4B — December 9, 2019
SportsMonday
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

Wolverines fall to Nittany Lions, 3-1

Almost. 
The Michigan hockey team 
(6-10-2 overall, 2-7-1-0 Big Ten) 
almost completed a comeback 
against No. 6 Penn State (12-
5-0, 7-3-0-0). And if it had, the 
comeback 
would’ve 
marked 
the first time this season the 
Wolverines were able to do so, 
amid their first Big Ten sweep.
Instead, the game followed the 
same trajectory that can sum up 
the first half of the Wolverines’ 
season — they played well enough 
to win, but ultimately couldn’t 
finish the job.
“We 
played 
hard,” 
said 
Michigan coach Mel Pearson. “All 
we can do is ask our players to 
give it their best and lay it on the 
line and walk out of here knowing 
they did that. I don’t know if we 
can play much better than we did 
tonight. We fought our way back 
from that two-goal deficit, and 
I thought in the third period, we 
were the best team.” 
But really, the Wolverines had 
sealed their fate by the time the 
first period ended. The Nittany 
Lions nabbed a 2-0 lead heading 
into intermission, and though the 
Wolverines responded quickly, it 
wasn’t enough. When the clock 
expired at Yost Ice Arena, the 
scoreboard favored Penn State 
over Michigan, 3-1. 
The Wolverines’ two-minute 
struggle started when they took 
a penalty for too many men on 
the ice. It happened while senior 
defenseman Griffin Luce was 
heading off the ice for a line 
change.
His 
replacement, 
freshman 
defender Keaton Pehrson, had 
already come over the boards. 
Luce was a just a step from the 
bench when the puck ricocheted 
off the boards and hit his skate. 
The referee blew his whistle — 
and for the third time that period, 
Michigan was going to have to kill 
a penalty. The Wolverines had 
successfully killed the Nittany 
Lions’ first two opportunities, 
and they hoped to continue their 
shutdown of Penn State’s power 
play.
But these hopes were thwarted 
18 seconds later, when Nittany 

Lions forward Nate Sucese buried 
a one-timer to beat sophomore 
goaltender Strauss Mann.
In the wake of Sucese’s goal, 
Michigan needed to regroup and 
badly. But it would have to wait for 
the intermission, because barely a 
minute after the first goal, Penn 
State extended its lead to 2-0.
There 
were 
just 
seconds 
remaining when Nittany Lions 
forward Evan Barratt found the 
puck at the top right side of the 
crease. Carrying the puck on his 
stick, he danced around Mann 
and finished on a wide open net.
“I think that was just a lapse,” 
said redshirt junior forward Luke 
Morgan about the second goal. 
“We took the penalty, that’s tough, 
and they score (while we’re) 
shorthanded. We might have put 
our foot off the gas at the end of 
the period a little bit. You can’t do 
that. They capitalized on that.”
Then, when the puck dropped 
to signal the start of the second 
period, Michigan mustered a 
quick response to the Nittany 
Lions’ late offensive push.
The 
Wolverines 
pushed 
into the offensive zone off the 
opening drawing. Junior forward 
Michael Pastujov found himself 
in the middle of a battle along the 
boards. Pastujov was checked by 
a defender and lost his balance 
but not before he threw the puck 
across the ice and toward the goal. 
Simultaneously, redshirt junior 
Luke Morgan streaked towards 
the net.
Pastujov’s pass crossed his 
path, and in one fluid motion, 
Morgan rifled the puck into 
the goal. With Morgan’s goal, 
Michigan inched closer to a 
comeback, but still trailed, 2-1.
“It was huge,” said senior 
forward Will Lockwood. “You 
could just tell, the momentum 
swung there. That was really big 
for us. I’m really surprised we 
didn’t get another. I think if we 
got that next one, got that bounce, 
we would’ve won the game, no 
doubt. Unfortunately, that didn’t 
happen, but that first goal was big 
for us.”
As the storyline has been 
all season, the Wolverines had 
chances, but didn’t finish them. 
They outshot Penn State in both 
the second and third periods, 

tallying a total of 43 shots on net. 
But none of these chances crossed 
the goal line, none of them aided 
the attempted comeback.
With time running out, and 
Michigan still applying pressure, 
still searching for an equalizer, 
still looking to prove it could 
stage a comeback Pearson made 
the decision to pull Mann for an 
additional attacker.
It almost worked. As Mann 
skated to the bench, Pastujov 
climbed over the board and skated 
into the offensive zone. Fifty 
second later, he was faced with 
an open net, as the Penn State 
goaltender was sprawled on the 
ice. Pastujov fired a shot. It went 
just over the crossbar. 
The Wolverines had almost 
tied the game. 
But not even twenty seconds 
later, Nittany Lions forward Denis 
Smirnov shot the puck into the 
empty and made the score 3-1.
As the teams lined up to shake 
hands, the Wolverines’ ability 
to respond quickly to adversity 
didn’t matter. All their offensive 
opportunities didn’t count for 
anything more than stats in a 
column. 
When the game ended, the 
score sheet favored Penn State 
and though Michigan almost 
staged a comeback, the only thing 
reflected in the stats was how 
damaging its two-minute mental 
lapse proved to be.

Offense falls short in Penn State loss

Standing just below the left 
circle, Michael Pastujov received 
a pass from Jacob Hayhurst 
behind the net. In an instant, 
without wasting time settling 
the puck for a shot, Pastujov 
snapped a wrist shot toward the 
mouth of the goal.
Penn 
State’s 
goaltender, 
Peyton Jones, lied prone in the 
crease as Michigan applied 
pressure. It looked as though 
Pastujov was going to find twine 
and tie the game at two goals 
apiece with just over a minute 
left. The Wolverines even began 
to celebrate as the puck flew 
toward the net, thinking there 
was no way it wouldn’t be a goal. 
Pastujov was quick with his 
release, and he had a wide-open 
target to shoot at.
But instead, somehow, some 
way, Jones got a piece of the 
puck, deflecting it high and 
neutralizing the scoring chance.
Seventeen 
seconds 
later, 
forward 
Denis 
Smirnov 
hit 
the empty net to make it a 3-1 
game with under a minute left. 
Michigan’s chance at coming 
back and getting the sweep was 
gone.
“It’s kind of just been the 
same story all year,” said senior 
forward Will Lockwood. “Guys 
just gotta bear down on chances, 

including myself, and that’s 
just a mindset. We gotta come 
in with that mindsight right at 
the beginning, but I think we’re 
doing a lot of the right things.”
Throughout Saturday’s game, 
the Wolverines struggled to 
finish on scoring opportunities. 
And 
as 
Lockwood 
said, 
Michigan’s offense has told 
the same story throughout the 
season.
Through 
their 
18 
games 
this season, the Wolverines 
rank third in the nation with 
584 shots on goal. Their shot 
percentage, however, is 58th out 
of 60 teams at just 6.7 percent. 
The numbers state it about as 
plainly as anything could — 
Michigan just cannot find the 
back of the net. In Saturday’s 
matchup, the Wolverines put 43 
shots on net and attempted 68 in 
total.
They scored only one goal.
“We continue to struggle 
scoring goals,” said Michigan 
coach 
Mel 
Pearson. 
“Last 
night, we didn’t score on our 
best chances. You saw we got 
four, and we could’ve had nine. 
Tonight, we could’ve had I don’t 
know how many.”
And it isn’t a matter of not 
getting opportunities, as the 
Wolverines’ third place shot 
total 
demonstrates. 
Every 
game, players fail to convert on 
Grade-A scoring chances.

Saturday, 
that 
stood 
out 
about as much as it has all 
year. Throughout the lineup, 
Michigan missed chance after 
chance.
Senior forward Jake Slaker 
was stopped by Jones on a one-
on-one breakaway from point-
blank 
range. 
Jones 
stopped 
sophomore 
forward 
Garrett 
Van Wyhe that way, too. Late in 
the game, when Pearson pulled 
sophomore goaltender Strauss 
Mann to give the Wolverines an 
extra attacker, they continued 
to fail to execute on scoring 
opportunities.
Pastujov missed the best look 
Michigan had with the extra 
attacker, and freshman forward 
Johnny Beecher had a couple 
chances of his own that couldn’t 
find the back of the net.
In the third period, Michigan 
outshot Penn State, 19-10, but 
couldn’t get a goal out of it.
“We probably had as many 
good chances this weekend as 
we’ve had all year, against a team 
that has played well defensively,” 
Pearson said. “Against a team 
who likes to spend a lot of time — 
I don’t think we spent much time 
in our zone in the third period 
when the game’s on the line.”
Even earlier in the game, 
when 
the 
Wolverines 
were 
attempting to battle back from 
a one-goal deficit, Michigan 
demonstrated an inability to 
convert on chances. Sophomore 
forward Jimmy Lambert had 
two open looks on the power play 
in the second period. Hayhurst, 
too, had multiple chances on 
the doorstep of the crease and 
couldn’t punch the puck in.
And 
as 
the 
Wolverines 
continue to try to dig themselves 
out of last place in the Big 
Ten, the offense needs to find 
a 
rhythm. 
Michigan 
hasn’t 
won this year when it’s scored 
less than four goals, and the 
Wolverines average just 2.17 
goals per game.
It’s 
becoming 
clear 
that 
without the offense finding a 
way to light the lamp, this team 
will continue to struggle at the 
bottom of the conference.
“We have to score goals,” 
Pearson said. “And we’re not 
doing that.”

MOLLY SHEA
Daily Sports Writer

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
Sophomore forward Nolan Moyle was one of many Wolverines to struggle in Saturday’s 3-1 loss to Penn State.

‘M’ to play Alabama in Citrus Bowl

Ever yelled “We want Bama” as 
a joke when Michigan had a good 
game? Well, you got your wish.
It’s official: the 14th-ranked 
Wolverines will be headed to 
Orlando to play No. 13 Alabama in 
the Citrus Bowl on New Year’s Day.
“Certainly a privilege and an 
honor for our team to be … playing 
a great team like the University of 
Michigan with great tradition and 
a great coach in Jim Harbaugh,” 
Alabama coach Nick Saban said on 
a conference call Sunday evening. 
“And this is something that we — 
a challenge that we certainly look 
forward to.”
Harbaugh is 1-4 in bowl games 
during his time at Michigan, 
though the one he did win was also 
the last time the Wolverines were 
in the Citrus Bowl, where they 
beat Florida to conclude the 2015 
season.
All three teams Michigan lost to 
in the regular season made either 
the Playoff (Ohio State) or a New 
Year’s Six bowl (Wisconsin and 
Penn State), clearing the way for 
the Wolverines to get a spot in the 
Big Ten’s top non-New Year’s Six 
bowl.
Meanwhile, the powerhouse 
Crimson Tide seemed destined 
for a College Football Playoff 
spot — what would’ve been their 
sixth in six years of the Playoff — 
for most of the season, but when 
quarterback Tua Tagovailoa went 
down for the season with a hip 
injury and Alabama lost to rival 
Auburn, it fell out of a New Year’s 
Six spot altogether.
Still, the Crimson Tide are 
second in the country in SP+ and 
have the third-ranked offense and 
the No. 6 defense. Michigan is 19th 
and ninth, respectively.
“The Alabama team is a great 
team,” Harbaugh said. “I have the 
utmost respect for them. They’ve 
set the bar for college football over 
the last many years, the model of 
success and credit to Nick Saban 
and his coaches. High-powered 
offense, a great defense, and I’ve 

already started to look at them.
“… That offense, they average 
somewhere around 48 points 
a game and their two offensive 
tackles look to be guys that could 
be top-20 picks in the draft. A lot 
of good receivers. This could be the 
best group of receivers maybe ever. 
Three top picks, probably three 
first-round picks in that group and 
two really talented running backs. 
Very impressed with (quarterback) 
Mac Jones and the defense is, the 
other thing is, the special teams is 
dynamic. The punt returns, kick 
returns, those two especially. We’ll 
need to have a great plan in regards 
to all three phases of the game. 
Excited for the opportunity.”
The two teams last played in 
2012, when they met at a neutral 
site for the season opener. The 
Crimson Tide won in a blowout, 
41-14. Before that, their most 
recent matchup was in the 2000 
Orange Bowl — 20 years to the 
day before their upcoming Citrus 
Bowl tilt — where Tom Brady led 
the Wolverines to a 35-34 win in 
the first-ever overtime BCS Bowl 
game.
Though Michigan and Alabama 
rarely play each other, there is still 
some level of familiarity. Offensive 
coordinator Josh Gattis spent 
the 2018 season as the Crimson 
Tide’s co-offensive coordinator 
as they made a run to the national 
championship 
game. 
Shea 
Patterson also faced off against 
Alabama as Mississippi’s starting 
quarterback in 2017.
Saban 
and 
Harbaugh 
only 
really have a passing relationship, 
but as coaches of two blue blood 

programs, they respect each other 
and know the Citrus Bowl will 
bring a unique challenge.
“I have a lot of respect for 
Jim,” Saban said. “I think he’s 
been a great coach and done a 
great job at Michigan, did a great 
job every place he’s been prior to 
that. We have a lot of respect for 
the University of Michigan, their 
program, their tradition and the 
job that he’s done as a coach.”
Normally, the Citrus Bowl 
doesn’t feature marquee matchups 
by design. But when schools with 
two of the largest fanbases in the 
country fell there, the meeting 
seemed like a no-brainer for the 
bowl.
Most of the Wolverines have 
not announced whether they 
intend to play in the bowl, though 
linebacker Josh Uche and tight 
end Sean McKeon, both seniors, 
have indicated that they will play.
“We still got one more game 
to play for,” McKeon said after 
the loss to Ohio State. “One more 
game to win. Looking forward to 
preparing with the team one more 
time and trying to get that (win).”
With a match against one of 
the consistent best teams in the 
country, that task just got quite a 
bit harder.
“It’s 
a 
fabulous 
team,” 
Harbaugh said. “A very, very elite 
team and as I said, credit to Nick 
Saban and the coaching staff and 
our preparation will have to be 
at its highest level. Good to know 
who you’re gonna play and get 
started. It’s a big-time matchup. 
We’re very much looking forward 
to it.”

Dilk cuts down on turnovers in win

Oakland had just cut the 
Michigan women’s basketball 
team’s lead to seven, in the 
midst of a 10-4 run, and Amy 
Dilk had the ball at the top of 
the key. The sophomore guard 
looked to do what she does so 
often: find sophomore forward 
Naz Hillmon in the paint and let 
Hillmon go to work. 
But this time, Hillmon wasn’t 
open, and Dilk threw the ball 
over her head — Dilk’s second 
turnover of the game. On the 
ensuing possession, Grizzlies 
guard Alona Blackwell drained 
a corner 3-pointer, and the 
Wolverines found themselves 
leading by just four with two 
minutes remaining in the third 
quarter.
This wasn’t an uncommon 
occurrence 
for 
Dilk. 
She 
averages over 3.5 turnovers 
per game, and her greatest ball 
security issues have come when 
the stakes are highest. In the 
Nov. 23 loss to Notre Dame, Dilk 
had three costly fourth-quarter 
turnovers, leading to a blown 
five-point lead. 
While Dilk has let her play 
spiral after bad turnovers in the 
past, she showed improvement 
Sunday. She didn’t turn the 
ball over the rest of the game, 
and on each of the next three 
possessions made no attempt to 
be the hero as she had against 
the Fighting Irish. She made 
easy passes, took an open 
shot in the paint and made a 
great bounce pass to a cutting 
Hillmon for an easy layup. The 
Wolverines scored on all three 
possessions, extending the lead 
to 10 — a lead they wouldn’t give 
up, defeating Oakland, 79-64.
“Amy Dilk’s decision making 
has really really taken strides 
in 
the 
positive 
direction,” 
said 
Michigan 
coach 
Kim 
Barnes 
Arico. 
“She’s 
really 
conscientious and trying to 
stop hitting the home run 
pass initially and moving the 

ball more on the offensive 
end. 
(She’s) 
showing 
great 
discipline.”
Added Dilk: “Coach is doing a 
great job of if I make a mistake, 
just let it go — don’t dwell on it. 
There’s a lot of game left to be 
played.”
From 
a 
ball 
security 
standpoint, Sunday was Dilk’s 
best game since the loss to Notre 
Dame, when she played the 
entire game. While Barnes Arico 
didn’t think that fatigue played 
a role in Dilk’s lackluster fourth-
quarter play, she has made an 
effort to give 
Dilk 
a 
few 
minutes on the 
bench in every 
game since — 
especially when 
she makes a bad 
turnover.
This change 
is in large part to 
Barnes 
Arico’s 
newfound trust 
in 
sophomore 
guard Danielle Rauch, who 
has appeared in each of the 
last four games at point guard. 
While lacking some of Dilk’s 
scoring prowess, Rauch has 
shown the ability to be a capable 
floor general with Dilk off the 
floor and has impressed on 
the defensive end, grabbing 
four steals over the four-game 

stretch.
Rauch played an important 
role in a 12-2 Michigan run to 
end the first half, assisting on 
two of the Wolverines’ five field 
goals in that span.
Having the ability to put 
Rauch in for extended periods of 
time has helped Dilk calm down 
after making a bad decision and 
keeps her fresh for the end of the 
game.
“I think Danielle has proven 
in practice every single day 
she’s ready for the opportunity,” 
Barnes Arico said. “She limits 
her 
turnovers 
as well and her 
decision making 
has been really 
good for us.
“Just to give 
Amy 
a 
break 
every now and 
again to get her 
re-focused 
and 
locked in really 
helps 
Amy, 
as 
well.”
The change in Michigan’s 
use of Rauch has paid dividends 
for Dilk, allowing her to calm 
down when her play gets sloppy. 
Sunday showed just how much 
of a weapon Dilk can be when 
she takes care of the ball, and a 
spell on the bench after a poor 
decision has made this version 
of Dilk the new norm.

ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan football team is looking for its first bowl win since 2016.

ARIA GERSON
Daily Sports Editor

JACK KINGSLEY
Daily Sports Writer

EMMA MATI/Daily
Sophomore guard Amy Dilk had just two turnovers against Oakland on Sunday.

Amy Dilk’s 
decision 
making has ... 
taken strides

