Michigan hockey sweeps Wisconsin, awaits next opponent
Michigan rallied for a 6-5 overtime win over Wisconsin Friday, getting a goal from Mackie Samoskevich with 15 seconds remaining in regulation to tie it before Steven Holtz scored the game-winner in OT. The Wolverines would need late heroics again Saturday, scoring the go-ahead goal with 2:20 remaining and adding two more for a 7-4 win.
With the two wins in the best of three series, Michigan advances to host the highest remaining seed of the OSU (3 seed) – PSU (6) and MSU (5) – ND (4) series. Both of those series advanced to game threes Saturday. Minnesota, which had a bye, will face the lowest remaining seed.
Despite the series win, Michigan didn’t play its best hockey over the weekend. The Wolverines gave up 43 shots on goal to the last place Badgers in game one and needed late heroics to win and another 40 shots Saturday. They took 23 penalty minutes to only 6 for Wisconsin Friday and had several giveaways that led to Wisconsin scoring chances and goals.
Just really excited about the way we finished the game,” interim head coach Brandon Naurato said. “Playing the way we know we can play … it’s tough to end a team’s season. We just have to be that much better. We just have to be way harder and way more physical. When we create chaos in the offensive zone and we have guys at the net, we deliver pucks instead of the extra passes and the cute plays, we’re in a good spot.”
Scoring wasn’t the issue either night, however. It was the defense that struggled. Michigan had a tough time holding leads, scoring first in both games and even taking a 3-1 lead to end the first period Saturday. The Wolverines were up 4-1 in the second period on frosh Adam Fantilli’s hat trick before getting lax and allowing three straight Badgers goals to tie it.
Captain Nolan Moyle finally put Michigan on top late before T.J. Hughes added some insurance less than a minute later. The Wolverines added an empty net goal to ice it.
“I had been out there a while so I was actually hunting the puck, thinking I was actually going for a line change, and I just kind of saw a 50-50 puck … saw an opportunity for offense, stayed out there an extra five seconds and I was fortunate enough for that to pay off,” Moyle said.
Fantilli, though, was the hero. He was all over the ice again and led the Michigan offensive effort. He was more about Moyle’s effort in the postgame than his own.
“I don’t think there was a guy on our bench that wasn’t jumping 10 feet in the air when he scored that goal,” Fantilli said. “He was so due. He had so many shots on net last night. Last night he was a beast for us. He leads us like nobody I’ve played under.
“I was so happy for him, so proud of him. I couldn’t be happier for him.”
On Friday, Holtz was the hero when his shot from the point got through nine minutes into overtime. It came four months after he had been hospitalized with that adenovirus that nearly took his life.
“So awesome. I’m super happy for him,” Naurato said. “He deserves it. There’s a perfect sight line from the bench of watching it go in, and just seeing his reaction was really special with everything he’s been through and his teammates have been through with him.”
They’ll have a chance to make even more postseason magic next weekend and beyond in the NCAA Tournament thanks in large part to his heroics.
