SPORTSWEDNESDAY
KATE HUA/Daily
Design by Lys Goldman
IN PLACE
FROZEN
Michigan stymied by Quinnipiac, 5-2,
for second straight Frozen Four loss
T
AMPA, Fla. — There was
no telling when the No. 2
Michigan hockey team would
be back.
After a puck jumped over the
stick of then-freshman defenseman
Luke Hughes, the ensuing year was
anything but predictable for the
Wolverines. In just 364 days, a head
coach, innumerable NHL talent and
an established regime departed,
leaving a return to the Frozen Four
seemingly improbable.
Michigan was left to wonder when
another moment would come.
Yet 364 days later, Michigan got
that moment — but it wasn’t enough.
Against a Quinnipiac team hungry
to avenge a lopsided loss that kept
the Bobcats out of the Frozen Four
last season, the Wolverines (26-
12-3 overall) regressed to issues of
old, falling to Quinnipiac (33-4-3),
5-2, after 60 minutes of insufficient
defensive effort coupled with bad
bounces.
“Quinnipiac’s a great team and we
have respect for them,” Michigan
coach Brandon Naurato said. “They
did a great job tonight. … Two goals
from behind the net and one from the
top of the circles near the boards, it is
what it is. That’s why it’s so hard to
win a National Championship.
“It’s one game.”
The
Wolverines’
‘one
game’
certainly didn’t start the way they
had hoped. Plagued by defensive
lapses, their play often left junior
goaltender Erik Portillo hung out to
dry. Unfortunate errors, lackadaisical
play and a general lack of effort
seemed reminiscent of Michigan’s
early season struggles — not the team
coming off of a Big Ten Championship
and
searching
for
its
seventh
consecutive win.
The Bobcats logged nine total
shots on goal in the first period,
but a torrent of chances left little
solace as the Wolverines went into
the first intermission down 2-1.
Though Michigan faced unfortunate
puck luck at times, odd-man rushes
and missed defensive assignments
often facilitated quality chances for
Quinnipiac.
“It’s a big credit to them,” junior
defenseman Ethan Edwards said of
Quinnipiac’s structural game play.
“They’re a very disciplined team over
there and they were locking it down
pretty well. Kudos to them.”
Such discipline proved hard to
summit. While the second period
had flashes of a return to form for
the Wolverines as an equalizing goal
by freshman forward Adam Fantilli
10 minutes into the period brought
new life, Michigan struggled to
consistently execute and rarely took
full command.
Across a rollercoaster period that
often narrowly went the Wolverines’
way, it took heroic efforts from
Portillo and near misses on the part
of Quinnipiac’s rush chances to keep
the score level going into the third
period and stop the Bobcats from
“(breaking) it open”, as Quinnipiac
coach Rand Pecknold put it.
But early in the final frame, the
Bobcats found more puck luck — and
with that, the lead. After a Wolverine
defensive lapse let up a 2-on-1
opportunity,
Quinnipiac
forward
Sam Lipkin chipped a backhand
from behind the net off of the skate of
Portillo. Initially unbeknownst to the
goaltender amidst the chaos, the puck
had found the back of the net for a 3-2
lead.
“Just a bad bounce,” Naurato
lamented.
After the Bobcats took the lead,
Michigan couldn’t mount a response.
While Portillo’s heroics kept the
Wolverines in striking distance,
the offense couldn’t break through.
Stymied by Quinnipiac’s trap, the
Bobcats seemed one step ahead at
all times, blocking passing lanes
and turning routine schemes into
offensive nightmares.
And as Michigan woke up to
the consequences of its offensive
stagnation,
puck
watching
and
missed assignments made hope for an
equalizer a distant possibility as the
Wolverines fell onto their backfoot.
Offensive lapses became defensive
punishments as Michigan’s season
started slipping away.
“It’s something we knew they were
going to do,” Quinnipiac defenseman
Zach Metsa said. “They’re run and
gun, they love to try and make plays
one on one and create offense. When
we can turn that around and bring
it right back down their throats —
we always talk about playing north,
playing with pace and that’s the result
of that.”
While chance after chance proved
insufficient for the Bobcats, Metsa
finally delivered the dagger. Floating
an unconventional shot, an absent-
minded Wolverine defense watched
as it landed into the net for a 4-2
Bobcat advantage. Without much
time to even react to the dire situation,
the empty net goal just minutes later
left no doubt.
364 days after an overtime goal
vanquished its last Frozen Four
chances, Michigan got its moment
once more. A year of trials, tribulations
and uncertainties made it somewhat
surprising that the Wolverines were
even able to claw their way back to
the event that had spurned them
just a year before. But 364 days later,
Michigan exited with the same result.
Leaving the Wolverines to wonder
once again when they will get another
chance.
JOHN TONDORA
Daily Sports Writer
The Michigan Daily
Page 12 — April 12, 2023