The amount of joy that Michigan fans enjoyed from action on the gridiron Saturday in a blowout Wolverine football win over in-state rival Michigan State was matched by their despair on the hockey rinks in Ann Arbor and East Lansing over the weekend, due to a two-game sweep by Michigan State over Michigan.
Michigan blew a 3-1 lead on Thursday night and eventually lost at Yost Ice Arena to the Spartans. Saturday’s re-match at Munn Arena in East Lansing was even more dismal for the Wolverines. The offensive woes of Michigan re-surfaced in a 3-0 shutout loss to Michigan State.
The weekend Spartan sweep left Michigan in the basement of the Big Ten Conference standings with one lone point to show for the first three weekends of league action.
Coaching staff and players alike will be tasked with assessing the reasons for the disappointing start and putting fixes in place to produce positive results. Special teams, particularly the power play, and offense must be improved to have any chance of competing in the remaining schedule.
If there is any saving grace for Michigan’s hopes, it’s the fact that the calendar still reads November and only 25% of the Big Ten schedule has been played.
The series opener on Thursday started with such promise for Michigan. Just over halfway into the contest, Michigan had built a 3-1 lead on first period goals by sophomore defenseman Nick Blankenburg, sophomore forward Garrett Van Wyhe and freshman forward Johnny Beecher.
Senior Michigan State forward Patrick Khodorenko brought the Spartans within reach of the lead with a late second period goal and then knotted the score early in the third period with another score. Halfway through the final stanza, senior forward Logan Lambdin connected on the power play for the Spartans. Michigan State held on from that point for the win.
“Overall, I thought we played a good sixty minutes,” Khodorenko told veteran hockey scribe Neil Koepke of msuspartans.com. “We’ve been down by more and just kept playing. Last week at Penn State, we were down 5-1 and came back and made it a one-goal game. You just have to keep playing hard.”
Little encouragement could be taken by Michigan from Saturday night’s return engagement between the two rivals.
Michigan State scored only two minutes into the game on a goal by freshman forward Josh Nodler, twice more in the second period on single markers from junior forwards Austin Kamer and Tommy Apap, then coasted the remainder of the way. Senior netminder John Lethemon posted a fairly easy shutout, his second in Big Ten conference play this season.
“We have two opportunities (on the power play) in the first period and we have the chance to do some things and we’re terrible there,” said Michigan head coach Mel Pearson post-game Saturday to the Michigan Daily. “We’re absolutely terrible there. You have guys who aren’t finishing and really struggling offensively.”
Michigan's Three Stars of the Weekend
1st Star — When freshman forward Johnny Beecher scored halfway through second period on in Thursday’s game, Michigan led 3-1 and appeared to be primed for their first conference win. Beecher five shots on goal in the series-opening game led the Wolverine offense.
2nd Star — Sophomore defenseman Nick Blankenburg opened the scoring for Michigan Thursday night, boosting Michigan to an early 1-0 lead. Blankeburg managed three shots on net in the game and finished with a +1 plus/minus total for the night.
3rd Star — Sophomore forward Garrett Van Wyhe bagged a second period goal to extend Michigan’s early Thursday lead to 2-0 and contributed his usual solid two-way play.
Other Big Ten Action
Friday: #6 Penn State 8 at Minnesota 2
Friday: #5 Notre Dame 0 at #12 Wisconsin 3
Saturday: @6 Penn State 6 at Minnesota 3
Saturday: #5 Notre Dame 5 at #12 Wisconsin 4 (OT)
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