How Wolverines Advanced to Big Ten Hockey Championship Game at Minnesota

'First-Round Line' provides the scoring in 2-1 win over a Notre Dame team that had swept all four regular season games from Michigan.

The Wolverines pile on goalie Erik Portillo and the net after the big victory at Yost.

Photo Courtesy of University of Michigan Photography

By Steve Kornacki

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – The Wolverines’ “First-Round Line” of center Matty Beniers and wingers Kent Johnson and Brendan Brisson supplied the goals Saturday night in a 2-1 win over Notre Dame in the Big Ten Tournament semi-final against a team that had taken Michigan all four times in the regular season.

Brisson, first-round pick of the Las Vegas Knights in 2020, scored the deciding goal.

Beniers, the No. 2 overall pick by the Seattle Kraken in 2021, scored the game’s first goal.

Johnson, the No. 5 overall pick by the Columbus Blue Jackets last year, was instrumental in setting up Brisson’s tally.

“Hero Line” also has been mentioned for these difference-makers, and so I asked Wolverine coach Mel Pearson what he calls them.

“We don’t have nicknames,” Pearson said with a grin. “Maybe we should have a contest. Maybe Kristy (McNeil, team communications director) can do a poll this week and see if we can come up with a line. I don’t know, they’re just good.

“But when they play, and they play together, with the chemistry they have, they can be dangerous.”

So, Michigan (28-9-1), after losing four games to the Fighting Irish (including two in overtime) by a combined score of 14-8, won the one game that mattered most.

Notre Dame (27-11), which finished third in the conference behind the second-place Wolverines, won games two weekends ago in South Bend by blocking a plethora of shots in 4-1 and 2-1 victories.

Those losses bothered Pearson, who set the tone for his team by saying those defeats must be atoned for – even if his wife, Susie, questioned his logic.

“We wanted the opportunity to play them again,” stressed Pearson. “When we left there, it was not a good feeling a couple weeks ago. Our team was upset; the staff was upset. Everybody was upset. They rubbed our noses in it a little bit down there. So, it left a real bad taste with us, and we were happy to get ‘em.

“My wife thought I was crazy. She goes, ‘Why do you want them? You haven’t beaten them. You’re 0-4.’ And I said, ‘Honey, we want them.’ They’re a really good team, but you want to play those teams leading up to the (NCAA) tournament.”

Brisson spoke for the players: “When we found out we were going to play them, we were pumped. It was a one-game series, and we just had to play hard, physical and get to the net and capitalize on our chances against a really good defensive team. And that was what we did tonight.”

The Irish also blocked 26 shots in this one, but Michigan did put 31 shots on net and two got past goalie Matthew Galajda.

The play of the three first-rounders and recent Olympians provided the necessary offensive firepower, while Wolverine goalie Erik Portillo stopped 19 of 20 shots and his defense came up big in front of him. Forwards Mark Estapa and Johnny Beecher – another NHL first-rounder by the Boston Bruins – lowered teeth-rattling hits that let it be known Michigan was coming hard both on defense and offense.

“I think we played an awesome team game – defense, offense and everywhere on the ice,” said Beniers. “I give a lot of credit to the coaches, and a lot of credit to the boys for buying in.”

And, so, Michigan will play for the Big Ten championship next Saturday night (March 19) at Minnesota against the regular season champions. The Golden Gophers beat Penn State, 3-2, this Saturday night (March 12) to advance. The Wolverines and Minnesota split four regular season games.

Brisson’s 18th goal of the season at 3:59 of the third period was the difference.

Beniers fed Brisson from behind the net, and he beat Galajda with a shot to the left side of the net. Defenseman Jacob Truscott fought for the puck along the boards behind the net and fed Beniers to get the play going and also earned an assist.

Truscott, a sophomore from Port Huron who as drafted in the fifth round in 2020 by the Vancouver Canucks, is one of the unsung heroes on a team crammed full of flat-out heroes.

Michigan’s first goal early in the second period was a thing of passing beauty.

Johnson gathered the puck right on the Block M at center ice and glided down the right wing, leaving the puck for Beniers inside the blue line. Beniers took it toward the goal before flicking a pass to Brisson, cruising in from the left.

Brisson almost immediately flicked the puck back to Beniers, now on the goal’s doorstep. Beniers didn’t miss a half-open net as Galajda went to his far right to counter the shot he anticipated from Brisson, and the 5,800 packed into Yost Ice Arena went into a complete and total frenzy.

“You could see the creativeness and the skill on that goal,” said Pearson on what was the team-leading 19th for Beniers. “They can make you pay.”

Beniers was ecstatic about the goal.

“It was awesome,” he said. “I thought our line was playing great tonight. We had a lot of chances, firing the puck on the net. Every time I came back to the net, I was saying, ‘It’s coming. It’s coming.’ ”

And when that first goal came, it was a scene of pure joy.

However, Notre Dame tied it midway through the second period on a goal by Detroit Red Wings draft pick Jack Adams, 25, who is quite a story. Detroit took the player Fighting Irish coach Jeff Jackson lovingly refers to as “Grandpa” in the sixth round way back in 2017, and after stints at Union and Providence while circumventing COVID shut-downs, Adams landed this year in South Bend as a graduate student.

But Michigan found a way to win this one after those four losses to the Irish, and the scoring came from a line that features elite skill, grace, quickness, speed and firepower.

“I’m not sure if any other team has that combination of players on one line,” said Beniers. “Playing with Briss and Kent is awesome. It’s a lot of fun to play with skilled players, and we’re also selfless. We got a lot of momentum going today.”

Brisson added, “Playing with them is really amazing, and you don’t get to get that anywhere if you don’t come to Michigan. And we all really work well together. They just have so much speed and skill that it works with my game, and I feel like all our strengths work really well together.

“We’ll just keep going, keep shooting pucks and hopefully keep scoring goals for our team down the road.”