BATTLE-TESTED MICHIGAN FOCUSED ON LITTLE THINGS
Attention to detail, especially in the defensive aspects of the game, have helped Michigan and goalie Shawn Hunwick.
Michigan is one of those teams that people want to knock off. Legacy, tradition and popularity make people stand up and take notice when the Wolverines appear on the schedule. A win over Michigan will always be mentioned in the season recap for its common opponents and conference rivals.
That’s the standard and expectation in Ann Arbor, and Michigan can find some similarities in its Thursday night opponent in the nation’s top-ranked team, North Dakota. Both teams are tested on a nightly basis, and Michigan takes solace in knowing that training throughout the year will have it ready for the challenge of facing the Sioux.
“We prepare for that all season long, so I think that it does help us in the tournament because we know we’re going to get everyone’s best game. Everyone’s coming in thinking it could be their last game,” Michigan sophomore Kevin Lynch said.
While the Wolverines didn’t need a reminder of that, they got it with a semifinal loss to Western Michigan at the CCHA Championship weekend at Joe Louis Arena. The Wolverines were plagued by a poor start and lacked focus.
“I think we got too complacent with ourselves,” Lynch said. “Coming off a regular-season title, I think maybe we sat back a little bit too much and took it for granted a little bit. You can never take things for granted, especially this late in the season. I think that was a lesson for us.”
That lesson was to be prepared for the little things and make sure to be detail-oriented every time out. It started to change with the CCHA third-place game victory over Notre Dame and continued with wins at the West Regional against Nebraska-Omaha and Colorado College – especially the dominant performance for most of the game against CC.
“I think it’s just mental, how hard you want to play over the other team,” Scooter Vaughan said. “Do we want to outwork them, go in the corners, block shots? It’s how hard do we want to work in all of the little areas more than they do. I think that’s the difference in the game.”
When preparation mixes with effort, it usually yields results. That’s the formula that Michigan hopes to put to use Thursday night.
BLOCK PARTY AT MINNESOTA DULUTH
Minnesota Duluth is carrying a loose, upbeat personality about its team headed to Thursday's semifinal against Notre Dame.
When Minnesota Duluth forward J.T. Brown and a teammate heard a reporter ask defenseman Wade Bergman about the Bulldogs’ shot-blocking prowess, they cackled and started ribbing him about his growing reputation in that capacity.
“Should’ve been a goalie,” Bergman mumbled.
There are probably nights when Bergman and his UMD mates get in front of as much rubber as a goaltender. The Bulldogs average 14.6 blocked shots per game; in its wins over Union and Yale at the East Regional in Bridgeport, Conn., two weeks ago, UMD blocked a combined 41 shots.
“It’s such a huge part of the game now, especially on special teams,” said Bergman, a sophomore from Calgary. “On the power play, you’ve got to get goals. On the penalty kill, you’ve got to block shots and get the puck out.”
Every team practices blocking shots. Not every team excels at it, however. And sure, there are things players can do to become better at blocking shots—working on timing, angles, and the like—but at its core it’s a combination of an innate skill and desire.
It’s also contagious, says forward Jack Connolly, the Duluth native better known for his scoring prowess.
“Everybody’s buying in,” says Connolly. “When we’re covering points, we’re trying to keep stick on stick and block as many shots as we can. [When] the center’s down low helping out the defense, they’ll try to step in front and get a piece of it.”
Forward Mike Connolly says added bonus to blocking shots has been the Bulldogs’ ability to turn them into scoring chances.
“With [the defense] sacrificing their bodies in front,” the Calgary-raised Connolly explained, “it allows the forwards to pick up the puck, head the other way, and do what we do best.”
“It’s evolved to where we take pride in it,” Bergman said. “If we have everybody doing the same thing, pulling on the rope the same way, good things are gonna happen.”
NORTH DAKOTA GETS ITS CHANCE
North Dakota can cap a tremendous season with a two more victories this weekend.
Don’t expect North Dakota to shrink away from the spotlight, and don’t be fooled – the spotlight is clearly focused on the Sioux this week. They were the nation’s number-one team in the preseason and currently own that ranking, which they’ve held for the better part of two months.
The MacNaughton Cup and Broadmoor Trophy have been obtained by winning the WCHA regular-season and Final Five championships. The team stands with a 32-8-3 record. Some of that is due to how those lofty expectations have been brought out of the Sioux all year long by difficult games against top-notch opposition.
“It all happens over the course of the year,” defenseman Ben Blood said. “Our preseason ranking was number one so from the first puck drop up in Alaska we got everyone’s best game every night and it’s just helped us become a better team. When we get the best out of everyone it brings out the best in us.”
The nightly challenges faced by North Dakota bring the team together. It fosters a reliance on the team as a whole to stand up for one another and to play at a high level.
“It’s just kind of the way our team works. We show up to every game like it’s a game seven,” Evan Trupp said. “It doesn’t matter who we’re playing against, we’re going to be focused and playing our game. The big thing in our locker room is accountability. We all look to the guy next to us to give their best and expect it out of him.
As North Dakota brings that accountability and focus to the rink this weekend, the biggest prize is still in front of it. Goals are set and some have been achieved. But these last two wins would mean more than any others.
“We’re playing with a good level of confidence right now,” Blood said. “We haven’t lost in any of the tournaments we’ve been in this year, but at the same time we know that this is the last hurrah. This is what we want the most.”
JACKSON AND IRISH STAFF ADAPT TO YOUNG PLAYERS
A good coach will suit his style and personality to fit best with his personnel, and Jeff Jackson has done that this year.
Darwinian law applies to college hockey. In order to be successful, one must adapt.
That’s true for not only players, but coaches. Take Jeff Jackson, for instance. The Notre Dame head coach won two NCAA titles at Lake Superior State and taken the Fighting Irish to both of their Frozen Four appearances, has had to alter his methods this season, primarily because of the team’s large freshman class.
“My first year, he was strict,” senior forward Ryan Guentzel said. “Now, he has kind of loosened up and joked around with the freshmen. He has even been joking around lately, which is different, but it has been a lot of fun to see that from him.”
That’s not to say that Jackson, one of the premier Xs-and-Os guys in the game, has completely abandoned the strict attention to detail that Guentzel recounted. But with so many youngsters playing key roles for his team, he’s had to be more flexible.
“Coach Jackson has actually done a fantastic job in that this year,” Fighting Irish assistant coach Andy Slaggert said. “[Sensing the players'] fatigue level, mental fatigue level, [knowing] when to give them a day off, when to have some fun, make some jokes … I think he’s done a superb job this year.”
For the first time in his tenure at Notre Dame, the roster is filled with players Jackson recruited, so even before they’ve played one shift in a Fighting Irish uniform, they’ve bought in to what he’s selling. So perhaps it’s a two-way street—the kids trust him and he trusts them and is, therefore, willing to loosen the reins a little bit.
“Early in the year, we covered a lot of our mistakes with energy and youthful enthusiasm,” Slaggert said. “We might not have been executing our systems as well as we would’ve liked, but their speed, their energy covered up for that. That’s more important than execution anyway, because you can work yourself out of mistakes by playing hard. I think it’s better than playing sharp.”
SEEN AND HEARD AT XCEL ENERGY CENTER
• Michigan injury update: Both defenseman Brandon Burlon, who missed the CCHA finals and the NCAA West Regional with a viral infection and subsequent allergic reaction to medication, and forward David Wohlberg, who broke his collarbone in the Wolverines’ CCHA quarterfinal series against Bowling Green, skated with the team Wednesday. Michigan coach Red Berenson says Burlon is a game-time decision. Wohlberg, meanwhile, is definitely out.
• Michigan coach Red Berenson and current Minnesota Wild forward and ex-Michigan stalwart John Madden had a friendly conversation outside of Michigan’s dressing room following the Wolverines’ practice. The duo discussed some recruiting stories and Madden’s son, Tyler, was along and got to check out the Michigan scene.
• On occasions that are too numerous to mention, Minnesota Duluth forwards Jack and Mike Connolly have been asked if they’re related. They’re not, but at this point, they’ve adopted the “if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” philosophy.
Says Mike: “We’re starting to say we are.”
“Sometimes you gotta just go with it,” added Jack.
• Spotted on one of the benches during Notre Dame’s morning skate: Fighting Irish alum and current Minnesota head coach Don Lucia. He was accompanied by his son, Mario, a highly coveted prospect who lists Notre Dame among his future playing options.
• Following each team’s practice, players met with NCAA representatives and were educated about the NCAA’s policy on gambling. We trust they didn’t have those meetings when Marty Turco played at Michigan.
• INCH editors Mike Eidelbes and Joe Gladziszewski have a hard time focusing on Notre Dame’s current Frozen Four appearance; they’re still talking about the goal Ryan Thang scored in the Fighting Irish’s semifinal win against Michigan at the 2008 Frozen Four in Denver.
• The three least surprising words read at the Xcel Energy Center were found outside of the team’s store near the main entrance to the arena – Wild Clearance Sale.
PLUS/MINUS
After last year’s Frozen Four in the aircraft hangar/warehouse better known as Detroit’s Ford Field, it feels good to be back in an actual hockey arena this time around. The fact that it’s the finest hockey rink in the world is just icing on the cake.
Throughout the tournament, there’s been a lot of discussion about the historical number of NCAA Championships owned by Michigan and North Dakota especially, in addition to other teams that were in that half of the bracket. On the other side, there were none in the half of the bracket that produced the Notre Dame and Minnesota Duluth semifinal. To us, all of the players here are tied for zero national championships, as Boston College and Boston University have claimed the last three crowns and aren’t playing here this week. What happened several years, or even decades ago, won’t really matter once the puck drops on Thursday.
