This is the fourth of four previews for teams playing in the 2023 NCAA Men’s Frozen Four this week in Tampa, Fla. Click here for all of USCHO’s Frozen Four coverage.
Michigan Wolverines
Season record: 26-11-3
How they got to Tampa: Won the Allentown Regional, beating Colgate 11-1 and Penn State 2-1 (OT).
Top players: F Adam Fantilli (29-35-64), F Mackie Samoskevich (20-23-43), F Rutger McGroarty (18-20-38), F Dylan Duke (18-14-32), D Luke Hughes (10-37-47).
Top goalie: Erik Portillo (25-10-3, 2.97 goals-against average, .909 save percentage).
Why they’ll win the national championship: It’s hard to imagine a more dynamic, entertaining team in college hockey right now than Michigan. The Wolverines have talent to spare and have steadily improved this season to be playing their best hockey of the year right now. They gained confidence in Allentown and feel united against the world.
Why they won’t the national championship: There’s a fine line between a team feeling united against the world and having a chip on its collective shoulder. The latter is a trap against which Michigan needs to guard. The Wolverines are the third-most penalized team in the nation and have been known to lose their cool — dangerous for a team with the 52nd-best penalty kill nationally. Michigan outscored a lot of its mistakes this season. It will not be able to do that in Tampa.
More than any team in this field, the Wolverines are dependent on youth.
While Minnesota has the Big Ten scoring champs in freshmen Logan Cooley and Jimmy Snuggerud, the Wolverines have Adam Fantilli, who leads everyone in the nation with his 1.83 points per game and 64 overall points this season.
Additionally, the depth of Michigan’s scoring is young. Of the Wolverines’ top nine scorers, six are freshmen and two are sophomores. Of those top nine, three are first-round NHL draft picks, three more were drafted in later rounds, and two — Fantilli and Gavin Brindley — are draft eligible this season. Fantilli is projected to go as high as No. 1 overall.
The only player among Michigan’s top nine destined for free agency is 21-year-old forward T.J. Hughes, a freshman with 13 goals.
“It’s great to get talented players,” said Brandon Naurato, Michigan’s first-year coach who had the interim tag stripped from his title on Friday. “We want the right type of player.”
The amount of young talent on Michigan’s roster has made for an entertaining and uneven season. After their first 14 conference games, the Wolverines were in sixth place in the Big Ten, and it wasn’t until mid-February that Michigan ascended to second place behind Minnesota in the conference standings. In March, the Wolverines capped their crazy Big Ten rise by beating the Golden Gophers on the road for the conference playoff title.
Naurato, who spent several seasons as a player development consultant with the Detroit Red Wings before being hired as a Michigan assistant coach in 2021-22, understands that it takes more than talent to get a team to the Frozen Four.
“Not all talented players or NHL draft picks or first-rounders are doing what our kids are doing,” said Naurato. “They’re getting better.
“Just because you have talent doesn’t mean that you have success as a team or individually. These guys want to do it for their teammates, for Michigan, and then kids are getting better every single day.”
One of the ways in which they’ve improved in recent weeks is learning to play from behind and to win tight games. In their 4-3 win over Minnesota in the Big Ten championship game, Michigan fell behind 1-0 after the first period and had to come from behind again in the third to win.
After beating Colgate 11-1 to advance to the title game against Penn State in Allentown, the Wolverines beat the Nittany Lions 2-1 in overtime to advance to the Frozen Four. Michigan entered the third period down 1-0 on a Penn State power-play goal, tied the game when Fantilli scored late in the third and won on Mackie Samoskevich’s goal 52 seconds into OT.
In both title contests, the Wolverines — who average more than 16 minutes of penalties per game — kept their cool, taking two penalties against the Gophers and one against the Nittany Lions.
“I think we’ve built some more confidence in our team that we can win tight games when it doesn’t go in the back of the net,” said Naurato. “Just gaining more confidence, whether it’s 2-1 or 7-6 and there’s a lot of penalties or very few, we can play any style of game.”
Naurato called his team “super, super tight” and said that he trusts the progress all the Wolverines have made this season. That the Wolverines are making their second straight Frozen Four appearance is an advantage, as veteran players can share their perspective with the many Michigan newcomers.
“Our senior class and our leadership group has done an unbelievable job of bringing this group together from day one and gaining the trust and respect from the freshmen,” said Naurato.
“You hope through some experience of success and failure throughout the regular season and playoffs that we’ve experienced enough to be ready to do something going into this event.”
