Lavigne Gets Shutout, Continues Instilling Confidence in Wolverines

By Steve Kornacki

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Hayden Lavigne is becoming a difference-maker in goal for the University of Michigan hockey team.

Lavigne put up a stone wall for the talented Penn State shooters Friday night (Jan. 19), turning away all 34 shots they fired. The 4-0 victory was the second shutout of the season for the sophomore from Brampton, Ontario, who has been on fire of late.

Wolverine coach Mel Pearson has started Lavigne in five consecutive games, and he's had a dazzling .957 save percentage in those contests.

"When coach puts that kind of trust in you," said Lavigne, "it gives you a boost in confidence, and I think I've seen that in my game. I've started playing a little farther out, and obviously a little more consistent. So, that trust has correlated into consistency for me, which has been key."

He had been alternating with Jack LaFontaine, another talented sophomore goalie from Ontario, until pulling away some in December and earning the starting job over the last three weekends.

Lavigne started both games against No. 1 Notre Dame, and gave the Wolverines a chance, stopping 59 of 63 shots in a pair of 2-1 losses that actually gave his team some momentum. It's difficult doing that in losses, but he was so solid that everyone took notice.

Then Lavigne turned away 41 of 45 shots as Michigan swept two games at Minnesota for the first time since 1977. That, by the way, was so long ago that Red Berenson was seven years away from becoming the head coach at his alma mater.

Lavigne made kick saves, pad saves, glove saves, stick saves -- you name it, he did it against the hard-driving Nittany Lions. He stopped 15 shots in the first period, and when Jack Becker scored at 12:27 of that period there was a positive vibe that seemed to permeate the Wolverines. When Becker, a freshman who had only one goal all season, chipped in another goal midway through the third period, Michigan had the look of a team determined to hang a 'W' next to this one.

"You always feel better when you can trust your goalie and you've got a great goalie back there," Becker said. "So, it just gives us confidence to make more plays."

Josh Norris, who scored the third goal, added: "Your success starts with your goalie. If you have a really good goalie then you have a really good chance of winning every night. Hayden has been our best player, and you've seen the strides that he's making. So, the sky's the limit for this team now."

Lavigne has 134 saves on 140 shots in the last five games, good for that .957 save percentage. That's right there with what the No. 1 goalie in the country, Notre Dame's Cale Morris, has done with a .955 over the entire season.

Long-range consistency is Lavigne's next challenge, but he's feeling it.

When asked what pleased him most about his recent play, Lavigne didn't hesitate: "Consistency. Anytime you look at goalies in 'The Show', the only ones that stay are the ones that are consistent every night. At the next level, every goalie is amazing. So, the thing that differentiates people is consistency. If you can do that every single night, you're going to get where you want to go."

Pearson said he told the entire team to "re-set" when returning for this semester. He believes Lavigne is one of those who took that clean-slate opportunity to heart, and Pearson also credited Steve Shields for his coaching work with the goalies.

"He's playing up in the crease more," Pearson said of Lavigne. "He's out of his net more. And he's tracking the puck better. Just so many things about his game are so much better. Good for him. He's sharp, and you get in a zone. He's there right now, and I'm really happy we hung on and got the shutout for him because he earned it and he deserved it."

However, there's something else Lavigne has going for him, and that's a defense that is beginning to play in front of him nearly as well as the Fighting Irish do for Morris. They, too, now need to show they can game-in and game-out play the way they've been doing recently.

Though, there has been one defensive constant that speaks volumes about the grit these Wolverines show. They are the only Big Ten team ranked in the Top 10 nationally with 14.83 blocked shots per game to place seventh.

"That puck hurts," said Pearson. "When someone shoots it, I don't care how much padding you've got, it hurts. Absolutely, you have to make that sacrifice and be mentally tough and physically tough to stand in front of that shot, and Brendan Warren had a great one and Luke Martin, (too).

"You can go down the list, but that really is important to your team. It gives your bench a lift, and you see it on the bench, and the guys love that…We're starting to make more of a sacrifice to help the team."

Defensemen Sam Piazza (1.81) and Griffin Luce (1.68) lead Michigan in blocks per game, and Joseph Cecconi came up huge with four Friday night.

The Wolverines -- with captain Tony Calderone's 15 goals, Cooper Marody's 31 points and defenseman Martin's plus-13 rating -- are a team getting into a winning flow.

No. 20 Michigan (11-10-2, 6-7-2-1 Big Ten) has been exhibiting that they play for one another, and the best teams always do that.

An interesting example of that occurred when the last Wolverine went to the net afterward to congratulate Lavigne.

LaFontaine, just as he did when Lavigne shut out Michigan State on Dec. 7, retrieved the puck for him to keep. After the puck exchange, the goalies, still wearing gloves, made a sweeping low-five connection before embracing in a bear hug.

Some might say it's for show, but it shows something else that's very important.

"I don't even know how that started," said Lavigne. "We love winning, and it's our way of celebrating a little bit.

"We have a really unique relationship for competitive goalies. We've both shown that we can play at this level, and we both want to be in the net every single night. But we still have that really good relationship between each other. We're kind of like brothers and get along really well. We keep hockey out of the picture when we're outside of the rink. That way we don't get too competitive all the time."

The puck exchange only comes on shutouts.

"That was a shutout puck," said Lavigne. "I don't even know how he got it. He just picked it up, handed me the puck, and gave me a hug. So, it was kind of a nice little surprise."

It didn't come easily, though. Penn State had two power plays in the final five minutes, and even pulled its goalie for a second additional attacker only to have that backfire with Brendan Warren's empty-net goal.

"During the third period I was starting to get a little nervous," Lavigne said of the shutout. "You kind of get antsy that it's going to take a bad hop, and kind of ruin it for you.

"But at the end of the day, it's not about shutouts or stats. The only thing that matters is the win column and we ended up there tonight."

The Wolverines have won three consecutive games for the first time this season, and can move into third place in the conference by winning again Saturday night (Jan. 20) against Penn State.

They have found that winning begins with the play in front of their own net, and extends down ice from there.