Week 12: Penn State Sweep 2.0
Michigan completes the season sweep of Penn State with a pair of flawed but ultimately effective efforts
With just over five minutes to play in the second period of Saturday’s game, a disappointing weekend loomed on the horizon for the University of Michigan men’s ice hockey team. Penn State forward Tyler Gratton had just scored to give the Nittany Lions a 3-1 lead.
Though Michigan had edged out their rivals to the east the night prior, the victory lacked the sharpness of the previous weekend’s sweep of reigning champion UMass. The Wolverines were lethal during the first half of a Penn State major penalty, and the resulting two goals were enough to carry the day, but the sixty-minute effort was unremarkable.
Now, the Wolverines were on the precipice of coughing up three valuable points to a team whose ambitions for the season have long since vanished. Instead, though, Michigan cobbled together three straight goals to stun the Nittany Lions and sweep the season series.
Michigan lacked the 200-foot command of the game it showed against the Minutemen a week ago; the steady buildup play and attack off the cycle gave way to the more frantic, stretch-pass style that has gotten the Wolverines in trouble before. What did carry over from the UMass series was the ability of Michigan’s top-end talent—the same talent that distinguishes them from every other team in Division 1—to take over play when they had to.
To start Saturday night’s comeback, Luke Hughes orchestrated an offensive zone passing sequence at five-on-five that made you question whether Michigan actually had a power play. He capped it off with a decisive centering pass to Matty Beniers, who made no mistake from as dangerous of real estate as you can find as an attacking player.
Early in the third, Hughes began the breakout by laying the puck on for Beniers, who skated without resistance through the neutral zone before threading a pass to the streaking Hughes. Hughes, having managed to skate by the entire Nittany Lion defense, stumbled as he collected the puck and eventually crashed into the end boards, but that didn’t stop him from slipping a coy wrist shot past Oskar Autio. It wasn’t quite Bobby Orr in the 1970 Stanley Cup Final, but it was enough to tie the game.
Intent on making life difficult for itself this weekend, Michigan conceded a five-minute major not even a minute after Hughes’ equalizer. This time, Jack Summers committed the infraction—an illegal check to the head. While Penn State threatened during their extended power play, they were unable to convert. The kill marked Michigan’s 22nd consecutive successful effort shorthanded.
Not long after killing off Summers’ major, Mackie Samoskevich led a promising rush up ice toward Autio’s net. After Thomas Bordeleau had his shot attempt blocked, Bordeleau, Nick Blankenburg, and Brendan Brisson converged on the puck—all with ambitions toward blasting it home. Unsurprisingly, it was Brisson who did the honors—tucking the puck off the post and in, while Blankenburg slid to the ice having not made contact on what doubtlessly would’ve been a blistering slap shot.
Michigan flirted with danger again when a late interference minor to Michael Pastujov opened the door for a six-on-four opportunity for the Lions to draw level, but again, the Michigan PK held firm, making it 23 straight successful kills.
Beyond the result (six valuable points in the Big Ten standings), the story of the weekend was Thomas Bordeleau—returning to Michigan’s lineup for the first time since early December.
It wasn’t an exceptional weekend for the Houston-born centerman, registering a pair of assists, but Bordeleau impressed in his precision considering the length of his absence from the lineup. When I think of Thomas Bordeleau, I conjure images in my mind of a player skilled and patient enough to control the game while hardly needing to take a full stride. Bordeleau reminds me a bit of Maple Leafs forward William Nylander in the fluid synchrony of his hands and feet. When the puck isn’t going in, both players receive criticism for an apparent lack of effort. In reality, neither is a lazy player; instead, both are so talented that they are able to alter the pace of the game through their presence.
This weekend, though, what stood out more than Bordeleau’s skill was his shrewd positional play and ability to dominate puck battles on the boards. You wouldn’t expect a player listed on Michigan’s roster at 5’9” and 179 pounds, with the ability to score goals like the one above, to win many pucks along the wall, but Bordeleau spent all weekend doing just that. Despite his lack of size (or perhaps because of it), Bordeleau can win in those situations through well-timed interventions with his stick and his low center of gravity.
The same COVID-related absence that caused Bordeleau to miss out on the World Juniors and likely the Olympics as well has now put him in a spot where he maybe Michigan’s most important forward while his Olympic-bound teammates are out in February. I suspect that is a role Bordeleau—who won last year’s Tim Taylor Award as college hockey’s top first year—will embrace.
In the end, it was far from a perfect weekend for Michigan. They afforded Penn State far too many opportunities off the rush, forcing Erik Portillo into a starring role in warding off those chances. For long stretches of both victories, the Wolverines appeared almost apathetic. Even so, Michigan was able to turn to its stars for decisive interventions when it counted, and the team ends the weekend atop the B1G standings. For a team with the impending uncertainty of sending four players to Beijing next month, banking six points, even against a team they SHOULD beat, is an outstanding result.
Michigan will have to be much sharper to achieve the same results next weekend in Minneapolis when it takes on the Golden Gophers, but, for now, a season sweep of the Nittany Lions merits a moment of celebration.
Other Highlights
For much of this weekend, Luke Hughes was Michigan’s most dangerous attacking player. Not unlike Owen Power, his ability as a skater—with the puck or without it—makes him a menace to opposing defenses. Here, Hughes demonstrated his adventurous side in joining the rush alongside Samoskevich and outflanked the weak side Nittany Lion defenseman. As Hughes rounded the corner just inside the offensive zone, Samoskevich flipped the Floridian defender a pass, which Hughes collected before pivoting to beat Autio. Since the dawn of the new year, I’m not sure there has been a more consistent or effective Wolverine than Hughes.
I wanted to touch on the above goal because it speaks to a hidden strength of the Michigan power play. We all know about the sheer volume of skill on both of Michigan’s PP units and their resulting ability to string together incisive passes. Here though, we see a different asset of the Wolverine man advantage: their ability to reset quickly off a clearance and immediately create an offensive opportunity against a scrambling penalty kill.
Penn State clears to the neutral zone, and you sense that their penalty killers are banking on a moment of relief before another Wolverine onslaught. Instead, Power deadens the clearance effort, and Beniers is able to re-enter the zone with speed. A quick pass sets up Brisson in a dangerous scoring area, but the Wolverines top goalscorer surprises Penn State with a pass to a wide-open Kent Johnson. Johnson has enough room for his initial shot to be stopped by Autio’s pad and still recover the rebound, make a deft stick handle, and tuck home the puck.
Odds and Ends: Portillo update
It was an interesting weekend for Erik Portillo. He stopped sixty-six of the seventy-two shots Penn State sent his way this weekend for a save percentage of .917. That number is made all the more impressive when you consider that a number of those Nittany Lion opportunities came on seriously dangerous looks, including a few breakaways. Mel Pearson pointed out that, in keeping with a classic hockey axiom, your goaltender needs to be your best penalty killer, and Portillo was that all weekend.
With that said, Portillo also had a few puck handling adventures on Friday night, before conceding an innocuous-looking shot from a strange angle for the first goal on Saturday.
Normally, Portillo’s puck handling is unmemorable in a good way. He is willing to leave his crease to help settle pucks for his defensemen, but you seldom remember him getting involved because he does so without a hitch. That was not the case this weekend, so it will be interesting to see if he dials back the forays behind the net moving forward.
In the end, Michigan can be pleased that his errors didn’t cost more, and, without his steady ability as a shot stopper, the Wolverines could easily found themselves on the wrong side of both results.