Wolverines fall to North Dakota in the NCAA Tournament
By @MichaelCaples –
CINCINNATI – Less than 24 hours after their thrilling overtime victory against Notre Dame, the Wolverines couldn’t find a second comeback in Cincinnati.
Goals 1:14 apart in the final eight minutes of play in regulation lifted North Dakota a 5-2 victory over Michigan Saturday night at U.S. Bank Arena.
With the loss, Michigan’s season comes to a close, while North Dakota advances to the Frozen Four in Tampa Bay.
“It’s a disappointing end to the season,” coach Red Berenson said after the game. “North Dakota was the better team tonight. We didn’t bring our best game, and it wasn’t good enough against a team like that. We stayed in the game and got into the game as it went on as a tied game in the third period. I thought [senior goaltender Steve] Racine was outstanding and had to be in order to keep us in the game. We just weren’t good enough tonight.”
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Captain JT Compher scored both of Michigan’s goals, while linemates Tyler Motte and Kyle Connor each recorded one assist apiece.
“You have to give them credit, they’re a really good hockey team, and they buried their chances when they got them,” Compher said. “We made mistakes, and you’re going to make mistakes in a hockey game, but we stayed in the game and weathered the storm early. We made a good push to come back. One bounce the other way, and I think we could have had a different outcome. Don’t take anything away from them. That’s a really good hockey team.”
Photos by Andrew Knapik/MiHockey
Drake Caggiula, Luke Johnson, Rhett Gardner, Coltyn Sanderson and Paul LaDue scored for the Fighting Hawks, while Troy native Cam Johnson recorded the win between the pipes.
While North Dakota controlled the shots total in the first period of play, the two teams played almost 19 minutes worth of scoreless hockey. However, Caggiula gave North Dakota the first lead of the game when he scored on his own rebound at the 18:54 mark of the opening period.
The Fighting Hawks finished with 24 shots in the first period, as compared to Michigan’s eight. The Wolverines allowed a total of 30 shots in their first-round game with Notre Dame – a game that needed overtime to decide a winner.
Berenson said that Racine’s play kept the Wolverines in the game during the rough start.
“I thought he was terrific,” Berenson said. “There have been question marks regarding our goaltending the last three years, but I don’t think there are any questions about it this year. He gave us a chance. We think you need to do three things in these big games. One, you need good goalkeeping. Two, you need to put your chances in. And three, you need to check the other team’s best players. I thought we did one of those three and it was goalkeeping. We didn’t do a good job putting our chances in. We did get some chances even in the second period where the shots were not in our favor, but we had a pretty good second period. We had the best chances, then they got a last-minute goal. We didn’t do a good job of checking their best players.
“It was one of those games where it got away from us right from the get-go. We tried to catch up—we were chasing the game. To win the game, we needed a break—we needed something whether a power play or not. [Junior forward] JT [Compher] gave us everything he had. I like the chemistry of this team, we just didn’t have a good enough game tonight. North Dakota was quicker. They were hungrier, and they were better.”
Compher evened the contest 5:33 into the second period when he sent a bullet of a wrist shot through a crowd and past Cam Johnson for his 15th goal of the year.
The two teams exchanged scoring chances until Luke Johnson capitalized on a turnover in the Wolverines’ end in the final minute of the middle frame. First, it was Nick Boka bobbling the puck and then it was Compher misplaying it. The puck ended up on Johnson’s stick, and he quickly sent the puck past Racine to regain the lead for the Fighting Hawks.
North Dakota held a 36-18 shot advantage heading into the third period.
On their first full power play of the entire tournament, Compher scored his second of the night, taking a face-off dot-to-dot pass from Connor and beating Cam Johnson with a shot under the ND goaltender’s glove.
“We got the power play and Kyle Connor made the pass over to me,” Compher said. “I think it was deflected by one of their defensemen and it was lucky to go in. It was a big goal at the time and we played well, moved our feet well to get the power play opportunity.”
North Dakota regained the lead with 7:57 remaining in regulation when LaDue fired a shot from the point that seemed to be tipped before arriving at the Michigan goal. Then, Racine got his glove on the puck, but it bounced up over him and into the net for the Fighting Hawks goal.
The play was reviewed in regards to the play when North Dakota entered the Michigan zone; the puck was played with a high stick by a North Dakota player, but then was touched by a Michigan defender before the Fighting Hawks regained possession.
Less than a minute later, a point shot was tipped into the top right corner by Sanderson to give the Fighting Hawks a commanding 4-2 lead with 6:43 remaining in the contest. That goal was reviewed, as well, but stood as the referees deemed the shot was not deflected by a high-stick.
The Wolverines were forced to play shorthanded during the last two minutes of regulation, as Michael Downing took a slashing penalty on Bryn Chyzyk when the Fighting Hawks forward got free for a breakaway.
North Dakota’s LaDue increased the lead to 5-2 when he scored an empty-netter goal at the 18:19 mark of the third period.
During the postgame press conference, Compher said that he had yet to address the team about the loss, but that he was proud of his teammates.
“I haven’t really said anything. We’ll all individually talk to each other. I’m really proud of this team. To get back to the tournament and to win a Big Ten championship is a big deal. Right now, it’s tough to talk and everyone knows that we love each other, we work together, and we left it all out on the ice tonight.”