Friday, December 11, 2015

#9 Michigan 8, Minnesota 3

1st period

Mich 1 Minn 0 EV 00:16 Motte (10) from Compher (13) & Connor (11)

Michigan wins the opening faceoff, and the puck rolls into their defensive zone. Downing moves it to Connor along the left boards, and he cuts across the neutral zone. Connor sees Motte near the blue line and lobs it up for him, but the pass is off target. You can see in the screen cap that a Minnesota defender has his stick out to take away the passing lane; the puck hits it and rolls to Compher (circled).

Compher carries in and turns back before he has to skate through a wall. Motte reads Compher’s movement and creeps down, and he’s left alone because a Minnesota defender is clinging to the boards (he’s the one partially in the circle around Motte). That’s fine if your team has the puck, but Compher had possession the entire time. It seems like he’s assuming that the two guys at the red line are going to strip the puck and send it up the boards quickly, but when Motte starts skating down staying on the boards isn’t staying very aware of the situation.

The goalie was looking to the corner and does a nice job reading the pass, standing, and trying to square to the new shooter, but Motte’s shot beats his reaction time.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest]

Mich 1 Minn 1 EV 00:30 Fasching from Glover & Bristedt

Cecconi tries to play the puck up the boards to Selman but the puck hops over his stick, and there’s a Minnesota player (Bristedt) there to pick up the turnover.

Bristedt passes to Glover, and you can see that he has a shooting lane that’s very much worth taking advantage of.

Glover’s initial shot is stopped by the tangled mess of Werenski and Fasching in front of Nagelvoort and there’s a rebound that pops out front. Cecconi has done an admirable job getting off the boards and trying to lock down Bristedt, but he’s a step behind. There’s the puck, and you can see that Cecconi’s starting to turn parallel to him. He’s not going to be able to prevent Bristedt’s swipe at the loose puck.

The puck is lifted high, with Werenski and Fasching tracking it and raising their sticks as it peaks. They’re both swinging down when the puck hits the ice, and somehow Fasching, who took an angle less steep than Weresnki, gets his blade on it. The puck goes through Nagelvoort’s five-hole; he had no chance. This is also really unfortunate for Werenski, who does an excellent job locking up Fasching until they both go for the looping puck, where he just draws the short straw on a remarkable goal.

Mich 2 Minn 1 EV 06:30 Dancs (2) from Shuart (5)

Shuart chops at the puck drop, and it slides laterally, hits the boards, and ends up buried in Dancs’ skate. Shuart loops around to retrieve it before heading to the back of the net.

Shuart drops a perfect backhanded pass on Dancs’ blade, which is aided by Bischoff dropping to a knee and getting his stick parallel to his body instead of perpendicular; can’t take away the passing lane the way he’s positioned, and he’s sort of overlapping with the goaltender’s job here. Dancs fires a perfect shot just inside the far-side top corner.

2nd period

Mich 2 Minn 2 PPG 10:09 Sheehy from Lettieri & Bischoff

I’m not positive here, but I think Michigan’s running a 1-1-2 penalty kill here. The idea here is to have one high skater putting pressure on the point, and if that guy moves down then the middle skater should go up to fill that role. When Compher gets where he is Warren should be switching him and taking off for the point, but he hesitates.

With no one to stop them, Minnesota swings the puck around the perimeter with ease.

Lettieri lets a one-timer rip. Sheehy sees it and gets his blade on the ice, redirecting the puck past Nagelvoort. De Jong took a few strides in a vain attempt at blocking the shot, but that left Sheehy alone in front of the net. In a 1-1-2 you’ve concentrated most of your defenders down low to make sure this doesn’t happen.

Mich 3 Minn 2 EV 10:43 Nieves (4) from Selman (7) & Kile (8)

 

Mich 4 Minn 2 EV 10:58 Connor (7) from Motte (4) & Martin (4)

Michigan clears a puck by bouncing it off the glass and it jumps skyward. The Minnesota D reads it and takes his time, but it bounces as it lands. This gives Connor enough time to close and swipe it away and toward Motte.

Motte skates into the slot, pulling three defenders with him. They’ve forgotten to cover Connor, and he skates to the opposite wing just in case…

…there’s a rebound. This may shock you, but there is, indeed, a rebound. Motte’s shot hits Schierhorn’s shoulder and bounces out in front of the crease, where Connor is waiting. Connor flips an easy backhander in.

Mich 5 Minn 2 EV 14:38 Connor (8) from Motte (5) & Werenski (7)

The puck’s been bouncing around the offensive zone for a while when it ends up with Werenski at the blue line. He shoots, but his shot it blocked. The puck rolls laterally to Motte, who fires one of the most insane seeing-eye passes I’ve seen in a long time. He notices Connor open down low and puts it perfectly in front of him.

Connor fires immediately despite the bad angle. Somehow, someway, the pucks goes in. I wish I could analyze it better for you.

I mean, Schierhorn has the post locked down. There weren’t any camera angles on the other side, but he must have left a small gap somewhere or maybe De’Veon Smith taught Connor how to use his phasing abilities on the puck. That’s the Michigan Difference, I guess.

Mich 5 Minn 3 EV 16:26 Fasching from Novak and Glover

Nieves is gliding toward the back of the net and is faced with three options; one of these options is a turnover waiting to happen 90% of the time but will spring a guy on a breakaway 10% of the time, while the other two aren’t going to result in a breakaway but are going to keep puck possession and allow a chance to get it out of the defensive zone.

Glover is in front of Selman and- surprise!- he picks off the pass.

Glover takes a few strides before passing to Novak, who has good positioning on his defender.

Novak shoots and the puck hits Fasching’s stick, deflecting up and into the top corner (I know, I should have re-drawn the arrow). Werenski did notice Fasching headed for the front of the net and tried to hip check him, but he couldn’t knock him off course and then this happened.

 

3rd period

Mich 6 Minn 3 EV 03:24 Shuart (2) from Porikos (1) & Werenski (8)

Michigan’s spent an eternity trying to clear the puck when Werenski finally grabs it behind the net, skates to the corner, and moves it up for Porikos. Porikos makes an amazing touch pass to the middle of the ice, where Shuart is waiting.

Shuart gets it stuck in his skates, but he’s able to kick it ahead to himself. I’m not sure Shuart ever sees Dancs, but the defenseman does and is playing the 2-on-1. That leaves the goaltender to handle the shot, which he doesn’t. Shuart beats him cleanly through the five hole as the goalie, which is now Nick Lehr, drops to butterfly.

Mich 7 Minn 3 SH 13:51 Motte (11) from Compher (14)

Minnesota’s on the power play, and the sequence starts with a shot from the point that rises over the goal and hits the glass. The Minnesota skater next to the goal recovers it and passes up the boards, but Compher jumps the pass, hits the skater, and steals the puck. He feigns like he might skate to the middle of the neutral zone before pulling the puck back across and taking off.

Motte’s charging through the middle of the ice as well, and Compher pulls off a great saucer pass to him as they enter the offensive zone.

Motte pulls the puck from his backhand to his forehand, shooting and beating Lehr blocker-side.

 

Mich 8 Minn 3 PPG 16:50 Connor (9) from Dancs (2) & Shuart (6)

Michigan’s on the power play and doing a nice job taking advantage of the space they’re given, quickly swinging the puck from side to side.

Shuart shoots and according to the score sheet it’s tipped by Dancs in front; I can’t find a camera angle with conclusive evidence one way or the other, but whether he tips it or it hits him or Lehr kicks it, the puck ends up in front of the net with Connor uncovered.

There’s no one to cover Connor because Minnesota’s in a box, and the quick puck movement got them to shift to the goaltender’s left. The shot and rebound happen fast enough that Minnesota’s still turning to shift Connor’s direction when he’s already put it in the net.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

#9 Michigan 2, Minnesota 3

1st period

Mich 0 Minn 1 PPG 15:32 Bischoff from Lettieri & Cammarata

Minnesota just toys with Michigan from the perimeter. Bischoff fakes a shot then passes to Lettieri, who fakes a shot and passes back to Bischoff, who one-times what looks like a pass (he doesn’t extend through the second half of the shot, keeping the stick perpendicular to his body) but is actually a shot. Whether he intended it to be a shot is debatable, since he might have been trying to put the puck in front for Sheehy to tip. Either way, it’s enough of a fake to fool Nagelvoort.

Mich 0 Minn 2 EV 18:23 Fasching from Bischoff & Novak

The first problem is that Michigan’s collapsing on net but Novak gets a pass through a mess of bodies from the corner to the point.

The second problem is that this goes in, but we’ll get to that. Bischoff shoots, which makes total sense considering the time and space he has and the defensive alignment in front of him.

Nagelvoort’s screened, though Downing is doing an admirable job shoving Fasching and trying to move him. He can’t, though, and the puck deflects in off of one of Fasching’s extremities.

2nd period

Mich 1 Minn 2 EV 11:53 Connor (10) from Downing (8) & Kile (9)

Kile carries the puck in and skates down the boards, turning back as his defender closes the gap. As he steps back up the boards he notices that Downing is pinching and wide open.

Downing tries to catch the goaltender with a quick shot, but it’s easily seen and stopped. Schierhorn doesn’t absorb the shot, instead kicking a rebound out to his left.

Connor is all alone and the rebound is essentially kicked right to him, so that’s not great for Minnesota. Connor roofs a shot, and you can see Schierhorn trying to fall that direction in a last-ditch “oh shiiiiiiiiii” effort.

3rd period

Mich 2 Minn 2 EV 01:34 Connor (11) from Compher (15) & Cecconi (4)

Compher carries in and puts the brakes on in the corner to the goalie’s right, reversing course and shaking his defender. Connor is open and receives the pass on the other side of the back of the net.

Connor sees Cecconi open at the top of the offensive zone. He gets the pass to Cecconi, but Cecconi loses his balances and fires shot that doesn’t have much on it.

The shot hits a skate in front takes a convenient roll to the side where Connor is uncovered. Connor fans on the forehanded attempt, but he has enough time to get his blade back on the puck. If you’re wondering why Connor had so much time, Brodzinski’s supposed to be covering him (and will eventually turn to do so) but he thought he had to help on the netfront Michigan skater.

Connor eventually jams the puck in just as Minnesota’s D has recovered (sorta) and is attempting to knock it away.

Mich 2 Minn 3 EV 01:46 Lettieri unassisted

A loose puck rolls into Michigan’s defensive zone. Cecconi stabs at it and misses, while Lettieri swims around him and gets to it on the other side.

Cecconi works to the middle, presumably in an effort to break up a pass on the 2-on-1. The problem is there’s already a defenseman there, so Cecconi should have tried to stick with Lettieri.

Lettieri beats Nagelvoort blocker-side just as Nagelvoort’s pulling his arm in. This is the softest goal I’ve seen him give up in quite some time.

Notes:

That was…odd. Not Friday; at this point an 8-3 win is the norm. Saturday, though it fit the recent pattern of Saturday loses after Friday wins, felt like a game from 2012 or 2013: close, but with a soft goal allowed that made the difference. I’ve been impressed with the goaltenders this year, as they’ve drastically reduced the number of soft goals they’ve allowed; the vast majority of the goals Michigan has allowed this year have been caused by the defense hanging the goalie out to dry.

That wasn’t the case Saturday. Michigan’s forwards and defensemen were more physical than they’ve been all season. They went to the corners to dig pucks out and tried to move guys from the front of the net, and the night was spoiled by a single soft goal. Despite the outcome, Michigan carried play the entire weekend thanks in large part to their aforementioned physicality. Poor decision making reared its ugly head from time to time, but I thought that the defensemen did a better job of reading the play and moving the puck out of the defensive zone. Take away the soft goal and Saturday was one of Michigan’s most complete performances of the year.

Jason Rubinstein of The Daily wrote about it in his gamer, and Saturday’s loss cemented this in my mind: Michigan still doesn’t have an identity. They’ve had a batch of games like Friday, the puck going in seemingly at ease and offensive prowess papering over a number of defensive miscues and generally withdrawn play. There haven’t been games like Saturday, the puck not going in but defensive awareness and physical play keeping them in a close one. I know “identity” sounds a bit cliché, but drill down and the point is finding a pattern in the style of a team’s play, and that’s what Michigan’s lacking.

This is a tournament team if they can bridge the gap and find the middle ground where their skill is on display but not at the expense of their defense. If they can’t, though—if they maintain a split personality or resign themselves to being fueled solely by their offense—then they’re going to lose Big Ten games to teams they have no business losing to, get blasted in PairWise/RPI, and once again have to win the Big Ten Tournament to make the NCAAs. That’s already a possibility given the weakness of the conference; remain inconsistent and it’s a certainty.

Downing hits a guy and gets tossed and gets suspended two games, part XVIII:

Certainly wasn’t intentional, but he did get him in the head.

Didn’t stop these kids from letting the refs know how they felt.

PairWise/RPI Watch:

Michigan fell from #9 to #14.