The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
SportsMonday
February 3, 2020 — 3B
How Beecher and Van Wyhe’s ejections changed the game in ‘M’ loss
Johnny Beecher had a foot
off the ice and into the tunnel
leading to the locker room.
The freshman forward had
just been thrown out of the game
for headbutting another player
in a scuffle. When he got fully off
the ice, he turned to the referee
right as the he was closing the
door behind him and launched
into his tirade.
What he shouted couldn’t
be heard floors above the ice,
or even rows away from his
tantrum. But the nearest fans
inches to him caught one word
— “bullshit,” they recalled him
saying.
And then, as he stormed
through the tunnel and out of
sight, a sound no one could miss
rang around Yost Ice Arena. A
crack of a stick, being slammed
against something hard. He was
angry, and he wanted everyone
to know.
And there was a reason for
it. It was a close game, and
his absence would make a
difference. He is currently tied
for third on the team for point
total with 12 and takes part in all
phases of the game: power play,
penalty kill and even strength.
He manned Michigan’s most
productive
line
pointwise,
which included senior forward
and captain Will Lockwood.
And instead of being on
the ice, he was in the locker
room — sitting and waiting for
the remainder of the game to
unravel.
Afterwords, as the rest of the
team trickled in after a tiring 4-1
loss to the Buckeyes, he came
up to Lockwood and tried to
apologize. But Lockwood shut
him down quickly.
“I said, ‘There’s no reason to
apologize, emotions get the best
of you,’ ” Lockwood explained.
“He was just coming in, trying
to defend me.
“As a linemate, that’s all you
can ask from a guy, so there’s no
apology needed there.”
The comforting came from
heart; Lockwood knew all too
well the sinking feeling of a
costly ejection against Ohio
State. He had done the same just
last year — he let Beecher know
that
too.
But
the
difference
there was that
Lockwood
was
thrown
out
in
the midst of a
double-overtime
period,
which
concluded
shortly
afterwards.
Beecher’s
ejection
came
just over two minutes into the
second period, leaving a lot of
the game left to be played short
staffed. And that problem was
only magnified after Michael
Pastujov obtained an upper
body injury midway through the
second period.
But the final nail in the coffin
came with four minutes left in
the second period. Sophomore
forward
Garrett
Van
Wyhe
collided against an Ohio State
skater
and
raised his two
balled-up
fists
to the skater’s
helmet.
He,
subsequently,
was thrown out
as well.
“We
lost
three forwards,”
Michigan coach
Mel
Pearson
said.
“So
we
were down to 10 forwards in the
game, and those guys had a lot of
ice time.”
The effects of the ejections
couldn’t be seen right away.
In fact, following Beecher’s
ejection, the Wolverines killed
off the Buckeyes’ man-advantage
and scored a goal of their own to
make it 2-1.
But when Van Wyhe was
called for a game misconduct,
cracks in Michigan’s forward
depth
started
to
show.
The
Wolverines were
already
forced
to kill off ten
minutes
worth
of
penalties
from
those
ejections, but to
make
matters
worse, arguably
Michigan’s best
penalty
killer
in Van Wyhe was scaling the
stairs to the locker room, as the
Wolverines were forced to fend
off another five-minute man-
disadvantage.
The irony of it all is that the
fact that Michigan could only
send four players to the ice
during that time might have
prevented an earlier collapse.
But the collapse did come.
Each line plays a shift that
usually lasts one or two minutes.
Once
that
threshold
hits
they
take
the
next opening for
a line change.
But
after
killing two five-
minute
majors
where
each
unit had two or
more
minutes
of
ice
time,
the
forwards
started to get run to the ground.
Production aside, that’s where
losing Beecher and Van Wyhe
hurt the most. The makeshift
lines started to see overlap,
where a few of the skaters had
back-to-back shifts or would
go back out with little rest in
between.
But there really was no other
choice. There were only 10
forwards.
And halfway through the
third period, Pearson started to
recognize the fatigue. The extra
shifts began taking their toll.
“I thought we had some good
push there,” Pearson said. “And
then about halfway through, we
just hit the wall.
“And then when they scored,
it just, it’s like letting the air out
of the balloon.”
It was the final period in the
second night of a back-to-back,
and the exhaustion was starting
to show, even if the players didn’t
notice. Adrenaline was keeping
them
going,
physically
and
mentally. But Pearson noticed,
as did the Buckeyes, who took
advantage of the fatigue to
widen the gap.
It wasn’t solely exhaustion
that crashed the parade, either.
Line combinations also played a
part.
“Centers kinda hold the line
together,” Lockwood said.
And the Wolverines had lost
two of their best.
So Pearson had to piece
together
provisional
lines,
putting at least two forwards
who
have
skated
together
before on a line and hoped the
chemistry and fit was there.
“You just went on a hunch,”
Pearson said. “Just trying to
create some good defense but at
the same time, some guys who
can work together and create
some opportunities.”
The lines that were put out
did create chances, outshooting
Ohio State 11-7 in the third
period. But the challenge of
being under-manned was too
much to overcome. There was no
next man up, with two men out.
“It’s
physical,”
Pearson
said. “It was draining on those
players.”
And that’s just how ejections
go.
Michigan splits series after 4-1 loss
When the second period
started, the game was still
within Michigan’s reach.
It was trailing No. 11 Ohio
State by two goals, but this
wasn’t unchartered territory.
The
Wolverines
had
found
themselves in positions like
this all season, and lately it
seemed they’d finally learned
how to overcome adversities
thrown at them.
This
time,
however,
the
Wolverines couldn’t recover
from
a
two-goal
deficit
and
mental
and
emotional
mistakes. It was all too much
for Michigan (11-12-3 overall,
6-8-2-1 Big Ten) to overcome as
it fell, 4-1, to the Buckeyes (16-
9-3, 9-7-2-0).
Saturday night, the first of
those adversities came just 43
seconds after the game started.
The sequence started when
freshman
forward
Johnny
Beecher lost the faceoff. From
there, the puck slid back to the
blueline and met the stick of a
Buckeye defender. He passed
it to teammate Matt Miller
who didn’t hesitate to shoot at
sophomore goaltender Strauss
Mann.
But Mann — the player that’s
consistently bailed his team out
all season long — didn’t stop it.
The puck went right past him.
Before Michigan could even
settle into the game, it was
already playing from behind.
“It’s tough letting in a goal
in the first or last minute of the
period,” senior forward Nick
Pastujov said. “On the bench,
it’s just kind of something
where you gotta have short-
term memory loss. Reset and
know that … we are outplaying
playing them. We can be a
better team, and we just gotta
keep that rolling.”
Eventually, the Wolverines
found an answer for Miller’s
goal. Their response was too
late though. It came midway
through the second period
when
junior
forward
Jack
Becker used his body to redirect
a shot from sophomore Jimmy
Lambert.
Becker’s goal made the game
2-1, his team having fallen
behind by two goals in the first
period. Nine minutes after
Miller’s goal, teammate Jaedon
Leslie beat Mann between his
pads.
Michigan’s lone goal of the
game came at what could’ve
been a turning point. Seven
minutes before cutting the
Buckeyes’ lead, the Wolverines
lost
a
forward.
Freshman
Johnny Beecher was ejected
from the game for head-butting.
As the game progressed,
Becker’s spark never became
anything more than that. Just
under fourteen minutes after
Beecher was tossed from the
game,
sophomore
forward
Garrett Van Wyhe received a
game misconduct for charging.
Down
two
centers,
Michigan’s
chances
at
a
comeback slipped further out
of reach. The bench got even
shorter when junior forward
Michael Pastujov didn’t return
to play after suffering an upper
body injury.
“It’s tough,” senior forward
Will Lockwood said. “Guys
gotta step up. Centers kind of
hold the line together. They’re
taking
draws
and
(have)
responsibility in the d-zone.”
When
the
third
period
started, the true effects of these
adversities
hadn’t
revealed
themselves
yet.
Wolverine
forwards were being double
shifted. Their adrenaline, and
Ohio State’s one goal lead,
fueled them.
Halfway through the third,
Michigan’s
tiredness
was
obvious. And when a team
is tired, it makes mistakes.
Saturday night, these mistakes
resulted in the Wolverines’
comeback hopes crumpling.
In
the
offensive
zone,
sophomore defenseman Jack
Summers skated with the puck.
He was pressured by Buckeye
defender Quinn Preston, who
poke checked Summers. Then,
Preston took off on a two-on-
one with freshman Keaton
Pehrson as Michigan’s lone
man back. Preston slid the puck
to Austin Pooley, and he tucked
it between the two pads of
Mann.
“Just a bad mistake and
turnover,” Michigan coach Mel
Pearson said. “It ends up in our
net. We just couldn’t get that
save or bounce that we needed.”
Again, the Wolverines trailed
by two, but now, time was
running out for a comeback. In
a last ditch attempt to give his
team a boost, Pearson pulled
Mann and added an extra
attacker. Nothing good came
from it.
With
fifty
seconds
remaining, Preston shot the
puck into Michigan’s empty
net and sealed the fate of the
game. A game that at one point
was
completely
within
the
Wolverines’ reach had slipped
so far away. They made too
many mistakes — some driven
by emotions and some by fatigue
— and Ohio State capitalized on
all of them.
“We beat ourselves, that’s
the most disappointing thing,”
Pearson said. “ … (We played)
undisciplined.”
Fall ball gives Wolverines No. 17 rank
Take the highs with the
lows.
It’s something the Michigan
softball team has come to
live by. With a rocky start to
last season and an early loss
in the Regional round of last
season’s NCAA Tournament,
the Wolverines are not without
their rollercoaster moments.
Before Michigan’s fall break
trip to Cuba and ax-throwing
outing was its short stint in fall-
ball. Without their annual trip
to the Traverse City College
Tournament in September, the
Wolverines only played in two
fall series.
The
first
was
against
Kentucky,
who
Michigan
most recently played in 2017,
when the Wildcats swept the
Wolverines over three games
at Alumni Field.
This fall, in an offensive
struggle, Michigan’s younger
talent
failed
to
capitalize
on its opportunities. With
a combined six runs over
three games, the gap in its
line-up was evident after the
graduation of six seniors last
season.
“I think we struggled a
little bit to just find out bats,
find out (who was) pitching,
you know just find ourselves
as a team,” junior left-hander
Meghan Beaubien said. “We
graduated a lot of people and
starting the year together, I
think we learned a lot from
those games.”
In their annual matchup
with
Michigan
State,
the
Wolverines’ young line-up was
also exposed. Going 1-1 on the
weekend, Michigan couldn’t
generate the power necessary
to get over the hump.
“Those were the things the
team needed in order to grow,”
senior
infielder
Madison
Uden said. “We needed those
experiences in the fall, we
needed
those
rollercoaster
moments. And although the
games didn’t turn out the way
we wanted them to, the team
as a whole is developed where
we need them to be right now,
ready for the season.”
But through it all, Michigan
is unconcerned with its fall
performance. Since fall-ball
games don’t yield meaningful
stats,
the
rollercoaster
moments
the
Wolverines
faced this fall left the coaches
with
perhaps
something
more important
— a benchmark
showing
places
for
improvement.
“Fall ball is
meaningless,”
Michigan
coach
Carol
Hutchins said.
“As
a
coach,
you can set your compass, and
you can gauge what you need
to get better at. And my book
was full, so we’re still working
through those pages. There’s
a lot to get better at for our
team.”
Another
benchmark
the
Wolverines
are
looking
to
improve upon is their USA
Today preseason ranking —
No. 17.
“I think it’s motivational,”
Uden said. “I think it’s not
where the seniors want to
be, it’s not where Michigan
softball wants to be, and
there’s a higher standard to
that ranking and so I think
that it’s a little bit hard on the
tongue. I think that we have a
lot to prove this year.”
Added
Beaubien:
“The
standard for this program is to
be in Oklahoma City and it is to
be a national contender. We’re
definitely aware that that’s not
where we’ve been the past few
years. We don’t think that’s
acceptable.”
Despite their No. 17 ranking
and
less
than
stellar
fall
performance,
the
Wolverines
are
unconcerned.
Michigan
is
looking forward,
not
back.
It’s
using
the
rollercoaster
moments
from
the fall to propel
it.
“We’re
all
on one heartbeat, one page,”
sophomore right-hander Alex
Storako said. “We’re all really
connected with each other,
I don’t really think rankings
mean anything as much as
others’opinions, so I think just
once we’re all on the same page
and one heartbeat it’s really
kind of what makes the best
part of the chemistry.”
Michigan
will
have
the
chance to prove itself and
dispel the No. 17 ranking,
as it plays multiple ranked
opponents
in
the
non-
conference
season.
These
include No. 1 Washington, No.
4 UCLA, No. 6 Texas and No.
7 Florida.
Michigan’s response to the
highs and the lows of that
gauntlet could determine the
rest of their season.
NATALIE STEPHENS/Daily
Freshman forward Johnny Beecher got thrown out of Saturday’s game after headbutting another player, leading to a 4-1 Michigan loss to Ohio State.
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
He was just
coming in,
trying to defend
me.
It’s like letting
the air out of
the balloon.
MOLLY SHEA
Daily Sports Writer
JULIA SCHACHINGER/Daily
Sophomore forward Garrett Van Wyhe got thrown out for charging on Saturday.
ABBIE TELGENHOF
Daily Sports Writer
ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan softball team was ranked 17th by the USA Today poll.
I think it’s
not where the
seniors want to
be.