Black Friday Notebook 11.24.23
Managing shifts to win more games, getting to know Garrett Schifsky, on Jacob Truscott as problem solver not excuse maker, and WoHo caps an unbeaten first half
Heading into a significant road test against St. Cloud State (winners of six straight, unbeaten in conference play), the University of Michigan men’s hockey team finds itself in the unfortunately familiar position of moving forward from a weekend in which it controlled play at five-on-five but couldn’t find the consistency necessary to earn a two-game sweep against Penn State. Those mixed results are only made more frustrating by key injuries to Mark Estapa and Rutger McGroarty (both of whom will miss the two series remaining in the first half of the season).
Despite another weekend of mixed results (which have left the team at 6-6-2, fourth in the Big Ten with a conference points percentage of just .375, and 23rd in the Pairwise), there is no sense of panic in Ann Arbor, but “there’s more urgency,” per coach Brandon Naurato: “We’ve put ourselves in a position where we’re out of the tournament now, which is nothing to freak out about, but it can catch up to you quick.”
The Wolverines have suffered four regulation losses in conference play by a combined five goals. The team remains confident in its five-on-five game, and the Michigan power play (converting at 35.0%) remains the best in the nation.
However, a struggling penalty kill (successful just 71.9% of the time, fifth worst mark in the country) and difficulties with managing games mean the results aren’t going the way the Wolverines want. Michigan leads the nation with 210 PIMs, and that can’t persist if the Wolverines want to get the season back on track.
A subtler area where Naurato sees a need for improvement is in managing shifts, specifically as it related to execution late in those shifts. To the second-year coach, an essential component of protecting a lead (another sore spot for the Wolverines of late) is “being disciplined at the end of shift—getting the puck in or out, not turning the puck over, puck support—and then getting off the ice.”
He stresses that you can’t “milk your shift” for a little bit of extra offense, something that becomes even more essential when dealing with a shortened bench due to injury. Instead of pushing for that last chance on the rush when you’ve been on the ice for 40+ seconds already, Naurato wants his team to get back to the bench. To do otherwise is, in Naurato’s estimation, “like hitting on 17 [in blackjack]. You might get a four, but you’re probably not going to.”
Senior captain Jacob Truscott acknowledges that “it’s a little frustrating” for the team to generally play well only to see a number of results go the wrong way in recent weeks, “but at the end of the day, you gotta stay positive and focus on the next week. You can’t dwell on the past. You gotta learn from our mistakes, but at the end of the day, you’ve gotta focus on the next weekend and getting better as a team and as a player.”
The Wolverine captain adds that even if the record might look a bit different than they’re accustomed to at the moment, going through pain is nothing new for this team and perhaps even an inevitability over the course of a long season.
“The guys that have been here, we’ve all been through adversity at some point in our careers,” Truscott said Tuesday. “We faced [dealing with a shortened bench] last year [when illness sidelined a huge portion of the team last November]. It’s just a time we’ve all got to stick together and play for the guys that can’t play. We’ve been talking about that a lot lately. The guys that are injured, they want to be out there, but they can’t, so we gotta play for them and can’t take anything for granted. I think that’s the message going forward is stick together and don’t make excuses for ourselves and start pulling together some wins.”
Getting to Know Garrett Schifsky, A “Coach’s Dream” and Budding Kinesiologist
One Wolverine who has exceeded expectations from the moment the season began is freshman Garrett Schifsky, a forward from Andover, Minnesota.
Michigan hockey has ushered as many blue chip recruits through its doors as any program in the country, but Schifsky arrived via the USHL’s Waterloo Black Hawks to little fanfare. However, what he might have lacked in hoopla, he’s more than made up for with production.
In eleven collegiate games to date, Schifsky has fifteen points. He is in the top three in the country in even-strength points, and no Wolverine forward has been on the ice for more goals for than Schifsky (only Seamus Casey has been on the ice for more among the defensemen).
Naurato describes the 20-year-old as a “coach’s dream” for his ability to immediately incorporate feedback. He adds that Schifsky “does everything right. He’s hard. He goes to the hard areas. He gets it in, gets it out, and then he uses his skill to finish.” But even Naurato didn’t quite realize what an impact Schifsky would have in the first half of his freshman year.
“I didn’t know how reliable he would be,” Naurato explains. “He’s a driver for us right now. He’s played on three different lines, and he’s made every line better when he’s on that line. That’s the ultimate compliment. I think it’s just with his hard work. He’s a future leader. He’s a guy that was guaranteed nothing, and everything he’s getting, it’s because he’s earned it and he deserves it.”
For Schifsky, the recruitment process proved a simple one: “I had really good talks with Nar when I was in junior and came on a visit, and it just felt like home to me and my mom. It was a great decision to come here…Every single day I wake up and I love Michigan, so it’s been awesome.”
As a Minnesotan, Schifsky is a proud product of the state’s rich tradition of high school hockey, playing three years for the Andover High School Huskies, which included two trips to the Minnesota State Tournament. He describes those memories as “just the best moments of my life playing with your brothers growing up for sixteen, seventeen years. It was just a great time. I wish everyone could experience it.” For Schifsky, that experience proved so special because of a core group of eight friends on the team, whom he played beside for sixteen straight years growing up.
This weekend will prove a homecoming for the Minnesotan. St. Cloud State’s Herb Brooks National Hockey Center is about 45 minutes from Andover, so he’s expecting at least 50 friends and family members in the building for the series.
As he closes in on the end of the first semester of his freshman year, Schifsky feels at home in Ann Arbor. “It’s been a really good adjustment,” he explains. “The coaches make it pretty easy on the hockey aspect, and then we have a lot of tutors and academic people that are working with us on the academic side.”
Schifsky intends to major in kinesiology, so he’s “been taking a lot of academic emergency medical response classes.” His mother Holly is an occupational therapist at the University of Minnesota Children’s Hospital, which sparked his interest in the field.
As for Naurato’s point about his ability to find success with a variety of different line-mates, Schifsky explains that open communication is key: “Just trying to communicate with every single guy—where you’re gonna be and just being reliable in your spots. Me and Frank [Nazar] have been on the same line for a couple of weeks now, so we’ve been growing a lot of chemistry together and finding the back of the net.”
Of Nazar, he adds, “We kinda play the same game—play with hard edge, and then he’s got a lot of skill to his game, and I just feed off that. Just trying to be reliable in the corners, and we’ll work as hard as we can. We just built a lot of chemistry that way.”
Even to a veteran leader like Truscott, there is something to admire and strive to emulate in Schifsky’s game. “He works his butt off every day,” per the captain. “He’s a huge player for us right now. His role’s grown on the team, and guys are looking up to him with his work ethic, and what he’s done so far. As a freshman, that’s hard to do.”
As he continues to produce, Schifsky won’t stay a secret much longer, his impact having been obvious from the moment he stepped on the ice for U of M.
“He’s not an excuse maker. He’s a problem solver”: On Jacob Truscott’s Yzerman-esque Leadership
Jacob Truscott knew there might have to be some adjustments to his approach upon assuming the captain’s “C” this season, but he also knew he didn’t want to change who he was.
“I try to be who I am and lead by example, be a leader for these guys, but at the end of the day, I’m just trying to be myself,” Truscott said after Tuesday’s practice. “There’s things you’ve got to change as well: you gotta be more vocal, you gotta pull guys aside and have those hard conversations. It’s important to be there for guys, just like I would without a letter.”
Fortunately, for Truscott and the Wolverines, leadership comes naturally for the 21-year-old from Port Huron.
“Trusc in game—he’s gonna do it, like a Steve Yzerman,” explains Naurato of his captain. “He’s gonna block a shot. If we’re trying to create chaos in the O zone, he’s bought into it, and he’s gonna streamline that. He’s gonna block a shot. He’s gonna get it out. He’s gonna make the defensive play to lead by example.”
To put it simply, in Naurato’s eyes, Truscott “is not an excuse maker. He’s a problem solver.” Last year’s captain Nolan Moyle was a “big mentor” and someone Truscott “took a lot away from—little stuff like getting to know each guy, taking them out to lunch, whatever it may be.”
Schifsky can testify first-hand to the impact of that leadership. When asked about Truscott’s leadership qualities, the freshman replied, “He just does everything right. He does the little things on the ice that not a lot of people talk about. He’s someone you can talk to about anything. We’ll have movie nights together, and all the freshmen will be there.”
“It’s another thing I took from Moyle is just get the freshmen together,” Truscott explains. “The closer team you have, the better chance you have to win. Just trying to get everyone over and hanging out with them as much as we can, because they’re in the dorms, and we’re in houses.”
Truscott explains that the time together is more important than the activity; “it just happens to be that we watch a movie.” Lately, that’s meant gathering the freshmen for Transformers, The Maze Runner, and, at Schifsky’s suggestion The Most Dangerous Game in recent weeks for some team-bonding.
It may not have bred the on-ice results Michigan’s after yet, but, under Truscott’s leadership, the Wolverines are in reliable hands.
WoHo Completes Unbeaten First Half
Finally, before wrapping, we owe a hearty congratulations to the Michigan women’s hockey team, which put a bow on an undefeated first half of the season last weekend with a win over Aquinas College. At Southside Ice Arena just south of Grand Rapids, the Wolverines dispensed with the Saints by a 4-1 final score.
Aquinas’ Alyssa Exline notched the lone goal of the first period, putting Michigan in an 0-1 hole after twenty minutes of hockey. However, 13:02 into the second, freshman Katie Cummings scored her first ACHA goal to pull the game back to level terms. Four minutes and change later, Keegan Gustafsson scored her third of the season, with an assist to Isabelle German, to put the Wolverines in front by the end of the second.
In the third, an early pair of power play goals (the first from Ava Gargiulo, the second from Emily Maliszewski, both assisted by Julia Lindahl) provided Michigan with a bit of extra breathing room, and the Wolverines smothered the game from there to take the 4-1 result.
In net, freshman Emma Johns got the start and made 17 saves on 18 Saint shots, improving her record to 3-0 in her first season of ACHA play. Johns can boast an imperious 1.67 goals against average and .945 save percentage to begin her collegiate career.
Through the first half of the season, Trubiano’s team could hardly have done better with respect to that goal, having earned a 9-0-1 record to begin the year (the only blemish a shootout victory, recorded officially as a tie). The team’s .950 points percentage is the best mark in the ACHA’s women’s first division.
Michigan will return to action on January 14th in the new year, hosting Rhode Island at Yost. Suffice it to say Team 28 has kept momentum building through the first half of its campaign.
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