Just two games stand between
the Michigan hockey team and
ascendance.
By no means should it be a sur-
prise that the third-ranked team in
the Pairwise is heading to Tampa
and the Frozen Four with a shot at
the title. That much, even with a
nail-biting overtime clash against
Penn State, could be expected. Up
until now, in the NCAA Tourna-
ment the Wolverines have simply
been doing what they should have
done — thrash a low-ranked team in
round one and get by one of the Big
Ten’s best to advance in round two.
But now it’s time for a challenge.
It’s time for Michigan to get over
the hump it drove straight into
and crashed a year ago. Now, the
Wolverines need to do what they
couldn’t last season and advance.
Standing in between them and the
National Championship Game is
No. 2 Quinnipiac, a team that was
ranked higher than them in the
Pairwise all year, touts one of the
best goalies in college hockey and
the lowest goals-against per game
average of any team. It’s also a team
that Michigan beat in the Allen-
town Regional Final last season,
sending the Wolverines to the 2022
Frozen Four, so there’s some famil-
iarity between the two sides.
Then, if Michigan can pull out a
win, either a menacing No. 1 Min-
nesota waits on the other side for
what would be the teams’ sixth
meeting of the season or a power-
ful Boston University that split its
series with the Wolverines back in
October.
It’s not an easy path.
But it never is, is it? Titles aren’t
handed out, they’re taken — not
always by the best team, but by the
right team.
And this year, Michigan is the
right team.
Let’s just lay out some facts. The
Wolverines won the Big Ten Tour-
nament, beating the No. 1 team in
hockey on the Golden Gophers’
home ice, claiming the trophy in
the best conference in the country.
The Big Ten’s strength is apparent
through the first two rounds of the
NCAA Tournament, outscoring its
opponents 41-9.
Another fact, Michigan is the
highest scoring offense in the coun-
try, with 169 goals. That offense
is led by the NCAA points leader,
freshman forward Adam Fantilli,
with 63.
Now let’s mix those facts with
observations. That points leader?
That’s arguably the best player in
college hockey. Whether the fresh-
man wins the Hobey or not, Fantilli
is the single most dangerous per-
son on a pair of blades in the entire
NCAA. He dazzles, he delivers
and he’s the X-factor that can flip
a game with the flick of his wrist.
He’s what title teams have — he’s
what title teams need.
The Wolverines head to Tampa
Bay as hot as you can get. Ever since
playoff hockey began, Michigan
has been a wagon. As soon as the
pressure cooker reached its highest
setting, the Wolverines have looked
the best they have all season.
“They’re all playoff games since
a couple of weeks ago,” freshman
forward Gavin Brindley said after
Sunday’s win. “So we kind of know
what to expect. … It’s do or die. So
we’ve been doing it for a week now.
So we can’t wait (for the Frozen
Four).”
That’s another thing — the con-
fidence.
Michigan oozes it. On the ice,
off the ice, the Wolverines have the
belief that they should win. And
it shows. A tight win over a tough
Big Ten team in Penn State — not to
mention at an arena in the Nittany
Lions’ home state that was filled to
the brim with blue and white — has
only added to Michigan’s swagger.
“It’s huge for us,” sophomore
forward Mackie Samoskevich said.
“That’s a tight playoff game. … We
know we can do it now — we’ve got
a lot of confidence.”
And why shouldn’t they? The
pieces are all there. A high-pow-
ered attack, two players with
Hobey Baker aspirations in Fantilli
and sophomore defenseman Luke
Hughes, a deep roster of talent and
a coach that — despite being in his
first year — has turned a struggling
undisciplined early-season team
into a lethal machine.
Sure,
it’s
single-elimination
hockey. Teams just need to just
have a good night to move on, and a
bad bounce can end a season — any-
thing can happen. Any team that’s
left can win the ‘chip.
Yet, while any team could, the
Wolverines should.
Michigan is the one with the
right equation, the one that’s at its
best at the best possible moment
with all the pieces to finish the job.
The players know it, too. Brind-
ley said it in the most clear way pos-
sible:
“It’s our time now.”
And honestly, it’s about time we
start believing him, too.
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
Wednesday, March 29, 2023 — 11
Sports
SportsMonday: View Michigan like
the favorite it is
NICHOLAS STOLL
Daily Sports Writer
JEREMY WEINE/Daily
Jonathan Wuchter:
Michigan needs to learn how to win
without Lauren Derkowski
COLUM-
BUS — Lauren
Derkowski
is
dominant
and
often borderline
unhittable from
the circle.
The
sopho-
more
right-
hander’s
presence
empowers
the
Michigan softball team with the
ability to compete and win big
games. But when she isn’t in the
circle, the Wolverines’ powerless-
ness is put on full display.
The tale of the two versions of
the Michigan softball team — with
and without Derkowski — became
apparent in Sunday’s double head-
er against Ohio State.
After giving up a run in the first
inning of game one, Derkowski
delivered nine consecutive shut-
out innings in the win. She was
dominant. So dominant that her
performance would clear your
mind of the opportunities squan-
dered by the offense to put the
game away earlier. So dominant
that few balls were put in play,
limiting opportunities to expose
the infield’s lackluster defense.
In the second game, those
weaknesses were unearthed in the
11-2 run-rule loss. Just 30 minutes
after the win, all while bringing an
identical batting order to the plate,
the Wolverines were unrecogniz-
able.
The
difference
was
that
Derkowski wasn’t pitching.
This isn’t to blame the game’s
starter — junior right-hander LeB-
eau for the loss. She is an aggres-
sive pitcher who has delivered
several
stellar
performances,
including a no-hitter. But at this
point in the season, LeBeau is not
on Derkowski’s herculean level.
But Michigan’s issue is not LeB-
eau’s arm, rather the issue is its
reliance on the irreplicable play
of Derkowski to overshadow the
Wolverines’ flaws.
“We’ve seen that over the years
with Michigan softball when
we have strikeout pitchers, our
fielding percentage is higher,”
Michigan coach Bonnie Tholl said
March 15. “We limit the opportu-
nities for the opponents.”
To begin game two, LeBeau
was on pace to retire the side
in order. Instead, an off-target
throw from senior third baseman
Audrey LeClair gave the Buckeyes
a two-out base runner leading to a
four-run onslaught. LeBeau’s task
was unfair — get four outs instead
of three — but a result of the gap
between her and Derkowski in
masking the rest of the team’s
mistakes.
Soon after, a ground ball
through the legs of freshman
first baseman Maddie Erickson
brought the team’s error total
to 29 on the year — approaching
last season’s mark of 33 in less
than half the amount of games.
Derkowski’s play often overshad-
ows those mistakes. Without
Derkowski, however, those mis-
takes become costly to the team’s
ability to win.
Michigan’s desired path to vic-
tory is well established. The Wol-
verines are orchestrated to win
low scoring games through strong
strikeout pitching complement-
ed by aggressive hitting and
baserunning. Derkowski’s 9-5
record is evidence of the poten-
tial success of that approach,
while LeBeau’s 5-7 record is a
reminder of its limitations.
That path eventually worked
in the ten-inning win and many
of Derkowski’s starts. But when
unearned runs push the Wolver-
ines into deep holes, like in Sun-
day’s game two, they aren’t built
to come back — exposing Michi-
gan’s other weakness: inconsis-
tent and untimely offense.
Over the past two weekends,
many of the Wolverines’ runs
have come through home runs —
an added dynamic to an offense
that struggled to hit for power
at the beginning of the season.
But more glaring is their recent
inability to score consistently
outside of the long ball. The
focal point of this offense has
been scoring through a mirage
of slap-hitting, bunting and
sacrifice hitting — only to be
complemented by the occasional
home run.
“We’re a team that’s gonna
have to continually put the pres-
sure on the defense,” Tholl said
after the double header.
SOFTBALL
EMILY ALBERTS/Daily
ICE HOCKEY
JONATHAN
WUCHTER
Read more at MichiganDaily.com