Michigan Hockey Game #41: Quinnipiac 5, Michigan 2
CLICK HERE for Game Recap from Kristy McNeil and other pertinent information.
What just happened (TL;DR): Michigan turned in another stinker performance in a national semifinal. While they did generate some chances in the last couple of periods, they just gave away chances in transition like no other. Unfortunately, Erik Portillo’s (probable) last game in the Michigan crease was probably his worst. He got banked twice and flat out missed a harmless shot from the boards. Quinnipiac played much steadier and and stronger in their zone, waiting for Wolverine mistakes. This year, they came in torrents and the Bobcats pounced and feasted.
FINAL CORSI NUMBERS (www.collegehockeynews.com)
|
|
Total Attempts |
Even Strength |
Power Play |
Close (within 1) |
Even Strength % |
|
Quinnipiac |
57 |
50 |
7 |
37 |
45% |
|
Michigan |
74 |
62 |
12 |
37 |
55% |
Forward Notes.
-Quinnipiac got the game style and scoring sequence that they wanted in the first two periods. They all but erased Michigan’s offense from their forward lines. The bottom three lines for Michigan mostly went unnoticed as they collectively managed just five shots on net all evening. Depth scoring has been something that the Wolverines got for enough of the year, but they struggled just to get a puck on Yaniv Perets all night. Eric Ciccolini did ring the iron in the third period, probably Michigan’s best chance in the final stanza.
-After having a rough first period, the top line did kick it into gear and generated plenty of chances in the second (not quite as many in the third). Adam Fantilli scored a typical blast from the dot in the second period to tie it after Luke Hughes teed him up nicely. Rutger McGroarty and Gavin Brindley both had great chances to get on the board all night. This was not a vintage Michigan offensive night –thanks mostly to suffocating Bobcat defense, but the top line did a lot. Hopefully, it’s not the last time we see them together.
-There’s really not a whole lot that’s been left unsaid. Look, Adam Fantilli is the best player I’ve seen at Michigan. Kyle Connor was great, but Adam is at a different level. He also has that MacKinnon fire and competitiveness. He scored and somehow his the underside of the bar without scoring. He creates, he muscles, he dishes…he backchecks. He stayed in the middle of the ice looking around and waving to the fans after the game. That doesn’t mean it’s a done deal that he’s leaving…but it easily could be, too. I wouldn’t blame him. Either way, Adam, (if you’re reading this), it’s been amazing watching you all year. I’ll be hard pressed to not get your jersey when you’re tearing up the NHL.
Defense Notes.
-WOOF. The in-zone defense wasn’t the worst it’s been all season, but it was inconsistent, especially early. They did settle down a bit as the game progressed. The transition tracking was pretty horrendous, though. That will be discussed later.
-Unfortunately for Luke Hughes, his last game in Maize and Blue will be a haunting one. He’s been tremendous and other-worldly many times in his career. On Thursday night in Tampa, though…it was rough. Not only did he turn the puck over too many times, he also got toasted on the Jacob Quillan breakaway goal. Just afterwards, he left a QCat alone at the top of the crease for an easy deflection that ultimately went high. Now, ESPN reported that he was regurgitating consumables into a trash can behind the bench…so that could easily have had some impact, ha. Luke did make an awesome dish for Adam Fantilli for his game-tying blast from the dot. Luke has been quite the interesting case in his career. Many highs and lows. It’s unfortunate for it to end like this.
-On a much more positive note, Seamus Casey was the best non-Adam Fantilli player on the ice for Michigan. His Makar-esque goal in the first period, dancing through basically every yellow sweater before slipping the puck around Perets temporarily tied the game. He also shook another Bobcat and drew a penalty, getting into the slot. Casey also used his body well to keep the puck in the zone and not be out-muscled by a larger opposing forward. That is a really good sign. The shakes and dekes are expected…adding some body positioning to win a physical battle at the blue line is +++. He could have been at fault for OMRs, but I didn’t see any specifically…but on a night when there were like a million, everyone probably was at one point
AND…he’s a good dresser (Alejandro Zuniga)
SPECIAL TEAMS CHART
|
|
PP Opportunities |
PP Corsi For |
PP Shots/Minute |
|
Quinnipiac |
0/2 |
7 |
3/4 |
|
Michigan |
0/3 |
12 |
6/6 |
Power Play. Michigan has three power plays in Tampa, but could not convert on any of them. They were fine on their first attempt, but were just a smidge off on a number of chances. Their second opportunity created a B-E-A-UTIFUL chance when Fantilli passed the puck off of Perets to Rutger, who JUST could not lift it over Yaniv’s outstretched pad. That would have given Michigan the lead after two periods. What a play…by everyone, actually. Eric Ciccolini rang the iron (after Yaniv’s mask) on their third chance. That would have tied the game. While Michigan didn’t get the puck luck, they also probably didn’t deserve it in other ways.
Penalty Kill. The Wolverine PK was not an issue at all. They killed off both of the Bobcat power plays with relative ease. Erik Portillo had to make a few saves on the second one, but nothing was too dangerous. This was a point of concern kind of all year and definitely coming into Thursday night, but it was not their downfall at all.
This was a cool photo (David Nasternak’s Phone)
GOALTENDING CHART
|
|
Michigan Shots Faced (House) |
Quinnipiac Shots Faced (House) |
|
First Period |
9 |
8 |
|
Second Period |
9 |
12 |
|
Third Period |
12 |
11 |
|
Overtime |
n/a |
n/a |
|
TOTAL |
30 |
31 |
Notes. Hoo boy. My first Frozen Four game was in Denver in 2008. Billy Sauer had a great year, and Michigan had the best team. Sauer had the worst first period of his life, and it ultimately doomed Michigan in OT. Erik Portillo didn’t have a much better first period. He turned the puck over twice behind his net. He left some rebounds…and he got banked for a goal from behind the net. While Portillo cleaned up a lot of play in the second, keeping Michigan in the game and giving folks a reason to believe the Wolverines would come out on top, his third period also disappointed. Erik came out to stop an open look. He did…then dropped the rebound behind the net…and got banked a second time for the eventual game-winner. He also just fanned on a harmless shot from the boards for the fourth goal.
Alex called it a Mike Smith performance. Portillo made six (!) different saves on OMRs that kept Michigan in the game for 53 minutes. He slammed the door on a 2v0 that might have ended the game in the first period. But…the rest of the goals also happened. That just cannot happen in the NCAA Tournament game –let alone a Frozen Four- and have a positive result. I didn’t think Yaniv Perets was a Vezina candidate on Thursday night…but he also didn’t give anything away. Erik Portillo have been awesome over the last month. He more than did his part and stole some sections of games when Michigan needed him. All in all, I think he’s had a memorable career. Like Luke, unfortunately, his last skate for the Maize and Blue will also be a haunting one. I feel for him.
ODD MAN RUSH CHART
|
Defense |
Rushes |
Advs |
Escape% |
Offense |
Rushes |
Advs |
Scoring% |
|
1st Period |
3 |
1v0, 2v0, 3v1 |
66% |
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
|
2nd Period |
3 |
1v0, 3v2, 4v3 |
100% |
|
1 |
2v1 |
0% |
|
3rd Period |
3 |
1v0, 2v1, 4v2 |
100% |
|
1 |
2v1 |
0% |
|
OT |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
|
Total |
9 |
TOO MANY |
88% |
|
2 |
2v1 x2 |
0% |
Notes. WOOF. In the first 12 minutes, the Bobcats generated three great chances in transition. Luke Hughes was beaten inside by Jacob Quillan, who flew in alone and beat Portillo five hole. Erik kept Michigan in the game by making an extended pad save against a 2v0. Unfortunately, though, the OMRs just poured in all night all. Nine is more than I have ever tracked, and I don’t even have to look that up. While they only gave up a goal on one, that is just unacceptable.
Michigan generated a couple OMRs on offense. Neither one really developed into a good scoring chance, though. Gavin Brindley caught a pass while his skate but could not get it to his stick and challenge Yaniv Perets. That’s all I have to say about that.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Lately, Michigan looked like they turned a corner. They fixed some bad habits. They gelled and excelled in a lot of different areas. Thursday night was a snap-back to reality. They played like a young team, sometimes trying to do too much. Quinnipiac baited and capitalized. This was not all of who Michigan was this year, but it was the Mr. Hyde version. Their bad habits returned on defense and in net. They were also mostly shut down by a team that is very good, experienced and well-coached. If Michigan played to their ceiling, would they have won this game? Probably. I thought after the last few weeks that they had one or two more of those performances in them. Unfortunately, they did not. The better team won the game. The two best teams in college hockey will play for the National Championship.
It was a hockey performance that was not out of character for the 2022-2023 Michigan Hockey team.
Some brilliance and talent. Periods of sustained excellence. Also some odd-man rushes and some (very) questionable goaltending.
The best I can say is that this wasn't the sort of game where Michigan wasn't themselves. They were themselves, and a little bit too much of themselves in certain ways. Against a disciplined, older, trapping team that's very good like Qpac, well... it wasn't enough.
This is who I thought Michigan was entering the tournament: Talented, very good, but at some point the weakness is going to burn you and it did. Last year was disappointing in part because Michigan did not play like itself against Denver and lost in OT. This year Michigan *did* play like itself, and here we are.
That it happened with not one, but two goals bounced off of Portillo's back? Well, that's a new paint color on the portrait of Michigan's gut-punch losses in NCAA tournaments.
It was a 50-50 game. It didn't break our way. It was a fun ride. Once again, it's not our year.
Did anyone else laugh their ass off when they showed Brind'amour was drafted.... In the 6th round.... In 2017! And he's still playing college hockey in 2023.
But that's also what Pecknold built his team on, overagers that still have some talent, but not enough to leave before they played out all their eligibility. If you can get those guys to play a system, you're golden. What was the stat they said at the end of the game? Over the last two years Qpac is 65-11-6? That's f*g crazy.
I saw that and shook my head. I know its part of the game but it is really alarming that you can field a team of grown ass men, who should be attempting to make a living elsewhere, against a bunch of guys who cant even buy a drink. “College” hockey is the only sport like this and it is shit.
Every college sport can be like this. There is no rule restricting age, just eligibility based on years in college. College hockey players not starting college until age 20 or 21 is no different than the players who go on Mormon missions for 2-3 years before getting to college. Andrew Gentry is an OL on the football team, he’ll be 22 in October and a redshirt freshman.
The difference in college hockey is that EVERYONE has players on the team that do this. Nick Granowicz for Michigan just turned 25. Kienan Draper is a 7th round pick, a freshman, and turned 21 in January.
In terms of age, Quinnipiac isn’t even very old. Michigan’s average age is 21y0m. Youngest in the country. Quinnipiac ranks 36th (out of 62) at 22y3m.
The age thing with college hockey had always struck me as weird and so it's baked in a bit, but I'd also like to know a la KenPom the functional age of teams vs. overall age. It would just help to give some context around why a 18-year-old is battling on the boards against a 25-year-old.
This is just part of college hockey and the little schools won't ever let it change but while BYU has a bunch of overagers that's one team, not like how college football used to be with a bunch of guys off the docks and meat packing plants smashing each other then going home to their 5 kids.
I know its a big sport for Michigan and I had an absolute blast going to games at Yost but college hockey is an absolute joke. Its a small niche sport of 60 teams comprised of teams basically entirely from the north east and midwest. The recruiting set up lets teams of 25 year olds just dominate more skilled teams, its tournaments gets low attendance, and making the "final four" is winning two games. There's a reason its basically a non entity on the national sports landscape and its because its just so poorly structured.
College hockey is really only like this because of the preponderance of junior leagues and options to go pro. Anyone who can compete with Michigan in football or basketball generally used up their eligibility as an 18-22 year old since there's really nowhere else to play. In hockey lots of these guys are hanging out in the NAHL or somewhere like that and never enroll in college till they're 22+. There's no age limit on enrolling in college *shrug*
It wouldn't be the worst idea for Michigan to try to build like ~25% of their roster on skilled over-agers and build out the rest with young talent
Michigan is the youngest team in D1 with the average age of 21!!!!
The two off his back were because he ventures out and doesn't return in any timely fashion. The best goalies only venture as far as they can return quick enough.
Nice write-up. And I agree: With the possible exception of the last 10 minutes of the second period, I thought Quinnipiac outplayed Michigan and was, tonight, clearly the better team -- even forgetting Portillo's play.
Quick note: You kind of breezed past Quinnipiac's power play, but their first goal came right after their first power play ended, before Michigan had regained the puck or cleared the zone. I would say, in fact, they were 1-2 on their PP, while we were 0-3. That was, you could argue, yet another area of the game they outplayed us.
Still, what the hell. In some ways, better to lose this way than another OT goal in a game where we were the better team. It was a great year, and the program is in excellent shape. Onwards!
Ah, yes. I'm reminded of what I wrote after last year. Score is different, result is the same.
The pursuit of a tenth national title is an image of Sisyphus rolling that rock up a hill season after season. He reaches the top, daring to hope that he is about to complete his task. But, always, at the last moment the rock slips from his grasp and plunges back down the hill. Sisyphus watches in anguish as it rolls down again. He squints, shields his eyes, and sees something as it descends.
On the surface of the rock, tumbling downward, he reads the inscription:
3-2 loss (OT)
Season overBack to the foot of the hill.
Well, it wasn't OT. For once.
awful
Michigan hockey, football, and basketball have 0 championships in their last 12 "final four" apperances.
UConn basketball has 5 championships in their last 6 appearances.
Throw in women’s basketball and they have 16 national titles since 1995. Sheesh.
For all the talk about future NHL blah blah blah, aside from some moments of brilliant individual effort there was a lot of sloppy play mishandling of pucks passes that had me thinking that this was not very NHL like. In fact the other team looked more like an NHL team to me. I mean there was literally zero defense WTF?!? And our goalie was just not good. He literally looked like he was on skates the way he was moving around out there and getting used and abused. The amount of puck watching on defense was most disappointing to me.
In fact the other team looked more like an NHL team to me.
I mean that’s going to happen from time to time when you have the youngest team in the country going up against one of the most experienced teams. Michigan has much more individual skill and you’ll see flashes of that. Quinnipiac is disciplined, they’re structured, they’re more physically mature and they’re experienced.
Everyone knows that a lacrosse-style goal is called a "Michigan."
But after this past year's football and hockey seasons, I have to wonder: Is having an excellent year, winning the B1G Tournament, only to get to the Final Four and crap out - is that going to be known as a "Michigan," too?
Whatever it's called, it's another UM team in a situation where they had to play their best - and they very much didn't.
For me, expecting to come up short on the big stage has been part of the brand for quite some time.
My teenage daughter, who knows little about sports, asked if Michigan won the championship. When I told her no, we didn't even make the title game, she said "That's what you guys always do, isn't it?"
If even she sees it, it absolutely is our brand.
Not so short and bitter:
- Qpac was the better team with a more disciplined system that had players execute it and goalie that made all the easy saves and a couple difficult ones. Pecknold is an excellent coach and I'd be surprised if he doesn't get an NHL sniff if beats Michigan and Minnesota in succession.
- Hughes was bad and Edwards was invisible. The Casey rushes were great because he kept skating to space. Hughes too often tries to stickhandle through people instead of taking the space afforded you by the opposition. It works when you can get the other team to panic and play undisciplined. Qpac, 100% to their credit, did not. They held the middle and team checked Hughes off the puck all night to generate counters.
- I thought Fantilli's line was fabulous all game even though the score sheet didn't show it. Brindley and McGroarty are perfect linemates for Fantilli complimenting his dominant skill set with auxiliary skills that generate chances for the Thunderbolt (I really want whatever NHL team drafts Fantilli to give him #10 and start a "A-10 The Thunderbolt / Warthog" campaign... Whenever he's on the ice he the hockey equivalent of one- you know where he is, you can throw everything you got at him, and he's still going to unleash hell on you from all angles)
- Portillo just is what he is, a standard to above average tall goalie who is clumsy and relies solely on his size to stop pucks. He'll have a solid 10-15 yr career in the top Swedish pro league, but he'll be an average ECHL goalie otherwise never quite sniffing the NHL.
Bottom line- yes Michigan has more talent than Qpac but Qpac this year is the better team and probably would win 4 out of 7 from Michigan in a series. That experience playing together is something to behold.
Before the game I felt pretty confident Michigan would win a best of 7. Now not so sure. Those defensive lapses were bad...but we've also seen this team play considerably better than that recently. Who knows
I've always had an issue with how far out of the crease Portillo comes to stop some shots, especially because he pushes rebounds to the side and occasionally that leaves a guy WIDE open on the other side of the crease with an easy tap in goal. That's baked in though.
But those 2 bankshot goals were just... what the hell? The first one he just sat there after blocking the first shot. Get up and get back to the post. I don't understand his reaction. And then he did it again?! Just why?
I’ve only watched a handful of the games this year, but every one involved a shocking number of defensive gaffes, turnovers, breakaways, 2-on-1s etc on defense. Add in Portillo’s clumsiness and it feels like a miracle that they got this far, even with all that talent. Hopefully Naurato can clean that up in the off-season.
Well, it’s nice to see Naurato picking up right where Red and Mel left off with his first of what has been an endless parade of Frozen Four futility. We’ll probably lose three to five underclassmen to the pros and be the youngest team for the third straight year. Lather, rinse, repeat. Welcome Coach!
Well...at least the season didn't end in OT.
First off- we definitely deserved to lose that one. Felt like other minute Quinnipiac was getting someone in all alone in front of Portillo or he was facing some type of odd man opportunity. While Quinnipiac got to 4 in a weird way, it felt like that was what the score should be. Defense was awful all night and it felt like Hughes had one of those games where he was trying so hard to make offense happen that he was turning it over a ton and chasing down OMRs from behind. I know thats part of the Hughes experience, but you like to strike a balance there and he seemed like a definite net negative
On that note, what a weird night from Portillo. He made a ton of great saves on the first shot opportunity but then it felt like he constantly lost track of the puck and any 2nd and 3rd chance opportunities turned into massive scramble drills. His 1st goal was a direct result of some puck handling reminiscent of when he was a freshman. Playing it behind the night with no urgency while on the kill. The turnover led to the goal sequence. Then the 3rd was pretty bad and the 4th was so bad.
Even though it felt like we couldve lost 8-2, in that 2nd period we were really pressing Qpac in the 2nd half and I feel like if we'd gotten goal #3 (like maybe that Rutger chance) that we end up pulling it out
Can't help but feel Minnesota isn't going to make the same mistakes we did and is probably about to cruise to a national title. I'd be surprised if they don't win by 3+
To try to put an optimistic end on the season, this was Narauto's first season with basically no off season time to prep. Rather than it being yet another failure to each the top, maybe it's the start of a great new era. One can hope
Thought about this last night, but Michigan Hockey's record in the Frozen Four semi-finals (at least over the last 20-25 years) are almost the polar opposite of Michigan basketball's record in the Final Four semis.
I think Michigan is something like 6-1 or 7-1 in the Final Four semi-finals, but 1-6 or 1-7 in the Frozen Four semi-finals.
Not that there's any correlation between the two. Completely different programs. Just thought it was odd.
And football on its way with an 0-2 mark!
In a single game playoff, in any sport, it is all about defense.
From mid season on I imagined they'd coach Portillo to not venture out as much, or at least only.if he could return to net in time, because he has a bad tendency to do so, which normally would work, if, he had the ambition and speed to return to net to secure it. This didn't happen.
Thought the same thing with Hughes, that they'd get him to cut down the high risk plays without curbing the effectiveness on the low risk ones... This didn't happen either.
50/50 game is bullshit.
The philosophical platitudes are also crap.
The past team play in the Frozen 4 have zero bearing on this inexcusably disappointing loss. Inexcusable because the team had extra time to prepare and allowed the TCU of Hockey (in respect to the amount of talent on the field against them) to take the game from them as they regressed to their worst version of themselves.
This game in not just a game. This was the most important game at the most important time and to play this poorly has me now concerned. Why did JUB and other hockey insiders not want to stamp this hire? Did we see the why in this performance because any coach is going to put this effort on himself as they should.
Yes I believe this was the correct hire after winning the B1G Championship and making a Frozen 4. I fully expect top level recruiting and not to lack for talent with this coach. I expected the same from the current basketball coach. After that effort in that game seeing the team regress with extra time to prepare under that leadership...its fair to ask questions and have concerns.
No-Making a Frozen 4 and a B1G Tourney Title is not enough to simply celebrate and not be critical of this disappointment.
Considering the JUB favored candidate was Muckalt, a Pearson disciple, and last year’s Pearson led team also flamed out with a poor performance in the semis, “this is a uniquely Naurato problem” is a weird take.
Luke Hughes is going to get cooked in the NHL
Just like his brother, Quinn, who had *exactly the same issues in college*? How's he doing now?
Breaking News: young players get better and more disciplined with age and experience.
Outskated. Flat beat. Hats off to the whatever they ares.
Have to credit the coaching at Quinnipiac for this win. First, they had a plan and their players executed it to perfection, stayed in their system, and gave a maximum effort in the game. That is good coaching. Second, they clearly had a specific plan for beating Portillo: Challenge his puck handling and poor net positioning. This plan would be obvious to anyone who watched him this year. He's good at reaction saves (when he's paying attention) but very vulnerable during scrambles and when he's forced to handle the puck. Attempting multiple bank shots from behind the goal line was obviously in the game plan. 2 goals and a couple of other good chances resulted. On the other hand, we did not appear to have anything in our plan for this game. What was their goalie's weakness and how did we try to exploit it? Don't know because we played like we always play. We tried to do what we usually do and it didn't work. Not only that, but the same weaknesses that have existed all year continued to bite us in the ass. Is Hughes just uncoachable? He apparently believes he can always get back, no matter how inattentive and out of position he is. Can't he be convinced through the film that this is not the case? Is every defenseman just an incurable puck watcher in our zone - with only mild interest in actually getting the puck and getting it out of our zone? Apparently, because they have played like this all year. We were outplayed and out-coached in this one.
I think the QPac goalie's weakness is side to side movement.. Casey's goal undressed him bad from not a particularly hard angle / move, and Fantilli's goal was a laser but a laser from a place to force the goalie to move. Even the two posts we hit were movement (almost) goals. The 2 on 1 with Fantilli and Brindley would have been the best chance to test that to see if lateral movement was his weakness. QPac seemed to be content to let us try and go to difficult spots for shots so long as they were from same angle... they seemed to be good at blocking down the cross ice passing lanes.
Michigan hockey reminds me of Kentucky basketball. Tons of NHL or NBA players, but no championships. Losing to older more cohesive teams that don't have as many pro players but have played together a lot longer.
I would settle though for Kentucky's level of "no championships."
Seems like JUB’s recent comments about the defensive concerns under Naurato are spot on. Hopefully these are issues they can address. Couldnt out talent a veteran and disciplined team and could have easily given up a couple more goals early on due to those defensive lapses
The way this team had been playing, I really thought we would win it all. Quinnipiac’s record based on a weak schedule and their lack of high NHL draft picks, as discussed in the preview, made me more confident. Add in the fact we had just beaten Minnesota on their ice, and it seemed all the stars had aligned. Not to diminish what the team accomplished, but this was a very disappointing end to the season.
A loss is easier to stomach when you just flat out get your asses kicked...and Q just flat out kicked our asses yesterday. Sure, they scored some dumb goals, but they had some incredible chances that they didn't score on. The better team won.
Sadly, until this program embraces physical defensive hockey to add to its obvious offensive exploits, i think it will continue to be the same result: relative success in the regular season with not much more than a puncher’s chance when things get serious.
I wanted us to keep playing the next week right after the Allentown series. We were hot and focused. I was concerned the long layoff would take off some of that focus. It certainly looked that way.
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