The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com Sports Tuesday, October 22, 2019 — 7 Johnny Beecher settling in faster than expected There were 46 seconds left on the clock. Michigan led, 4-3, but Lake Superior State was pressuring after pulling its goaltender for an extra attacker. If the Wolverines could get the puck cleared out of their zone, it would likely seal a sweep over the Lakers. In that high-pressure situation, where a faceoff win could mean the difference between victory and defeat, Michigan coach Mel Pearson had a decision to make. Seconds later, 6-foot-3 freshman forward Johnny Beecher glided into the faceoff circle to take the draw against 6-foot-6 forward Hampus Eriksson. As the referee dropped the puck, Beecher beat Eriksson to the puck, twisting as he sent it back between his legs to senior defenseman Luke Martin, who waited in the corner. Martin brought the puck up toward the blueline, looking to get the clear or put the puck in the empty net, but forward Ashton Calder was waiting to keep it in the zone for his team and his play created two scoring chances for Lake Superior State. After a flurry of activity in front of the net, sophomore goaltender Strauss Mann covered the puck, which meant another faceoff was coming. This time, there were just nine seconds left. Once again, Pearson gave Beecher the nod. Once again, Beecher won the draw. “You just kinda have to dial it in and focus on the draw,” Beecher said after the game. “Obviously, there’s a lot on the line with a one-goal lead, but I’m extremely happy that coach has that much faith in me and my teammates as well. I just wanted to go out there and try to win the draw for them.” The second time, Beecher beat Calder off the drop and sent the puck out and around the corner, where sophomore defenseman Nick Blankenburg chased it down. Blankenburg’s pass around the boards came up to senior forward Will Lockwood at the point, who ensured a game- winning clear for the Wolverines. “(Beecher) was really good, we tried him there and he’s been excellent,” Pearson said after the game. “Two big important faceoffs, and we win them. But we got to make sure we get those out though, especially the first one. But got a lot of confidence in Johnny in his faceoff ability.” Just four games into his Michigan career, Beecher’s earned Pearson’s full confidence to win crucial draws at key moments of the game — and Beecher’s 16-of-20 record on draws throughout Saturday’s game exemplifies why Pearson trusts him implicitly. But he didn’t always expect to be turning to Beecher this early in his career. Earlier in October, Pearson told MIHockey.com that he thought it would take Beecher time to adjust to college hockey. In his two years at the U.S. National Team Development Program, Beecher was somewhat buried on the line chart behind future top- five picks Jack Hughes and Alex Turcotte. His role wasn’t to be the go-to scorer — Hughes and Turcotte and their linemates were there for that. At Michigan, Beecher’s role is expanding, and Pearson thought it would be a month or two before Beecher — the No. 30 overall pick to the Boston Bruins in the 2019 NHL Draft — fully adjusted. But with three points in his first four games, it’s clear that Beecher is settling in faster than anyone expected. “He’s got a quick learning curve,” Pearson said Monday. “He’s picked a lot of things up. … His practice habits have gotten better. I think that’s the biggest area we’ve seen and then that’s flown into — just flow right into the game with his preparation and whatnot. “Practice, it took him a while to get going, and now he’s practicing better. He sees the importance of it and understands, and that’s part of the learning curve, too.” And Beecher’s teammates can also see and appreciate how quickly he’s adjusted to the pace and style of play in college hockey. “I don’t think it really took much,” Lockwood said. “I think he kinda jumped right in and has been great. He really uses his speed well. In practice, he wasn’t always utilizing that, but in games, he was blowing by guys. I think the first couple games he was a bounce or two away from having three, four breakaways and then this past weekend, I think he did have three or four breakaways. “He’s been able to jump and do really well.” Michigan women take fourth place As the sound of the gun pierced the fall air and sent a flurry of runners into the opening straight, the Wolverines clad in pink ran to battle against some of the nation’s top programs. The No. 5 Michigan women’s cross country team took fourth place out of 37 teams, only losing to the other three top-10 teams that were present at the meet: No. 7 Washington, No. 3 BYU, and No. 6 Colorado. It was a strong performance from the Wolverines, but still wasn’t enough, as they were 80 points off first place and never truly in contention for the team title. “We’re satisfied, but at the same time looking to improve,” said Michigan coach Mike McGuire. The main problem for the Wolverines was the back half of their top five not moving up enough. Their top runner, freshman Erika VanderLende — who ran the second-fastest time for a freshman at this course in the meet’s history — came in fifth, but their second runner, junior Kathryn House, came in 31 seconds later in 31st place. In comparison, the winning team — the Washington Huskies — put their entire top five ahead of House. Michigan did tie for the most in the meet with six runners in the top 50, but nearly all of that depth was near the back of that group. “Our key is gonna be our depth moving up a bit,” McGuire said. However, this doesn’t mean that depth is a problem — in fact it is one of the Wolverines’ strong suits. In the open race, where Michigan used their runners not in the top seven, they showcased this with a one-two finish, and put five runners in the top seven. “I thought the performances we had in the open race put us in a good position going into Big Tens,” McGuire said. And, with the regular season coming to a close, giving way to the November postseason, all of the Wolverines’ goals are still attainable. McGuire hopes that the team will hit its stride once the postseason hits. “We’re happy with the 12 we had today,” McGuire said. “We’ll continue to build on that.” The race did see some very strong individual performances as well. VanderLende held the lead up until the last kilometer, senior Anna West raced competitively for the first time this season, and junior Jenna Metwalli had what McGuire labeled a “career performance” — coming in 43rd and besting her 6k personal record by 26 seconds. As Michigan looks ahead to the EMU Fall Classic on Friday and beyond, they know what they have to work on as a team before they can reach their goals. “We’re excited for the opportunity that’s presented to us going forward,” McGuire said. And what an opportunity that is. Wolverines’ practice competition intense after offseason departures Charles Matthews, Jordan Poole and Ignas Brazdeikis. If you followed Michigan basketball at all last season, those three names probably ring a bell. Names like Brandon Johns Jr., David DeJulius, Adrien Nunez and Franz Wagner likely don’t, at least not to the same degree. And yet, some combination of this youthful quartet, the first three all sophomores and the last a true freshman, will feature significantly for the Wolverines this year. The departures of Matthews, Poole and Brazdeikis — who together accounted for 56 percent of Michigan’s scoring last season — make it so. “We’re ready to step up to that challenge,” DeJulius, a guard, said. “It’s big shoes to fill losing those three. We understand that and are mature enough to know that. All of us are just locked in to fill those big shoes.” Roster turnover is an intrinsic part of college athletics — basketball especially — but losing three starters to the professional ranks, all of whom had eligibility remaining, came as a bit of a surprise for the Wolverines. As the saying goes though: when one door closes another one opens. Let’s just say that door is gaping. Especially with the recent news that Wagner, who’s received the most praise of anyone early on, suffered a non- surgical fracture in his right wrist this week and is set to miss four to six weeks. On the perimeter, there will likely be two starting positions up for grabs between senior point guard Zavier Simpson and junior forward Isaiah Livers — who primarily played the ‘4’ last season. So far in practice, the aforementioned young guns and junior point guard Eli Brooks are all in the battle. “There’s always competition, especially when there’s a sudden change,” Brooks said. “You just gotta do your job. You wanna be the best teammate you can be because at the end of the day, they’re still on your team. You have to just let the better player get the job.” While Brooks has the most playing experience of that group, he hasn’t been much of a scoring threat throughout his career, averaging just 2.2 points per game. Brooks knows that and has tried to focus on it in the offseason. “One thing I lacked was offensive production,” Brooks said. “So I’ve been looking for my shot more, getting to spots where I’m comfortable at and being more aggressive.” Regardless of Brooks’ expected improvements, DeJulius and Nunez pose a significant threat to his playing time. DeJulius featured in 25 games last season and has impressed new coach Juwan Howard with his work ethic. “He’s like (Simpson) in so many ways,” Howard said. Nunez, who was left on the outside looking in last season, is also trying to make a leap forward this season with his sharpshooting ability being his biggest asset. Both Johns Jr. and Wagner are natural scorers who are more than capable of slotting into the starting lineup this season, too. Johns Jr. played in all 28 games last season, flashing his offensive potential in an eight-point, eight- rebound performance against Indiana in early January. “Brandon is a very athletic guy who has a beautiful stroke in his jumpshot,” Howard said. “He’s been competing hard in practice. He’s grasping a lot of the new responsibilities in teaching what is asked of him. I see that he’s gonna have his chance to play a lot this year, but as he knows, it starts in practice. You gotta earn your minutes.” Wagner’s temporary absence will put even more of an onus on his teammates, like DeJulius and Johns Jr. to pick up the slack. The freshman played professionally in his native Germany as an 18-year old last season. His polished offensive game, sneaky athleticism and maturity have been major talking points thus far. Upon his return, look for Wagner to eventually crack the primary rotation. Until then, the fierce competition that characterized practice will be even more important. That relentless drive to improve is just what Howard wants from his team though. “Coach said that any drill we do, where we’re trying to compete, is like the Hunger Games,” Nunez said. “At the end of the day, we’re all family and teammates. When it gets on the court though, we’re all just trying to compete and earn that spot. “It’s all just healthy competition but whoever is the hungriest is gonna be the one who plays in the end.” Defense spurs victory As the No. 9 Michigan women’s field hockey team took the field Friday night, the lyrics of Queen’s We Will Rock You blasted through Ocker Field. The song proved a fitting backdrop to the type of match that followed: a smashmouth, defensive slugfest. For the Wolverines (11-3 overall, 4-1 Big Ten), it was a team effort on the defensive end that ushered them to a 1-0 victory over No. 2 Maryland (13-2, 5-1). “We just worked as a team together,” said sophomore goalkeeper Anna Spieker. “Everybody knew exactly where they were supposed to be, in their right pockets and having a good angle with the ball.” Throughout the game, the Wolverines’ press was relentless and aggressive, often forcing Maryland into sloppy play and rushed passes. “It all starts with the forwards,” said senior midfielder Guadalupe Fernandez Lacort. “The forwards, they had a great press. You would see their sidebacks fumble the ball or hesitate, not knowing what to do. It really all started from there.” Limiting Maryland’s corner opportunities also keyed the defense. The Terrapins are known for having a robust corner game, led by two standout drag flickers, forwards Bibi Donraadt and Jen Bleakney. With Michigan’s press helping keep the ball predominantly in the Wolverines’ possession, Maryland only managed to create three corners. When the Terrapins did slip through the cracks in the Michigan defense, Spieker was there to thwart any notion of a goal. Despite facing ten shots, Spieker, the anchor to the Wolverines’ defense, ensured none reached the back of the net by recording four saves. The shutout helped her improve upon her nation-leading .75 goals against average. “She made really solid, poised decisions back there,” said Michigan coach Marcia Pankratz. “Obviously she shut them out, and that’s not an easy team to shut out. So it was a great game from her.” Michigan was humming defensively from the very start, allowing no shots and no corners in the first quarter. Any doubt that the Wolverines would lose the intensity and physical play for the remaining 45 minutes gradually washed away as the game went on. Stout defensive performances are nothing new for this Michigan squad — the team now has eight shutouts on the season. Yet doing it against a Maryland team that entered the match eighth in the nation with 3.29 goals per game is an impressive reminder of the team’s defensive capabilities moving forward. “They played 60 minutes tonight,” Pankratz said. “That’s one of the goals we’ve had all season, to play an entire 60 minutes really strong. We know we had to against Maryland, and they did.” KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily The Michigan women’s cross country team finished fourth of 37 teams in Pre-Nationals over the weekend. SPENCER RAINES Daily Sports Writer Our key is gonna be our depth moving up a bit. JARED GREENSPAN Daily Sports Writer ALLISON ENGKVIST/Daily Anna Spieker made four saves Friday, helping Michigan to a shutout. BAILEY JOHNSON Daily Sports Writer MILES MACKLIN/Daily Freshman forward Johnny Beecher won two crucial faceoffs late in Saturday’s game against Lake Superior State. I’m ... happy that coach has that much faith in me. He’s got a quick learning curve. He’s picked a lot of things up. CONNOR BRENNAN Daily Sports Writer KATELYN MULCAHY/Daily Sophomore guard David DeJulius will likely see an uptick in playing time.