He tried to hold back — which is usually easy for him
— but his first words made it clear: Brandon Kaleniecki
would’ve loved to be on the ice when a fight erupted at the
end of Saturday’s game against Western Michigan.

“That’s great,” the sophomore forward said of
the melee during Michigan’s 7-0 thrashing. “Well, we
don’t want to say it’s great. I think everybody on our
team would be willing to do it. But it’s good to
see.”

That’s because, although he’s only 5-foot-9, there
isn’t a more scrappy and confrontational player on the
team.

It’s a fact that may surprise opponents. Although
Kaleniecki, at 193 pounds, has plenty of weight to throw around,
opponents tend to overlook him — literally and
figuratively.

“Not being very big has its advantages,” Kaleniecki
said. “When people come at you, you’re already low to
the ground. If they come at you nonchalantly, you can hit them
pretty hard, and they aren’t expecting it.”

While he has the ability to knock a player on his back,
Kaleniecki also does something else for the team. He puts the puck
in the net.

Ten current Wolverines have been drafted by NHL teams, but
it’s Kaleniecki who leads the team in goals with 10.

His goals don’t come from one-on-one brilliance or
breathtaking speed. He leaves that to his current linemates, Milan
Gajic and T.J. Hensick. Instead, his focus is on creating
opportunities for himself and others with physical play and smart
spacing.

His three goals this weekend were scored in that fashion:
Kaleniecki hid behind unsuspecting Broncos during a line change and
got a breakaway, snuck behind a defenseman for an easy slapper and
trailed the puck expertly on an odd-man rush for a one-timer.

“He’s in the right spots at the right time all the
time,” said Andrew Ebbett, who has been Kaleniecki’s
linemate in the past. “When he lets it go, he has one of the
hardest shots on the team. He just plays simple. He just does his
job … and when he gets a chance, he buries it.”

Off the ice, Kaleniecki is very similar. He’s all
business, all the time, which is in stark contrast to his
roommates, fellow sophomores Ebbett, Al Montoya and Noah Ruden.

“He’s a pretty quiet guy,” Ebbett said.
“Montoya, Ruden and I live upstairs and he lives downstairs,
so we joke about how he keeps to himself all the time.

“We try to get him out once in a while, but he just goes
out when we wants to.”

While Kaleniecki leads the team in scoring, his goals have come
in bunches. Aside from his trio this weekend, he also had four
goals Oct. 17 against Northern Michigan.

Even though he would like to become a more consistent scorer,
his effort couldn’t be more steady.

Ebbett also wouldn’t mind if Kaleniecki scored more
consistently, because when things aren’t clicking, he’s
not as quiet as usual.

“When he’s not scoring, he gets a little
cranky.”