Midweek Roundup 3.15.23
We preview championship hockey on the men’s and women’s side this week, with the men’s team heading off to Minneapolis for a B1G title rematch and the women off to MA for ACHA Nationals
“This would be the only game where I’m okay with us winning and playing really bad,” said Brandon Naurato, as he glanced to his left at the cup captured by the Wolverines by winning the 2016 Big Ten Tournament (its counterpart from 2022 sat across the room, out of view). “I’m joking, but we obviously want to win the Big Ten championship, and we want to continue to play our best hockey going into the tournament, because no matter who you play in the tournament, every game is going to be tough, whether you’re the one-seed playing sixteen or whatever…Playing Minnesota versus Minnesota State is two completely different styles of play. So are we prepped with our game plan of our identity throughout the year to play both those teams and have success? I feel really good about that right now.”
This Saturday night, Naurato will guide his University of Michigan men’s hockey team into its second consecutive Big Ten title game against Minnesota in Minneapolis. Last year, the Wolverines rolled through their hosts for forty minutes, then hung on for twenty more to beat Minnesota 4-3 and claim the program’s second ever Big Ten Tournament title.
This year, the Gophers are favorites, occupying the top spot in the Pairwise and finishing nineteen points clear of second-placed Michigan in the Big Ten’s regular season standings. As Naurato put it, “They’re the best team in the country, and they earned that right to this point, and we feel really good about our team that we can beat teams like that.”
To explain his team’s confidence, Naurato turns to what he refers to as the team’s “objective sheet” from last Saturday’s 7-3 win over Ohio State. The sheet lists the Wolverines’ season averages alongside their average across four regular season games against Ohio State, as well as the results from Saturday, for a series of statistics identified by the coaching staff as central to success. He reads aloud:
“Average netfront shots on goals against Ohio State was three. On Saturday, we had ten. Our average shots in the slot against Ohio State was 7.25. On Saturday we had twenty-one. Even-strength O-zone possession average is 3:31 [against Ohio State], our season average is 5:21, and on Saturday, we had 5:50. Faceoff percentage, we were below 50% against them every game. Faceoff percentage on Saturday was 65% versus their 35%. We average ten even-strength chances against them. On Saturday, we had thirty-three. We averaged three-and-a-half O-zone chances against them, which is what it really comes down to. On Saturday, we had sixteen.”
Having played thirty-seven games over the course of six months, Naurato believes his team better understands what it looks and feels like to play together:
“Right now if one guy’s out of position as a random example, it’s like oh my gosh, [he’s] out of position, versus at the beginning of the year, one guy was out of position, which led to two, which led to three, and now it just looks like a disaster, so they can’t even see it as clearly because they don’t know what it’s supposed to look like at the end. Where now, guys are just in better spots, that structure, guys are in better spots versus telling them what to do and being robotic.”
In the end, Naurato believes the experience of such thorough domination of Ohio State portends good things in the future for his team, not just because that group won against the Buckeyes but because the performance offered irrefutable proof of how good the team could be when playing the right way together.
“I’m so proud of them,” Naurato said. “They did it, but now, they believe on Monday morning that it works. That’s why I feel so good about this weekend, because I think they’re gonna keep doing it.”
The B1G Rematch: A Clash of Blue Bloods, Blue Chips, and Hockey Cultures
For the second year running, the flagship universities from two of America’s preeminent states will collide with the Big Ten title on the line in Minneapolis.
On Tuesday, the Big Ten announced its award winners for the 2022-23 hockey season. Between the two of them, Michigan and Minnesota account for five of the six first team all-conference players, four of the six second team all-conference selections, all five members of the All-Freshman team (no goaltender was selected), the conference’s co-scoring champions, player of the year, defensive player of the year, freshman of the year, and coach of the year. Suffice to say there will be talent aplenty on the ice Saturday night.
Per Naurato, Michigan’s experience against the Gophers, whether in last year’s title game or from matchups earlier in the season, instills confidence as the teams prepare for another championship bout.
“I think it matters for the guys that have been back,” Naurato offered at his Monday media availability. “I thought it was a great weekend for both teams when we played them in January, just really good hockey, so I think there’s a belief that if we do what we know how to do and what we did Saturday—it’s not we can beat this team, we’re worried about us, but we feel really good about this weekend.”
Two of the goalscorers in last year’s win over the Gophers (Brendan Brisson and Kent Johnson) are off to professional hockey, along with numerous other key contributors to the Wolverine victory. However, the other two goalscorers, Mackie Samoskevich and Dylan Duke, are back for more after playing vital roles in this fixture a year ago.
“We know what the building’s gonna be like, we know the fans are gonna be rowdy, it’s gonna be sold out,” said Duke. As to what went right for he and Samoskevich in that contest, Duke believes it came back to fundamentals—“just being predictable, working hard, and doing the little things that we need to do to be successful. We were doing those all night, and we ended up getting rewarded with two big goals.”
To Samoskevich, the duo’s success traces back to something more rudimentary. After Tuesday’s practice, the Connecticutian sophomore said “I think the most important thing is we’re really good buddies off the ice. We live with each other, and he’s one of my best friends, so we connect at a different level.” With a sheepish smile, he added “I think he’s a guy that likes to get dirty in the corners, and I’m a guy that likes to, you know, have him get the puck, give it to me, and shoot it.”
Those January battles with the Gophers provided fans with some of the best college hockey anywhere in the country this season, just as last season’s B1G Championship Game did a year ago. When asked what about this matchup seems to bring the best out of the two teams, Naurato pointed to a combination of elite talent, rabid fan support, and an air of respect between two of NCAA hockey’s bluest bloods:
“A lot of blue chip players for sure, and a lot of blue chip players that have played with or against each other or gone up against each other at internationals tournaments or the draft or whatever, so there’s—I don’t know if it’s pride or just the competitive side of it. I think there’s mutual respect for how they play the game and how we play the game. It’s just good hockey, and that’s not a knock on anyone else, but it should be a really fun game to watch. Last year that place was jammed, I think it was 10, 000 people there for warm-ups, and it was an awesome atmosphere.”
To Naurato, this weekend’s matchup will be a showcase for all that is great about the college game, saying “It’s awesome for the Big Ten; it’s awesome for Minnesota; it’s awesome for Michigan. College hockey is fighting major junior and vice versa for decades of what the best path is. I think these guys are showing that it’s great to come to college and worry about more things than just hockey and grow up as young men and mature, and I think it’s awesome.”
In assessing the Gophers’ success, Naurato sees a group that combines elite talent with veteran experience and a universal commitment to team success.
“There’s give and take with everything,” says Naurato. “People think that we’re this ultra-talented team, but [being talented alone] is like being a smart kid that doesn’t study or have good habits. Nobody can just show up and go take over a game because they have talent. You have to play together. If talent [was all that] mattered, why didn’t the Edmonton Oilers make the playoffs for so many years when they’ve got all those first overall picks. That’s talent, but I think the difference with Minnesota is that they’ve got a lot of older players that have loyalty or whatever, but they came back to win.
“Luke Hughes could’ve signed, Portillo could’ve signed, LaCombe could’ve signed, Faber, Johnson, Knies, all those guys—Cooley didn’t have to come in. They came back to win, so I’d say they’ve got blue chippers that are even more mature.”
This weekend’s title game will not just pit two of America’s best hockey teams against one another but also two discrete statewide hockey cultures. In Minnesota, high school hockey is king; the annual Tourney to determine state champions across the different boys and girls classes sells out the Minnesota Wild’s home rink in St. Paul. Meanwhile, Michigan’s youth hockey circuit revolves more around AAA hockey than the high school game.
“I think what [the state of] Minnesota does is awesome,” said Naurato, explaining that the state’s robust youth hockey network is among the sources of the “mutual respect” he alluded to. “For them to sell out the Xcel Energy Center and how big the high school tournament is for them, I think it’s great. These kids grow up in their own towns, and they’re all playing for those towns for the most part instead of a kid from Michigan moving to Chicago or a kid from Denver moving to Michigan. It’s just a different market, and I think there’s pros and cons to both.”
While lots of Minnesota’s talent emerges from the Twin Cities and their suburbs, little towns like Roseau or Warroad from the state’s far reaches still contribute more than their fair share to an ample supply of hockey talent. Where Minnesota’s system allows young hockey players to ripen in their hometowns across the state, Michigan’s brings together top talent from across the state and beyond and into Metro Detroit’s club hockey circuit.
“The ‘04 birth year with Rutger [McGroarty], Frankie [Nazar], Cutter Gauthier at BC, Lane Hudson at BU, they’re guys all played in Metro Detroit together,” points out Naurato, noting that from a recruiting perspective it’s ideal to take advantage of local talent, with the caveat that the ultimate goal is bringing in the best possible players. “It’s better for Michigan, if Michigan gets those guys per birth year and then there’s gonna be birth years that are down a little bit and you get a kid from Chicago or whatever.”
Of course, AAA hockey does not entirely replace the high school game. Naurato himself played for Detroit Catholic Central, suiting up for a state champion and, by his own account, thriving in a unique development environment that privileged practice time over games.
“I had a really, really good coach, I think we had six or seven guys play D1 off my senior year team, but it was the coaching and then when I say development, it’d be a different type of development,” Naurato offered in reference to his CC experience. “We practiced four days a week, and then Friday [played a game], similar to a college schedule, so I think I got a lot better from that versus AAA where you’re playing eighty, ninety games and only practicing two days a week, but there’s pros and cons to both with strength of schedule and environment.”
His younger brother, Catholic Central’s goaltender, just guided the Shamrocks to another state championship last weekend. Though the first-year head coach couldn’t attend the game as it overlapped with the Wolverines’ contest with Ohio State, he sees that game as proof that Michigan’s high school hockey scene maintains relevance even if it isn’t the only game in town, saying “High school hockey in Michigan—obviously AAA doesn’t help it, the 15U, but their state championship game, I think they had like 4,500 people and it was standing room at USA [Hockey Arena in Plymouth].”
With that said, there are adverse effects to Michigan’s club-dependent youth hockey environment. As we discussed in the fall with Sue McDowell—the CCWHA’s outgoing commissioner and a co-founder of the women’s club hockey program at Michigan—Michigan’s reliance on privately owned arenas (as opposed to Minnesota’s public, community-centered model) has made access to hockey more difficult, especially for girls at the grassroots level.
That effect can be seen plainly in the disparity in women’s hockey programs at the D1 level between the two states. Six Minnesotan schools offer Division 1 women’s hockey: Minnesota, Minnesota-Duluth, Bemidji State, Minnesota State-Mankato, St. Cloud State, and St. Thomas. By contrast, there are zero (0) D1 women’s programs in Michigan.
Though he is uncertain of the exact path, Naurato endorsed the idea of the University of Michigan taking the leap to rectify that problem, saying “I think we should have a Division 1 program for women, 100%. How do we go about that? I don’t know the math to that, and I’m assuming it’s big-time financial, but I think Michigan, Michigan State, no brainer to have Big Ten women’s programs, and if they did it, obviously I’d be fully supportive.”
As for the immediate future and the task of keeping up with the top-ranked Gophers, Naurato heaped praise on assistant coach Rob Rassey for his work in analyzing potential matchups.
“Rob Rassey does all that [work to determine line matchups],” said Naurato Monday. “He does an unbelievable job, and we’re extremely detailed in looking at who’s had success against certain centermen, on which dots, what the expected goals for are versus against now that we have four games [against one another]. So we look at all that.”
Despite that prep work, Naurato does not intend to allow line matching to get in the way of his team’s flow come Saturday night: “We feel comfortable with any line against any of theirs. Would you like to get certain lines out against certain lines for them? Sure, but we’re not overly concerned about it. I’d rather have our guys feeling it and going.”
In the end, Michigan’s success or failure will have less to do with line-matching than the familiar pillars of its game: creating chaos through possession, rolling four lines, remaining connected in all three zones, and finding a way to win the special teams battle.
WoHo Wednesday: ACHA Nationals are Here!
Meanwhile, on the women’s side of the ledger, the University of Michigan hockey team had already progressed past the CCHWA playoffs and onto ACHA Nationals in Marlborough, Massachusetts. The Wolverines traveled east yesterday in preparation for tomorrow’s matchup with Adrian College.
The Bulldogs beat Michigan in both regular season contests between the two sides, 3-1 back in October and 1-0 in January. Back in January, Wolverines head coach Jenna Trubiano had this to say before the team’s second game with Adrian:
“They’re a really physical team. 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. 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.”
Regardless of the outcome of tomorrow’s contest, Michigan is assured at least two games, thanks to the double elimination format.
To watch the weekend’s action, you can follow this link to sign up for a HockeyTV all-access pass. It appears the best option if you only intend to watch ACHA Nationals is a month-long subscription.
Beyond the excitement of the program’s first trip to Nationals since 2016, Michigan has collected a variety of team and individual honors and nominations in the two weeks between the CCHWA and ACHA tournaments.
A week after Julia Lindahl, Katie German, and Sandrine Ponnath earned all-rookie and all-conference honors respectively in the CCWHA, Ponnath was named to the All-ACHA second team for her efforts in net and Lindahl collected second team All-ACHA rookie honors. Trubiano’s team also received a nomination for U of M Rec Sports’ Club Sport of the Year honors.
It’s already been a banner year for the Wolverines, and, as this graphic from our friends at Arbor Broadcasting points out, interest in the program is booming.
To zoom out from the immediate context of Nationals, Trubiano sees this weekend as a stepping stone toward solidifying her program amongst the ACHA’s elite:
“I’m excited about the future, and I think that with our team doing so well, our social “media is obviously fantastic, and the players that we have returning, we’re just gonna continue to build on the momentum…I think that the possibilities are endless in my mind if we continue to win and do the small things right and hold ourselves to the highest standard for an ACHA Division 1 program.”
Of course, ACHA Nationals aren’t the only women’s hockey tournament this weekend, with the Women’s Frozen Four pitting Northeastern, Ohio State, Wisconsin, and Penn State.
As this graphic from @NDRWKHRS on Twitter illustrates, Michigan will be the U.S. state with the fifth-highest representation on the weekend, all the more reason to speed up the clock on adding varsity women’s hockey at the state’s flagship university.
To support the women’s hockey team Michigan does have, consider donating to their program via the University’s Giving Blue Day initiative as they look to recoup some of the expense associated with traveling to Marlborough for Nationals.
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