The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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62 THE WOLVERINE OCTOBER 2017 HOCKEY PREVIEW BOUNCING BACK ON OFFENSE Last season, the Wolverines scored just 92 goals and notched 134 as- sists — down from 171 goals and 288 assists during the 2015-16 season. Power-play goals were also down from 45 two years ago to 26. Bringing the scoring level back up is of high importance to Pearson and the Michigan staff. It goes along with his idea that the team's defense will improve the longer Michigan is on offense. "I think we have some exception- ally talented forwards," Pearson said. "Hopefully we can score a little bit more than we did last year." He also said it's important to re- member that Michigan was an ex- tremely young team last season. The Wolverines return its top five point scorers from 2016-17. Sophomore forward Jake Slaker led Michigan in points with 21 and re- turns, along with senior forward Tony Calderone, who led the team with 15 goals. They will be supplemented by sophomore forward Will Lockwood, junior forward Cooper Marody and sophomore forward Adam Winborg after the trio combined for 21 goals and 30 assists a year ago. Pearson said he expects to see ma- jor improvements from several other forwards, namely junior Brendan Warren, sophomore James Sanchez and sophomore Nick Pastujov. Pas- tujov also has a younger brother, Mi- chael, who joins the team this year. However, Michigan's most impor- tant offensive boost may come from freshman forward Josh Norris. He was drafted by the San Jose Sharks with the No. 19 overall pick in the first round of this year's NHL Draft and will have the chance to be Michi- gan's first-line center from day one. He scored 23 goals and had 28 as- sists in 52 games last season with the U-18 team in the United States Na- tional Team Development Program. Freshman forward Jack Becker is also expected to help on the offensive end, despite not coming in with the same fanfare as Norris. Becker was drafted in the seventh round (195th overall) of the 2015 NHL Draft by the Boston Bruins. He was originally committed to Michigan Tech, but switched to Michigan once Pearson took the job in Ann Arbor. Michigan is not short on NHL tal- ent at forward. In addition to Norris and Becker, Lockwood was drafted in the third round last year by the Vancouver Canucks, Nick Pastujov was taken in the seventh by the New York Islanders in 2016, Warren was drafted by the Arizona Coyotes in the third round of the 2015 draft and Marody was picked by the Philadel- phia Flyers in the sixth round in 2015. With another young group, Pear- son knows it will take time but is ex- cited to see what Michigan's offense can turn into. "You want to try to put them into positions that they can succeed at, first and foremost," Pearson said. "Then you want to encourage them and work on it in practice. Not just to shoot, but to shoot to score. "We've got to do drills to encour- age that and help that and give them confidence to score. We also have to find the right line combinations and get some chemistry going, and that's hard to manufacture." TURNING UP THE HEAT ON DEFENSE While the offense has been incon- sistent over the past two seasons, the defense has been pretty consistent — allowing the same number of goals (111) last season as the team did in 2015-16, when it won the Big Ten Tournament and reached the NCAA Midwest Regional final. Last season, Michigan opponents reached that goal total on 1,253 shots, compared to the 1,163 from the season prior. Continuing to build a strong team defense has been something Pearson has preached this summer. "In college hockey, team defense is the biggest thing bar-none, and we have two really good goalies that are going to help a lot," senior defense- man Sam Piazza said. "I think we have a phenomenal [defensive] core, but we're definitely going to need to be a lot more focused than we were last year, and that includes the for- wards, so I think we're going to be a lot better than we were last year." Piazza will be one of the leaders and said he is excited about seeing where things go under the new coaches. He also noted that he is ready to take more responsibility as a senior. In addition to Piazza, Michigan will return sophomore defenseman Luke Martin, who was selected in the sec- ond round of this year's NHL Draft by the Carolina Hurricanes (52nd overall). Senior Sam Piazza led all defensemen last season with 14 points (six goals and eight assists) and was named All-Big Ten honorable mention. PHOTO BY LON HORWEDEL