Vasher's Five Help Michigan Grind Out 1st Round Win

May 12, 2009

Game Story

Boxscore

Notes

● Junior faceoff specialist David Reinhard (East Lansing, Mich./East Lansing) finished 13 of 19 and scooped up a team-high nine groundballs to increase his team lead to 182.  Freshman Edward Ernst (Washington, D.C./Sidwell Friends) lost his lone attempt.

● Reinhard now holds the Wolverine single-season record with 182.  Former Wolverine David Silverman held the previous record of 159.

● Vasher paced the team in goals with five.

● Today's game marks the first time Yealy has failed to score more than one goal in a game and also marks the second lowest team scoring output of the season with 11 goals.  The low is seven vs. UC-Santa Barbara on February 25.     

● A total of six Wolverines scored in the contest. 

● Michigan improves to 3-0 all-time vs. Texas. 

● Sophomore goaltender Mark Stone (Greenwood Village, Colo./Cherry Creek) started the game and played the first three quarters recording six saves while allowing four goals.  Fellow sophomore Andrew Fowler (Grosse Pointe, Mich./Hotchkiss, CT) played the final quarter, and stopped five shots while only allowing one goal. 

● With the win, the Wolverines increased their consecutive victories record, notching their 37^th straight win.  The squad is also on a 21-game road winning streak spanning back to an 8-5 victory over UC-Santa Barbara on May 5 of 2006.

● The Wolverines are 3-2 all-time vs. Sonoma State, and won their last matchup, a consolation game in the 2006 MCLA National Championship tournament, by a score of 12-10.

Quotes

Head Coach John Paul

On his general impressions:  "I don’t know whether it was anxiety or feeling a little pressure but we came out without the speed and intensity we usually play with and without the focus we need to have.  Fortunately we put enough together in that third quarter to put a little separation between us, and we started to play the way we know we can play."

On the focus issues:  "We were making a lot of mental mistakes and doing things we haven't been doing in weeks.  We stressed some things for this game against Texas and the guys just weren't executing the game-plan at all.  We would bring them into timeouts and reinforce a couple key points and they would just go out and make the same mistake again.  Hopefully this will be a good lesson and we'll come out better tomorrow.  The guys understand what they have to correct and we should look a lot better."

On the windy conditions:  "Both teams have to deal with that stuff and it shouldn't make a big difference.  We played through worse conditions against Michigan State and we had a much better offensive day.  Ultimately our problem today was just a lack of focus."

On the third-quarter ride:  "We rode very well in the third quarter and dominated possession, and that's always a major factor.  We've been stressing the third quarter all season and although we got started a little slow there, you could see us building.  If we do the little things like ground balls, facing off, and riding, the opportunities are going to pile up and things are going to start to go our way."

On taking a positive out of the game:  "Although you never want to play poorly, maybe we learned a little lesson today without having to learn it the hard way.  It doesn't hurt to get a little wake-up call.  The lesson is that if you try to do more than you're supposed to do, or something different than what we coached them to do, it's just not going to work as well.  Ultimately, the biggest positive is that we won."

On the Sonoma State matchup:  "We'll watch film for them and get that game-plan set tonight.  They work very hard like we do, and they have a couple solid attackman and some very skilled defenders.  They've always had a blue collar reputation, and that was indicative of the way they won tonight.  They have enough talent out there to present some problems, but that said, I think we match-up well against them and if we execute the basic things we do well, we'll have a good chance of success."

Senior Midfielder Peter Vasher

On his impressions:  "I think we came out a little flat early there.  We got there and had to sit around for a bit and I think our usual routine was a little off and the flow just wasn't there.  We never got settled early on that was a problem throughout."

On the balance of the scoring:  "Even though it was an ugly win it goes to show you the kind of balanced offense we have.  Even though Yealy wasn't scoring eight goals and Zorovich didn't drop six assists, it shows you that we can score from a lot of different angles.  You can't shut down one player on this team and expect to have success. 

On his success from the right side today: "I usually like to go both ways but that right-side alley was working well for me today and I felt comfortable.  I think it was more of a coincidence than anything though because I do like sweeping with the left.  I'll take the success though."

Junior Defenseman Bob Diehl

On his mindset coming into the season:  "Coming in I knew it was going to be hard getting playing time with the seniors we had coming back and young guys like Harry playing extremely well.  My goal was to never let my level of play be affected by how much I was getting in.  I wanted coach to understand that if he needed to call on me at any point, I'd be ready.  We had a couple of guys go down throughout the year and I was able to get a bit more time and that really helped my confidence."

On winning ugly:  "If you were to look at the stat-sheet tonight and see all those turnovers, and the lack of goals, you would say it was an ugly game.  But we're good at winning ugly games because we always do the little things out there and we always out-work our opponent.  If the offense isn't as crisp as it could be, or if we're struggling on defense, we can always take advantage of doing those little things like scooping up the groundballs, riding hard and winning the faceoffs.  We take a lot of pride in that."

On staying sharp despite seeing little action:  "We've had to deal with that all year.  With Reinhard winning the majority of the faceoffs, and the offense maintaining possession like they can do, there are a lot of stretches where we don't see much action back there.  Coach does a great job of calling us in and keeping us focused and the communication between the guys is essential to staying sharp and not falling asleep."   

Contact:  Joe Hennessy - jjhennes@umich.edu - 734-276-8493