denver

Pain [David Wilcomes]

Alex.Drain • April 11, 2022 • 1:15pm

4/7/2022 – Denver 3, Michigan 2 (OT) – 31-10-1, Season Over

They call the sort of overtime that is played in the NCAA Hockey Tournament "sudden death". The moniker makes logical sense- when a goal is scored, the game is suddenly over and the team that loses has died the "sudden death". That is the sort of death that the 2021-22 Michigan Hockey team suffered at the Frozen Four in Boston, losing on a Carter Savoie overtime "sudden death" winner against Denver. It came suddenly indeed, on a play that started as a mistake, with two Wolverines overskating a loose puck waiting to be cleared from the zone, before the Pioneers seized it and quickly turned it into a dangerous pass and then a goal. It was a quick departure from an overtime period that Michigan had largely controlled play in, and that's where the sudden nature is valid.

But at the same time, the death that this hockey team died was not completely sudden. In some ways, it was slow. The slow death march of sorts began when the team took the ice for the opening puck drop and were completely devoid of energy. Throughout the first period, one could have said Michigan was as flat as the Iowa landscape. They were outplayed by Denver handily in the opening frame and though they had better second and third periods, Michigan was the lesser team in the entire sixty minutes of regulation. They amassed far fewer shots on net and scoring opportunities than Denver, using the magic of Erik Portillo and a pair of fortunate bounces to keep the game even and push it to the extra session.

That sensation of never leading, frequently being on their heels, and struggling to keep up made it feel like Michigan was dying a slow death. Outside of two good looks in the overtime period, there were few moments where the fan pulse indicated that the Maize & Blue were going to actually come out of the game victorious. As the seconds rolled away, it merely felt like we were getting closer to finding out when the true moment of death would be. The Savoie overtime goal was just the final blow that sealed the slow death known as a lackluster performance in the biggest game of the season. From that view, it wasn't so sudden, but rather the final punctuation that made your author think "yeah, that seems right".

[David Wilcomes]

Moreover, one, particularly someone with a longer sense of fandom for Michigan Hockey, may be able to argue that the slow death began when Michigan got to overtime in the first place, because NCAA Tournament overtimes have been downright disastrous for the Wolverines over the past two decades. Especially those taking place in the Regional Final or later. Starting with the 2003 season, Michigan is 0-6 in overtime games taking place in that round of the tournament or lataer. They also lost a game to Notre Dame in the Frozen Four in 2018 in the dwindling seconds of regulation, which at that point is essentially overtime, and were also stunningly upset in the first round of the 2009 tournament in overtime by Air Force. The only redeeming moments in that span are a pair of OT wins in the first round in 2011 and 2016.

Getting to overtime in a round like the Frozen Four meant that to the most snakebitten of fans, the slow death began at that moment. We were doomed the moment the puck dropped on the extra session and the only sudden element of the death was the goal that put us out of our misery. Perhaps this was a particularly cynical view, but for the diehard Michigan Hockey fans, this was a mindset inhabited the moment overtime began.

That is the nature of a loss with so many doom-related factors: a poor showing in regulation casting an ominous sense of failure, only to be tossed the dual-sided bone of hope and also hopelessness called overtime. The slow death began when we saw the performance the team put on in regulation, then continued when we started to realize the only way for *Michigan* to win the game was *overtime in a Frozen Four*, before a quick mirage of aspiration when Luke Hughes rushed down the ice on a 2 on 1, followed by the dashing of said mirage when the puck wound up in the chest of Magnus Chrona, and finally brought home by the Savoie goal. At that moment, as Erik Portillo stared down into the ice while experiencing the agony of defeat, it was full circle. The slow and sudden nature of this cruel death had converged, and the season was over. The torture of the Frozen Four, and overtime in that round, lives on.

[AFTER THE JUMP: Making peace with the end]

The season comes down to this [David Wilcomes]

Hockey Preview: Denver, Frozen Four

Alex.Drain • April 7, 2022 • 12:08pm

ESSENTIALS

WHAT	#1 (1) Michigan vs #1 (4) Denver
WHERE	TD Garden Boston, MA
WHEN	5:00 PM EST
KRACH Prob.	Michigan (62.0%)
TELEVISION	ESPN2

OVERVIEW

The final weekend of the college hockey season is here and Michigan is still standing. The Wolverines made it through the testy Allentown Regional and booked their tickets to the Frozen Four, where they will meet the winners of the Loveland Regional, the Denver Pioneers. Two #1 seeds meet in the first of two semifinal games tonight at the TD Garden in Boston, and it figures to be an explosive battle of two high-powered offenses.

[David Wilcomes]

THE US

Michigan arrives in Boston after a healthy layoff following the heart-stopping Quinnipiac game in the regional final. The Wolverines have plenty to work on after a leaky defensive effort against the Bobcats, and I'm wondering whether the defensive pairings change tonight. The Nick Blankenburg-Ethan Edwards duo in particular looked very rough in that game, and we shall see if Mel Pearson decides to go back to the Owen Power-Blankenburg top pair, or if he sticks with this configuration. I'd expect the forward lines to stay the same, the Brisson/Beniers/Johnson line at the top, followed by the Bordeleau line, the Beecher line, and then the GVW line. When you score 12 goals in two NCAA Tournament games, it likely means the forwards aren't changing.

Erik Portillo will get the start, as has been the case in every game this season. His numbers took a bit of a hit after giving up seven total goals in the two games a couple weekends ago, but anyone who watched those games knows it was far from his fault. He has been excellent this season and is arguably Michigan's biggest advantage over the Pioneers.

[AFTER THE JUMP: Meet the Pioneers]

Puck Preview: Denver

Brian •

Ah, hell, let's do the whole regional.

BONUS CORNELL CONTENT: check out MGoUser ecormany's scouting report of the Big Red. He's a Cornell season ticket holder. Also kdrake offers some impressions from the Cornell-CC series.

The Essentials

WHAT	Michigan vs Denver(?)
WHERE	Green Bay, heart of the CCHA
WHEN	9:30 Eastern Saturday
LINE	College hockey lines, junkie?
TV	ESPNU/ESPN3

It's a pioneer. It is also Sinbad. This description is not about his comedy, obviously. It's about how he played basketball at Denver with a silly looking afro.

Denver

Record. 25-13-4, 16-8-4 WCHA. I'm not sure how a WCHA team with that record falls to a three seed, but that's Ferris State's problem before we can complain about it. FWIW, KRACH is in near-lockstep with the Pairwise when it comes to ranking Ferris and Denver.

The Pioneers finished third in the WCHA—a game and a half ahead of streaking one-seed North Dakota—with a +17 goal differential. After beating Wisconsin in three games to open the WCHA playoffs they won OT games against Michigan Tech and UMD, the second in double OT, before getting clubbed by North Dakota in the final 4-0. Take that with a grain of salt. By the end of that game Denver was down to three defensemen one night after going to double OT.

In keeping with the regional's ALL THE OVERTIMES theme, three of Denver's last four games have been playoff OTs. Michigan is coming off consecutive weekends with playoff double OTs. Ferris State got bounced by Bowling Green thanks to two overtime losses two weeks ago. And ten of Cornell's last 21 games have gone to OT. Prepare for fetal position hockey this weekend.

Outside of the league, Denver had one very impressive win and one bizarre loss. They beat BC in Boston to open the year, then lost to BU the next night. They beat Princeton in late November, then lost to Miami. They beat eventual one-seed Union 3-1 and smoked Air Force 7-1. They hosted Alabama-Huntsville… and split, giving the Chargers one of their two wins on the year.

Previous meetings. None. How about…

Common opponents. Both teams have wins against BC. Michigan, of course, got clubbed by Union at the tail end of their November fail; Denver beat them. Michigan went 2-1-1 against the Redhawks Denver lost to, and Michigan swept Denver's first round opponent. Denver will obviously be 1-0 against Ferris if this preview becomes relevant.

Dangermen. This is hard to judge given Denver's extensive but murky injury issues:

DU coach George Gwozdecky on Sunday said his six injured players — forwards Jason Zucker, Chris Knowlton and Beau Bennett, and defensemen Paul Phillips, Josiah Didier and David Makowski — are all “day-to-day” and questionable for Friday’s NCAA Tournament opener against Ferris State.

The Denver Post's Mike Chambers guesses that Zucker and Didier will be fine, Bennett will return, and that Makowski will play but only on the power play. Bennett and Makowski have been out since December; Zucker and Didier picked up injuries in the WCHA title game.

As a result of the injuries, Denver fans are feeling a bit of pessimism. One emailer:

I've see a few of their games this year and I am not holding my breath for this team to go deep in the tournament. The scoring dries up at times and the defensemen had issues clearing the puck earlier in the season. More than likely the goalie won't be determined until the day before and they both are pretty solid (either Brittain or Olkinuora). The Shore brothers and Zucker are the biggest scorers on the team, so losing Zucker would hurt if he can't play. Philips is a solid defensemen, but he might be out as well. This team is kind of wounded right now and young.

Thanks
Brandon

Uncertainty aside, this team has some elite scorers on it the likes of which have ceased to exist in the CCHA. If Denver fans think their team sees scoring dry up they'd be appalled by the CCHA: Denver is 9th nationally in goals for, with Michigan one slot behind them.

Drew Shore

The top two lines are centered by the Shore brothers, Drew and Nick. Drew drives the bus for Denver with 21-31-52 and a +21. Given the plus minus ratings it looks like Denver has run a blender through its lines all year. Luke Salazar and Ty Loney are currently Shore's linemates. Salazar has 12-17-29, a +18, and just one minor penalty on the year; Loney has 10-11-21 and appears to be the gritty guy who provides grit and stuff.

The second line is explosive offensively but has struggled to keep its head above water. Nick Shore has 13-28-41 and is a –1 on the year; Zucker has 22-24-46 and is just +6. Some of this may not be their fault, as Denver has been missing two of their best defensemen for most of the year.

Defense. Injury clouds the picture even more here. Denver was down to five defensemen after the Didier injury against North Dakota; while they will get players back for the tournament how many will make a big difference. It sounds like Didier should be fine, Phillips still out, and Markowski limited.

That would mean Denver rotates through five guys on the blue line with occasional shifts to the returning Markowski; on a hypothetical second-night matchup they would be more tired than Michigan's guys, inevitable overtimes held equal.

In the absence of the injured, freshman Joey LaLeggia is the main man. He's +15 on the year and has 11-27-38. Those are astounding numbers given that he's only got three power play goals. LaLeggia's brilliant freshman season saw him named the CHN rookie of the year. He's not a big guy—just 5'10"—but he's been a rock for the Pioneers.

John Lee appears to be LaLeggia's partner. he's the muscle in the pairing at 6'2" but is also a good skater; he was a fifth round pick of the Panthers in 2007. If you're adding that up, yeah: he's 23. Veteran. Scott Mayfield is a penalty-prone stay at home guy with massive size (6'4") and an excellent draft pedigree (a second rounder). He may be deployed in an effort to slow down Brown and/or Guptill depending on how long the fracturing of the top line lasts.

Sam Brittain is 60-40 to be the guy

Goalie. Denver has three different goalies with double-digit games, something I don't think I've ever seen before. Junior Adam Murray, the least impressive statistically, only got his starts thanks to an injury to sophomore and Panthers draftee Sam Brittain. Once Brittain returned he and freshman Juho Olkinuora split starts. Both have impressive save percentages (.931 and .924, respectively). Despite Brittain's slight edge in that category his GAA is a couple tenths worse than Olkinuora (2.39 and 2.18). You'll note that neither of those is very high.

Denver fans aren't sure who will get the call this weekend. Based on recent play Brittain has the edge. He stopped an alarming 67 shots in the double OT win over Duluth; the next night Olkinuora was bombed for four goals on 18 shots before getting pulled for Murray in the third. I'd guess Brittain gets Ferris State and will maintain that spot in the event of a win that isn't 6-5.

Special teams. Your power plays per game:

	Denver	Michigan
PP For / G	4.1	3.7
PP Ag / G	4.3	4.2

The numbers are blowout for Denver. Their power play is 11th, clicking at 22%. Michigan's is 46th at 15%. Michigan has a better penaltky kill at 85%, but Denver is middle of the pack at 82%. Stay out of the box.

Michigan vs Those Guys, Hypothetically

Single elimination hockey. Is insane.

Take care of the puck. Bob Daniels on the Pioneers:

“After watching tape on DU, we realize we have to be careful with turnovers. They’re a team I think, full of predators. They have so much skill up front that any type of turnover, could be very dangerous. We’re going to turn pucks over, but we want to make sure we’re very careful where they occur.”
- Ferris State Head Coach Bob Daniels

If you're thinking of Michigan's recent tendency to cough up horrible turnovers, you're not alone.

Hope the relatively chipper injury report is a front. If Zucker's out that's a big boost.

Wear them down if at all possible. Denver's shorthanded on the blue line and will be playing the second game of a back-to-back. If the first one is close or the inevitable overtimes are unbalanced, a steady diet of dump, chase, cycle could have the Pioneer defensive corps sucking wind in the third. A corollary…

Survive an offensive onslaught in the first period or so. Hypothetical Denver matchup is a rare one in which the other team has a clear edge in offensive talent. Michigan will have to ride it out and get to the part of the game in which they're fresher.

For the love of God stay out of the box. Obviously. Michigan prefers games like the ones they had against Notre Dame where penalties are rare animals.

The Big Picture

Michigan of course has to beat Cornell to find themselves against Denver. From there, win or disintegrate into component atoms.