Opening Statement: “They Could Taste Blood in the Water, and They Certainly Went After It”
Michigan routs Colgate 11-1 to open its 2023 NCAA Tournament campaign
Fifth-year forward Nolan Moyle has been here before. He’s been to this tournament. He’s been to this Regional. He knows what to expect.
“Every team’s gonna give you their best, every team’s excited to be in this tournament, every team’s gonna work hard and play tight,” the captain said after his team’s Friday night triumph. “So you just gotta be patient with them and once you score a couple, the floodgates start to open.”
If postseason games are supposed to be tight-checking and tense, Friday night’s second Regional Semifinal at the PPL Center in Allentown, PA didn’t live up the billing. But it did stick to Moyle’s script.
For the first period, the University of Michigan men’s hockey team was sharp if not quite prolific. Through twenty minutes, the Wolverines managed a 17-7 advantage in shots but just a single goal, courtesy of senior forward Nick Granowicz, who was making his NCAA Tournament debut.
Then, in the second, the Wolverines exploded for seven goals over a nine-minute-and-twenty-one second spell—equaling Colgate’s shot total in the frame and putting the game beyond any semblance of doubt. By night’s end, the score was 11-1, and Michigan secured passage to Sunday night’s Regional Final in emphatic fashion.
“We went down one and [were] still pretty pleased with how we were playing,” said Colgate coach Don Vaughan. “And then, the second, we just kind of loosened, they could taste the blood in the water, and they certainly went after it.”
Eric Ciccolini began the onslaught seven-and-a-half minutes into the second—crashing the net for a power play goal after impressive poise from T.J. Hughes to deliver the puck to the crease. Adam Fantilli followed up forty-five seconds later with a solo rush of undeniable ferocity.
A flurry from Frank Nazar, Mark Estapa, and Rutger McGroarty ensured Michigan scored goals two through six in just under five minutes. The game was out of reach, but the scoring wasn’t done, not even for the second period. Gavin Brindley added a seventh—corralling a puck from his skate to his stick before beating a helpless Carter Gylander, before Luke Hughes decided he wanted to join his teammates in the goal column and added an eighth. Michigan was short-handed for Hughes’ marker, but by then, it hardly seemed to matter.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Michigan was not quite as sharp with an eight-goal lead as it had been for the opening forty minutes of play. The Wolverines’ second period outburst gave the third an academic feel, and sophomore defenseman Nic Belpedio got the Raiders onto the board just past the three-minute mark.
However, an Alex Young major and game misconduct for butt-ending Mackie Samoskevich pulled the Wolverines back into the fight. “That’s not cool,” said Granowicz of Young’s infraction. “We said we’re gonna run up the score on those guys even more.” Thanks to Hughes, Dylan Duke, and McGroarty, Michigan did just that—netting three goals during Young’s major to stretch the score to its closing ten-goal margin.
With a scoreline so crooked, you might assume wire-to-wire dominance from the top-seeded, Big Ten champion Wolverines, but, if only briefly, Michigan wobbled.
“I didn’t like in the first shift that we didn’t get pucks behind them, and that gave them some life said Naurato, fielding a question as to whether there was anything his team could improve on after the 11-1 triumph. “I think their game plan was to have three, four guys back and make us chip it in, and they expect that Michigan won’t. They were probably right that first shift.”
On that opening shift, both Adam Fantilli and Luke Hughes—two stars with talent so brilliant it shines even on a team as loaded as Michigan—stickhandled into awaiting Raiders along the Colgate blue line.
It was just one shift, but, on a different evening, it could have proved a harbinger of doom, that ever-so-thin knock to the favorite’s confidence early enough to breathe life into the underdogs, make them feel as if there might just be a chance.
Not on Friday. Instead, Naurato heard “guys on the bench start saying the right things” and saw his team take a vice grip on the Regional Semifinal. It started with a steady stream of traffic directed at Gylander’s crease in the first, then the second period torrent broke the Raiders’ levee.
As that first period trickle grew into a second period flood, Michigan’s veteran fourth line of Moyle, Granowicz, and Estapa led the way, making clear to themselves, their teammates, and the Raiders that the game’s first shift had been an aberration.
Moyle drove to the net off a controlled entry to establish the offensive zone possession that produced Granowicz’s opener. It was another Moyle power move toward Gylander’s crease that yielded the penalty that set up Ciccolini’s goal to set Michigan off and running in the second. Per Granowicz, the plan doesn’t have to be complicated this time of year—“All just trying to get the puck behind their D and just hard and heavy.”
“They’re just playing to their identity, they’re really good low, they’re getting to the net,” added Naurato. “When D see the puck when it goes low to high, they want to deliver it, and then they’re just winning races and battles after that to extend possession.”
Following the fourth line’s lead, all twelve Michigan forwards registered a point, as did the Wolverines’ top four defensemen, by the end of the rout. The eleven goals came from nine different sources. Special teams provided no relief for the worn-ragged Raiders: Michigan went four-for-six on its power plays, held Colgate scoreless on three attempts, and notched a short-handed goal for good measure.
For the Wolverines, gaudy though the final score became, the process was no different than the one that steered them through the Big Ten Tournament: Pucks behind opposing defensemen, creating chaos in the offensive zone, predictability. “Our routine stayed the same by design all season and into this week,” said Naurato.
You can’t win the NCAA Tournament in one night. It will take three more victories—beginning with a Regional Final date against Penn State on Sunday—for Michigan to capture the program’s elusive tenth National Championship. But on Friday night, the Wolverines authored a persuasive opening statement.
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