The Tenth Will Have to Wait: “They’ve been through hard times, and they’re there for each other”
Michigan falls short of a tenth national title once again, falling 5-2 to Quinnipiac, but that doesn’t mean the Good Dudes of Team 101 failed. Far from it.
Nolan Moyle’s voice wavered, but his message was clear. “I can’t thank Nar enough to give me the opportunity to come back here and lead this group,” the fifth-year forward said from the postgame podium, as freshman Seamus Casey extended a reassuring hand to his captain. “It’s special here. I love this team. I love this school. I’m so proud to be a Michigan man.”
Moyle had been asked to reflect on what this year meant to him, and even as he struggled to find any words at all—let alone the right ones—his point lay plain for all to see and hear.
Some thirty minutes earlier, the University of Michigan men’s hockey team’s season ended in a 5-2 defeat to Quinnipiac. For the second successive year, the Wolverines’ campaign closed in a national semifinal.
A glorious run through the Big Ten Tournament and Allentown Regional, the blend of youth and experience, the sense that this year’s team could atone for the prior year’s defeat evoked thoughts of 1998 and fantasies about finally hanging a tenth national championship banner in Yost’s rafters twenty-five years and two days after that ‘98 squad clinched its crown. Instead, a structured, disciplined, and opportunistic Bobcats team cast the Wolverines back to the numbness of last year’s Frozen Four defeat to Denver.
“We won in a lot of ways this season,” said head coach Brandon Naurato. “That could’ve went either way. Two goals from behind the net, one from the top of the circles and the boards. It is what it is. That’s why it’s so hard to win a National Championship: It’s one game.”
In this game, Quinnipiac seized control from the outset—converting neutral zone turnovers into offense. Rand Pecknold’s Bobcats forced Michigan to defend rather than possess and leaks emerged.
Sophomore forward Jacob Quillan opened the scoring 5:18 into the game, banking an arcing rebound off Erik Portillo’s back and in on the heels of an Ethan Edwards holding minor.
Seamus Casey took it upon himself to provide an immediate response with a spellbinding solo effort to stickhandle through the Quinnipiac defense and around goaltender Yaniv Perets.
However, five minutes after Casey’s equalizer, Quillan would slip through the Wolverine defense and beat Portillo to propel the Bobcats to a well-deserved 2-1 lead that would hold through the first intermission.
The story remained the same in the early stages of the 2nd—QU’s 1-3-1 flummoxed Michigan’s breakouts, forcing turnovers and creating odd-man rushes. Portillo held firm, though, and Michigan’s attack began to round into form—generating its first sustained spells of offensive zone possession on the evening. Just past the second’s midpoint, Adam Fantilli tied the score at two with his thirtieth of the season off a quintessential Luke Hughes stroll along the point.
The score would remain level until freshman forward Sam Lipkin scored in the second minute of the third period—beating Portillo from below the goal line once again with another bank shot.
The goal seemed to invigorate the Wolverines once again, and they intensified the pressure on Perets’ net. That relentless pursuit of a comeback thudded to a halt when Zach Metsa scored off an innocuous-looking shot from along the board, lifting the Bobcats to a 4-2 lead with seven minutes to play.
Naurato lifted Portillo for an extra attacker as the clock ticked toward 3:00 remaining in search of a miracle. Instead, Ethan de Jong iced the Quinnipiac win with an empty netter. Michigan’s season—one of championships, comebacks, illness, defeats, and resilience—was over.
“They’ve been through hard times, and they’re there for each other,” said Naurato of his team. “And that’s how you build trust—through hard times and pain.”
When the pain came on this occasion, the easy scapegoat was Portillo, who yielded three goals from low-danger areas, yet it was also Portillo who kept Michigan alive as the turnovers mounted and sustained offense waned. As Pecknold would point out after the game, the Bobcats could’ve been out of reach early in the second were it not for Portillo’s ability to thwart myriad high-danger looks.
“He’s been the backbone of our team,” said Casey of his netminder. “He’s unbelievable, and I think he’s so good he’d probably want all of them back, but he wasn’t the problem at all. He’s fucking unbelievable.”
“He’s the best goalie in college hockey,” said Dylan Duke. “It’s no surprise how well he played tonight. Couple bad bounces that aren’t his fault didn’t go his way, but that’s hockey. You can’t put words into how much he means to our team, how many game’s he’s won for us, and what he’s done for us this year.”
This wasn’t a failure of any individual Wolverine. It wasn’t a referendum on their style, skill, togetherness, or coaching. It was a single elimination hockey game. To pin the result on Portillo might be convenient, but it would ignore not only the bulk of his performance but also deny Quinnipiac the credit it earned with a textbook performance.
The Bobcats played their game to perfection. “Quinnipiac culture was on full display tonight,” said Pecknold, before touting his team’s conditioning, battle level, and effort.
Neither the evening, nor the season was a failure for the Big Ten champion Wolverines, even if there was something tragic in the conclusion. With twelve freshmen to break in and eight pros to replace, Team 101 at Michigan took on a new look from its predecessor by necessity. That the ‘22-23 Wolverines ended the season in the same spot as Team 100 is a testament both to a retooled coaching staff and to the veterans that did remain.
“That senior class has been amazing, just pulling these freshmen in and showing them just what Michigan is all about,” Naurato said. “Michigan’s in a better place going forward because of the stamp that that class has left on it.”
Duke echoed his head coach’s message: “Going into my junior year, being an upperclassman, that’s something I definitely want to lean on—how [those seniors] left Michigan and the culture those guys created.”
To Seamus Casey, the tragedy of the evening is not a loss but rather the reality that this team will have to break up, at least to some degree, with the season’s conclusion. “The hardest part about losing this game is just knowing that we’re not gonna be together next year with the same group. It’s almost heartbreaking,” Casey said. “That Big Ten Championship, that Regional Final, the wins, the losses, and everything in between, just the little things we did together will stick with me and I hope with everyone else for the rest of our lives.”
I must admit I was skeptical when I learned of Michigan’s “Good Dudes Only” mantra for the ‘22-23 season. I felt apprehension at the program embracing dude-ness as central to its future, with the scars left by the dude who was fired for creating a toxic workplace still fresh.
However, after seven months of hockey together, the Dudes of Team 101 were so Good that even the most hardened of cynics would have no choice but to acknowledge that affability and a sense of camaraderie could galvanize a team, could turn that team from promising but inconsistent into a juggernaut that could impose its will against any opponent in the country.
Michigan fell short of its ultimate goal—a tenth title that seems to grow more elusive as the seasons come and go. But anyone who had the good fortune to grow acquainted with the Wolverines can have no doubt: This was a season to remember, to hold dear. And, as Naurato said, Michigan is in a better place as the pursuit of banner ten begins anew next Fall thanks to the efforts of Moyle and his fellow seniors.
“What’s it about?” asked Naurato at his final post-game presser of his first year at the helm. “Is it about trophies or what we did? I’d rather have what we did than winning a national championship with a bunch of individuals.”
Thanks to @umichhockey on Twitter for this 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.