'Could have gone either way,' but Michigan hockey's Frozen Four woes are baffling

Michigan hockey has made the Frozen Four eight times since winning the National Championship in 1998. They’ve lost in the semifinals seven of them, proving how hard it is to capture a title no matter how talented you are.

RELATED: Michigan hockey falls again in the Frozen Four, losing 5-2 to Quinnipiac

This year’s team was one of the youngest, but there was talent all over the ice. Quinnipiac, though, wasn’t daunted, sticking with its game plan for a 5-2 victory.

“We talked a lot about their high-end talent, their 27 draft picks, whatever they have, and how we needed to defend in waves,” Bobcats coach Rand Pecknold said. “And just … we’re going to get beat. It’s going to happen. We’ve got to have that second wave there and third wave there. We talked a lot about how to defend [defenseman Luke Hughes].”

“They were run and gun,” Quinnipiac forward Zach Metsa added. “They love to try to make plays one-on-one and create offense. When we can turn that around and bring it right back down their throats, we always talk about playing north, playing with pace. That’s kind of the result of that.”

And it showed. The Wolverines had a tough time solving the Bobcats’ 1-3-1 defensive approach and generating chances in the first period. They also hit 2 or 3 posts in the game — an inch here, an inch there and it might have been a different result.

But that’s collegiate playoff hockey. It’s one and done, and bad bounces or a hot goalie can end the season. That’s the way it’s been too often for this program in the last few decades. At some point, you think it would even out.

It hasn’t yet.

“It’s just one game. It’s tough,” Michigan first-year coach Brandon Naurato said. “It’s a crazy stat, but if you look through all those games, it’s not one thing holding Michigan back from winning that game.”

Thursday, Quinnipiac got a number of elite chances with odd-man rushes, etc., but scored 3 of its 4 goals on Michigan junior goaltender Erik Portillo (the 5th was empty net) somewhat unexpectedly. Two of them were ricochets off Portillo from behind the net when he failed to recover and find the post.

“Just a bad bounce,” Naurato said, refusing to throw his netminder under the bus.

And he shouldn’t have. As Pecknold said, the Bobcats had several opportunities to take bigger leads, but Portillo was outstanding at times, stopping a few breakaways and even a 2-0 with an incredible sprawling save.

At the same time, three of the goals probably shouldn’t have been. Portillo was caught off guard on the fourth goal with 7:00 remaining that put Michigan in desperation mode, and the two ricochets weren’t exactly surprising to the Quinnipiac players.

“That was obviously on the pre-scout,” forward Sam Lipkin said. “He’s big — aggressive. Portillo is a really good goalie. But the big thing for us was get pucks on net, create traffic, and we were fortunate to get two. And they were two pretty big goals for us.”

To say the least.

But there was nothing fluky about their win. They executed their game plan beautifully with a veteran team and played with confidence throughout.

Not many gave them a chance, Pecknold said, but they knew what they needed to do to win.

“We had to take away time and space,” he said. “It’s a lot easier to defend Hughes and [frosh Adam] Fantilli when they don’t have the puck, because once they get it you’re in trouble. So we tried to do that.

“The biggest thing we stressed this week was we had to have the puck. We had to have the puck. Again, we weren’t perfect, but I thought and we had it a lot.”

And again, it took some outstanding saves from Portillo to keep Michigan close. It was 2-2 at the end of the second period and Michigan was buzzing before Quinnipiac scored on its second banked shot.

“I was talking to the rest of the coaches after the game — I wouldn’t have changed any of our preparation leading into it,” Naurato said. “Quinnipiac is a great team, and we have respect for them. They did a great job tonight.

“But that could have gone either way. Two goals from behind the net and one from the top of the circles in the board … it is what it is. That’s why it’s so hard to win a national championship. It’s one game.”

The guys coming back know the expectations now, Naurato said in thanking the seniors for what they’d done for the program. There’s a good chance they could be back in this position next year with added experience.

“Our goal is to win the national championship,” the Michigan coach added. “We didn’t. But we won this season. We won in a lot of ways this season.”

Just not on the ice when it mattered most.