That's More Like It

I guess my pessimism following Friday night's game was misplaced. It turns out that all Michigan needed to do was score first...and then again, and again. Michigan scored the first three goals, and scored a goal in the last minute of each period to win 5-2. Game video can be found here and pictures can be found here.

Defenseman Chris Summers set up the first goal of the game when he carried the puck end-to-end. Spartan goalie Jeff Lerg stopped his shot, but Tim Miller put in the rebound.

Five minutes later, the Spartans made an uncharacteristic defensive mistake, clearing the puck directly to Aaron Palushaj right in front of their net. Palushaj scored to make it 2-0.

Just before the end of the first period, Brandon Naurato put Michigan up 3-0, with the goal once again coming off a rebound given up by Lerg.

After nearly 30 minutes of solid defensive play by Michigan, the Wolverines fell asleep for the middle of the second period, giving up two goals in the space of about three minutes, energizing the Spartans and their fans. One hopes the Michigan coaching staff spends some time with the team this week in practice reminding them that leaving opposing players unguarded in the slot is a bad idea.

Just as things seemed to have turned the Spartans' way (after allowing those goals, Michigan goalie Billy Sauer suddenly looked uncertain and tentative), Michigan scored in the final minute of the period to seize the momentum going in to the locker room, as Max Pacioretty deflected in a harmless-looking wrist shot from the point by defenseman Mark Mitera.

Michigan played a solid third period, committing no penalties, and limiting the Spartans' scoring chances. In the final minute, MSU pulled its goalie, but Tim Miller put the puck into the empty net to seal the victory.

With the victory, Michigan eliminated MSU from the race for the regular-season CCHA title. Miami beat Western Michigan, leaving the Wolverines 3 points ahead with two games remaining. Michigan has a home-and-home with Ferris State next weekend, and Miami plays Ohio State in Columbus on Tuesday night before playing its finale in Oxford on Friday night. A Michigan win (or two ties) or a Miami loss clinches the CCHA title for Michigan. The teams could tie for the regular season title if Michigan loses one to Ferris St. and ties the other, and Miami sweeps OSU. In that event, the first tie-breaker is conference wins, and Miami would have more wins if that happens. Here's hoping Michigan puts away Ferris Friday on Senior Night to end the suspense.

I'll have a preview of the final series of the regular season up later in the week.

Notes

• Michigan scored more goals on Saturday than in its first three games combined (4) against MSU.
• The goalies in the game presented quite a contrast. Billy Sauer stands 6-2, whereas Spartan goalie Jeff Lerg is 5-6.
• Michigan coach Red Berenson was honored for coaching his 1000th college game (all at Michigan), although the ceremony was marred a bit by the on-ice host's malfunctioning microphone.
• Michigan improved its record when scoring first to 22-0-3.
• Although Kevin Porter went without a goal for the fourth game in a row, he tallied two assists to take the team lead at 26.
• For the first time in the last four regular-season games at the Joe, the game was a sellout. Michigan fans appeared to slightly outnumber MSU fans, though both schools were well-represented.
• Whoever built the Joe Louis Arena parking garage should be sentenced to an eternity of trying to exit from the top level after a sold-out event.

Other Sports

• The Michigan baseball team improved to 2-0 with a 16-6 win over Villanova. The series finale is today at noon. The teams are playing in Port St. Lucie, Fla. Michigan next plays the Mets on Tuesday.
• The Ladies' softball team followed up on an 8-0 win over Birmingham Southern yesterday (featuring a perfect game from pitcher Nikki Nemitz) with a 9-0 win over Auburn in the UCF Tournament in Orlando this morning. Michigan wraps up the tournament with a 4pm game against UCF this afternoon. The 12th-ranked ladies are 10-2 on the young season.

Uggghhh...

5-2 bad guys. Just ugly. The Sparties are the masters of just waiting for mistakes by the other team. Unfortunately, so far this season, this is a Michigan team that makes too many mistakes. As a result, MSU is a terrible matchup for us.

Try again tomorrow, I guess, but there's not much reason for optimism. MSU has dominated the three games to date this year. I've never seen UM beat MSU in person, so here's hoping.

Miami won as well, so Michigan's lead is now 3 points with 3 games to go.

Welcome to Adam, and great first story!

Back To Reality

Michigan was served a dose of reality last night, as they fell for the first time in their last four games to the Minnesota Golden Gophers 69-60. The Wolverines remained resilient fighting back from an early three point barrage from the Gophers, eventually building a 2nd half lead. In the end, it was too much of Lawrence McKenzie’s outside shooting, inside toughness on the part of Minnesota, sprinkled in with some questionable home-court officiating.

While there were some encouraging signs the team can take from this loss (continued hustle and scrappiness in a hostile environment), last night’s loss served as a reminder that this team is still quite a ways from being a threat in the B10 conference. This game more than any in recent weeks, highlighted the program’s current deficiencies:

1. The lack of depth was never more apparent than last night. Defections and injuries have really taken its toll on this team. This is clearly not the most talented team in the league. Ideally, players like Coleman and Grady would come off your bench and guys like Zach Gibson and CJ Lee should see the floor for a couple minutes a game. Instead, due to a lack of quality players, these guys are forced to play more minutes than they should. It’s to the point that when players do something wrong, Beilein has too leave them on the court, missing an obvious teaching opportunity, because he has no one to put in their place. It was noticeable at the end of last night’s loss that these players were worn down.

2. Compound the fact that they got basically nothing from the 3-spot last night (Wright/Coleman) and this team is playing with maybe 4 legitimate Big Ten caliber players. When this team does not get consistent scoring from a third option behind Manny and DeShawn, they are much easier to defend. Coleman’s lack of performance, while now expected, has been a huge disappointment. Like many of Amaker’s recruits he seems to be playing at the same level he had when he arrived 4 years ago.

3. We need to get stronger inside. Not only are our bigs physically weaker than most front lines in the conference, but they tend to go long stretches without the necessary intensity and aggression. While DeShawn and Ekpe provide skills this team sorely needs, offensive versatility and shot blocking, respectively, they are not yet at the level where they need to be to consistently deliver the goods. All too often last night, they had balls knocked away, were out-fought for rebounds, and beaten to loose balls by Gopher big men who just seemed to want it a little more.

4. Shooting and defensive lapses remain an issue. They’ve been a problem most of the season, and they reared their ugly head again last night. We settled for too many rushed 3’s and the numbers are indicative of that.

All that being said, I like the direction the team is heading. They have been more competitive the second time around against each of their opponents. Even given all of the negatives I highlighted above, the team was still in position to steal one at the Barn because they kept fighting and grinding out baskets. We have a nice core of young talent (especially Manny, DeShawn and Ekpe) to build around and they are all getting a chance to play early in their careers. Essentially anyone who is contributing anything to this team will be back again next year. So we can assume they will all make strides given Coach B’s track record of developing players. Add to that the infusion of new talent: LLP, Douglas, Cronin, and possibly 1 more recruit, and the talent base should be vastly improved next year. With another year in the system players will be more comfortable with Coach B’s offensive schemes and player rotations.

It’s going to take time. As a lifelong fan, I’ve been waiting 10 years just to see them play a meaningful game in March. John Beilein is the right guy for the job. He’ll have the team in the Tourney hunt 2 years down the line. The fans need to see this through and they will be rewarded with great basketball in time.

As for the rest of the season, I’m not much for predictions, but I think Michigan can go 2-2 from here on out. Anything less would be disappointing.

I think everyone would be happy if big Zach Gibson would stop jacking up threes.

(Photo Courtesy: AP/Andy King)