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

