Week 15: Sparty Sweep (Again)
Michigan dominates its in-state rivals by an aggregate score of 13-5, solidifying its place atop the B1G and securing the Iron D Trophy
It was another dominant weekend for the University of Michigan men’s ice hockey team, outgunning its in-state rivals for the third and fourth times this season in unambiguous fashion.
The weekend began with a 6-2 victory before a “blued out” and boisterous crowd at Yost on Friday. By night’s end, the jubilant Wolverine faithful could no longer resist chants of “Little Brother.” Scoring came both from the usual sources (Luke Hughes and Mackie Samoskevich) and depth players better known for their work at the other end of the rink (Jacob Truscott, Nolan Moyle, and Philippe LaPointe).
Suffice it to say that Friday’s blowout victory allowed Michigan to arrive for Saturday’s game at Little Caesars Arena for the “Duel in the D” in style and oozing confidence.
On Saturday, the Wolverines posted a touchdown in a 7-3 romp to secure the “Iron D” Trophy. Michigan has had three opportunities for silverware this season: the Icebreaker Championship in Duluth, the Marucci-Renfrew Trophy awarded to the winner of the season series between Michigan and Minnesota, and now the Iron D. The Wolverines are three-for-three in capturing those trophies, and, while none of that triad is the prize the team aspires most to, it’s difficult to ignore that trophy celebrations have become habitual around this program.
Samoskevich opened the scoring Saturday with a dazzling solo effort little more than a minute into the game, forcing a neutral zone turnover before breezing in for an effortless forehand-backhand finish. Michigan never looked back.
Though the Truscott goal that opened the scoring Friday didn’t come until late in the first period, in both games, Michigan controlled play from puck drop before dispelling any Spartan aspirations of victory in the second.
During Friday night’s second period, Michigan scored four goals. Michigan State managed two shots. Allow me to reiterate, in the second period Friday, Michigan scored four times, and the Spartans got the puck on net twice.
Michigan exited the frame with a 6-0 lead, thanks chiefly to three power play goals, all of them dialed from long distance, with Hughes sneaking a pair of past Drew DeRidder from the point and Samoskevich beating DeRidder high blocker from just above the top of the circles.
That the Spartans faced four Wolverine power plays certainly didn’t help matters for them in the second, but it’s difficult to look at a seventeen to two advantage in shots for the period as anything but unqualified dominance on both ends of the rink
A pair of third period PPGs for the Spartans made the score (a bit) more sympathetic, but did nothing to conceal Michigan’s dominance. Both Spartan goals came after Jack Leavy—a senior from Birmingham, Michigan—relieved Erik Portillo in net for Michigan. Though he conceded twice on the five Spartan shots he faced, it was a joyful moment for Leavy, who had yet to appear in a regular season game.
Meanwhile, Saturday’s second period appeared to afford the Spartans a pathway back into a game they trailed 2-0 after one, when Mark Estapa earned himself a five-minute major and game misconduct for a check from behind at 7:09 elapsed time.
However, instead of ushering State back into the game, Michigan netted a pair of short-handed goals—one for Jimmy Lambert following a Hughes takeaway, and another for Thomas Bordeleau, who showed outstanding patience and hands in roofing a forehand having been sprung for a breakaway when Mike Pastujov stripped the puck from Josh Nodler at the Wolverine blue line. Bordeleau’s marker stretched the Michigan lead to 4-0.
The Spartans eventually managed a pair of goals of their own on the same Estapa major, meaning the net impact of the power play was, at least on the scoreboard, neutral. Nonetheless, by the time play resumed following the Bordeleau goal, the remainder of the game was pro forma—there could be no recovery from the emotional weight bestowed by the pair of shorties.
It was a weekend with no shortage of standout performers. Between his pregame fit and Datsyukian goal, Bordeleau appeared nothing short of a rock star. In a start to 2022 full of outstanding performances, Mackie Samoskevich may have played his best two games as a Wolverine. Portillo provided his usual dominance between the pipes. Pastujov earned his fifth straight Iron D crown.
Yet among all those excellent efforts, no player made his presence felt more than Luke Hughes.
As has been the case throughout 2022, Hughes made it appear that he could carry the puck from his own end to the offensive zone whenever he pleased. His short-handed assist for Lambert illustrated this grace, as Hughes pounced upon an ill-advised and half-hearted Spartan pass in his defensive zone, glided through the neutral zone, then feathered a saucer pass that landed artfully on Lambert’s tape.
Though the lanky defender enamors anyone who watches him with the ease with which he cruises past opponents, it would be an error in judgment to infer that Hughes plays the game without effort. On a weekend where he registered three goals and three assists, his best play of the weekend may have come on a play that went unaccounted for on the scoresheet.
To set up Truscott’s Friday night opener, Hughes showed exemplary hustle, pursuing the puck around the Spartan net and out the other side, where he eventually prevented an MSU zone exit to safety. From there, Estapa found Pastujov for a glorious chance, which DeRidder warded off, only for Truscott to bury the puck into a wide-open net.
The sweep made for nine Michigan wins in the last ten games against the Spartans, including a perfect 4-0 mark this year by an aggregate score of 23-9. Life in the loaded Big Ten has been cruel to the Spartans, and I have no doubt that Michigan entered the weekend with a mindset that anything short of two regulation victories would be a disappointment.
So, while six points in the B1G standings are wonderful, is there anything to be learned from a pair of victories against a team that has yet to make its way to the win column in 2022?
I would argue there is one encouraging takeaway from the sweep, irrespective of the quality (or lack thereof) of opponent. What Michigan showed unequivocally over the weekend was its ability to score in bunches, even without the Olympic Four in the lineup.
Between Bordeleau’s re-establishment of himself as an offensive dynamo following a bout with COVID that cost him a chance to play in the World Juniors (and perhaps an Olympic roster spot as well) and the ascendancy of Hughes and Samoskevich as stars in their own rights, Michigan has to this point replaced its four top scorers without missing a beat.
Dedicated readers of this newsletter have been beaten over the head with plaudits for Samoskevich all season. We here at Gulo Gulo have established a frequent refrain around his game: that his speed and shot make him a nightmare in transition, both of which were on display in a two-goal, two-assist weekend for the winger.
Beyond what has become his customary offensive success, Samoskevich also showed a different side to his game this weekend—getting more involved in the Wolverines’ breakout and build-up play.
Instead of primarily receiving possession in or around the offensive zone, Samoskevich could be seen on the puck often in his own end of the rink. This involvement—apparent from puck drop on Friday through the remainder of the weekend—helped get the Connecticutian more touches and got him engaged in play immediately, which can only have helped his burgeoning confidence offensively.
In the end, it was a triumphant weekend for Michigan hockey—showing an offensive gear we had yet to see in the absence of Owen Power, Matty Beniers, Kent Johnson, and Brendan Brisson while also completely controlling play throughout the weekend.
As if all that weren’t enough cause for celebration, Michigan’s closest rival for the Big Ten regular season crown—Ohio State—lost twice at the hands of Minnesota, meaning that the Wolverines now lead the Buckeyes by three points in the standings, even before playing their two games in hand. The Gophers’ triumph now positions them as Michigan’s chief rival for that B1G crown, though they are two points off Michigan’s pace.
Hard though it may be to believe, we are down to just a pair of regular season series with which to resolve things. Next weekend, Michigan will host Ohio State with a chance to further distance themselves atop the Big Ten, and the following weekend, the Wolverines will travel to South Bend to take on Notre Dame and put the finishing touches on an outstanding regular season.
For the moment though, there is nothing left to do but gloat about another victory over the state of Michigan’s younger siblings.
Odds & Ends
Truscott’s Steady Presence
Of the numerous future NHLers up and down Michigan’s lineup, it has been Jacob Truscott for whom it took me the most time to appreciate. This is no fault of Truscott’s and merely an indictment of my own scouting eye. Truscott doesn’t have the undeniable power of Brisson’s shot, the eye-popping skill of Kent Johnson, or the celestial speed of Hughes.
What I have come to appreciate over the course of this season though is that Truscott is a prototypical example of the modern defensive defenseman. The days of an elite defenseman being lauded for their physicality in front of the net and shot blocking are dwindling, if they haven’t vanished already.
Michigan has no shortage of attack-minded defensemen, more reminiscent of a modern fullback on a soccer pitch than the traditional, stay-at-home NHL d-man,but the Wolverines only have one blue liner who excels more in his own end than on the way up the ice, and that is Jacob Truscott.
The Port Huron native is an outstanding one-on-one defender, equally capable of gapping up to stop a rush chance or cleaning up an oppositional opportunity in front of Portillo’s crease.
Truscott’s steadying influence can provide the perfect foil for one of Michigan’s more roving defenders (think Power, Blankenburg, Hughes, or Edwards), affording his partner the freedom to explore advanced positions without needing to worry as to whether their partner is in a defensively sound position.
Of course, while skill and skating may not be his calling cards, Truscott has more than enough ability on the puck to fit in with this outstanding group at Michigan.
This weekend, Truscott registered a goal and three assists—proving that it is not as though he is lost at the offensive end of the rink.
A fifth-round pick of the Vancouver Canucks in 2020, Truscott has the potential to make an enormous impact for a team that has been desperately short on competent defensemen outside of Quinn Hughes for some time now.
Estapa’s Flirtations with the Edge
Mark Estapa is hardly the only Wolverine for whom avoiding the sin bin has been a challenge this season. However, with six penalties and twenty-three PIMs in his last three games, it is hard to avoid singling him out as struggling with discipline at the moment.
The freshman forward’s game—predicated on putting opposing defensemen in trouble with his speed and aggression on the forecheck—naturally lends itself toward overzealousness and trips to the box.
On some level, the same approach that makes Estapa effective is also prompting these frequent penalties. Of course, the ideal answer is to simply cut back on the penalties without sacrificing the effective forechecking, but is that actually feasible?
Is it possible for Estapa to play his attacking style without semi-regular trips to the box? I’m not sure how to answer that question, but Estapa will soon have to.
With the Olympic Four overseas, a lack of forward depth all but assures Estapa a slot in Michigan’s lineup.
However, once Brisson, Beniers, and Johnson return, that assurance will vanish. If Estapa cannot limit his trips to the box, he may well find himself watching the postseason from the press box, with Mel Pearson unwilling to risk a game- or series-altering power play drawn from an ill-timed Estapa penalty.
We highlighted in the Midweek Roundup that Estapa’s skillset is an uncommon one, even within Michigan’s skilled forward group. It would be a shame to lose that presence in this lineup, but if the penalty problems persist, there may be no other option.