Week 14: Business-like Badger Sweep
Poise, depth, and the triumphant return of Steven Holtz guide Michigan to a second consecutive sweep and five straight wins
This weekend, the University of Michigan men’s ice hockey team extended its winning streak to five games by sweeping Wisconsin in 6-2 and 7-4 results Friday and Saturday.
The Wolverines secured six vital points in the B1G standings, showed unprecedented poise and command in the two victories, and welcomed junior defenseman Steven Holtz back to the lineup for the first time since his life-threatening battle with adenovirus in November.
On Friday evening at Yost, Michigan raced out to a 2-1 first period lead on the strength of goals from senior Nick Granowicz and freshman Adam Fantilli, before all but sealing the game in the second thanks to two goals for freshman Gavin Brindley and one from sophomore Mackie Samoskevich. With a Dylan Duke goal to open the third, any inkling of a Badger comeback was gone.
One night later, Michigan again overwhelmed their guests from the start, taking a 3-0 lead before ten minutes had been played and scoring five by the end of the first. After two more in the second, the Wolverines had all but dispensed with the visitors. Senior Eric Ciccolini netted two goals, while freshman T.J. Hughes scored a goal and gave three assists in the penalty-riddled victory.
This time there was no encouragement to be taken from defeat against a quality opponent. There was no need for dramatic comebacks. Instead, Michigan spent the weekend doing what a national title contender ought to do against the last-ranked team in the conference: Taking control early and leaving no room for a path back.
With explosiveness in attack and power play efficiency, sound work in the defensive end, and two workmanlike Erik Portillo performances, the Wolverines cruised to a 13-6 aggregate margin over the weekend. Perhaps most impressive from Michigan’s weekend was the way the team balanced scoring from its top line stars and its depth.
Speaking with the Michigan Daily’s Noah Kingsley after Saturday’s game, head coach Brandon Naurato referred to the balance of scoring from the weekend as “huge,” then added, "If you look at the games where multiple lines are scoring, I'd say we average five or six goals a game. So we just gotta find ways to get everyone to score.”
With Mackie Samoskevich returning from injury, Naurato offered a new iteration of the top six: Rutger McGroarty-Adam Fantilli-Gavin Brindley and Dylan Duke-T.J. Hughes-Samoskevich.
The decision to break up the DAM line (Duke-Fantilli-Samoskevich), which had been the lone staple in an often reshuffled forward group, prior to the series against Minnesota two weekends ago has proved an offensive catalyst for Naurato’s team.
The swap began with Brindley and Samoskevich switching spots. Then, with Samoskevich out against Penn State last weekend, Naurato had McGroarty join Fantilli and Brindley on the top line.
With the full complement of weapons back available, the rearranged top two lines were dominant. Fantilli’s line put twenty-four shots on target across the two games, while Hughes’ sent an even thirty on net. Each scored four times. According to their head coach, their tireless effort established a lofty standard for the whole forward group over the weekend.
Naurato said to the Michigan Daily’s John Tondora, “When your top guys are doing it and doing the hard stuff — shot blocking, physicality — I think it trickles down to everybody. You need your best players doing that and then everyone’s got to be bought in.”
In theory, Brindley and Samoskevich bring similar profiles to Naurato’s lineup, but, in practice, their back-and-forth has provided a spark to Michigan’s attack. Both Brindley and Samoskevich are skilled, speedy, dual-threat wingers, but their styles are not identical.
The former is an energetic waterbug; whenever he is on the ice, he seems to force plays to happen with his shifty skating and relentlessness. Though listed at just 5’9”, the Floridian freshman plays with the intensity and physicality of a larger or older player. These skills pair nicely with Fantilli’s penchant for driving the net.
The latter plays with a perpetual elegance, never appearing out of control or uncomfortable and always aware of the options he has available at any given moment. Though his shot might get most of the attention, Samoskevich is a natural orchestrator, helping to link his teammates together and keep them moving toward their objective.
T.J. Hughes has proved how dangerous he can be around the net all year long, but with Samoskevich’s assistance, he seemed to have an easier time getting to those spots, which was never clearer than on the freshman’s four-on-four goal not quite thirteen minutes into Saturday’s game.
While the top six was busy with a new iteration of its familiar dynamism, Michigan’s bottom six provided a bit of everything: goal scoring, physicality, and sound fundamentals.
All weekend long, the Wolverines overwhelmed the Badger crease with their netfront presence, managing to score off in-tight rebound opportunities time and again for their troubles.
This trend built on a tone set by Granowicz and Ciccolini five minutes into the weekend. A pinching Jay Keranen sent a decisive between-the-legs backhand pass to the goal mouth, where Granowicz and Ciccolini were lurking to either flank of Wisconsin netminder Jared Moe. The pass set up a stuff-attempt for Ciccolini, before Granowicz deposited the rebound to set the Wolverines off and running for the series.
As impressive as Keranen’s artful centering pass was, the presence of the two senior forwards around Moe (with no Badger defender intervening) was perhaps even more striking.
The goal was the first of four for the Wolverine bottom six on the weekend, but that doesn’t mean they did nothing besides score. Captain Nolan Moyle brought his familiar physical, possession-heavy, defensively sound game all weekend.
Meanwhile, freshman Kienan Draper showed his own technique and fundamentals in drawing a second-period tripping call on Saturday night. The young center may not have a featured role for the Wolverines just yet, but he continues to command more ice time with his steady and consistent play.
Of course, as exciting as the offensive contributions up and down the lineup were, the real story from the sweep was the return of Steven Holtz.
As detailed this week by USCHO’s Paula Weston, the junior suffered repeated seizures as a result of his bout with adenovirus that left him in a medically induced coma. The road back to the lineup required cutting through NCAA red tape, regaining the dozens of pounds lost to sickness, and, of course, getting back into game shape.
Predictably, Holtz showed hints of rust in his return to action, but he also offered a reminder of the skating and tactical intelligence that he can bring to Naurato’s lineup.
The junior’s return to action did come to a premature end when—to the utter delight of the Children of Yost—Holtz earned a game misconduct after an extended back-and-forth with several Badgers along the Wisconsin bench on Saturday night. His weekend concluded with some pointed gesturing at the Badgers, a rousing ovation, and an early exit.
After Friday’s game, Holtz said that getting back into the lineup “felt like playing in [his] first game again,” adding that the pregame “jitters” left him unable to sleep in a way he hadn’t felt since his Wolverine debut. The White Lake, Michigan native joked that he had even forgotten his pregame routine after the long layoff.
“It brings a tear to our eyes just to see him out there and do his thing again, and we missed him so much,” Brindley told the Daily’s Connor Earegood. “So it just shows how tight this group is and it’s like a dream come true for us to see him out there.” Given the severity of the illness Holtz battled, as outlined by Weston, it’s not hard to imagine why his return was so affecting for his teammates.
Holtz’s triumphant return to action, the thirteen goals, and the sweep made for a weekend with which even the nit-pickingnest, most pessimistic Michigan fan would have no choice but to be delighted. Naurato’s Wolverines held their fourth place spot in the Pairwise and are tied with Penn State for second in the Big Ten by points percentage.
Though Minnesota could clinch the Big Ten’s regular season crown with a sweep against Wisconsin this weekend, Michigan’s 6-1-1 record in 2023 suggests a team rounding into form at the right time of year.
Perhaps most encouraging from the weekend was the way Michigan never allowed the Badgers to entertain even a glimmer of hope that they could find joy. Though Wisconsin may be the Big Ten’s doormat, the Wolverines dispensed with them with the poise and command a title contender should against a struggling rival.
For much of Michigan’s hot start to 2023, the Wolverines’ successes have been tied to adversity (e.g. a Friday dud against Ohio State set up a convincing Saturday win, falling on Friday in Minneapolis despite playing well lead into the Saturday OT victory, finally completing a sweep against a B1G opponent required a multi-goal comeback against Penn State). This weekend, there was no need for such theatrics, with Michigan instead running a demolition derby through the Badgers.
Odds & Ends
PIMs, Misconducts, and Reviews
Between the two games, Michigan and Wisconsin combined for a whopping 101 penalty minutes, roughly two-thirds of which came Saturday evening. For Michigan, that included two game misconducts: The aforementioned Holtz infraction and one to Philippe Lapointe, who had replaced the Big Ten’s leader in penalty minutes in Mark Estapa after being a Friday night scratch.
While abundant penalty minutes and game misconducts have been commonplace for the Wolverines, Michigan did buck one trend by winning two challenges over the weekend.
Naurato joked after the second game against Penn State that he is “just trying to keep that challenge percentage as low as possible. I think we’re like—I’m making this up—may be one in fifty or one in sixty since I’ve been here.” The interim head coach was able to reverse that trend over the weekend.
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Excellent as always, Sam!