Friday, February 12, 2016

Wisconsin 1, #6 Michigan 4

1st period

MOTTE GOAL, MICHIGAN

UW 0 UM 1 EV 04:25 Assists: Compher & De Jong

De Jong picks up a loose puck in the neutral zone and moves it close to the blue line, but he’s shoved off the puck before he can gain the zone. The puck rolls ahead to Motte, who sees Compher opposite him and passes across.

Compher tries to corral the puck on his backhand but it hits the blade and hops over. He has to turn toward the wall and head down the boards to gather it.

As Compher comes out of his turn he’s already made the decision to pass; he must have seen Motte heading to the net before turning, because he unleashes a slap pass the second he’s got the puck. You can see there’s one Wisconsin defender who’s noticed Motte drove outside to cut inside.

The aforementioned defender isn’t able to do anything to stop the shot, though, as the pass gets through traffic and is shoveled toward the net while Motte’s still unchecked. Jurusik doesn’t know where Motte is, and he can’t shift back and over from where he was positioned for a potential Compher shot in time to get anything on Motte’s shot.

[After THE JUMP: A puck disappears under the side of the net and is called a goal. I blame gravitational waves, which seems to be a popular explanation.]

Wagner goal, Wisconsin

UW 1 UM 1 EV 17:19 Assists: Davison

Werenski’s behind Wagner and can’t get to the puck first for an icing, so he gets his stick in the shooting lane to good effect. Wagner’s shot deflects skyward after hitting Werenski’s stick, and it falls near, but outside, the crease.

As the puck’s falling, Cecconi’s being pushed into the net by Soleway. The net has now been knocked from its moorings.

The puck hits one of the bodies in that tangle near the crease pictured below and changes direction; hard to tell from the angles available, but it seems like it might hit Werenski’s side. The puck rolls toward the net, but it looks harmless; the bottom of the net’s off the ice.

Okay,  the puck ends up in the net but the goal’s waved off. It’s going to be reviewed, but it shouldn’t be that hard to uphold the no-goal call.

WHAT?

Wow. Well, I’m sure there’s a plausible, likely technical, reason the goal was allowed.

…

WAIT SERIOUSLY WHAT!?

2nd period

DANCS GOAL, MICHIGAN

UW 1 UM 2 EV 08:20 Assists: Nieves & Werenski

Werenski puts a nice bounce pass for Nieves off the boards in the defensive zone; Nieves gets the puck near the blue line and carries through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone. He runs into Wisconsin’s first line of defense as he cuts left to right.

Nieves doesn’t exactly hide what he’s about to do, backhanding a shot that’s fairly powerful but stopped. Jurusik isn’t able to smother the puck, and a rebound bounces out front.

Dancs is exactly where the rebound lands, and he lifts a backhander into the far-side top corner. It’s an absolutely perfectly located shot.If there’s one thing to note defensively it’s that Dancs’ defender leaves him just a tiny bit too much of a gap, but that doesn’t diminish how dead-on Dancs’ aim is on this shot.

3rd period

KILE GOAL, MICHIGAN

UW 1 UM 3 PPG 06:21 Assists: Connor & Compher

Compher’s moving diagonally toward the blue line, but the defender does a nice job of eliminating the passing lane. Compher does have a good option, however, as he has Connor along the boards awaiting a drop pass.

Connor stickhandles for a second before seeing what he’s looking for: Kile’s in the middle of the two low defenders and has his blade angled for a redirection.

Connor keeps the puck low, and when it hits Kile’s blade it jumps; there’s no chance Jurusik’s able to stop this since he has to stay square to Connor in case he shoots.

CONNOR GOAL, MICHIGAN

UW 1 UM 4 EN 19:36 Assists: Motte & Compher

[Somehow the last few frames of the gif dropped. I didn’t remake it because I think you know what happens next.]

Wisconsin turns it up the board for a minute, drawing Connor up before walking back down the boards. There’s a pretty big lane to the front of the net that could be used for a redirection, but Motte spots this and jumps the shot. He knocks the puck into the corner.

Wagner passes behind the net for Kunin, and with the entirety of the defense having to shift direction this is pretty dangerous.

Kunin passes for the front of the net as Compher and Motte get to his side of the net; the pass hits Soleway’s skate. That’s a really dangerous opportunity that Racine likely would have saved, but with him having to go post to post there’s no certainty.

Compher ties up Soleway and Kunin overskates the puck, which allows Motte to grab the loose puck. The gif tells the rest of the story.

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Saturday, February 13, 2016

Wisconsin 4, #6 Michigan 4 (SO) [M wins shootout, gets extra point in standings]

1st period

MOTTE GOAL, MICHIGAN

UW 0 UM 1 SH 17:27 Assists: Compher

Wisconsin moves the puck around at the top of the zone, with Kunin eventually passing to Soleway near the side of the net. Soleway has the puck on his backhand and could fire a centering pass, but he decides to flip it on net.

Racine makes the save, and though the rebound heads to the middle of the slot it’s not in a problem area. You can see from the screen cap below that Motte and Compher are the only two players near it, and they’re about to go on the break.

I included this screen cap just to show what Compher and Motte were facing as they entered the offensive zone: one defender back, another closing on Compher to the point that his stick could take away the passing lane if he gains a step.

The one defender back decides to play Compher, so the trailing D tries to take away the pass. He does a pretty nice job, but Compher pulls off a beautiful saucer pass that goes over the stick of the defender who’s closing and is ahead of the one trying to take away the lateral passing lane.

Motte catches up to the puck and, with a step on his defender, is able to turn on a backhander and roof it. The puck is tucked just under the crossbar, reaching the back of the net as Jurusik tries to get across and square up.

2nd period

Kunin goal, Wisconsin

UW 1 UM 1 EV 00:53 Assists: Malone & Besse

Wisconsin chips it ahead and Downing loses a race with Besse. Besse turns and starts to walk it back up the boards while Downing loops away from him and heads to the front of the net; I think he assumes De Jong is going to take Besse up the boards, which leaves him free to cover elsewhere.

That doesn’t matter for long, though, as Besse sees Malone entering the zone with speed and passes. One thing worth noting: Kunin was in the faceoff circle in the first screen cap and is now off screen. He skated in front of Downing as Downing headed to the front of the net and then toward the opposite faceoff circle, and he’s about to read the pass to Malone and skate higher in the zone to Racine’s right.

Malone looks back a couple of times and sees that Kunin is behind the defense unnoticed. He continues skating toward the faceoff circle and, just before he gets there, fires a no-look pass through the open lane.

Kunin does a nice job of redirecting the puck, getting his blade underneath so it goes airborne. The puck goes over Racine’s pads to the right, a shot he had virtually no chance at stopping.

CONNOR GOAL, MICHIGAN

UW 1 UM 2 EV 08:11 Assists: De Jong

Wisconsin goes D to D along the blue line when Connor takes a bit of a gamble. His lunge pays off, though, as the puck flutters into the high slot, where De Jong awaits its arrival.

De Jong sees Connor taking off and throws a nice stretch pass ahead for him.

Connor gets the puck in excellent scoring position, so Tischke decides his best move is to basically inverted shoryuken him. Tischke has a stick in his hands because this is hockey and not Street Fighter, so the result is exacerbated (and ugly).

Connor still manages to pull the puck backhand-forehand and sneak it around Jurusik’s outstretched leg pad.

Besse goal, Wisconsin

UW 2 UM 2 EV 19:47 Assists: Hughes & Tischke

Michigan shoots, Jurusik paddles a rebound behind the net, and Connor picks it up for a second before getting pinned against the boards. This allows Hughes to gain possession and carry it up the boards.

Besse flies through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone when he slams on the brakes. He’s looking for a pass here, but there isn’t one he’s comfortable making that doesn’t move the puck backward.

Kunin gets separation from his defender, and as Besse watches this he sees said defender turn into a momentary screen. Racine gets his glove out but misses.

3rd period

COMPHER GOAL, MICHIGAN

UW 2 UM 3 EV 00:15 Assists: Connor & Downing

Wisconsin gets a long shot on net off the opening faceoff; Racine saves it and moves it to Downing, who passes up to Connor. The circled defender is caught flat footed because he thinks the pass will go to Motte, and when he realizes it might go to Compher he has to stop and turn.

Compher’s given a comfortable gap by the two defenders back, and when he sees that one is going to step up on him he makes the decision to shoot.

Jurusik doesn’t play this poorly, really; it’s just a perfectly placed shot, a quick-riser that hits the top corner.

Wagner goal, Wisconsin

UW 3 UM 3 EV 00:44 Assists: Schulze

Schulze gets the puck behind his net and executes an insanely nice stretch pass that hits Wagner just before he crosses the blue line.

It’s actually kind of a nice surprise that there’s even a Michigan defender that close.

Werenski does a nice job of altering the shot attempt without interfering; he’s able to lift Wagner’s stick, and though the puck slides away momentarily Wagner gets his blade back on the puck.

You can see in the screen cap above that Racine’s starting to push off with his right skate. He has to in order to square up to Wagner’s backhanded attempt, but that opens up the five hole for a second. That’s long enough for Wagner to send it through.

DANCS GOAL, MICHIGAN

UW 3 UM 4 EX 10:13 Assists: Werenski & Nieves

Michigan cycles the puck from low to high, eventually moving it to Werenski at the point. He decides to shoot it into traffic in front of the net and hope it gets redirected.

The puck ends up hitting Soleway and rolling over his back. Dancs sees this and turns for it, while Soleway doesn’t seem to notice and does his best to lock up Dancs to prevent him from getting to any perceived rebounds.

Dancs somehow roofs it just as Jurusik lunges to his right and puts his leg pad down. Jurusik misses as the puck rises faster than he expects, his outstretched blocker unable to get a piece of the puck.

Kunin goal, Wisconsin

UW 4 UM 4 EX 19:33 Assists: Hughes & Besse

Besse gets the puck behind the net and rims it around the boards. Hughes picks it up, feigns a turn up the boards, and walks back down them. This freezes Connor (circled).

Boka then goes to hit Hughes but doesn’t seem to line him up correctly, and Hughes skates through it.

As Compher comes over to cover Hughes toe drags around him, passing as the puck goes to his backhand.

Kunin doesn’t get the puck cleanly, but he basically one-times it in order to take advantage of no defenders noticing where he is and Racine on the opposite side of the net because of Hughes.

Overtime

No scoring

Shootout

W- Wagner- miss

M- Motte- miss

W- Kunin- miss

M- Compher-

(That’s a really nice wrong-leg fake in the slot which freezes Jurusik and opens up the backhanded attempt)

W- Besse- miss

Notes:

• Michigan remains sixth in PairWise despite tying 37th-place Wisconsin. In a game where Wisconsin was credited with 44 shots, I’ll take it.
• M seems to have a really tough time defensively when the direction of play is reversed, and in more than one way; there are times where communication seems to not get through on switches, and other times when guys just seem to lose their assignment.
• Michigan plays Ferris State in a one-off contest Friday night. Ferris is 29th in PairWise, so it’s another game needs to win to hold serve. Barring a massive collapse they’ll make the tournament, but a road series against 16th-ranked Minnesota next week could lock that up.