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The No. 10 Michigan hockey team hasn’t necessarily struggled on offense thus far this season, but it hasn’t been as productive as it would like either.
Recently, it’s taken time for the Wolverines to get in rhythm offensively, scoring just one goal before the third period in all of their last three games. Their offense has penetrated opponents’ defensive zones, but has often failed to take advantage of high-quality shot opportunities. On Saturday, this was on full display.
In its 4-0 loss to No. 13 St. Cloud State, Michigan was nearly dead even with the Huskies in total shots and was not at all lacking in quality offensive chances. In fact, coach Brandon Naurato thought the Wolverines were even stronger Saturday than in their 3-0 victory the day before.
“I actually thought we played better than we did yesterday,” Naurato said Saturday. “… We had a lot of good chances. I thought we spent a lot of time in the O-zone. I’d like to see the numbers of how we out-chanced them…”
Those numbers proved Naurato right. Despite the loss, Michigan had almost doubled St. Cloud State’s offensive zone possession time and produced 13 high-danger chances to the Huskies’ seven — better performances in both areas than in Friday’s win.
The chances are clearly there for the taking, but the Wolverines just haven’t been able to convert. Part of it, at least in Michigan’s mind, has been simple puck luck. It’s hard to score any goal in hockey, even on the best of chances. But in the long run, skill often wins out over randomness.
Saturday wasn’t the first time that seemingly every chance was going awry for the Wolverines. In the season opener against Minnesota State, the first two periods of its first game against Arizona State and even early on in Friday’s victory, Michigan seemed to just be getting unlucky.
“(The St. Cloud State) goalie did make a couple good saves, but some of them were just sitting there,” junior forward T.J. Hughes said postgame Saturday. “Just didn’t get the bounces tonight. Didn’t really get them last night either.”
The Wolverines may not be getting every bounce to go their way so far, but there’s another reason that they haven’t been as productive as they’d like to be on offense: Only two players have proven themselves as consistent goal-scorers so far.
Freshman forward Michael Hage and sophomore forward Garrett Schifsky have accounted for nine of the team’s 16 goals through six games, with no other player having more than one non-empty net goal.
Hughes, himself, is scoreless so far, despite scoring 19 goals a season ago and being one of few proven returning players on Michigan’s roster. Already three weeks into the year, both he and all the other Wolverines looking to contribute may be getting impatient.
“It definitely gets frustrating,” junior forward Jackson Hallum said Saturday. “… But you know, it’s gonna happen. If we want to be a great team, we just got to battle through that.”
Michigan’s offense has shown potential thus far, but in order to reach its goals, faster starts and a longer list of goal-scorers are in order. The Wolverines will also need their bad luck — if it is luck, indeed — to turn.
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