8 — Tuesday, February 18, 2020
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
BEHIND TWO POWER PLAY GOALS, MICHIGAN
CRUSHES SPARTANS, 4-1, MOVING TO THIRD IN
BIG TEN BEHIND 8-1-1 RECORD IN 2020
KEEMYA ESMAEL / Daily
POWERING
FORWARD
Design by Jack Silberman
Wolverines win Duel in the D, 4-1
DETROIT — Nick Blankenburg
extended his two hands out and
wagged them up and down like
paws. At first glance, it seemed
like an innocent gesture. His
teammates even imitated him
as they wrapped him in hugs of
celebration.
But the message from his
mouth matched the motion of his
arms in a more crude way.
“Sit
down,”
he
told
the
Michigan State portion of the
crowd at Little
Caesars Arena.
The
only
problem
was
he
and
the
Michigan hockey
team gave the
audience
little
reason
to
sit
quietly in their
seats in a 4-1 win
over
Michigan
State on Monday
night.
Blankenburg had just scored
a goal, the third of the night for
the Wolverines, in a highlight-
reel fashion. In the second period,
Michigan drew a power play, and
after an unsuccessful first shift,
switched to their primary unit.
Blankenburg got the puck at the
blue line and slung a bullet high.
And the top-shelf snipe rang off
the post and into the net.
Only a few stayed in their
seats.
“We had timely scoring,”
Michigan coach Mel Pearson
said. “I give Michigan State a lot
of credit. … They’re a tough team
to play against when you get
behind them. We were fortunate,
again, to play with the lead.”
The Wolverines had built
that
lead
much
earlier
in
the game, going back to five
minutes into the first period.
Lockwood corralled the puck in
the defensive and pushed down
central ice. The line out on the
ice was desperate for a change,
but that’s not what Lockwood
had in mind.
There were two Spartans in
front of him — one to the left and
one to his right.
He beat both of them to the
slot. He snapped his wrist,
looking only at the net.
A strong start was what
Michigan coach Mel Pearson had
wished for before the game, and
as it was, his wish was granted:
Lockwood scored on his one-
man breakaway into traffic.
Graduate transfer forward Jacob
Hayhurst added
to
the
early
scoring with a
power play goal
from Lockwood
and Slaker later
in the first.
The
start
wasn’t
without
its
caveats,
however.
A
minute
after
Lockwood’s
opening
goal,
the
Spartans
answered with a two-on-one
rush.
Senior
defenseman
Griffin
Luce
was
conducting
the
transition defense, but as he
started to commit to the puck
handler, Spartan Adam Goodsir,
he failed to notice Goodsir’s pass
to the open man, Dennis Cesana.
Sophomore goaltender Strauss
Mann had also committed on
Goodsir and was unable to do
anything to stop Cesana’s open-
net shot.
It was the only mistake of
the night for Mann, though the
second period gave him plenty of
chances to make another.
Michigan State had a game-
high 13 shots in the second and
there were plenty of saves to be
made, of all difficulties. Two
point-blank shots in the crease
forced Mann to make high-
degree saves. Minutes later, the
Spartans had a Grade-A open
shot, but Mann stuck out his stick
at the last second to deflect it.
The puck bounced off his helmet,
and teetered the goal line before
freshman forward Nolan Moyle
cleared it.
“I don’t know how it stayed
out, honestly,” Lockwood said.
“He does that at practice day in
and day out, so we’re kind of used
to it at this point. But you see it live
like that, it’s pretty spectacular.”
Mann
had
played
what
Pearson had called his best game
of the second half of the season.
But as stout as Michigan was
defensively, it was equally so on
offense. And they hammered
that point home in the third
period.
A minute into the frame, Luce
stopped the puck at the point and
shot. It was unclear if Lockwood
was there willingly, to screen
or to try and top the shot, but he
did both anyways. He held the
flat of his stick to face the twine,
and as the puck reached his stick,
the shot was redirected. The
puck slowly slipped between the
goaltender’s blockers and to the
back of the net.
Lockwood
skated
to
the
side. He had already raised his
stick with one hand, but with
the other, he swung upwards,
motioning for all to rise. But
there was no need. Everyone was
already up.
‘M’ goes 2-for-2 on power play in win
DETROIT — Dennis Cesana
didn’t have an answer for the
two power play goals his team
allowed.
“I’m not sure they changed
anything up too much,” the
Michigan State defender said
about the Wolverines’ power
play.
But Cesana was wrong.
All week long in practice,
Michigan ran power play drills
and made adjustments as it saw
fit. It moved players around to
different positions with hopes
of throwing off the Spartan
penalty killers. Monday night,
the Wolverines did just that on
their way to a 4-1 win.
“I don’t think they really
had a game plan for some of the
things we were doing,” senior
forward Will Lockwood said.
Michigan scored two power
play goals — good for a 100
percent conversion rate. Both
came at pivotal moments in the
game. The first gave Michigan
the lead, the second separation.
The
first
power
play
opportunity came with just
under five minutes remaining
in the first period and the
Wolverines wasted no time in
capitalizing.
Senior forward Jake Slaker
and Lockwood connected on a
pass in between two Michigan
State defensemen. Lockwood
was in the right faceoff circle,
all alone. He stick-handled
twice before throwing a pass
to graduate transfer forward
Jacob Hayhurst.
Hayhurst turned his hips
toward the goal when he saw
the puck coming his way,
positioning
himself
directly
in front of Spartan goaltender
John Lethemon. With a quick
flick of his wrist, he beat
Lethemon and
broke the 1-1
tie.
“The power
play was good
tonight,”
Michigan
coach
Mel
Pearson
said.
“Scoring
the
power
play
goal was big
because
they
came right back. You know,
we scored, they come back to
make it 1-1. To get that next one
again. To play with the lead is
important, especially against
good teams like this.”
While Hayhurst’s goal ended
up being the game-winner,
the Wolverines’ power play
units weren’t satisfied yet.
Ninety
seconds
into
the
second period, Michigan was
presented with another man
advantage opportunity.
This
time,
the
goal
came
from
the
stick
of
sophomore defenseman Nick
Blankenburg. At the blueline
of his team’s offensive zone,
freshman defenseman Cam
York
passed
the
puck
to
Blankenburg. With his head
looking to the goal, he assessed
his options. Lockwood and
Slaker were drifting near the
net, but rather than finding
one of them, he passed back to
York.
York took advantage of the
few feet of open ice in front of
him, drawing two Michigan
State defenders to him. This
movement freed up Blankenburg,
still positioned at the blueline.
When he received the second pass
from York, he’d already made up
his mind — he was shooting.
A second later the puck blew
past Lethemon.
The Wolverines now had a
two-goal lead, and it was all due
to their special team’s success.
“The
puck
movement,
I
thought we moved it really
well,” Lockwood
said. “We did all
practice this past
week. So leading
into
these
two
games we were
expecting
to
succeed,
and
I think we did
well.”
After
Friday,
Michigan’s
power
play
conversion sat at 17.8 percent.
It’s not great, or even good.
It’s average. But it’s strides
ahead of where it was a few
months ago. In a November
series against Minnesota, the
Wolverines went 0-for-9 on the
man advantage. The success
rate sat at just 17.6 percent.
But in this series against
Michigan
State,
the
power
play found its footing. The
adjustments Michigan made
— which Pearson declined to go
into specifics about — clearly
worked. In Friday night’s game
against the Spartans, the power
play went 1-for-5, and Monday
night it was perfect, going 2-for-
2.
The Wolverines are becoming
serious contenders for the Big
Ten regular season title —
something that a few months
ago seemed out of the question.
Building on their power play
success is a key to getting
there.
TIEN LE
Daily Sports Writer
MOLLY SHEA
Daily Sports Writer
KEEMYA ESMAEL/Daily
The Michigan hockey team poses with the Iron D trophy after beating the Spartans.
We were
fortunate,
again, to play
with the lead.
I thought we
moved (the
puck) really
well.