Zach Werenski Returns, And Returns To Form
Michigan managed for two games without its best defenseman, sophomore Zach Werenski, winning the Great Lakes Invitational Dec. 29-30 while Werenski was competing for Team USA in the World Junior Championships.
But the Wolverines were hopeful the 6-2, 218-pounder would be ready to play when U-M met rival Michigan State in a home-and-home series Jan. 8-9.
While head coach Red Berenson said he would not pressure Werenski, who returned to Ann Arbor from Finland Jan. 6, to play against the Spartans, he knew the difference he could make in the lineup.
Werenski never thought about sitting out the first night in East Lansing, let alone the entire series.
“I guess I made the decision on my day off when I got back but I always knew I wanted to play in those two games,” he said during our interview yesterday. “I didn’t practice this week on Monday or Tuesday just because I’ve been going hard for awhile now, but I wanted to play against Michigan State.”
Werenski was named the top defenseman at the World Junior Championships, leading the U.S. to a bronze medal. In seven games, he recorded two goals and seven assists, leading the tournament’s defensive field in points with nine (ranking seventh among all skaters), while he had the top plus/minus of the event at plus-10.
“I am not the only one that thinks this – he was the best defenseman at the World Junior Championships, hands down,” said Dave Starman, who served as the NHL Network’s television analyst during the tournament.
“His game is as good as it’s been since I’ve been watching him. It’s fluid, it’s composed; he has hockey sense in all three zones. He shows an ability to make plays, an ability to score, an ability to defend. And he’s shown leadership.”
In the Wolverines’ sweep of MSU, Werenski had two goals and an assist and recorded a plus/minus of plus-2. He was every bit the player the Michigan coaches have come to expect.
“We’ve seen this level of hockey awareness since we began recruiting him when he was on his minor midget team playing with kids a year older,” assistant coach Brian Wiseman said.
“Then we saw it the next year when he played with guys older than him. We saw it when he was playing up with the Under-18 national team halfway through his first year in the program when he’s supposed to stay with the Under-17s.
“And then we saw it last year when he was a 17-year old freshman, playing with kids a year, two, three, four, five years older than him.
“It’s just who he is, and we appreciate the talent he brings.”
That talent is staying put in Ann Arbor through at least the end of the season. There were rumors emerging from Columbus – Werenski was a 2015 first-round draft pick of the Blue Jackets – that he was unhappy at Michigan and would seek to turn pro at the conclusion of the World Juniors.
That was a complete lie, and left Werenski steaming mad, though he has already put the rumors in the rearview mirror.
“I haven’t thought about anything but Michigan,” he said. “When I was at World Juniors, my sole focus was on helping Team USA win the tournament, and then coming back here, my focus is on helping our team win every night, win the Big Ten and compete for a national championship.
“I don’t have a timeline for the NHL. I’m going with the flow and just enjoying it. It’s been a ton of fun this year at Michigan and I’m not going anywhere.”
Michigan’s Fourth Line Is Producing
The Maize and Blue have, essentially used the same four lines in eight straight games, dating back to the Wisconsin series Dec. 4-5. In that time, U-M’s fourth line has contributed five goals and 10 assists.
“All I want from the fourth line is energy,” Berenson said. “I want them to be plus or even. I don’t want them to be scored on or be a liability. I don’t want them to take bad penalties that cost us.
“I want them to be able to hold their own if we don’t have the last change and we put our fourth line out and they put their first line.”
Sophomore left wing Dexter Dancs and junior center Max Shuart have consistently occupied a spot on the fourth line, playing in each of Michigan’s last eight contests. The Maize and Blue have rotated junior Evan Allen and sophomore Niko Porikos on the right wing, while this past weekend, U-M did not dress a 12th forward, double-shifting its top-three line skaters.
“When we go 11 forwards, it gives someone a chance to play more,” Wiseman said. “So what it does is it puts some of your better players on the ice in different situations and gives them more ice time.
“It could create matchup problems if you have someone like [senior] Boo Nieves or [freshman] Kyle Connor out there against the [fourth] line that is probably matching up with Max’s and Dexter’s line.”
Giving more ice time to Nieves or Connor or junior Alex Kile certainly helps, but the usual fourth liners are making a name for themselves; Dancs has four goals and three assists in his last eight games (and is plus-5) and Shuart has contributed a goal and five assists (and is plus-4).
Dancs, especially, has proven valuable. He scored U-M’s first goal against Michigan State Jan. 9, erasing a 1-0 deficit late in the first period of an eventual 5-3 win.
He also scored the Wolverines’ first goal against Wisconsin Dec. 4, putting Michigan on the board when it had trailed 3-0 – the Maize and Blue went on to win 6-4.
Finally, he put Michigan ahead 2-1 on Minnesota in an 8-3 victory Dec. 11.
“What I like about the fourth line is they have not just scored occasional goals, they’ve scored important goals,” Berenson said. “Dexter’s goal against Michigan State last weekend was critical. His goal against Wisconsin was a key goal.
“It’s not just this lone is piling on with the seventh or eighth goal. They are scoring goals that matter to the game.”
The 6-2, 205-pound Dancs, who now has seven goals in his career, might not be long for the fourth line, however. The coaches are eager to play Dancs more, perhaps beginning with this weekend’s home-and-home series against Ohio State.
“He’s definitely taken some strides this year to the point that we are having discussions about how can we get him more of an opportunity,” Wiseman said.
Miscellaneous Notes
• Berenson is not yet sure if Michigan will use seven defensemen again after employing that strategy a week ago against Michigan State.
The Wolverines dressed sophomore Sam Piazza in addition to their normal starting six of juniors Nolan De Jong and Michael Downing, Werenski and Cutler Martin, and freshmen Joseph Cecconi and Nick Boka.
“It was a bit of an insurance policy because with Zach coming back from World Juniors having been away for some time, there was a desire to manage his minutes if we needed to,” Berenson said. “But he did really well.
“Then Michael Downing hadn’t played in a month because he was suspended by the Big Ten for the GLI. That was another issue -- his conditioning and timing -- and another issue was if you do get into a penalty-filled game, which can happen with Michigan State, and you get defensemen in the box, can you survive?
“And then Sam, he had a good GLI, and has shown us he is more ready to play minutes and play a better role on this team than he got the chance to in the first half of the season.
“Do the defensemen like it? They’d like to play more. We played five defensemen at the GLI and they loved it.
“On the forward side are we better with 11 forwards and double-shifting? I don’t think the question is answered yet.”
• Junior center J.T. Compher ranks eighth nationally in scoring with 1.42 points per game (27 points total) and is third nationally with 22 assists but incredibly, it feels like he has been overlooked this season, thanks in large part to the production of his linemates.
Rookie left winger Kyle Connor is fourth nationally in points with 1.63 per game, ranking fifth in goals with 15, while junior right wing Tyler Motte is sixth in the country in goal scoring with his 14 markers.
Compher was named the Big Ten’s “First Star of the Week” on Monday after tallying two goals and five assists with a plus/minus of plus-5 in the Wolverines’ sweep of rival MSU.
“He has a way of bringing attention to his game, and it’s not always in the offensive zone as much as it might be in penalty killing or a second-effort role,” Berenson said.
“When the team needs him in crunch time, J.T. amps up his game. And then he’s made some terrific plays to both his linemates, and they know that. But I think he’s been more consistent this year right from the get-go.
“The first half this year there is no question he was playing really well. He wasn’t scoring but he was producing.”
