Midweek Roundup 1.25.23
Redemptive top ten matchups for the Michigan men and women this weekend, why Nar feels optimistic despite injuries and frustrations, and Jay Keranen on learning from experience and HS hockey in MI
We write today from a snowy Wednesday morning in the throes of another massive week of hockey at the University of Michigan. This weekend, Yost Ice Arena will host two different top-ten matchups.
On Friday and Saturday, the men’s team will play host to sixth-ranked Penn State, while on Sunday, the women’s side will entertain Adrian College, number two in the latest ACHA poll.
For both Wolverine teams, the weekend will offer a chance to demonstrate progress against a higher-ranked opponent that got the best of them earlier in the season.
Brandon Naurato’s men traveled to State College in early November, delivering a flat Friday night performance in a losing effort before rebounding for an overtime victory the next night. Despite Noah West’s best efforts in relief of an ill Erik Portillo, Michigan dropped four of the six points available in Happy Valley.
“We didn’t play great the first night,” said sophomore defenseman Luke Hughes after Tuesday’s practice. “We had a lot of sicknesses that week too, and I think we just play our game, continue to grow off last weekend and hunt, really outwork them, and I think we’ll be fine.”
Meanwhile, Jenna Trubiano’s team fell 3-1 to Adrian back in October, in just their second game of the season. Now riding a three-game win streak and 12-1-1 record since the start of November, Michigan gets another crack at the Bulldogs Sunday afternoon.
WoHo Wednesday: PSU Swept, on to Adrian College
The University of Michigan women’s ice hockey team extended its unbeaten run to nine games with a home sweep over Penn State last Saturday and Sunday.
On Saturday, the Wolverines leapt out to a 2-0 lead in the first on goals from Kelsey Swanson and Julia Lindahl and never looked back. A four-goal third period—thanks to Miki Rubin, Erin Proctor, Ava Gargiulo, and Jessica Simmer—cinched a 7-0 victory.
Michigan couldn’t quite replicate the touchdown margin the following afternoon, but it wasn’t far off. This time around, the Nittany Lions grabbed the opening goal, but Swanson countered just 1:27 later, and Lindahl tacked on another to give the Wolverines a 2-1 lead at the first intermission. From there, Michigan would score twice more in the second (another for Rubin and one from Katie German) and twice in the third (Lindahl again and Mariah Evans to close out the weekend) for a 6-1 final.
After the game, Trubiano explained that it was an experimental weekend for her team, following injuries sustained on the team’s recent trip to Arizona:
“We tried some new line combinations. We had a couple of injuries in Arizona, so we had to just work some things around, but I really liked our [Emily] Maliszewski, Lindahl, Swanson line, and they’re producing right off the bat. They haven’t even practiced with each other, so I think that was a really positive thing that came out, and obviously, just not giving up a ton of offensive opportunities to Penn State. We talked about playing disciplined defense, and we’ll continue to work on that this week, looking towards Adrian.”
You would never have guessed that Maliszewski, Lindahl, and Swanson lacked experience together after seeing their five combined goals over the weekend, but, as Trubiano explained, their respective skill sets overlapped to produce instant chemistry after a brief spell together in Arizona:
“Lindahl’s a goal scorer; she likes to shoot the puck. Maliszewksi is a first-year player, but she’s probably our top center now. She’s dependable on face-offs; she tied up or won that faceoff, which allowed Julia to feed the puck to Swanson [for an equalizer with three seconds remaining] at the end of that Arizona State game, and we’re like ‘maybe there’s something there.’ Swanson is just—she’s a finisher, she’s a grinder, she goes to the rough areas where I feel like sometimes in women’s hockey it’s kind of hard to find those players that are willing to do that. We saw a glimpse of it out in Arizona, so we figured it might be a good thing to try, and I think so far it’s working.”
It was another outstanding weekend for goaltender Sandrine Ponnath, who stopped thirty-three of the thirty-four shots that came her way over the weekend. The sophomore even added an assist on Gargiulo’s second-period goal Saturday. To her coach, the best part of Ponnath’s performance was the relatively light workload across the two games.
“I think sometimes we get too comfortable just assuming she’s gonna make every save,” Trubiano said. “Especially last year, we gave up a ton of shots, and that’s just not something we can afford to do anymore. So like I said, playing disciplined defense, getting the puck up and out, that’s something I preach with our defenseman, but yeah, Ponnath]’s super great. We’re so lucky to have her.”
Having dispensed with Penn State, Michigan now has its eyes set on Adrian. As Trubiano sees it, the date with the Bulldogs will demand a strong performance from the jump out of her team, with Adrian’s rugged style necessitating a strong counterpunch from the hosts.
“They’re a really physical team,” she explains. “I’d say 99% of their roster’s Canadian, so they play physical. They grind, they’re tough in the corners, but I would hope out of us we score the first goal in the first five minutes and just continue to build on that momentum…Goal scoring is contagious, so once we get that first one, they start to come, but until we get that first one, we have to have the same intensity as we have in the last couple minutes of a game.”
Trubiano continued: “Every shift, every opportunity, I want us to battle. We need to win the battles. Adrian’s a beatable team, any team’s beatable with the group we have now. We’ve just got to be able to execute.”
Beyond the team’s on-ice travails, Trubiano has an optimistic feeling about an increase in support for her program from the University, following the success of its holiday fundraising efforts.
“I have not heard anything directly,” she says. “I don’t know if anybody would reach out to me directly. That would be my hope. But yeah, I’m just trying to advocate for athletes and students that are paying tuition at the University to represent the University at the highest level for women’s hockey, so hopefully something comes out of it. That’s the whole goal, and I’m excited about the future.”
Scouting the Nittany Lions
When last Michigan saw PSU, the Nittany Lions were unbeaten, but this time around their recent form has not been quite so strong. Penn State closed out 2022 with a sweep of Atlantic Hockey-leading RIT on December 30th and 31st but have won just once in four tries in 2023.
Guy Gadowski’s team’s first series of the new year came in East Lansing, where the Nittany Lions fell first in overtime, then in a shootout. Last weekend, Penn State split with Notre Dame back in State College.
PSU’s offense is headed up by a quartet of seniors, all of whom can claim twenty points or more: Connor McManamin, Connor MacEachern, Ture Linden, and Kevin Wall (the team leader with twenty-one).
Meanwhile, junior Liam Souliere continues to impress in net with a 2.21 GAA and .921 save percentage.
Despite a strong season to date, the Nittany Lions special teams have underwhelmed. The PSU power play is converting at just 16.1%, while the penalty kill’s success rate is just 78.9%.
Though special teams haven’t exactly been a strength for Michigan of late, the Wolverines will look to get their power play back on track and exploit a comparative weakness of Penn State’s this weekend.
A Lineup in (Relative) Flux & a Coach Who Sees Signs of Progress
At the risk of recency bias, it’s difficult not to ascribe an outsized importance to Michigan’s trip to Minneapolis last weekend. The split against the Gophers felt a bit like the season in miniature: signs of promise and progress, mixed with familiar frustrations or disappointments. In the end, though, that the young Wolverines’ could travel to the nation’s top-ranked team and look at home suggested a squad capable of an extended postseason run, despite sitting in the depths of the Big Ten.
Injury was a major concern as the Wolverines departed from Minnesota, with sophomore winger Mackie Samoskevich unable to finish Saturday’s game after picking up an upper-body injury in the third period. Meanwhile, Jacob Truscott (who was on the receiving end of Jimmy Snuggerud’s second-period major that evening) did not practice Monday or Tuesday.
Naurato expressed uncertainty as to the pair’s respective statuses for this weekend, saying of Samoskevich “I don’t know if he’s going to be able to go” and conveying similar doubt with Truscott. In the latter case though, the fact that Truscott did manage to finish the game (and score the overtime winner) provided reason for optimism that the junior defenseman will be available.
On that trip to Minnesota, Michigan deployed a new-look top six, with Samoskevich and Gavin Brindley switching places.
The move paid immediate dividends, with Brindley and Fantilli combining for four goals over the weekend alongside Dylan Duke.
“You hope that it’s right all the time, but they were just making a ton of plays,” said Naurato Monday. “Adam and Brinds are really fast, and it’s a lefty-righty playing together. Duker does a lot of little things away from the puck to free up space. It worked well. I thought that other line [Rutger McGroarty-T.J. Hughes-Samoskevich] was good too—not on the scoreboard as much, but they had a lot of good chances.”
In Brindley and Fantilli, Naurato sees examples of his team’s progress:
“Gavin Brindley is an eighteen-year-old, what Adam Fantilli’s done…These guys have been put in spots—it’s not that they weren’t ready for those spots, but how many freshmen come in and play eighteen, twenty minutes as a forward?…And for those guys to do that, there’s a little bit of pain, but you can see what’s happening now in the second half: they feel comfortable in those positions.”
“We’ve talked a lot about just some spots to be in defensively and that’ll lead to him getting more puck touches—just him being underneath the puck,” said Naurato of Fantilli in particular. “I think that led to him a lot of his offense, versus him as a center being above and then he’s kind of on an island by himself.
The Wolverines also restructured their defense pairs over the weekend, and Naurato again liked what he saw, noting “I thought it went really well.”
Of particular note to the interim coach was Luke Hughes, who Naurato said is coming off his four best performances of the season.
“We always talk about defending and defending the rush, d-zone coverage, I think it’s just all clicking,” Naurato explained in reference to the future New Jersey Devil. “He’s figuring out his angles, and he’s way more physical—not that he wasn’t physical before but like he’s so good that he can angle a guy, lift his stick, and skate with the puck, but you can’t do that all the time. Now he’s just eliminating the guy, his partner picks up the puck, and then we go.”
Naurato continues: “He’s simplified it to where he’s just so efficient. And I think part of that—-he played like twenty-eight minutes Friday and like twenty-four Saturday, but when you’re out there, when we had the five D [against Ohio State] and you’re out there that much, you have to manage your game. I think that’s helped him make things easier for himself. He’s killing plays earlier, and now we’re out of the zone instead of playing in the zone for thirty seconds and then changing or going for another rush, he’s ending plays quick. I think he’s taken pride in having a sense of urgency.”
In tinkering with his lineup as he did last weekend (and as injuries may require this weekend), Naurato seeks to maximize the sum of his different available parts:
“Every player has a specific skill set and then as a coach, you try and match those up, but then you’re also thinking about things they don’t have and does it pull away from somebody else or whatever. They’re all kids, nobody’s perfect, but you’re just trying to get guys with each other so that they can gel and bring out what they’re great at for their linemates and for themselves.”
He’s encouraged by the attitude of his young team, even in their imperfections. Naurato pointed out that “one thing about all our players is even when they make mistakes, they either don’t know and haven’t been in that situation yet, so it’s a teaching moment, or they have the right intentions where they’re trying to do too much, and it leads to some type of breakdown as a five-man unit. We have a lot of good kids, and they all just want to get better, and I think they’ve done a good job of that in every area.”
He added that there are “just so many little things that you try and have some trigger or cue or some video clip that they finally get it, and then you hope that they have success when you’re trying to get them to understand it, but there’s so many little parts of the game.”
One area where Naurato does believe his team still needs to make dramatic progress is discipline. Michigan’s 392 PIMs are the nation’s second-highest total. On the subject, Naurato didn’t mince words, saying “You can’t win championships taking that many penalties.”
He notes that this has become a point of emphasis in practice since the return from the team’s holiday break—“It’s little stuff, but if you’re not following details in practice, you just go board to board, and it’s not to punish them, it’s just to get them to think about it, so that’s why we’ve been doing more of that stuff, more battle stuff. We’ve been trying to call penalties in practice; we’ve been doing that since the break.”
Despite the injuries, illness, mistakes, or struggles, Michigan’s head coach believes his team is building toward something special, and even if it was just a split, he left Minneapolis feeling excited about his team.
“I’ve got this crazy feeling that this is all for a reason down the road,” Naurato said with a hint of a smile as Monday’s media availability concluded. “I don’t know if it’s this year or next year or what, but we’ll definitely be stronger for it. Our guys are ready to take a step. I thought Minnesota played well too; it’s not like we caught them on a bad weekend. That was awesome hockey, and if you can play with those guys, you can play with anyone.”
Catching Up with Jay Keranen: On the Truth Behind Clichés, Keeping it Simple, and High School Hockey in Michigan
After Tuesday’s practice, we ask senior Jay Keranen what lessons he’s learned that the freshman version of himself might not have known.
“Even just last year when Nar came in, there’s just a certain standard in the way he wants to play that obviously a lot of the older guys have learned,” Keranen responds. “And I mean, we’re still learning every day, which is a good thing, but I think it’s just kind of trying to play the right way and show some of these younger guys the way that we want to play here.”
To Keranen, experience has taught that an emphasis on attitude or details may sound clichéd but rings true on the ice nonetheless:
“Obviously, the first thing is the compete. From puck drop, we’ve had a little bit of an issue on Fridays, and we’ve been working on that, and a lot of it just comes down to compete and next up is structure, right? So I guess a lot of times people say the little things, but that’s the honest truth. It’s just the little details, having a stick on the ice here and there, and you know, stopping at a post here—just all little things that we’ve been watching a lot of video of—individual and team video—that we’re trying to get better every day at.”
For a versatile player like Keranen (who has featured as a winger and a defenseman across the season), playing under Naurato has been made easier because of a systematic emphasis on positioning on the rink over position as listed on the lineup card.
“The beauty of it actually is that a lot of our structure—credit to Nar—is interchangeable,” Keranen explains. “So everybody should know where each guy’s at. It doesn’t matter if they’re a D or a forward, if this guy is the first guy to the puck, no matter D or forward, he’s doing this or that to the second, third, fourth, and fifth guy on the ice, it’s the same thing.”
To Keranen, playing under Naurato carries with it a sense of empowerment. “I think [opening up more options] is what Nar wanted to bring in,” the senior explains. “There’s so many talented hockey players here. We don’t want to necessarily create robots; we want people to play with structure but be able to use what brought them here—their talent, their speed, and this and that. Some teams kind of lock up some of these players because it’s so overly structured.”
As an individual, Keranen explains that, as he’s come to understand his own profile, he’s been able to thrive:
“You should know who you are as a player. Obviously, you don’t want to limit yourself, but I’m not one to go out there and dangle three guys then go on a breakaway. I’m more of a first pass guy. Defense is more of my priority, so I think for me, I’ve always just been a simple player and had success with that.”
“[Blocking shots] is a big thing for me, and I think our team as a whole,” notes the senior. “We’ve given up quite a few point shot goals, so that’s been a priority since day one—getting in lanes and we brought out the tennis balls one day…It’s sacrificing for your teammates, and that’s what you have to do to win. I think that’s something I’ve always taken pride in.”
After the Ohio State game the Saturday before last, Naurato lauded Keranen for the simplicity of his game, saying “He makes the tape-to-tape pass to get it out. He gets it off the glass, he blocks the shot, he finishes the check, and that’s what our whole team needed. Also, when those guys go out there and do it, I think it’s contagious. You realize that good things happen when you play the right way, and Jay was righting the ship on that.”
Keranen explains that sometimes the ability to make small, effective plays is born of necessity:
“I think [playing with just five] is where the simplicity comes in a little bit more, especially in [the Saturday game against OSU]. It’s not every three shifts, it’s sometimes you’re doubling up, you’re going out right after…So I think that game especially I was more focused on just moving pucks up, because I can only give so much.”
After the trip to Minnesota, high school hockey is on the mind, and we ask the Brighton alum about his experience playing high school hockey.
“Michigan high school hockey is not as highly touted as Minnesota, but I think for me personally, I give credit to where I played, at Brighton High School, and the coaching staff,” Keranen says. “It’s such a developmental age. For me, on and off the ice, I think the practice every day, along with my classmates—I mean you look at AAA they’re gone pretty much every week. And I think it was more beneficial for me to practice every day with you know, solid coaching staff, really great training program, great players on our team.”
To Keranen, that the high school game in his home state lacks the reputation of that in Minnesota did nothing to dampen his experience. “Obviously’s there’s some weaker teams here and there, but Brighton’s a great program,” he says, gushing with pride at his alma mater. “There’s local good programs too—Hartland and Catholic Central, and then obviously in the fall, there’s developmental leagues, and then in the spring, there’s Team Michigan where you go up and play against some of those Minnesota high schools or Wisconsin or maybe Team North Dakota, so you get a little touch of the other states’ high school players. I wouldn’t have traded my time in high school for AAA or anything like that.”
Thanks to Jaime Crawford (@JCrawford077 on Twitter) for the preview image. You can support our work further by subscribing or by giving us a tip for our troubles at https://ko-fi.com/gulogulohockey.