DETROIT — With four goals from the line of Zach Hyman, Dylan Larkin and Justin Selman, Michigan beat Wisconsin 5-1 on Thursday to advance to Friday night’s Big Ten semifinal game against second seed Michigan State.
“First of all, I didn’t think it was a 5-1 game,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson. “Particularly in the first half of the third period, after they got their goal, I thought Wisconsin really turned it up. [Steve] Racine held up and our team held up and we got the opportunities for the goals later on.
[scg_html_b1g2015]”We were fortunate. I thought we were opportunistic. I thought our goalie played well. Our forwards played well and so it was a good team effort.”
The Wolverines led 3-0 after two periods on two goals by Hyman and one by Andrew Sinelli, but even then Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves said that the Badgers felt like they were still in it.
“We got our shots up,” said Eaves, “we got our scoring chances up, there were a couple of pucks in the second period — one hit the crossbar, one hit the post — so we were hanging around at 3-0 and then we make it 3-1, and there was hope.”
At 9:14, Jedd Soleway scored for Wisconsin to make it a 3-1 game, and the Badgers had a reason for optimism a few minutes later when Michigan’s Andrew Sinelli and Michael Downing had overlapping penalties, giving Wisconsin 1:03 of a two-man advantage.
“There was actual hope and then we get that five-on-three,” said Eaves. “Grant Besse breaks his stick and we do a couple of things where we don’t set it up as well as we would like to. Loved the spirit, but the execution … was a little off.”
Hyman, who earlier in the day was named one of 10 finalists for the Hobey Baker Award, started the scoring on the power play at 14:45 in the first, tipping in a shot from Larkin.
Sinelli’s goal — a fluke that hit his stick and fluttered over Wisconsin goaltender Joel Rumpel’s glove — gave the Wolverines a 2-0 lead at 2:05 in the second, and then Hyman had a fluky goal of his own at 4:48 to put Michigan up 3-0.
Cutler Martin took a shot from the left point and the puck hit Hyman’s stick and wound up in the back of the net. Play continued at first until Larkin motioned as though he were calling a goal, getting the attention of the official and stopping play.
During Wisconsin’s two-man advantage in the third, the Wolverines generated a breakaway opportunity after a faceoff and blocked the Badgers’ shooting lanes when Wisconsin did have the puck in the Michigan end.
Larkin’s goal at 14:23 was an end-to-end effort that resulted in scoring on the short side from the bottom of the left circle, and Selman’s goal at 17:39 — assisted by both of his linemates — put the game away for Michigan.
“It’s always tough at the end of the season,” said Eaves, “especially for our six seniors.”
[photoshelter-gallery g_id=”G00009nfa607sFYo” g_name=”20150319-Wisconsin-Michigan-LRadloff” f_show_caption=”t” f_show_slidenum=”t” img_title=”casc” pho_credit=”iptc” f_link=”t” f_bbar=”t” fsvis=”f” width=”500″ height=”375″ bgcolor=”#AAAAAA” bgtrans=”t” btype=”old” bcolor=”#CCCCCC” crop=”f” trans=”xfade” tbs=”4000″ f_ap=”t” linkdest=”c” f_fullscreen=”f” f_constrain=”f” twoup=”f” f_topbar=”f” f_bbarbig=”” f_htmllinks=”f” f_enable_embed_btn=”f” f_show_watermark=”f” f_send_to_friend_btn=”f” f_smooth=”f” f_mtrx=”f” f_up=”f” target=”_self” wmds=”llQ6QNgpeC.p1Ucz7U.f22Fa3haIQPZPFLtSGR8UQb0XKkGpDmd3EN2nwpyvZ2WtLyANkw–” ]With just four wins on the season, Wisconsin (4-26-5) finished the 2014-15 campaign with a program-record 26 losses.
The Wolverines (21-14) face off Friday night against a team they split with last weekend, Michigan State. The Spartans won the final regular season Big Ten match between the squads 2-1 in Michigan’s home rink.
“Playing State and what happened to us last week,” said Hyman, “we still have that bitter taste in our mouths. We’re going to be ready to play tomorrow. There’s no bigger game than that. We’re going to get up for that.”
