Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Michigan 3, Northern Michigan 2

1st period

UM 1 NMU 0 EV 11:42 Martin (1) from Connor (12) & Cecconi (5)

Kyle Connor picks a puck up off the half boards and carries toward the high slot. NMU forms a wall, and Connor’s only real options are above said wall. He sees Cutler Martin start to pinch down and makes the logical pass to him.

The important thing to note here is that the high-slot defender closed the gap on Martin quickly, so instead of taking a slap shot he had to load up and quickly release a snap shot.

NMU’s Atte Tolvanen temporarily believes he’s compatriot Pekka Rinne and makes an ill-advised glove-save attempt in which he reaches across his body to try and snag a puck headed over his right shoulder. He misses, because he’s not Pekka Rinne.

[More after THE JUMP]

2nd period

UM 1 NMU 1 EV 02:39 Hanson from Trenz

A quickly developing 3-on-3 that started off of a turnover in the offensive zone is well defended by Michigan (for the time being); there’s one guy on each skater, and Calderone’s about to hit the puck carrier.

Trenz somehow absorbs the hit while also pulling the puck back from the position it’s in in the screen cap below, getting some force on a pass through the slot to just about the opposite faceoff circle.

A quick aside: look at how well Sam Piazza has his skater defended in the slot. He’s got the stick locked down; if Trenz tries to center it, the puck’s just going to get tangled up with those two. That’s a really nice defensive play.

I didn’t think this was worth screen capping but as this pass is released Racine looks down at the stick blades in front of him; he’s expecting this to be tipped in front.

By the time he realizes it’s gone through the crease it’s too late for him to get across laterally. Racine does his best to push off and square up, but you can see from how his body’s positioned and where the puck’s circled that there’s a slim chance it works. He almost gets his glove on it, but if it’s being broken down here you know the end result.

UM 1 NMU 2 EV 11:41 Shine from Kaib & Adair

The puck’s blocked by a mass of bodies in front of the net and loops through the air before landing in the slot, where it’s backhanded to just below the blue line. Kaib reads the pass and steps into a very wound up one-timer.

How boring. Why did I even put this in here?

Wait, is that…? No. No. Wait.

No no no no no ohhhh wow. That free swipe at the puck is a result of a defensive mistake in front of the net, as Martin and Cecconi have the guy in front of the net and the skater that isn’t there on the strong side covered, but no one has the weak-side winger covered. To play devil’s advocate with my own statement, Martin does get hacked down in front of the net, forcing Cecconi to dive across to get on the dog pile to the side of the net. (He arrives after the puck’s across the line.)

UM 2 NMU 2 PPG 12:55 Selman (7) from Piazza (2) & Nieves (7)

Michigan’s moving the puck around at the point ad nauseam. Eventually Selman starts to creep back deeper in the slot when the defender on him realizes that he needs to jump up and cover the point. I’m not 100% positive, but I think that NMU’s playing a 1-2-1 here; if a guy leaves Selman to cover the point, there should be two players in that area that can take him and one if he goes directly to the front of the net.

Piazza gets the puck from Nieves with plenty of time and space to shoot. He sees Selman in front and throws the puck his way.

This is why guys spend so much time practicing deflections in front of the net. Selman reads the puck beautifully and turns his stick to angle the deflection. It’s a skill I really admire because of the hand-eye coordination required and the muscle memory built through hours of practice.

Tolvanen sees that the puck’s tipped, but he must think it’s headed five-hole as he pulls his pads in just as the puck slides outside them.

3rd period

UM 3 NMU 2 EV 04:05 Connor (12) from Dancs (3) & Compher (16)

Connor gets the puck in the neutral zone and skates it in himself. (I didn’t screen cap it, but Compher did a nice job of tagging up to keep the play onside.) Connor puts a move on his defender and slides the puck under his stick as he does for the poke check, then skates through it and picks up the puck on the other side.

Connor takes the puck behind the net and the defender retreats to the netfront area. Not the worst move, because chasing a guy behind the net is usually a good way to get burned by a pass through the crease to a guy you should have been covering. In this case, though, there’s no such guy. The two guys bunched up in the slot are trying to figure out who should cover the blue line, Trenz (who was covering Connor) tries to get his stick in the shooting lane and doesn’t, and Tolvanen squares up for the shot.

The shot which Connor flips into the near-side top corner. I’ve seen some NHL goalies wrap their leg pad around the outside of the net to really seal the post, and I can see why some do that. It’s a risk in that it’s harder to get unsealed should you need to move laterally, but in a situation like this with no other player threatening it’s probably Tolvanen’s best option.

Wednesday, December 30, 2015

Michigan 4, Michigan Tech 2

1st period

UM 0 MTU 1 EV 02:55 Jackson from Steman & Sturos

Tech chips the puck out and gathers in the neutral zone, initiating a 2-on-2. Boka sees the puck and decides he’s going to make a play on it, attempt a poke check that doesn’t work. This is really risky considering his man is now unchecked and crossing the blue line.

Steman slides the puck across after the failed poke check, and Jackson skates in alone; Boka has turned, but he’s too far to recover.

Racine obviously sees exactly what’s happening and locks down the post, but Jackson lifts the puck over his right shoulder. To Racine’s credit, I think this is simultaneously the highest and fastest I’ve seen a puck rise from that deep in the zone.

UM 0 MTU 2 PPG 14:21 Baltus from Auk & Roy

A missed slap shot from the point is gathered by Auk, who turns up the boards. He doesn’t have a passing lane to the point, or at least not one that he’s comfortable using; that’s been cut off by Warren. He decides to turn back down the boards and skate.

De Jong’s clogging the passing lane to the front of the net for a moment before he inches toward the corner, and for good reason: the pass to the corner is the clearest option Auk has, and there’s supposed to be another guy to cover the front of the net. That guy, Piazza, also starts to drift a bit, though he shouldn’t what with another Michigan defender in the slot who’s responsible for that Tech skater in the opposite faceoff circle. Auk sees this and just throws a shot in front hoping for a deflection, and that’s exactly what happens.

2nd period

UM 1 MTU 2 EV 01:48 Calderone (6) from Warren (7) & De Jong (5)

Warren wins the faceoff back to De Jong, who holds for a second before he sees Warren open near the half boards.

Warren shows some nice on-ice awareness here, noticing that Calderone is open behind him. As soon as he gets the puck Warren pushes a nice touch pass Calderone’s way, and Calderone one-times it.

It’s tough to tell even on the zoomed in replay, but it looks like this puck might glance off of a Tech defender in front of the net before it gets to Phillips. Even if it does it doesn’t alter the path of the puck that much (though, to be fair, that can be enough for some goals); the puck then hits the top of Phillips’ shoulder and flutters over and into the net.

UM 2 MTU 2 PPG Motte (12) from Connor (13) & Compher (17)

Marody wins a faceoff back to Compher, who skates it to the point. Tech’s high defender is all over him, so Compher reverses back to Marody. Marody waits for the defender to retreat before passing back to Compher, who moves laterally. He sees Connor open on the wing waiting to fire a one-timer, so it’s obviously time to pass. It helps that the defender on Compher has taken a knee to block a perceived shot attempt.

The defender in front of the net loses Motte, who creeps in behind him to screen Phillips. Connor’s shot hits Motte and changes directions; Phillips has no chance at stopping it.

UM 3 MTU 2 EV Kile (5) from Nieves (8) & Piazza (3)

Racine starts this breakout by catching a puck that bounces off of the boards behind him and pushing it to his left for Piazza, who passes ahead to Nieves. He carries for a minute and passes to Kile in the neutral zone. Kile then uses Nieves as a pick, skating around him to the high slot.

Kile shoots and has his shot blocked by the leg of the defender in front of him.

Kile picks the puck back up off of the block and immediately shoots; Phillips can’t track it because he’s expecting the first shot and not the second, and he isn’t able to see the puck’s position after it hits the defender’s leg until the shot has been released.

3rd period

UM 4 MTU 2 EN 19:28 Piazza (1) unassisted

Tech tries to clear the puck out of their defensive zone from near the blue line, but Piazza picks the pass off near center ice. After it falls to the ice he launches a long shot through traffic and the puck skips and hops into the open net.

Notes:

• That was not what I expected. After years of getting used to an offenive juggernaut that had to outscore its mistakes, Michigan put up a relatively solid defensive effort for the entirety of the tournament. That this happened with Michigan missing its two highest-profile defensemen (Downing was suspened two games for a hit to the head and Weresnki was playing for Team USA at World Juniors) is even more eyebrow-raising. While there were still some defensive miscues they were more on par with what you see watching an average NHL team; there are times where things break down, but for the most part the defensemen played it safe and the forwards checked hard.
• Steven Racine was also impressive in his first two games back from injury. He's athletic and does a nice job playing the puck, though he's still prone to one baffling mistake that leads to a goal every series. At this point I think he holds down the starting job so long as he moves the puck like he did during the GLI. Michigan did a much better job breaking out of their own zone when he played the puck to a defenseman. Having a goalie who acts like a third defeneman takes a lot of the presure off of the D; the pass from goalie to defenseman speeds up the process of getting out of the defensive zone, and that's something Michigan's been trying to improve the last few seasons.
• Michigan checkes in at eighth in PairWise/RPI, and though the two teams they beat in the tournament aren't going to get them a quality win bonus they were no slouches, either. Michigan Tech is currently tied for 26th and Northern Michigan is 36th; Tech is ranked higher than half the Big Ten, while NMU is ranked higher than a third of the conference.