[Bill Rapai]

Friday, January 20, 2017

Michigan 0, Michigan State 3

1st period

Saliba Goal

UM 0 MSU 1 PPG 03:03 Assists: Ebbing & Hirose

State moves the puck off the boards to the area behind the net. It’s a good idea, as it’s the start of moving the puck from low to high and stressing the defense.

State does just that, threading the puck back up to the point. Cutler Martin’s in good position to pressure the point and the Michigan PK handles the vertical stretch as well as can be expected.

The shot to the front of the net is somehow threaded through traffic, and the outcome (a stopped shot with a tantalizing rebound to the side) is to be expected. Perhaps most concerning is that the netfront skater got into position without so much as a stick check, simply gliding from his space behind the net to the area right in front of Lafontaine.

De Jong notices that there’s a State skater in front of the crease after the puck’s been deflected, and now he’s between a rock and a hard place: there are two guys to defend, one of which has the puck and has decided to shoot. De Jong is too far away to impede the shot, and Lafontaine’s not stopping this without making a highlight-reel save given the dearth of time between the rebound and shot.

[After THE JUMP: GIF as metaphor and a sneaky good shootout goal]

2nd period

Knudson Goal

UM 0 MSU 2 EV 13:25 Assists: Sanford

Warren sees a State skater entering their offensive zone in the middle of the ice with the puck and takes him out just as he passes. The pass ends up on target, but the State player is taken out of the play for a moment and sent sliding toward the boards. De Jong reads the pass and closes the gap.

De Jong lowers himself for a hip check as the State skater tries to squeeze past along the boards. Squeeze he does, as De Jong mistimes his check and allows Sanford to retain puck possession and continue toward the net.

Warren sees this happen and just goes into attack mode, charging Sanford and leaving Knudson wide open and cutting to the net. That’s fine if he has help to cover the front of the net. There is, however, none of that. Cecconi is on his designated side of the ice and doesn’t slide over to help.

Knudson’s open, which Sanford sees. He puts a nice pass through Warren’s legs that Knudson shovels on net.

Lafontaine makes the initial stop, an impressive one considering the placement of Knudson. The puck is bouncing up off Lafontaine’s pads, and Knudson gets a second chance to tap the puck in before the defense arrives.

3rd period

Wood Goal

UM 0 MSU 3 EV 09:25 Assists: Sanford

Lafontaine makes a save and sends the rebound to his right. Lockwood and Dancs peel off and head to zones between the blue line and top of the faceoff circle just as the puck is being retrieved and skated down the boards toward the back of the net. I can only assume this is essentially to play a sort of zone defense where they’re responsible for limiting anything at the top of the offensive zone, because otherwise you’d expect Lockwood to stick with the puck carrier. Even so, there should be enough coverage down low to match whatever State’s three offensive players might do.

That’s true until Cecconi opts to head behind the net instead of cutting to the front. He’s locked onto the puck carrier, but so is De Jong. This is the kind of coverage duplication that has just killed Michigan over and over again this season. Guys just stare at the puck without noticing where anyone else is, which leaves uncovered offensive players all over the place.

Sanford sees Cecconi looping around the net and immediately passes to a blitheringly open Wood in front of the crease. Woof shoots, and though Lafontaine gets a piece of it he can’t stop the puck from trickling up and over.

Saturday, January 21, 2017

Michigan State 2, Michigan 2 (W, SO)

1st period

DE JONG GOAL

MSU 0 UM 1 EV 06:23 Assists: Slaker & Lockwood

Michigan wins a battle along the boards and the puck is flung back to the blue line. De Jong holds it in and passes down the boards to Slaker. At this point State is in their box PK formation, so the aim is to work that defender on De Jong by getting him moving.

Slaker completes the back-and-forth yo-yoing of the State defender by quickly passing to De Jong at the point. De Jong has space thanks to the State defender collapsing a bit, and he moves laterally to set up a more open shot.

Winborg has been camped out in the crease for quite a while. He’s doing a great job screening Minney when Lockwood reads De Jong’s lateral movement and gets into the middle of the high slot to set an additional screen; that also creates another deflection opportunity. De Jong’s shot gets through cleanly, but it can be primarily attributed to the nice double screen Michigan sets.

Pavelek Goal

MSU 1 UM 1 EV 10:26 Assists: Lambdin & Saliba

Winborg bodies his guy and does a pretty good job battling for a second, though that eventually gives way to Saliba pushing him back enough that there’s room to just take the puck and skate up the boards.

Saliba turns (he’s #10 and his back is facing the camera in the screen cap below) and has the puck knocked away as Winborg switches to hit the player coming down the boards.

So, uh, Winborg’s hit is more of a glancing blow than an actual hit. Lambdin is momentarily slowed but manages to come off of the hit and take a pass from Saliba.

Lambdin skates to the net and loses control of the puck, but he sort of Peter-principles his way to a good opportunity for Pavelek; Luce was leaning on Pavelek a little and Pavelek pushed off of him, freeing himself to quickly shoot the loose puck that escaped Lambdin’s blade. Nagelvoort has no chance to stop this.

2nd period

KILE GOAL

MSU 1 UM 2 EV 12:33 Assists: Piazza & Allen

Michigan again tries to work the puck from high to low to get State defenders moving. With so many defenders collapsing on net, this requires some precise passing from Piazza to Allen. Allen flares out to his right to catch the pass, which Piazza was able to pull off because he was on the boards and had a good angle to pass away from the traffic in front.

Allen pulls a defender to the outside with him but passes back to Piazza before the skater can take away the passing lane. Piazza has started moving toward the middle of the ice, so Allen has to see that and accurately hit a moving target. He executes this nicely.

Piazza snaps a shot on net. Kile’s been camped out in front of the net for the entirety of the play. He even gives a little shove to free himself from one of the two nearby defenders. He turns a bit as the shot heads his way; it’s deflected off of the interior of Kile’s leg.

3rd period

Khodorenko Goal

MSU 2 UM 2 PPG 10:40 Assists: Saliba & Hirose

Piazza does what he’s supposed to and skates up to challenge the shooter coming down the wing. He gets into the passing lane…

…and causes a deflection on the pass that was intended for the opposite faceoff circle. Both Michigan skaters to Nagelvoort’s right have started toward the anticipated player with the puck, which leaves them having to double back once they see the puck flip and land in the slot.

Piazza and Kile both arrive at about the same time, but it’s not soon enough to stop Saliba from backhanding a shot on net. Khodorenko gets his stick out and parallel to the cross bar on the same plane, and the puck hits it and changes course. It then hits Nagelvoort in the helmet before going in off the side of his head. This is a far better metaphor for the season than I could have written.

Overtime

No scoring

Shootout

MARODY GOAL

The key to this goal, which looks relatively mundane at first glance, is at the second to last step Marody takes. It looks like he’s getting ready to let go of a shot off his forehand when he more or less jumps to his wrong foot and then unleashes. That slight delay freezes Minney and allows Marody to shoot farside and tuck it under the bar.