\n\t\t<\/aside>\nJust five minutes into the first period, the Wolverines had already racked up seven shots. Michigan crowded into every corner of the offensive zone, as shots rained in from the left, the rear center and behind the net. The Lakers\u2019 initially tight defensive structure forced the Wolverines out onto the perimeter and closer to the boards. But Michigan maintained its positioning in the zone, making it only a matter of time before the dam broke.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Seven minutes in, it did break. But the breakthrough goal wasn\u2019t a deflection off a manic sequence of shots, as the high pressure suggested, but rather, a moment where the Wolverines slowed the game down. Freshman forward Adam Valentini carried a loose puck from behind the net, then laid it off to freshman defenseman Henry Mews in the rear center of the zone. Mews then found sophomore forward Michael Hage in the left of the zone. Hage fired, and sophomore forward Will Horcoff poked the puck in from the edge of the net and gave Michigan the lead.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was a goal that exemplified the Wolverines\u2019 strategy for finding the net all game. Valentini, Mews, Hage and Horcoff all occupied the spots in the zone and made it easier for them to put together the passing sequence that created the goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Michigan was in control of the pace of the game \u2014 it could speed it up by applying pressure, or it could slow it down with meticulous passing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just want to create space for each other,\u201d junior forward Garrett Schifsky said. \u201cMake those inside plays and provide support for each guy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\nFor the rest of the first period, the Wolverines continued to press and create shots, but were unable to break through with another goal. But in the second period, after sophomore defenseman Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen let it rip from distance to extend the lead to 2-0, freshman forward Cole McKinney\u2019s goal that put Michigan up 3-0 with 11 minutes left was more reflective of the approach that had characterized the first goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Junior defenseman Ben Robertson found Valentini behind the net, and Valentini merely had to dink it to a lurking McKinney, whose light tap was enough for the goal. Robertson, Valentini and McKinney had pressed all the way up to the net, and had set themselves up for a quick sequence of passing, similar to that of the first goal.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always two guys on the inside with a third crashing the net,\u201d Naurato said. \u201c\u2026 We always want to outnumber at the net and outnumber on retrievals.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the third, the Wolverines stuck to the script. With eight minutes left, Michigan \u2014 with five men pressing the goal \u2014 chained together a five-pass sequence that culminated in Horcoff\u2019s second and Michigan\u2019s fourth.<\/p>\n
And as freshman defenseman Matthew Mania put the finishing touches on the game with the seventh goal and wheeled away to his teammates for the customary embrace, it was an image reflective of just how Michigan had won the game. By using its teamwork to both press and pass as a unit, the Wolverines controlled the tempo of the game and rubber-stamped a dominant victory.<\/p>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n\n\t\t<\/aside>\n
Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 11-1 drubbing the No. 12 Michigan hockey team handed Mercyhurst on the opening night of the season apparently wasn\u2019t enough to satiate the Wolverines\u2019 hunger for goals.\u00a0 On Saturday night, Michigan relentlessly sieged the Lakers\u2019 offensive zone, hoping to pounce on an errant puck. The 51 shots the Wolverines racked up point to their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3024,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[3097,3151,3145,222,3150,1832],"class_list":{"0":"post-3023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-blends","9":"tag-drubbing","10":"tag-mercyhurst","11":"tag-michigan","12":"tag-patience","13":"tag-pressure"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3023"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3023\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3025,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3023\/revisions\/3025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}