Friday Notebook 11.1.24

Getting to know Team 29 as depth shines through in the early going, the Michigan men seek to spark their own depth scoring, and a fresh perspective for Luca Fantilli

After a season-opening 4-1 defeat to Maryville on the third of October, Jenna Trubiano’s University of Michigan women’s hockey team has rattled off four straight victories: one over McKendree, one away at Grand Valley State then another over the Lakers at home, and most recently a 6-2 rout over Michigan State last Thursday.  To Trubiano, the early season success is a reflection of depth.

“What I am seeing is we’re getting production from every spot in our depth chart,” she told Gulo Gulo Hockey over the phone last weekend.  “I think our first-year players are finding their roles and embracing them, and obviously having returning players that have produced before—like [Julia] Lindahl, [Lucy] Hanson, and [Emily] Maliszewski—getting them on a line together has been really incredible for us.”

The Wolverines were without three players against MSU because of an exam, so Trubiano and her staff had to get creative, but she took comfort in “having the ability to pick from our depth and have those players step into roles, [which] is something we didn’t have last year, so to have that this year has been really exciting.”

“Up until the Michigan State game, we hadn’t scored first, and that was one of our goals: let’s go out and set the tone and score the first goal because we haven’t done that yet.  And first shift, we scored, so can’t really complain about that one,” she explained with a chuckle.  

Whether in that victory over State or elsewhere in the present winning streak, the story of Michigan’s early success hinges on depth.  “Even our home Grand Valley game, [Grace] Garbaty and [Grace] Bobby scored their first goals, and [Maddie] Farris got her first goal at Grand Valley, and then scored again on Sunday,” Trubiano points out.  “Just to have production from newer players in the program and to see Garbaty and Bobby score on two effort plays and really set the tone for the rest of the team, that definitely carried over into our game against Michigan State.”

The depth shines through at every position, including in net, where Trubiano has four options and already used three.  There is Sandrine Ponnath, a stalwart who enters her senior year as arguably the best goaltender in ACHA hockey.  Then there is sophomore Emma Johns, who is coming off an excellent freshman year as Ponnath’s back-up, who played her way into a semi-regular role.  Finally, transfers Avery Schiff and Paris Heiserman (a junior and sophomore respectively) offer yet more competition for starts in net.

Sophomore defender Maddie Farris, who joined the Wolverines in the middle of last season, is a perfect example of the emergence and development of depth.  A year ago, Farris played out of position as a forward in eleven games, recording zero points.  This year, back on the blue line, she has five points in five games.  “She’s really stepping into a role for us,” Trubiano said of Farris.  “She’s on our first power play unit.  She moves the puck really well.  She’s a great teammate.  When she joined us mid-year last year, we knew she played defense, but we had more of an opportunity for her on the forward end of the bench, so she was there.  And then we kinda talked about it, and she said, ‘I wanna play defense.  I feel more comfortable there,’ so this year we knew she was a defender.  And to see her stepping into that role, especially on the first power play…has been great for us.”

Elsewhere on the blue line, sophomore Michaela McGoff, out of the Biggby Coffee 19U AAA program, has proven a valuable addition.  The Oakland University transfer brings physicality and a right shot to the Wolverines’ defense corps.

Graces Garbaty and Bobby have provided an instant impact as first years.  Trubiano describes the former as among the team’s best athletes and praised her comfort at both center and wing.  Of Bobby, Trubiano lauds “a great hockey name,” revealing she goes by the nickname “Bobby G” and describing her as “a really tenacious forward” who has found a home in the bumper spot on the power play.

Trubiano is in the process of integrating three out-of-state first years she views as long-term boons to her team.  Danielle Rudd is a defender from New Hampshire who is in the Air Force National Guard AND a nursing.  “She’s been very busy,” Trubiano points out, but she is also another right shot Trubiano is keen to find some game action for.  Meanwhile, Hanna Weinman (from Taos, New Mexico) and Sydney Black (from Colorado Springs and Team Colorado) both show promise.  Black’s foot speed has stood out already, while Weinman only just turned eighteen (and thus became eligible for ACHA games) this month, but in her two appearances, she’s already shown a scorer’s hands and strong hockey sense.

That trio is a reflection of a demographic shift within the program.  When Trubiano played, the Michigan roster was made up almost entirely of in-state students.  Now, the roster is much closer to a 50/50 split, with 13 of 27 players hailing from outside of Michigan.

For Trubiano, this is year four as head coach of the program she once captained.  When asked how she’s grown as a coach in the three preceding seasons, she replied, “I feel like I’m always learning.  For me, the biggest thing is finding my voice, and I think I’ve talked about this before, but I never had a female head coach, so how do I interact with the athletes?  How do I manage my coaching staff that is all men?  It’s just a lot of things I’m trying to figure out, and fortunately enough, I’ve gotten to the point where I have a network, [with people] like Lindsey Ellis at Arizona State.  She has more experience than me, so I feel like now I have this network that if questions come up, I have this network I can lean on for advice.  I’m still in that process of finding my voice, just because I never had that example.  But with the PWHL and the success that NCAA women’s programs have had and female coaches that have been successful, I’m leaning on that a lot to learn what I want my coaching style to be.”

As beneficial as the added depth is for her team, a deep roster also means good players won’t be in the lineup every night.  That requires “having tough conversations and being transparent with players,” as Trubiano puts it.  “I think especially this year we have really great internal competition for spots in the lineup,” she said.  “I don’t think it’s ever been this competitive for spots.  I think we can really pick any lineup and still be set up for success.”

It’s early yet, but it’s an exciting start for the Wolverines, as they look to build on their two straight ACHA Nationals berths.  “I’m always trying to grow and learn, and I think any coach would say that too,” Trubiano says.  “The game evolves, and every group every year is different.  This group has been really helpful for me, because everyone wants to get better, and they want that feedback, and they want to make the team successful and push their teammates, so I’m really excited about this year.”

Michigan Men Seek to Spark Depth Ahead of Clash with Formidable Foe in Boston University

This weekend, the Michigan men’s hockey team will travel East to Agganis Arena for a two-game set with Boston University, the fifth-ranked team in the nation in the latest USCHO poll.  “BU plays very similar to us, [so] it’s just getting back to what we do,” said Wolverines coach Brandon Naurato of the challenge posed by the Terriers.

“BU is a really good team,” echoed junior defenseman Luca Fantilli.  “They’re really skilled.  They’re a lot like us, and they’re ranked high, so you’ve got to treat them with as much respect as you can, but that doesn’t take away from our game.  We just have to stick to our game and stick to our system and outwork them.  It’s gonna come down to whoever works harder.”

Last weekend in Fargo, BU had the sort of series that ought to remind Michigan fans that theirs is not the only team in college hockey that experiences some fluctuation in form in the season’s early going.  The Terriers trailed 5-0 after the first period Friday night against North Dakota en route to a 7-2 defeat, only to bounce back for a 4-3 win the next night.

To Naurato, that’s what you’d expect from any team—even those with national title ambitions like the Wolverines, Terriers, and Fighting Hawks—at this time of year.  “You’re always trying to get guys at their best or figure different things out, whether structurally, culture, chemistry, whatever it may be, you’re always trying to find solutions,” he points out.  “I don’t think there’s a team out there that’s perfect.”

At the moment, Michigan is in the slightly unfamiliar position of drilling down on its attack, while its early season defensive solidity has impressed.  Specifically, the Wolverines need to find ways to get offense from players beyond Michael Hage, T.J. Hughes, and Garrett Schisfky.

“We’re working on a lot of goalscoring stuff, without just focusing on goalscoring, just different ways to manufacture offense based on guys’ skillsets,” Naurato explained.  “We’ve gotta find ways to strategically get to the net and get pucks to the net, which is simple and cliché, but if you think about an Eernisse and a Draper, are they gonna do with Brindley and McGroarty did?  They’ve gotta find their way to generate offense, which is probably more off the forecheck and grinding in the O zone and stuff like that.  So [we’re] just finding that.”

Now in his third year, Hughes has taken it upon himself to help usher some of his teammates along offensively.  “I do my best to try to talk to guys and kinda get ‘em in the right spot, so we can be predictable and just trust each other that we’re in the right positions to make plays,” he says.  “Hockey’s so much easier when guys are in the right spot, and the chemistry starts clicking.  Obviously a lot of new guys, so just trying to get them in the right spot and get the confidence up.  I just feel like once we have one good game offensively, we’re gonna be really good and start rolling.”

On this last point, Hughes and Naurato agree.  The prescription both see to Michigan’s present lack of depth scoring is the confidence jolt one big game could afford.  “We gotta break through and have a game where different guys get on the scoresheet,” asserts Naurato.  “When it’s early and guys haven’t scored yet six, seven games, they’re squeezing their sticks a little bit more, thinking about it.  We just wanna get some guys some small wins, or the power play scores.  I thought we had some good chances during the three power plays that we had [against the NTDP], but I’d like that to go on the stats.  Hopefully, that goes on the stats.”

Hughes too believes confidence is key to sparking the Michigan attack, saying “I think it’s all honestly just the mentality.  It’s all in your head.  Hockey’s so mental.  Even last year, our power play was great.  In the start, we struggled a little bit, but once we got a couple good games, a couple good goals, and we just started trusting each other and being in the right spots, we started clicking…I just think it takes one game of confidence and playmaking and maybe a couple nice goals, and we should be able to go from there.”

Fantilli’s Fresh Perspective

Now a junior, Luca Fantilli has a new perspective on the ice, in the very literal sense.  After two seasons with a cage protecting his face, the Nobleton, Ontario native now dons a “bubble” visor on his helmet.  It was a switch made for the same reasons all the most important decisions are made: fashion.  “If I’m gonna be honest, the cages we got this year looked so bad, so I was like, ‘I can’t do that.’  And I’ve always liked the bubble, but I never wore it because of the fog, but we have this fog spray that goes on it now and it doesn’t fog up as much, so I’ve been liking it a lot.  I’m gonna stick with it,” Fantilli explained Tuesday afternoon.

Now a 21-year-old junior, Fantilli is now in his second season without his younger brother Adam around, although this year, a certain freshman evoked the younger Fantilli’s memory.  “Hager’s an awesome player, and he reminds me a lot of [Adam], especially since he’s wearing 19,” Luca says smiling.  “I gave him some trouble about that, but he’s so skilled, and he works at it every day.  I don’t think he’s looking at Adam’s numbers and what Adam did.  I think he’s just taking it day by day…He’s gonna be such a player here and in the future wherever he goes on.  I definitely see some [similarities].  I mean he’s scoring and getting a lot of points, so that reminds me a lot of Adam.”

Meanwhile, with age and experience, Fantilli’s added more to his game than a new face shield.  As Naurato puts it, “Luca’s a top-notch person.  He’s what we would want in a Michigan man…He’s grown a ton.  He’s learned how to work.”

One thing Fantilli’s learned over his time in Ann Arbor is that given the quality of competition across college hockey, it’s more important to focus on your own work than fixate on the particulars of any given match-up.  “You’re always playing against hard workers or skilled players, so we just have to do our best to implement what our coaches want us to implement and also play our own games,” he says.  “We’re here at Michigan for a reason.  Each guy is here for a reason, so [it’s about] just doing your job and what you do best and helps the team win, then you stick to that job and do it.”

As for his own job?  “I try to be a hard player,” Fantilli explains.  “I try to make hits when I can, be hard in the D zone, not give anything against, but whatever the team needs.  I try to bring a lot of energy on the bench, a lot of energy on the ice if a big play needs to happen.  Offensively just skating the puck and using my passing abilities to beat one guy or beat two guys and just put it in the hands of my forwards.”

That role has evolved over the years, and more specifically, it has grown.  As a freshman, Fantilli was in and out of the lineup.  Even when he was in, his ice time was light.  Now, Fantilli is a fixture of Naurato and Matt Deschamps’ blue line.  “It’s changed a lot,” Fantilli says of his role and growth.  “It’s a process.  Everybody has a process.  For me, it was more just learning from the guys that were older than me, and now that I’m a junior and upper classmen, just implementing those things that they taught me and just carry those traditions and those things on.  I just try to replicate what they’ve done for me.”

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