[JD Scott]

Friday, March 3, 2017

Michigan 5, #5 Minnesota 3

1st period

Cammarata Goal

Mich 0 Minn 1 PPG 13:21 Assists: Bristedt & Gates

A deflected pass turns into a loose puck and that in turn becomes an opportunity for Minnesota to cycle the puck in the corner. Warren gets his stick into the passing lane and is a fraction of a second from knocking the pass away. The 2016-17 season is, however, a cruel mistress, so the pass gets through and the Minnesota skaters switch spots.

Gates skates into the circle and turns to open up for a pass as Bristedt loops around at the wall. Luce is watching this and understandably becomes preoccupied with saddling up next to Gates.

Cammarata sees the cycling along the wall and steps away from the crease. Boka had just dumped him to that side of the net two frames earlier and has since watching the cycling along the wall and quickly checked behind him to see if a skater was in position for a cross-ice one-timer.  A good check, but one that sees him lose sight of Cammarata.

Bristedt doesn’t lose sight of him; he sees Luce take away Gates while the easier pass to Cammarata at the side of the net simultaneously opens up.

Cammarata reaches as far across as possible upon receipt and flings a shot in before Nagelvoort can get his leg extended.

As Sean Ritchlin said on the broadcast, you’re either going to tuck the puck in far-side before the goalie can push off the post or you’re going to get the goalie to kick it and create a rebound for that backside skater who’s been handing out in the faceoff circle (or the one in the slot).

[Much more after THE JUMP]

Pitlick Goal

Mich 0 Minn 2 EV 19:31 Assists: Kloos & Sheehy

Schierhorn plays the puck behind his net and the puck is further pushed up the boards to Sheehy. That pass is almost picked off as a Michigan skater seals himself against the wall; once it gets through, the pass to Kloos in the faceoff circle is all but inevitable.

Kloos carries the puck out of the zone and finds Pitlick squeezing inside the right defenseman, which puts him in between the two defenders back and in great position to split them. Kloos passes once Pitlick has started to pick up speed through the middle of the neutral zone.

Boka does everything he can to stop this, matching Pitlick step for step and gettings his stick across the front of the skater’s stick while keeping it on the ice to refrain from hooking him. Boka’s stick swing pops the puck straight up into the air.

Pitlick swats the puck in out of midair in the waning seconds of the period. The hockey gods are cruel indeed.

2nd period

KILE GOAL

Mich 1 Minn 2 EV 03:42 Assists: Shuart & Cecconi

Shuart digs a loose puck out of a scrum at the back of the net and makes a nice move to cut directly up ice and shake one defender. The defender at the side of the netfront area closes quickly, though, and knocks the puck toward the boards.

Kile skates down and grabs the loose puck, turns on it, and circles back to the point. This gives the offense and defense a chance to reset. The defenders near the top of the zone are simultaneously resetting while trying to communicate coverage of a Michigan skater entering the zone to Kile’s right.

Kile pulls off a nice little slide across the conference logo here which results in a frozen point defender and an open shooting lane to his right. One screen has already formed in the slot; by the time Kile finishes sliding over, another will be set right on Schierhorn’s doorstep.

Credit for this goal can be doled out equally to the screen and the shot off the slide. One more thing worth addressing is the way Evan Allen went about screening Schierhorn. Allen stood perpendicular to Schierhorn, which certainly had an impact on his vision while also allowing Allen, a right-handed shot, to get his stick out for a deflection.

CALDERONE GOAL

Mich 2 Minn 2 PPG 16:04 Assists: Kile & Sanchez

Piazza does a nice job holding this puck in the zone just before he’s pushed out of it. Sanchez moves off the boards to meet the loose puck.

Allen moves down while Kile skates to the point from outside the zone; Sanchez sees him moving and hits him with a pass quickly. Calderone wheels around from the slot to the faceoff circle and then to the side of the net.

Minnesota’s defense lost track of Kile when he glided out of the zone and never was able to get in position to stop him from making this pass; this is particularly true for Jack Ramsey, the defender nearest Kile, though it also applies to Bischoff for seeming to read Kile’s pass as a shot attempt. Kile has a massive passing lane through the slot to Calderone as he approaches the net.

Schierhorn makes a valiant effort to go from squared to Kile to kicking toward the far-side post. Still, there are a handful of goalies in the world that could take away this scoring chance and they play in the NHL. Kile’s pass is perfect; Calderone has to have his blade open at the right moment and does.

3rd period

Lettieri Goal

Mich 2 Minn 3 EV 13:38 Assists: Norman & Bischoff

Scenario: Michigan has the 3-on-2 advantage but one defender is playing off and Minnesota’s skaters are in good position to make this problematic.

Ramsey decides that he’s just going to bull his way through at least one defender and try for another while he’s at it. He’s essentially running legal interference. This is the equivalent of a mesh route in football. The defenders have to avoid getting bunched up  and track Lettieri to the outside and that doesn’t happen.

Pastujov is acting as a defenseman in this situation, so it’s somewhat understandable (albeit unfortunate) that his instincts are off here. He appears to think Lettieri is going to try to skate to the left past the muddled pile of person in the middle of the ice when he instead chooses to glide around it. Pastujov has to recover and, to his credit, realizes he won’t be able to close the gap. He drops to a knee to block the shot.

I said, he drops to a knee to block the shot. 

/Lettieri continues to glide

/still gliding

/heavy sigh

/still gliding

Aaaand there’s the shot. Lettieri waited until Pastujov slid as far as he could in shot-blocking position and then just roofed it. Nagelvoort has no chance at a puck tucked just under the crossbar and just over his shoulder.

SLAKER GOAL

Mich 3 Minn 3 PPG 16:22 Assists: Sanchez & Lockwood

A few Michigan skaters go off for a line change as the puck is circled around which leads Lockwood to take a quick glance to his left to see where the reinforcements are located. He holds the puck and steps away from the closing defender just in time to execute a cross-ice feed to Sanchez.

Sanchez takes a couple of steps and throws the puck to Slaker once he sees that Slaker’s headed from the outside of the faceoff circle to the slot.

It’s pretty clear from the screenshot below that Slaker’s intent was to get past the defender to his right and fire one from the high slot. The puck rolls backward just as he’s about to shoot.

Slaker manages to reach back and retrieve the runaway frozen cylinder. He sees a lane that’s hard to discern from this angle but is clearly there, lifting a shot up and over Schierhorn’s glove.

ALLEN GOAL

Mich 4 Minn 3 EV 17:49 Assists: De Jong & Kile

Kile turns the puck up the boards and would have two options here if not for a well-placed stick. The pass to the slot is taken away, leaving the cross-ice feed his only choice if he’s going to pass. He does; it’s a bit risky because of the defender hedging toward the blue line but the pass gets through.

“Gets through” =/= “perfectly on target,” though. The puck hits De Jong and bounces ahead of him. He regains possession near the boards in large part because of the defender who took a slight gamble to try and get in the lane from Kile to De Jong as that defender has to turn, attempt to make up the gap, and follow him down the boards.

De Jong snaps a shot on net as soon as he gets it. As we saw earlier in the game, putting a quick shot on net when there are two teammates screening is a good choice.

Allen is credited with the goal, though I’ve yet to find a good angle (or even a frame) where we can see him redirect the puck. That’s not an attempt to discredit him; there’s a reverse angle shot that shows the puck change direction, but the point of contact is lost in the jumble of dudes jockeying for netfront position.

LOCKWOOD GOAL

Mich 5 Minn 3 EN 19:07 Assists: De Jong

Buccigross said if there’s one guy who deserved this it was Lockwood and let out a guttural “yesss” when he put this away and hey, who am I to disagree. He did deserve it and has every time he’s been in the lineup. Smart move to slow down and hope the defenders skate themselves out of the play, too.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

Michigan 1, #5 Minnesota 4

1st period

Pitlick Goal

Mich 0 Minn 1 EV 15:22 Assists: Sheehy

De Jong gets the puck behind the net and looks to start the breakout when he senses pressure on his right. He scoots the puck ahead under the assumption the Cecconi will take it and carry it up-ice. Cecconi stops skating when he thinks De Jong has the puck and is about a step behind the pass.

The puck is now drifting aimlessly toward the wall, a bit too far for Cecconi to close on and in just the right place for Sheehy to pinch and retrieve.

Pitlick heads for the slot as Sheehy gathers the puck; Sheehy hits him before Cecconi gets a stick in the passing lane. Allen drops and tries to block the shot, and though it takes Pitlick a second to get it into position he fires an unstoppable bardown shot over Lavigne’s blocker-side shoulder.

2nd period

Sheehy Goal

Mich 0 Minn 2 EV 11:55 Assists: Kloos & Pitlick

Pitlick passes to Kloos just before they cross into the offensive zone and that’s after a perfect breakout pass through the neutral zone to spring Pitlick. This is one of the best puck-moving teams Michigan has seen this season.

With the puck on the wing, Minnesota executes a textbook three-man rush. One skater heads to the front of the net while the other drops back to trail; Kloos sees that Allen isn’t gapped up and passes to Sheehy.

Sheehy has all the space he needs to shoot; add in his accuracy and Lavigne having to go from post to post and this is an untenable situation for Michigan. Sheehy picks the same spot Pitlick did in the first period: over the shoulder blocker-side.

Bristedt Goal

Mich 0 Minn 3 EV 14:57 Assists: Lettieri & Sadek

We’re about six shots deep as we pick up play here. Important things to know: Piazza took a one-timer off the hand and was obviously unable to win the subsequent battle for the puck behind the net, then Luke Martin blocked a one-timer in the slot and has just gotten to his feet after falling to the ice in pain.

To add insult to literal injury, two one-timers resulted from Martin’s block: one that Martin blocked from Bristedt, then another off of Martin’s block from Lettieri. He misses and the puck rims around to Sadek. He sees Lettieri (Martin’s struggling to his feet in this shot) and passes.

Lavigne stops Lettieri’s one-timer but the rebound flies out front. Winborg’s twisted around and loses track of Lettieri in the slot. The rebound goes right to him. Lettieri’s shot looks like he used a pitching wedge, fluttering, arcing forward and just under the bar. Lavigne and Luke Martin get a non-fandom endurance badge for withstanding the barrage of attempts.

CALDERONE GOAL

Mich 1 Minn 3 EV 16:23 Assists: Marody & Luce

Calderone pushes the puck down to Marody, who surveys the ice and sees nothing but Minnesota defenders clogging up the middle of the zone.

Marody skates behind the net and a couple of defenders follow. Meanwhile, De Jong gets into great position for a one-timer. Marody sees this and decides that the two are awkwardly close together by the time he has eluded the outstretched stick of the defender, thus opting to keep it himself. Either that or he just decides to go Irvin heroball on this one.

Calderone has followed Marody’s path behind the net and turns in sync with him as Marody reaches the top of the faceoff circle. Marody’s circling has drawn up the defender who was previously stationed at the right post; he erases the passing lane to the bottom of the opposite faceoff circle while inadvertently opening up Calderone in front of the net. Marody squeezes a pass between the two defenders.

Calderone puckhandles for a second, which gets Schierhorn to drop into his butterfly. Calderone holds the puck for a second while he slides to the right. Schierhorn has to attempt to find an edge and push laterally, which he does fairly well. Even so, he’s unable to get his glove up in time to stop Calderone’s rising shot.

3rd period

Sheehy Goal

Mich 1 Minn 4 EN 18:08 Assists: Bristedt & Bischoff

Yeah, fine, they got scored on, but Michigan’s decision to pull Lavigne with 3:30 left is progressive and backed by researchers in the hockey analytics community. That was really cool to see and a good idea for a team that has trouble generating even-strength shot attempts.

[Marc-Gregor Compredon]

For more on the overall performance of the offense, defense, and special teams, check out David’s recaps from Friday and Saturday.