SOUTH BEND — Hockey is a fast-paced game, where every moment counts. So when a team breaks down — even for a split second — it can be the difference between a win and a loss. For the No. 9 Michigan hockey team Saturday, those momentary lapses kept on adding up against Notre Dame, culminating in its 7-4 loss.
“We need to match their intensity to get this win, and we didn’t really,” Michigan coach Brandon Naurato said. “And then you’re climbing back the whole game. Just individual breakdowns and not getting under a guy’s stick. Tipping it or losing a race to a spot, or getting beat off the rush or diving down. It’s not one thing, it was a lot of things.”
Even though the little things caught up to the Wolverines, there were numerous tiny mistakes that compounded and swung the game in favor of the Fighting Irish.
In the first period, Michigan earned a power play and seemed to be pressing its advantage. That was until freshman forward Michael Hage made a sloppy turnover, giving up a breakaway for Notre Dame forward Justin Janicke. Janicke exploited Hage’s mistake, as two moves with the stick was more than enough to get the puck by freshman goaltender Cameron Korpi.
Hage’s turnover wasn’t the only time the Wolverines conceded the puck at a key moment, and it wasn’t the only time they turned the puck over in the offensive zone. Those lapses of indolence prevented Michigan from earning more opportunities at the net front as the Irish were able to send the puck the other way.
“Don’t turn the puck over and just play simple,” senior defenseman Ethan Edwards said.
Even though those early struggles set the Wolverines back, it was a single stretch of 32 seconds that demonstrated their lack of intensity throughout the game. In that time, Notre Dame scored three goals, forcing Korpi out of the game. Even a goaltender change didn’t matter, as the third goal of the stretch was when graduate goaltender Logan Stein was in net.
After the first goal of this stretch, Michigan seemed to lose focus on the Irish’s skaters. The Wolverines were caught watching Notre Dame forward Brennan Ali with the puck as Janicke slipped into a zone of open space right in front of Korpi. Ali found Janicke, and there was nobody around to stop him from beating Korpi on the glove side.
The third and final goal of this stretch was quite similar, as Irish forward Danny Nelson slipped behind sophomore forward Evan Werner and freshman defenseman Hunter Hady. With no defensive support behind Werner and Hady, Nelson received a pass and had clear space for a shot, this time clanking the puck off the post and into the net past Stein.
“I was seeing red,” Naurato said.
While Naurato was seeing red, Notre Dame saw its pot of gold. And due to Michigan’s mistakes and breakdowns, the Irish were able to reach the end of the rainbow. The Wolverines never caught up, and walked out of Compton Family Ice Arena all blue.
