Zach Saar’s double OT winner eliminates Michigan from B1G Tournament
By Jesse O’Brien –
ST. PAUL, Minn. — The puck ricocheted off the post and skipped, danced and pirouetted along the red line behind Penn State Matthew Skoff. And the No. 13 Michigan hockey team’s season danced with it.
Then with a swift kick by Penn State sophomore forward Eric Scheid, the puck skidded away from the net, and out of danger. The Wolverines’ hopes of an NCAA Tournament berth may have been kicked away too.
Michigan had come within a couple of inches from an overtime victory and advancing to the second round of the inaugural Big Ten Tournament but came away empty handed, and the No. 6 seeded Nittany Lions would go on to score in the second overtime — on a goal from Michigan native Zach Saar, no less — to win the opening game, 2-1,Thursday evening at Xcel Energy Center.
“I’m disappointed, obviously,” Michigan head coach Red Berenson said. “We’ve been kind of on a bubble here the last two weeks and we didn’t help ourselves tonight.”
Despite finishing at the bottom of the conference in the regular season, Penn State’s (8-25-2, 3-16-1-0) victory was its third of the season over the nationally-ranked Wolverines (18-13-4, 10-8-2-1).
“The one thing I can tell you, our team was not overconfident coming into this,” Berenson said. “We had hard-fought games coming into this one, they’d beaten us twice in four games. We’re disappointed we didn’t play well and we didn’t win. It’s all about winning this time of year.”
The two teams combined for 118 shots on goal, but the one likely to remain in the minds of the Wolverines is sophomore forward Andrew Copp’s overtime wrister that skittered along the line before ending on the wrong side of it. It’s one Penn State’s Skoff certainly won’t forget soon.
Skoff said he had “a few choice words that I wouldn’t say right now” when he saw the puck behind him just before his teammate cleared it from the crease. “I guess the hockey gods had our back on that play.”
Skoff certainly had his share of work, notching 52 saves, but Michigan freshman Zach Nagelvoort had a steady stream of work as well, facing 65 shots and stopping 63 of them.
It was by far the most work Nagelvoort had seen all season, and the highest shots allowed total for the Wolverines all year. Michigan previously had allowed 46 shots on goal in its Oct. 12 win at Rochester Institute of Technology.
But the one goal that doomed the Wolverines, Nagelvoort barely had time to see.
Penn State freshman forward Dylan Richard won the face-off on the Maize and Blue end and Saar let the shot fly.
“It was a good face-off play on their part,” Nagelvoort said. “I’m not sure who put it home, but I lost sight of the puck. (I) went down to cover it and next thing I knew, it was in the net.”
Penn State junior forward Taylor Holstrom put the Nittany Lions up with 23 seconds left in the second period when he got behind the defense and put one past Nagelvoort. Penn State played with the lead for the next 11 and a half minutes before Michigan forward Phil Di Giuseppe equalized from just inside the left circle.
After one and a half periods of scoreless overtime play, Saar — who played for the USHL’s Muskegon Lumberjacks last season — gave the death blow to a team he grew up watching play.
“I definitely grew up watching Michigan hockey, Michigan State hockey, Western Michigan,” he said. “It’s always special to be on the same ice as them. Dream come true, really.”
As for the Wolverines, they’ll have to wait and see if they secure one of ten at-large bids for the NCAA Tournament and avoid missing the dance for the second straight year.
“I’m not even looking at that (right now),” Berenson said. “Some people look at it right now, and they’ll say we’ve fallen down to wherever we’ve fallen. I’m not one of those.
“We’ll wait and see on Sunday where everything ends up, but when you lose a game like this, you can’t expect to move up.”