Week 16: Buckeye Sweep
Luke Hughes take center stage as Michigan sweeps its arch-rival to remain in pole position for the B1G title
An empty-net goal is a piece of end punctuation. With rare exceptions, it marks a conclusion. Upon the scoring of an empty netter, a competition once contested is closed. Sometimes they are spectacular—a desperate 170-foot shot under heavy duress, unrelenting determination to outmuscle a defender with nothing left to lose, or a delightful display of selflessness.
Often, it is not the goal itself that proves memorable but rather the conclusion it announces. Take the below 2017 empty netter from Michigan alum Carl Hagelin.
Sure, Hagelin shows an impressive burst of speed to outrace an exhausted P.K. Subban to the loose puck. Then, there is an almost comic deliberation as he ensures he won’t offer a repeat of a play that will end up being the only reason anyone remembers Patrick Stefan, despite a perfectly respectable 455-game career.
Ultimately, nobody will name Hagelin’s clincher as their standout memory of the 2017 Stanley Cup playoffs, but that reality belies the emotional resonance of the goal. It is this moment where we the hockey viewing public recognize beyond any shadow of doubt that the Penguins will win the Cup. Meanwhile, we get to watch the same realization set in for the jubilant Penguins and despondent Predators.
On Friday night at Yost Ice Arena, Luke Hughes clinched a 5-3 victory for the University of Michigan men’s ice hockey team over its hated rivals from Ohio with an empty netter.
Like Hagelin’s, Hughes’ goal was mostly unremarkable; what could have been a dangerous rebound surrendered by Erik Portillo came to rest on the tape of Nolan Moyle, who left the puck for a bursting Hughes to accelerate through center and sound the death knell on Ohio State’s Big Ten title hopes.
Hughes’ finish was clinical, and a desperate attempt by the Buckeyes’ Grant Gabriele—a senior defenseman from Brighton, Michigan—to quell Hughes’ bid only served to stage a more symbolic closing tableau.
Hughes rested on his knees, arms raised in celebration, before the euphoric Children of Yost; Gabriele lay flat on the ice, face down and unmoving. So what conclusions were ushered in by this game’s end punctuation?
Most obviously, there was the game itself. A hard fought, back-and-forth game between arch-rivals was decided. Michigan remained in the driver’s seat for the regular season B1G title; Ohio State was eliminated from the running for that honor. Like Gabriele, the Buckeyes had thrown near everything they could at Michigan—battling back from a two-goal deficit to claw level in the early part of the third, only to have the Wolverines pull away again.
Though it was not Michigan’s final game without the services of its Olympic Four, it also felt an appropriate culmination of the team’s month-ish odyssey without its four biggest stars. It would be silly and hot take-ish to suggest that Michigan is in any way a better time without Matty Beniers, Brendan Brisson, Kent Johnson, and Owen Power, but that doesn’t mean this team didn’t take strides in their absence.
In that foursome’s time away from the team, Michigan showed a level of consistency that may have felt unthinkable in October should that foursome fall out of action for any sustained period. Even without those top players, Michigan showed its ability to score in high volume and command games—whether against conference cellar dwellers or direct rivals for the conference crown.
At the heart of that period of intense growth was Luke Hughes, bringing us to the second conclusion we can draw from the defenseman’s punctuation mark for Friday’s victory.
Absent the Olympic Four, Hughes ascended from one talented player on a roster rife with them to the team’s best player. In seemingly every game since that foursome headed for Beijing, Hughes has been the most noticeable and most dominant Wolverine—a source of boundless creativity thanks to his exceptional grace and power as a skater along with his devastating hands.
Earlier in the game, Hughes broke a forty-five-year-old program record for goals by a freshman defenseman when he buried his fourteenth of the year after a gorgeous bit of evasion along the blue line.
In this way, Hughes’ punctuation mark was as much a declaration of his personal primacy as of his teams. It will be a strange year for the Hobey Baker, with so many of the sport’s top stars having missed a decisive month of the season for the Olympics. For voters who doubt the legitimacy of a candidacy for a player who didn’t play much, if any, February NCAA hockey, Luke Hughes beckons.
If it was fitting to see Hughes score a goal that at once marked a personal coronation and collective celebration, Luke Hughes was hardly the only Wolverine with a Friday night that felt appropriate for their season.
Before Hughes’ second marker, Michigan’s effort could be characterized as juxtaposing moments of individual brilliance with collective efforts, which were less spectacular but no less noteworthy.
Michigan left the first period of Friday’s game trailing by a goal. Kamil Sadlocha had opened the scoring with just twenty seconds remaining in the frame on a backhand wraparound. It felt an uncharacteristically soft goal for Erik Portillo to concede, and it would have been easy to imagine the goal sending the Wolverines down a spiral of frustration, despite having played a mostly strong first.
Instead, early in the second, Thomas Bordeleau offered the first moment of individual resplendence of the game, taking the puck around the left half-wall before dancing around a pair of Buckeyes before roofing the puck.
In many ways, the goal felt quintessentially Bordeleau: a deft combination of balance, patience, and shiftiness that culminated in a massive result for Michigan. Moments later, Hughes would give the Wolverines a lead, then Dylan Duke would add to it.
Though Bordeleau got Michigan’s offense on the board, it was a mostly quiet night for the line he centered (with Michael Pastujov and Mark Estapa on his wings). Instead, it was lines two through four that lead the way for Michigan.
The line of Duke, Johnny Beecher, and Mackie Samoskevich posed the Buckeyes’ problems from puck drop, applying pressure with equal efficacy off the rush and the cycle. They were unfortunate to end the game with just Duke’s goal (which came on the power play) to show for it.
Meanwhile, the Wolverines bottom two lines (Philippe LaPointe-Jimmy Lambert-Luke Morgan and Nick Granowicz-Garrett Van Whye-Nolan Moyle) were magnificent. Though neither line scored, they did a wonderful job of defending by mostly avoiding spending time in their own end in the first place.
Luke Morgan—whose combination of blazing speed, solid hands, and limited finishing resembles Hagelin’s at the NHL level—was a force in transition and pounced on loose pucks like a dog on scraps dropped from the table.
As Ohio State attempted to mount another comeback as time in the game waned, Van Whye and Moyle put in an outstanding shift of forechecking, making it so that the Buckeyes couldn’t even control the puck far enough down the ice to lift Jakub Dobes for an extra attacker, much less menace Portillo. In the process, the fourth line knocked about forty-five precious seconds off the clock.
Like Bordeleau’s, the goal that gave Michigan the lead the like of Morgan and Van Whye worked so tirelessly to protect was another moment of individual excellence.
On a third-period power play, captain Nick Blankenburg—showing his trademark disregard for the areas of the ice traditionally reserved for “defensemen”—wandered into a dangerous area to Dobes’ right with the Buckeyes preoccupied by a sequence of perimeter passing between Hughes, Estapa, and Bordeleau.
Eventually, Estapa slipped a cross-ice pass to Blankenburg, whose shot came from a severe angle and was shrugged aside by Dobes. However, from an even more severe angle, Blankenburg one-timed his own rebound past the Buckeye goaltender, and Michigan had the lead it would retain for the game’s remaining six-and-a-half minutes.
In a back-and-forth game between bitter rivals vying for a shared objective, Michigan triumphed thanks to a unique combination of dazzling individual skill and relentless collective effort.
On Saturday, the Wolverines extended their win streak to eight straight, also having won twelve of thirteen, by shutting out the Buckeyes 3-0.
To follow up Friday’s record breaking performance, all Hughes could manage was his best goal of the season to date—sending Buckeye defenseman Cole McWard in the wrong direction with a dizzying deke, before outwaiting Dobes and depositing a backhand.
The goal came with roughly six-and-a-half minutes to play in the second, extending Michigan’s lead to two, with the first having come in the opening frame when Philipe LaPointe found himself wide open and staring down a yawning cage after a broken play at the blue line.
After what appeared an off night Friday based on the lofty standard he has set for himself, Portillo earned the shutout Saturday on an even thirty saves. The Buckeyes tested him, especially on a number of power plays in the late first and early second, but Portillo had the answer to all of Ohio State’s questions.
Though Saturday’s effort still featured all the contention you’d expect between bitter rivals, Michigan maintained a cleaner control over the game. Despite a few Buckeye pushes (again, the biggest of these seemed to come toward the closing minutes of the first), the Wolverines never showed much of any vulnerability.
By game’s end, Michigan was content to play a passive 1-2-2 forecheck that seemed to prevent their opposition from generating any amount of sustained offensive zone time. Unlike the night prior, Ohio State was not even afforded a temporary comeback.
To provide end punctuation, Mark Estapa buried an empty netter of the long-distance variety, rifling a shot that found its target from just inside his own blue line after intercepting a muted attempt at a pass to the point from the Buckeyes.
What did Estapa’s goal solidify? Pole position for the Wolverines entering the B1G’s final weekend of the regular season, a sweep over a nemesis for the second consecutive weekend, and what seems likely to be the conclusion of an extended run without the team’s four best players that exceeded all expectations.
Odds and Ends
Senior Night
In addition to solidifying another sweep over a rival, Saturday marked Senior Night for the Class of 2022, who celebrated their final regular season performance at Yost in style.
Michigan’s nine seniors—Jack Summers, Nick Blankenburg, Jimmy Lambert, Nolan Moyle, Jack Leavy, Garrett Van Whye, Jake Gingell, Mike Pastujov, and Luke Morgan—exchanged hugs with a receiving line of their teammates, coaches, support staff, and then parents.
The Children of Yost provided each player with a flag (home states for the Americans and the classic Maple Leaf for Lambert, the senior class’ lone Canadian), which they wrapped across their shoulders for a celebratory photo.
Without doubt, this group has no intention of leaving Michigan without at least one more post-game celebration.
Olympian Update
The Michigan Daily’s Connor Earegood reported an update from Mel Pearson on the status of the Olympic Four. According to Pearson via Earegood, Brendan Brisson and Matty Beniers were in the locker room following the Wolverines’ Friday night win. Though they didn’t play on Saturday night, all signs point to a return next weekend in South Bend for the regular season’s conclusion. Meanwhile, also from Pearson via Earegood, Kent Johnson and Owen Power will be back stateside Monday, a timetable that would also invite a return next weekend. For Michigan fans, the best news is that whether some or all play next weekend, it seems quite a safe bet that all four will be available when the B1G playoffs begin the following weekend.
Free Estapa
In the third period of Friday’s game, Mark Estapa took what could’ve become a decisive minor for cross checking. Michigan killed off the penalty, so no damage was done, but it is unfortunate to see Estapa back in the box for the fourth straight game. When he went off to the sin bin, the Children of Yost were ready with signs reading “Free Mark” and chants of “Free Estapa.”
Clearly the freshman winger is popular among his peers, but I would submit that having fans arrive for a game with signs prepared to insist upon your innocence is more a sign of liability than cause for celebration.
Making matters worse, Estapa took another minor Saturday night to extend his streak to five. The Children of Yost didn’t seem to mind, continuing to decree the freshman’s innocence. Once again, Michigan warded off the numerical disadvantage unscathed, but it’s hard not to feel that Estapa’s sense of the line may be due for recalibration.
We highlighted in midweek that Estapa is a player whose best qualities teeter dangerously on the edge of self-destruction. The aggressive forechecking style, one that defines his game and earns him a place in Michigan’s vaunted lineup, invites the concession of penalties.
It’s not just that Estapa thrives generating takeaways and applying pressure to opposing defensemen; it’s that he does it through sheer speed.
Michigan’s alternative top forecheckers —the aforementioned Moyle and Van Whye (most effective in tandem)—rely less on raw speed and puck pursuit than anticipation and crafty manipulation of space in their attempts to thwart their opponent’s breakout.
Estapa seems to operate more on the principle that adept edges and slamming-on-the-gas aggression are the best recipe for ruffling the feathers of enemy defensemen.
When playing at that speed and with that mindset, it’s not hard for Estapa to drift from effective forecheck to a thoughtless cross check or elbow.
I wouldn’t count on Michigan’s coaching staff being as forgiving as the CoY, especially since it’s hard to imagine that conversation hasn’t happened at least once already. As a consequence, Estapa may find himself watching the Olympic Four’s return from the stands, though his evident talent and impact may be enough to earn him a sweater once again next weekend.