4B— October 16, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
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OUR
MICHIGAN
VOICES
MANY
Before the puck even dropped,
something was different about
the Michigan lineup.
Freshman defenseman Cam
York was out with a lower body
injury. Junior forwards Michael
Pastujov and Jack Becker didn’t
dress, either.
Instead, the roster featured
sophomore
defenseman
Jake
Gingell,
sophomore
forward
Jack Olmstead and redshirt
sophomore
forward
Emil
Öhrwall.
And as the last seconds
ticked off the clock at Yost Ice
Arena,
Michigan
(0-1-1)
felt
their absence, as it lost to No. 11
Clarkson (1-0-1), 3-1.
“We had all the momentum,”
said
Michigan
coach
Mel
Pearson. “But it’s a bounce or a
break here. They won the game
but I can’t tell you that they’re the
better team. I thought we played
well and they got some bounces
and some goaltending. But I feel
good about a lot of things going
on in the program.”
When the puck dropped, the
Wolverines were ready to go.
They fired shot after shot — none
found the back of the net. But
around the halfway point of the
period, momentum started to
slip away from Michigan. A shot
came at sophomore goaltender
Strauss Mann from the slot.
Mann made the first save, but
coughed up a rebound. A split
second later, Golden Knights
forward Adam Tisdale found
the back of the net. Just like that,
Clarkson took the lead, 1-0.
In the second period, the
Wolverines were still unable
to capitalize on their offensive
opportunities. As the offense
tried to even the score, in net,
Mann worked tirelessly to keep
his team down only one goal. He
made glove saves. Pad saves. Stick
saves. And even a couple saves
while sprawled out on the ice.
“He was unbelievable this
weekend,”
said
sophomore
defenseman Nick Blankenburg.
“The first three goals tonight, he
didn’t have much of a chance on
those. He’s keeping us in these
games and he’s been great for us.”
Despite Mann’s impressive
performance,
the
Wolverines
found themselves down 2-0
in the opening minutes of the
third period after the Golden
Knights
recovered
a
Griffin
Luce turnover, sailing a pass to
the right post. Clarkson forward
Anthony Romano was faced with
an open net, and a blink later, he
beat Mann.
Desperate to cut the deficit
with only a period remaining,
Michigan pushed harder. Its first
— and only — goal of the game
came with 14 minutes remaining
on the clock.
Blankenburg
found
Jake
Slaker alone in the left faceoff
circle. With pressure coming,
he hit a one-timer at Clarkson’s
goaltender. The puck came loose,
and a split second later it was on
the stick of senior forward Nick
Pastujov, who sent the puck
sailing into the back of the net.
And with that, the Wolverines
were on the board, but still
trailing, 2-1.
“It’s definitely nice to get
that first one however you can,”
Pastujov
said.
“We’ve
been
battling a lot, and we’ve been
getting good chances. It’s nice
to just pop that first one and
hopefully just start rolling.”
The
momentum
from
Pastujov’s goal resulted in an
onslaught of Michigan offense.
Every time the puck found a
stick in the offensive zone, the
Wolverines fired it towards the
net. They were playing with a
sense of urgency for the first
time all night. In just a span of
eight minutes, Michigan tallied
10 shots on goal.
As quick as the game had
swung in favor of the Wolverines,
the Golden Knights took back
control. After redshirt junior
Luke Morgan missed a shot on
goal, Clarkson controlled the
puck. Junior forward Grant
Cooper skated the puck through
center ice and into Michigan’s
defensive zone. He fanned on the
first attempt, but quickly rifled
a backhanded shot into the net
behind Mann.
Just like that, the Wolverines
lost all momentum and were
down two goals for the second
time in the period.
Frustration
set
in.
With
under five remaining, Luce hit
a Golden Knight from behind
and earned a game misconduct.
Because of the timing of the
penalty, Michigan spent the
remainder of the game playing a
man down.
“You have to understand the
time of the game, what’s going
on, where you are on the ice,
the situation,” Pearson said.
“You have to understand that. I
know Griff is — he plays hard,
he plays physical. He plays all
out. Sometimes, you just have
to control your emotions and
control your aggressiveness.
“You have to be more careful
on that, especially (when) we’re
doing everything we can to get
back in the game.”
The defense was there.
The offense was coming along.
The
penalty
kill
was
an
underlying factor in Friday’s 1-1 tie
for the Michigan hockey team, and
a key in keeping Saturday’s game
close.
The power play, however, was
not.
The
Wolverines
struggled
with the man advantage, unable
to capitalize on any of the seven
penalties
they
drew
Friday,
and converted only one of five
Saturday.
Michigan’s
inability
to convert haunted them with
wasted opportunities in a tight 3-1
loss Saturday against Clarkson.
The struggle to score was
reminiscent of last year, when the
Wolverines capitalized on just
16 percent of their power plays.
With a different assistant coach
helming the man advantage and a
more modern system in play, hopes
arose on Michigan’s ability to score
on the given opportunities. This
weekend series against Clarkson
showed otherwise.
Michigan drew early penalties
in the first and second periods
on
Saturday.
Yet,
somehow
the
Golden
Knights,
despite
being short a player, outshot the
Wolverines.
“I think over time we are going
to get more comfortable with
ourselves,” said senior forward
Nick Pastujov, “and you’ll see a lot
more goals.”
Michigan looked uncomfortable
on the man advantage early in the
game, moving the puck from side
to side without any semblance of a
plan. Michigan coach Mel Pearson
had stated the day before that
Clarkson doesn’t beat itself and
that the Wolverines would have
to, but the idle passing looked like
a half-hearted scavenger hunt for a
slip-up from the opponents.
“I just think we’ve gotta
simplify,”
said
sophomore
defenseman Nick Blankenburg.
“We’ve just gotta get pucks on net
and shoot for rebounds. I think the
rest will come.”
The
strategy
Blankenburg
noted — getting the puck to the
crease and looking for high-danger
opportunities — is exactly how
Michigan netted its first power
play goal of the season.
Winning
the
faceoff,
Blankenburg collected the puck
at the blue line and lasered a pass
across ice to a waiting Jake Slaker,
camped at the faceoff circle. The
senior forward cocked back his
stick and shot the puck as it sped
into his vicinity. The one-timer
itself wouldn’t have gone in, but it
gave Pastujov an opportunity to
deflect it in.
It took eight seconds for that
play to find success.
The opportunity arose first from
winning the faceoff, something
the Wolverines struggled to do all
game long. The Golden Knights
had won 15 of the 20 faceoffs in
the first period alone. That in turn
led to Michigan chasing the puck
around, many times during their
man advantage, and cost them
precious seconds that could have
been used to attack rather than
aimlessly chasing Clarkson.
“We
were
terrible
there,
tonight. Terrible,” Pearson said.
“Then you’re chasing the puck, you
don’t win faceoffs, you’re chasing
the puck all over the rink and we
did not do a good job in that area.
“ … We gotta play with the puck,
we want to be a puck-possession
team instead of chasing the puck
the entire time.”
Eight seconds showed just how
quickly Michigan could convert on
the power play. It took 20 seconds
alone for the Wolverines to recover
a puck lost on the draw during a
power play sophomore forward
Garrett Van Wyhe drew in the
second period on Saturday.
The Wolverines’ power play
looked its best when the players
initiated the attack by bringing
the puck near the net, whether by
shot or stick-work, and pursuing
the opportunity in “hard ice” — a
term Pearson coined to describe
the gritty play around the net.
“A shot off a pad almost
turned into a goal off a rebound,”
Blankenburg. “So I think we’ll
keep working on that this week.”
It’s a point of emphasis that
Pastujov agrees the team should
work on. The team averaged 4.2
power plays last season. It’s already
drawn 12 in two games this season.
“I think we are going to be
drawing a lot more penalties,”
Pastujov said. “We can capitalize
on a lot more of those chances.”
And if Michigan wants any
chance of winning, it’ll have to.
Power outage
Wolverines go 1-for-12 on power play and fail to beat Clarkson in season-opening series at Yost, scoring just twice in two games
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Editor
MOLLY SHEA
Daily Sports Writer
RUCHITA IYER/Daily
Senior forward Nick Pastujov scored Michigan’s only power play goal over the weekend against Clarkson.
Michigan soars to top of Big Ten
Sarah
Stratigakis
passed
the ball across the pitch to her
right, where her teammate was
open for the finish. Sophomore
midfielder Raleigh Loughman
shot and found the bottom of the
net for the first of the Michigan
women’s soccer team’s four
goals against Illinois. For the
second
consecutive
game,
the Wolverines scored four
times. This time, the offensive
barrage came late in the game,
with two goals in the final 10
minutes.
With their second straight
4-1 victory and seventh win
in their last 10 games, the
Wolverines (11-3-1 overall, 6-1-1
Big Ten) have caught fire with
just three games left in the
season.
Loughman,
whose
performance
against
the
Fighting Illini helped her earn
Big Ten Offensive Player of the
Week honors, scored on both
of her shots on goal and added
an assist on a second-half goal
by freshman forward Danielle
Wolfe.
Wolfe,
who
was
named
the Big Ten Freshman of the
Week as a result of her scoring
outburst
against
Illinois,
scored her first goal since the
Wolverines’
opener
against
Marshall on August 22. In 32
minutes off the bench, Wolfe
scored twice on five shots,
including a goal in the 88th
minute that all but sealed a
victory for Michigan.
“It’s really great for us when
we have Raleigh score two
goals and also have a freshman
in Danielle that can score off
the
bench,”
said
Michigan
coach Jennifer Klein.
Thanks
to
the
pair
of
multi-goal
performances,
the Wolverines
have
advanced
into first place
in the Big Ten,
one point above
Wisconsin,
which
is
currently
undefeated
in
conference play.
At this point in the season,
Michigan and Wisconsin, with
19 and 18 points, respectively,
are a step ahead of the rest of
the conference, with the next
two teams, Iowa and Penn
State, having only 15 points
each.
Consequently, both teams
appear to be locks for a top-
four seed in the Big Ten
Tournament, which would give
them
home-field
advantage
through the quarterfinal and
potentially semifinal and final
rounds, if the Wolverines make
it that far.
“We
(might)
need
some
help,” Klein said. “But it’s
certainly something we want in
the end.”
Winning
the
Big
Ten
Tournament is Michigan’s most
surefire route to the NCAA
Women’s Soccer Tournament,
as doing so would earn them
an automatic bid, but it’s a
tough task. The Wolverines
haven’t
won
the tournament
since the 1999-
2000 season.
This year has
been a breakout
season
for
Michigan,
which currently
sits at No. 19
spot in the most
recent
United
Soccer Coaches
Poll.
The
Wolverines will finish with at
least 11 wins for the first time
since 2015 and have just one
loss in conference play — a 2-0
loss at the hands of Wisconsin,
currently ranked No. 10 in the
aforementioned poll.
As a result, the team will
almost
surely
receive
an
at-large bid — even if they fail
to win the Big Ten Tournament
— and return to the NCAA
Tournament for the first time
in four years.
Friday
night’s
offensive
output from Loughman and
Wolfe move the Michigan one
step closer to that goal.
PAARTH SHARMA
For The Daily
(A Big Ten title
is) something
we want in the
end.
WOMEN’S SOCCER