[Bill Rapai]

Friday, February 10, 2017

Michigan State 4, Michigan 4 (Michigan wins SO)

1st period

Hirose Goal

MSU 1 UM 0 EV 00:36 Assists: Appleton & Cox

It’s worth noting that this starts after the second shot on goal, so we’re picking things up in the middle of play. Cecconi tries to hit the second shot-taker in front of the crease and immediately comes off of him to track the State player behind the net who gets the loose puck. Considering the number of other defenders behind the net, it’s surprising that Cecconi didn’t move laterally and stay in front of the net.

Appleton, who now has the puck in the corner, is defended by Slaker. Appleton drifts backward and loses Slaker by quickly changing directions and pushing toward the net. Cecconi peels off his circular path back to the front of the net and strides toward Appleton.

Switching defenders momentarily opens up a passing lane, which Appleton utilizes to pass to Hirose. Hirose one-times it and hits the near-side top corner, just a touch over the height to which Lavigne can shrug his shoulder. Warren sees that Hirose is going to get the puck (because he’s watching it in the corner), but that delay means he can’t get his stick into the shooting lane before the shot it away.

[After THE JUMP: Bill takes great photos]

Saliba Goal

MSU 2 UM 0 PPG 06:55 Assists: Appleton & Hirose

State switches at the top and moves the puck to the faceoff circle. Luce cuts outside and around the skater in the slow to establish good position and take away anything to the front of the net.

Then he drops to the ice too late, leaving Appleton the space he needs to thread a pass to Saliba in the slot (practically in the crease, actually). Luce is holding out his stick for almost a second before dropping to one knee; he needs to hit the ice far sooner. If he gets into the position he’s in in the screecap below then the pass never makes it to Saliba. Using just a stick to dissuade a player from passing just gives them a triangle to pass through.

Slaker Goal

MSU 2 UM 1 EV 14:54 Assists: Lockwood & Warren

Warren banks the puck off the boards and it skirts the edge of the neutral zone. Lockwood flips it ahead for Slaker just as he’s about to get crushed.

Slaker carries in and shoot a fairly stoppable shot at Minney, who saves it but knocks the puck up into the air. He does, however, mange to steer it to the corner.

Minney has to push off of his left leg to get to his right and seal the post. Slaker closes on the puck before he can do that, and the shot he throws on net hits the interior of Minney’s leg and is steered into the net.

Here’s a better angle of the puck’s path of entry from the inside of the leg pad to the back of the net. Minney’s slide came before Slaker’s shot; if Slaker had tried to shoot sooner there’s a good chance he hits Minney’s right leg pad. Holding gives him a chance to bank it in (as he did) by virtue of getting the goaltender to commit and finding where the open spots are.

Shuart Goal

MSU 2 UM 2 EV 19:32 Assists: Allen

A State player attempts a pass behind the net that, if completed, would allow his teammate to skate it out the other side and away from Michigan’s pressure. It doesn’t work. Shuart sees the pass and steps in to pick it off.

He passes to Allen in front of the net. Allen shoots and the shot hits Chrcek as he skates through the crease. The puck ricochets back.

Shuart comes off the boards for the loose puck. He and a State skater both go for the puck at the same time, hitting each other in the process and resulting in a stalemate.

Shuart loses no ground after the collision, leaving the puck for him to shoot. He’s aided by a great screen from Calderone. Shuart shoots and Minney never sees it.

2nd period

Knudson Goal

MSU 3 UM 2 EV 09:42 Assists: Chrcek & Wood

Chrcek wins a race to a loose puck. As Cecconi sees this, he turns and braces to block the shot. Regardless, it gets past him. The puck, though, hits Knudson.

It springs forward off of Knudson, who turns and pushes the puck past Lavigne. This is the first soft goal Lavigne has given up in recent memory. He came out to challenge the shot, which is good. He also has this puck right in front of him and neither gloves it nor locks down the post. Not a great one to give away.

De Jong Goal

MSU 3 UM 3 PPG 16:05 Assists: L. Martin & Merl

Merl moves the puck to Luke Martin at the point, who swings it to De Jong on the other wing. Pretty sound strategy, as it gets the defense moving vertically and horizontally. Even so, State does a good job switching and moving with the puck.

Also doing a good job moving with the puck is Winborg, who does a great job maintaining his screen of Letehmon (who entered the game for Minney at the start of the second) as the puck moves from side to side. De Jong’s rising shot finds the back of the net because Lethemon can’t see anything.

3rd period

De Jong Goal

MSU 3 UM 4 EV 02:40 Assists: Cecconi & Merl

I accidentally cut off the very beginning of the relevant sequence in the GIF, but Cecconi initiates this scoring chance by faking a shot and pulling the puck back. He shakes a defender with this.

Cecconi’s move opens up a big passing lane to the point. He takes advantage of it, moving the puck away from pressure and to an area where there’s only one defender in the vicinity.

De Jong takes a second to gather and shoot; the State defender nearest the point dives with an outstretched stick, but he’s unable to alter the shot. Cutler Martin does a great job getting to (and sticking at) the front of the net. This is another goal that I don’t think Lethemon saw.

Saliba Goal

MSU 4 UM 4 EV 15:02 Assists: Haag & Lambdin

The puck’s eventually knocked into Michigan’s defensive zone after a bunch of jostling along the boards in front of Michigan’s bench. Luce sees the puck enter the zone and extends his stick to gather it. Haag, though, extends about as far as he possibly can and knocks the puck past Luce.

Haag swims over Luce and carries the puck to the corner. Luce actually does a pretty good job recovering and trying to impede Haag’s passing lane. Boka’s back and stays at a conservative depth so that he can play the pass as he would in a true 2-on-1 situation.

Boka crouches but never drops to a knee to take away the lane. It looks as though he tries to bat the pass away with his stick. That fails, the pass gets through, and Lavigne’s hung out to dry.

Overtime

No scoring

Shooutout

Five rounds; Slaker & Piazza goals

Saturday, February 11, 2017

Michigan 1, Michigan State 4

1st period

No scoring

2nd period

Holland Goal

UM 0 MSU 1 EV 07:18 Assists: Sanford & Ebbing

This is an innocuous play that ends on a fluke because hockey is hockey and it is cruel and will break you. I’m not just saying that because this is a Michigan blog and we’re looking at a State goal. That’s just the nature of a sport predicated on throwing a frozen piece of rubber at a human and hoping it hits twine, not them.

…

I worked on this post for hours this weekend and am on hour seven today. Is that related? Is anything related? What is meaning? ANYWAY, Holland carries to the boards and a State skater heads to the front of the net to set a screen.

Holland throws the puck on net hoping for a deflection, and a deflection is exactly what I believe he gets. The puck hits De Jong and is redirected past LaFontaine. This one’s not anyone’s fault.

Osburn Goal

UM 0 MSU 2 EV 16:28 Assists: No assists

Piazza has the puck and decides that passing to Dancs is the best way to move the puck up the ice. The problem is that Dancs is skating backwards toward the boards; he’s attempting to keep his stick on the ice and ready to take a pass on his forehand.

As the puck arrives, Osburn has read this pass from a mile away and jumps it like a corner in zone on an underthrown pass.

Osburn knocks the puck away from Dancs, who slides out of the zone. Piazza charges, but Osburn pulls the puck to his backhand and around Piazza.

Osburn wrong-foots a shot that he tucks just inside the top corner. That’s an incredibly difficult shot to stop made even more difficult by Nagelvoort’s lack of warmup time. (LaFontaine had a player fall on his leg and left the game after 32 minutes.

Hirose Goal

UM 0 MSU 3 SH 19:10 Assists: Unassisted

State gets the puck after a board battle and tries to clear it. Piazza does a nice job reading this, skating into the lane, and holding the puck in at the line. He then decides to charge the net. Hirose sees this and himself charges, colliding with Piazza, knocking the puck into the air, and coming away with it.

Another shorthanded breakaway ensues. Not surprising considering Hirose’s forward momentum and Michigan’s cluster of players low in the zone.

Hirose pulls the puck to his forehand and sells it well with a nice head fake. He then goes to his backhand and lifts his stick before it’s completely extended. Nagelvoort kicks his right leg pad out to stop the presumed backhander and the puck rolls in five-hole.

3rd period

Appleton Goal

UM 0 MSU 4 SH 00:55 Assists: Unassisted

Lethemon saves a long shot and steers the rebound to the faceoff circle to his left. It’s a long rebound and Appleton happens to be standing right next to the puck. He grabs it and heads out of State’s defensive zone.

Piazza does a nice job getting back and staying with Appleton as he goes from Piazza’s right to left. He gets his stick extended and forces Appleton to a further (and far worse) angle.

Nagelvoort knocks the puck in with his own pads. The puck hits his right leg pad as he’s sliding through the crease and pulling his legs in, and due to that movement it easily rolls past the line.

Luce Goal

UM 1 MSU 4 PPG 19:50 Assists: Cecconi & Pastujov

Pastujov wins the faceoff and the puck goes to Cecconi to his left. Cecconi immediately passes to Luce, who has quickly skated back to the point.

Luce fires a hard shot from the point that’s aided by Allen screening Lethemon, as well as an additional State skater in the high slot. I doubt Lethemon could track the puck at all.

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[Bill Rapai]

I urge you to read David’s Friday and Saturday recaps to get an in-depth feel for the series. They include Corsi numbers as well as the number of shots from the home plate area (if you aren’t familiar, I wrote about it recently).

Overall, I thought this was the first series in quite a while where the goaltending was subpar. It’s going to happen during the course of a season, but it was striking because of how great all three goalies have been this year. I thought Lavigne was simply off his angles on Friday night, so it wasn’t a huge surprise to see LaFontaine start Saturday. LaFontaine was very good before he left the game with a leg injury. Nagelvoort was put in some untenable situations and let in a soft goal of his own.

Regarding those untenable situations, Michigan’s defensive-zone breakouts were really bad all weekend. They turned the puck over often and in dangerous ways, and State capitalized on the easy opportunities they were given. Frankly, I don’t understand why they took a step back this weekend aside from guys not reading the play well. State wasn’t doing anything with their forechecking that Michigan hasn’t seen before.

It’s hard to tell whether anything will change this coming weekend. Michigan split the first series of the season against Wisconsin in December, allowing seven goals on Friday night and one goal on Saturday night. At this point in the season, Wisconsin’s allowing the fourth fewest shot attempts in the nation, though they’re middling in terms of shots generated. If Michigan’s goaltending returns to form and their offense continues its recent trend of moderate shot generation, then maybe Michigan has a chance to take a game on the road. If the offense is limited, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a couple of blowouts. Inability to generate offense leads to tired legs from chasing the puck around the defensive zone, and tired legs make mistakes and allow extra chances.