This weekend, the third-ranked University of Michigan men’s ice hockey team split a pair of home games with the Wisconsin Badgers. As will be the case whenever this team stumbles, losing even once makes the series, which constituted the Wolverines’ first foray into the Big Ten schedule, feel a disappointment. That feeling compounds when considering that the Badgers were just 2-4 heading into the weekend.
Despite the sting of Friday night’s result, it was far from a weekend devoid of joy. Thursday night, Michigan authored a comprehensive display of dominance, and, even in Friday’s loss, Kent Johnson provided a moment of technical brilliance.
With this (and the Midweek Roundup’s note about not getting bogged down in the rankings the way we have thus far) in mind, we will review this weekend’s two games before launching into some player notes from the opening series of the B1G season. Without further ado…
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On Thursday night, the Wolverines offered one of their commanding performances of the young season. A 3-0 victory, it was not the most crooked scoreline of the year to date, but it was a game in which the Wolverines seemed never to lose control. A few decent rush chances excepted, they yielded Wisconsin precious little, and their puck management led to a number of outstanding chances on the Badger net.
After an opening frame in which they failed to find a way onto the scoreboard, Michigan beat Badger netminder Jared Moe for the first time early in the second. Even at that point, Moe’s crease had been under siege for most of the game (Michigan had a 19-8 advantage in terms of shots).
The opening marker came off a sequence that encapsulates Michigan hockey at its dizzying best. At the moment the puck crossed the goal line (off the blade of Kent Johnson), both Wolverine defensemen (Owen Power and Ryan Blankenburg) found themselves below the hash marks in the offensive zone.
Power played a give-and-go with Blankenburg, which earned him the puck square in the high-danger zone in front of Moe’s net. Rather than forcing a shot into traffic though, Power slipped a lateral pass to Johnson, leaving the British Columbia-born winger with a lay up finish. It was a passing sequence more befitting of a power play than five-on-five.
As the second period progressed, it appeared the Wolverines’ command of the run of play would not translate to a comfortable lead on the scoreboard. However, as the Wolverines’ control of the game solidified, so too did the animosity between the two sides.
After a scuffle between Luke Hughes and Badger defenseman Zach Urdahl led to a four-on-four, Michigan took advantage of the extra space, if not manpower, to pot another easy finish on the heels of another expansive and incisive passing sequence. This time, Blankenburg, once again feeling no reservation about activating deep into his offensive zone, finished the job with assists from Johnson and Matty Beniers.
Power would add a goal of his own in the third to remove any shred of doubt from the game’s inevitable conclusion—a comfortable Wolverine win.
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On Friday night, from the first period on, Michigan could not manage to exert the same control over the game. Instead, the Badgers exploited a vulnerability probed by Western Michigan, Minnesota State, and even Lake Superior State: that the Wolverines’ offensive style leaves space to exploit on the counter.
Not even five minutes into the game, Badger forward Caden Brown outflanked Hughes and turned the corner for a partial breakaway on Erik Portillo. His attempt on goal, more change up than fastball, managed to slip past Portillo’s pad, and the Badgers had themselves a one-goal advantage.
Michigan outshot Wisconsin in the opening period, but it was the Badgers who appeared on the front foot, employing a similar strategy to the one that worked for Western a week ago in Yost. Wisconsin played stout defense in front of their own goal and looked to attack open ice off the rush when opportunities prevented themselves.
The Wolverines appeared on the road to righting the ship for much of the second, but a dreadful turnover from Thomas Bordeleau (which came practically from the crease itself) left Badger captain Tarek Baker with an easy finish to put the Badgers up two heading into the second intermission.
Here at Gulo Gulo, we do not enjoy the practice of lambasting individual errors in explaining collective results, but this play felt unique in its absurdity. Bordeleau’s turnover came from one knee and directly in front of Portillo. The cavalier way in which he delivered the puck, only to have it knocked down by Baker, suggested to me that Bordeleau perhaps did not realize just how quickly Baker was closing him down. To that end, Baker deserves credit for turning what appeared an innocuous clearance into an easy goal.
The highlight of the weekend, albeit in a losing effort, came early in the third, with the Wolverines on the power play. Bordeleau delivered a pass to the forehand of Johnson, who was in a dangerous position in front of the Badger net, but had his back to goal when he received the puck. In a single fluid motion, Johnson slid the puck between his legs, and roofed a shot to Cameron Rowe’s blocker side.
Johnson’s goal came with under five minutes played in the period, and the boost it gave the Yost crowd made a comeback feel inevitable. However, that sentiment proved short lived, with Wisconsin answering back less than a minute later to restore its two-goal advantage.
Even then though, the Wolverines’ hopes remained alive thanks to a lovely Mackie Samoskevich finish from a difficult angle at the exact midpoint of the period.
Mel Pearson pulled Portillo for the extra skater as the game clock ticked down to about 2:30 with the Wolverines down a goal. However, this last-ditch bid at completing a comeback fell short. Brock Caufield sealed the game with an empty-netter, and the Wolverine faithful were sent home disappointed.
Again, we at Gulo Gulo do not believe in scapegoating individuals for team failures, which are so often structural. However, the frustration for the Wolverines in this affair no doubt comes from the fact that, after the first period, their team effort was strong. They began to threaten the Badger net, and they cut down on the quality opportunities they afforded on their own back end.
Of the three Badger goals that came with Portillo in his crease, each appeared the direct result of an individual error. The end result was a night in which the Wolverines played a solid, if unexceptional game, but still fell short against a team they know they should have beaten.
Odds and Ends
Offensive Engine:
Following the Wolverines’ triumph in the Ice Breaker Challenge two weeks ago, I pointed out that Brendan Brisson was making a strong early bid for the Hobey Baker. The crux of the argument was his ridiculous goal-scoring volume, a volume made more impressive by the number of game winners under his belt as well. This weekend, Brisson’s only listing on the scoresheet was a secondary assist on Johnson’s between-the-legs tally, and for the most part, his muted scoring presence mirrored his on-ice performance.
Brisson managed some decent opportunities on Friday night, including a late power play one-time, but, by and large, it was a quiet weekend. It does not seem to me unfair to suggest that Brisson can feel a mostly tame presence, his goal scoring excepted. I do not intend this as damning with faint praise. Often, Brisson does not jump out in a play until he is hammering the puck into the net, but though he is often the beneficiary of his teammates’ passing acumen, it is not as though his finishing is replaceable. The rugged winger knows how to find dangerous areas and what to do with the puck once he gets there.
With all that said, to my eye, it is irrefutable that the offensive engine of this Michigan team is Kent Johnson. So often, we assume that the impact of a creator of Johnson’s flash is intermittent. They pop up for two or three potentially decisive opportunities each game, but we seldom think of them as certainties, players whose reliability can be counted upon on a game in and game out basis. Going into the season, I assumed that it would be Beniers or perhaps Power who felt like the Wolverines’ most consistent driver of offense. Instead, Johnson is the player who always seems to create offense, even when nothing else is working.
Lambert coming alive:
In this week’s midweek roundup, I included a quotation from veteran center Jimmy Lambert about the nastiness incumbent in the Big Ten season. To be frank, I assumed at least some of this remark was perfunctory. I certainly believed that the intensity of games would ratchet up with the onset of the B1G season, but I was a bit skeptical that this would change the tenor of games all that much.
In both games this weekend, Lambert, who embraced the role of the scoundrel, made an impact in a way that didn’t seem much a part of the non-conference slate. On Thursday night, Lambert made his impish presence known first by playing keep away with the dropped stick of one Badger skater, then by getting involved in a post-whistle scuffle that led to his ejection.
On Friday, he again made himself visible, not just as a pest but as an offensive presence. His line was as good as either of the two more star studded ones above him, those centered by Bordeleau and Beniers.
We will keep an eye on Lambert as a player who offers a nice foil to the skill that abounds throughout the Michigan lineup.
Finding a spot for Samoskevich:
Another Wolverine who stood out in an otherwise unexceptional night for the team on Friday was freshman forward Mackie Samoskevich. The Connecticut native began the night as the third wheel on the Beniers-Johnson outfit and made his presence felt primarily in transition. After Friday’s contest, I feel I have a clearer sense of Samoskevich’s game than I had previously.
The winger plays a similar style to the Colorado Avalanche’s Andre Burakovsky. He is an outstanding skater and puck carrier, making him a menace in transition. When he gets to the offensive zone, he is looking to find a lane to rip a wrist shot.
Samoskevich plays this style well, and it is a valuable presence in the Michigan lineup. That said, I have some doubts that his ideal role is alongside Beniers and Johnson. By no means is this a criticism, instead, I believe this skill set would be better leveraged if he played alongside Lambert on the third line, adding a bit of firepower to the bottom six.
I think it might make more sense to pair Beniers and Johnson with Nick Granowicz, a speedy winger without quite the finishing talent of Samoskevich, who could offer a more workmanlike presence on a line that already has no shortage of skill.
Thus far, Mel Pearson has shown himself to be relatively flexible with his lineup, both game-to-game and in-game. That said, there are certain fixed combinations, specifically Beniers and Johnson as well as Brisson and Bordeleau up front and, for the most part, Power and Blankenburg along with Truscott and Hughes on the back end. It will be interesting to see if Pearson also settles on fixed running mates for those top two lines as wel,l as the season progresses.
Portillo:
Last but not least, it was an impressive effort from Erik Portillo in both contests against the Badgers, despite Saturday’s losing effort. Portillo has started every game for the Wolverines this season and played to a level that has merited that usage.
Going into the year, I pointed out that goaltending was a logical potential scapegoat for a team we knew had offensive pop in spades but was breaking in a new starter between the pipes. With his early season performance, the only question about the Wolverines’ goaltending has become, what does the fallback plan look like if Portillo becomes unavailable at some point. Hopefully for Michigan fans, there won’t come a need to find out.