so I
think sometimes it just doesn’t
click for you. Obviously, that’s
what’s going on right now.”
But the Wolverines’ power play
has had difficulty since December
— it didn’t just find trouble in
this one series. The issues for
Michigan on the power play run
deeper than just having things
not click.
And with just seven regular-
season games left, with the
Wolverines in a tenuous position
for the postseason, time is of the
essence for the power play to turn
things around.
MINNEAPOLIS — Mel Pearson
preached disciplined throughout
the week. After Friday’s game
against Minnesota, the Michigan
coach preached it even more.
“We have to stay out the penalty
box,” Pearson said after Friday’s
4-2 win over the Golden Gophers.
“Most of our penalties were not
saving goals. They were all down in
the far end, in our offensive zone,
so we have to clean that up.”
Despite the emphasis on clean
play, the Michigan hockey team
failed to execute, and it cost them
in a 4-3 loss to Minnesota on
Saturday.
Momentum had been building
for both sides. The opening 10
minutes of the game were defined
by dangerous opportunities that
ended inches short from breaking
the scoring ice for either team.
That was, until Tyler Nanne
found the back of the net for the
Golden Gophers following a one-
timer at the top of the zone. The
shot went stick-side, and junior
goaltender
Hayden
Lavigne
couldn’t slide over to stop the shot
from flying past his padding.
And
just
like
that,
the
momentum
that
had
been
mounting for both ends shifted in
favor of Minnesota. Breakaways
and odd-man rushes that had
plagued Michigan before seemed
all the more threatening.
The Wolverines failed to sway
the momentum shift even with
their man-advantage on the power
play. Senior defenseman Nicholas
Boka received the puck in the
offensive zone, but turned it over
trying to get a pass off.
Chasing down the breakaway,
he committed a penalty in turn to
stop Minnesota’s odd-man rush
from turning into a goal. The
highly-potent
Golden
Gopher
power play, however, made Boka
pay, as Rem Pitlick converted the
man-advantage to widen the lead
to two.
Michigan
received
an
opportunity to strike back nearing
the period’s end as Minnesota’s
Nathan
Burke
committed
a
penalty, and the Golden Gophers
sent too many players on the ice.
The
five-on-three
advantage
was the Wolverines’ second of
the series, but just like the first
opportunity Friday, the five-on-
three ended without a goal.
In contrast, as the final power
play from the first period — which
bled into the start of the second
period — ended, Minnesota took
the puck, and Tyler Sheehy scored
a goal off a full-rink push.
“We didn’t start on time. We
didn’t show up,” Pearson said. “You
could just tell that they were gonna
— by the comments of their coach
that they were gonna compete
harder. We knew that.”
Pearson, behind the bench,
pointed to freshman goaltender
Strauss Mann and then to the
goalpost, signifying a change in
goaltenders.
Following
the
switch
in
netminders, it seemed as if the
Wolverines found their spark.
Scoring three consecutive goals,
they answered the slow start with
a mid-game bang.
Junior forward Jake Slaker
received the puck from Quinn
Hughes.
The
sophomore
defenseman curled toward the
right faceoff circle and immediately
yelled for the puck. Slaker found
Hughes and as the latter collected
the puck at his stick, he fired a shot
that rang in with 3:28 to go in the
second.
“We
were
getting
pretty
frustrated,” Slaker said. “We were
getting some pretty good chances,
but we knew weren’t playing our
game. Quinn made a nice play to
me, dropped it, and luckily I hit
him back and he finished it and
I think that kind of sparked the
bench, showing that was still so
much time in the game and that we
still had a game to get back into it.”
Moments later, Slaker, again,
collected the puck and pushed
down the ice and into the offensive
zone. He passed the puck off to
sophomore Michael Pastujov. The
forward garnered the puck and put
it in the net.
And then, less than two minutes
later, Pastujov found the net again,
this time off of a rebound from
Slaker’s shot, tying the game at 3.
The period had saw two major
penalties from both teams, though
neither could convert. In spite
of the fact that Michigan had a
near-two
minute
five-on-three
advantage, none of the chances
generated were enough to stop the
power-play goal drought.
“I think we’re getting good
opportunities,” Slaker said. “I
think it’s one of those things where
you can say what you want but
pucks just aren’t going in for us
right now. We’re getting the shots,
we’re getting the looks, it’s maybe a
few things we can tighten up.
The third period saw Minnesota
capitalize on the man-advantage.
Six minutes into the period,
sophomore Jack Becker tripped
Golden Gopher skater, leading to a
penalty. Tommy Novak converted
a shot that rocketed past Mann,
giving Minnesota a 4-3 lead.
“Just took too many penalties
and the last one caught us,”
Pearson said. “It’s no secret. Eight
power play goals for them now in
three games, you have to learn. You
gotta learn. They’re not learning.”
With less than two minutes to
go, Nanne was called for a slashing
penalty.
The
Wolverines
had
already pulled their goaltender
for an empty-net situation, but
the penalty allowed them one last
push with a six-on-four advantage.
Similar to the early two-man
advantage, Michigan failed to
convert the opportunities given,
and when the horn sounded, it
reaped the woes of the Golden
Gophers converting theirs.
Same story, different weekend
In need of a sweep at Minnesota to boost their NCAA Tournament hopes, the Wolverines split their fourth straight series
Loss to Iowa puts Michigan’s offensive struggles on full display
Colin Castleton rose up and
released a 3-pointer. The ball
arced through the air before
coming to an unsightly halt,
lodging itself in the crook
between the backboard and
rim.
You’d be hard-pressed to
script a more apt ending for
the Michigan men’s basketball
team’s 74-59 loss to Iowa on
Friday night. The Wolverines
went 9-for-28 for the field in
the first half and were barely
better in the second, shooting
32.3 percent and scoring 0.81
points per possession against
the
Big
Ten’s
worst
defense
in
adjusted
efficiency.
For Michigan,
the game was
thrown
into
chaos
at
the
start. With both
junior
center
Jon Teske and
sophomore
forward
Isaiah
Livers in foul trouble, the
Wolverines sputtered, and the
Hawkeyes ran off a 21-2 first-
half run.
Michigan never recovered
from the resulting 13-point
halftime
deficit.
But
its
second loss can only partly be
explained by foul trouble. For
40 minutes, the Wolverines
couldn’t hit a shot.
“Especially in the second
half and even in the first
half, we were just missing,”
said freshman forward Ignas
Brazdeikis. “I felt like there
were some not-so-good shots
that we took that were tough to
make, but then there was also a
lot of great shots that we didn’t
make.”
Iowa’s defense is by no means
its biggest strength — it’s 96th
nationally in adjusted defensive
efficiency, per KenPom. But
not all bad defenses are created
equal. The Hawkeyes are one of
just two teams in the Big Ten
that play a significant amount
of zone defense, a tactic which
requires a different set of rules
to crack.
To beat a zone defense, a
team must move in order to get
quality shots. Then it needs to
knock them down. Michigan
was unable to do either.
“We had to take a lot of threes
at the end,” said Michigan
coach John Beilein. “We didn’t
get many good looks. They
were really honest, and then
sometimes we didn’t position
ourselves or have the patience
to get good looks.”
The
Wolverines
missed
many
of
the
good
looks they did
get. With nine
minutes left and
a chance to cut
Iowa’s lead to
four, sophomore
guard
Jordan
Poole
pump-
faked
into
an
open three from straight on. It
bounced off the front rim.
But
too
often
Michigan
stagnated,
content
to
fire
long 3-pointers over the zone
instead of taking the time to
pick it apart. Late in the game,
down
67-56,
junior
guard
Zavier Simpson — a 27 percent
3-point shooter — missed a
24-footer with 22 seconds left
on the shot clock.
Hawkeye
forward
Tyler
Cook grabbed the rebound,
but Brazdeikis poked it loose.
Instead of setting up a play,
Brazdeikis passed to Livers,
who took a contested wing
three with his feet not yet set.
Clank.
The
Wolverines
took
33
threes Friday. They made eight.
“We
have
this
habit
of
playing at the NBA 3-point
line, playing really deep, and
shooting NBA threes when we
could possibly shoot college
threes,” Beilein said. “If you
guys have any secret on how to
break it, I’d like your help. We
can’t get guys to move against
the zone.”
This was always a losable
game for Michigan. On top of
all the usual aphorisms about
winning on the road in the Big
Ten, Iowa’s offense ranks 10th
in the country. And while the
Hawkeyes’ defense is usually
poor, the length and size of
their zone can frustrate a team
unfamiliar with it.
“It
bothers
everybody,”
Beilein said. “You don’t see it
a lot, and then they go down
and they’re really good in their
zone. Their length in their zone
is really good, and they just do
some things in their zone and
they made it tough for us.”
Still,
the
Wolverines
went on the road and held a
high-powered offense to an
acceptable
1.02
points
per
possession. Zone or not, foul
trouble or not, Carver-Hawkeye
Arena or not, they had their
chances to win.
If not for one area of minor
importance:
They
couldn’t
score.
Over its last five games,
Michigan is scoring just 61.2
points per game on 37-percent
shooting and has fallen to
ninth in the Big Ten in scoring.
It’s hard to pinpoint the main
culprit, either — most of the
Wolverines’ usual contributors
are putting up stat lines vaguely
similar — but lower than —
their season totals. The drop
in efficiency has been a team-
wide phenomenon.
“We
just
have
ups
and
downs throughout the season,”
Simpson said. “We just have to
fix them.”
The lack of one discernable
issue makes those downs that
much harder to fix. Before
the season, Michigan’s hopes
rested on an elite defense and
getting just enough from an
offense with few established
playmakers or shooters. But
all of that was said before the
Wolverines started out 20-2
and rocketed past all of those
expectations.
Michigan’s offense has fallen
to 42nd in adjusted efficiency.
Fourteen of the past 17 national
champions
ranked
15th
or
higher, and the worst title-
winning offense during that
span was 39th.
If the Wolverines are to
reach the upside their defense
provides, they will, at some
point, need to score the ball.
BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
ALEXANDRIA POMPEI/Daily
Sophomore defenseman Quinn Hughes picked up an assist as Michigan lost to Minnesota, 4-3, on Saturday.
JACOB SHAMES
Daily Sports Editor
ANNIE KLUS/Daily
Sophomore guard Jordan Poole scored 16 points on just 3-of-9 shooting from 3-point range as Michigan’s offense struggled for stretches in a loss at Iowa
... Even in
the first half,
we were just
missing.