Kornacki: Maize & Blue Eyes Spot in NCAA Tournament
3/11/2018 8:08:00 AM | Ice Hockey, Features
By Steve Kornacki
COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Wolverines weren't in the mood for any moral victories after losing the Big Ten Tournament semifinal game in overtime, 3-2, on the home ice of their arch-rival.
Michigan hockey coach Mel Pearson cut right to the chase after losing to Ohio State for the fifth time in as many tries this season:
"The next time we won't get a next time," Pearson said of the win-or-go-home format in the upcoming national tournament. "You can call that pressure or you can call it opportunity, but you can't hide from it.
"There is no next time. Like, we're hoping we get a next time now. You have to make sure you're absolutely ready and do everything in your power to be ready to play."
Pearson couldn't speak late Saturday night (March 10) about the Wolverines (20-14-3) qualifying for the NCAA Tournament in his first season as head coach, but they're No. 10 in the PairWise rankings used to select the 16 teams making the national tournament as at-large entries. That's considered a pretty safe place to be for inclusion, but Michigan must now wait a full week before learning its official fate.
Cooper Marody wasn't quite enough to advance Michigan to the conference championship game, which supplies the automatic berth to the winner.
Marody, the Big Ten's scoring leader as a junior centering a pair of senior wings, has been much more of an assist man than the goal-scorer. He entered the game with a conference-high 32 assists and 12 goals.
However, Marody notched both of Michigan's goals in regulation to force the overtime period that lasted only 32 seconds before Matthew Weis beat Hayden Lavigne through the five-hole after Lavigne had made 32 saves.
"It as an odd-man rush and one of those unfortunate things," said Marody. "The guy made a great play, and there wasn't much Hayden could do. We've got to eliminate those rushes, and that's something we'll look into and improve upon to have success in the tournament."
OSU entered the game with a 16-0-3 record when scoring first and was 14-0 when leading after the first quarter. But Michigan tied the game twice, midway through both the second and third periods, and nearly turned the tables on those impressive statistics in a very physical game.
"I told them we weren't going to a ballet tonight," Pearson said. "We were going to a boxing match."
Marody supplied the scoring counter-punches with a pair of game-tying goals.
He tied Jake Slaker for second in team goal-scoring with No. 14, while Marody's linemate, Tony Calderone, leads with 23. Slick-skating and sharp-passing defenseman Quinn Hughes assisted on both goals, while Calderone and Dexter Dancs each notched one assist.
"That was just showing how great Quinn Hughes is," said Marody. "He was weaving inside, outside and all over the zone. We had Dexter and Tony working really hard, and I just tried to bang it in. It shows you how good my linemates are."
Pearson said of the Run DMC line: "When we need a spark, it seems like it's their line all year."
Dancs (10 goals), Marody and Calderone set the tone as the No. 1 line with 47 of the team's 124 goals, giving the rest of the team time to come together with steady offensive output.
Michigan led the Big Ten over the second half of the season with an 8-3-1-1 record to finish third in the conference after being picked for sixth in the preseason poll.
"Coming in at the start of the season, nobody really believed in us," said Marody. "Nobody saw us having any success this year, and we proved people wrong. We did that by out-working opponents and coming together as a team. Battling to the end is something we take a lot of pride in, and we know we're going to have to do that to have success in the tournament.
"We started playing in the systems. It was an adjustment, but Coach Pearson did a great job of establishing what we had to do to win. It worked out for us in the second half."
Pearson said, "I've liked the growth of our team ... we'll see where we fall in the NCAA Tournament if we get there. If we're fortunate to get into that tournament, this is a good warmup for that. You won't find many teams better than Ohio State.
"So, we can really take some positives from this game. We're not happy with the outcome, but we're happy with some of the things we did in the game. We look to build on those and get better in some areas."
Improving on penalty killing is one of those "areas" as OSU scored both of its goals in regulation on its four power play opportunities.
"We're much improved since the last time we played them," Pearson said of the second-place Buckeyes.
While Michigan went 2-2 against first-place Notre Dame, it was 0-4 against OSU while getting out-scored, 17-6. The Buckeyes had been the only conference foe the Wolverines didn't seem to match up well with, but the Wolverines took it to them in this game at Nationwide Arena. Â Hughes hit the post twice with shots.
"I've always said he's worth the price of admission," Pearson said. "One of those goes in, and it could be a different outcome in the game."
But now OSU travels to South Bend next Saturday (March 17) to play the Fighting Irish on St. Patrick's Day. And the Wolverines await their assignment. Pearson said he's been consulting with John Beilein, head coach of Michigan's Big Ten basketball tournament champions who had more than a week between winning in New York and moving onto the NCAA tourney later this week.
"I'm going to call Coach Beilein," said Pearson. "We had a good conversation last week, and I talked to him about taking Monday off, and Tuesday and Wednesday they're going to get back at it. So, he's a good resource, and I appreciate John and his knowledge ... We don't know for sure that we're in (the tournament) but we have to plan like we are, and use the week to get better."
Pearson also pointed to a need for improvement on face-offs. The Buckeyes won 35 of those while the Wolverines settled for 22 face-off wins. Josh Norris (12 wins, 8 losses) was the only Michigan player with more than one faceoff who was a positive in that area.
"That's just an indication of the urgency and the desperation and the will and the want and the intensity," said Pearson. "We've got to be better there."
Pearson spoke of how he hoped to have more time with his seniors, whom he's only coached for one season since replacing Red Berenson. He's putting a plan in place, knowing it takes two wins to reach the Frozen Four and four wins to claim a national championship.
But he's quite sure of one thing. There is no "next time" if you lose again.
