Look, I'm not naive. This is a Michigan blog in the middle of football season, and I understand that the vast majority of you are here to read about football. That's ok, I come here for that too. Having said that, I'm guessing most of us feel a lot like this .gif (which Ace posted on Twitter Sunday night). Most of us probably have visions of the interior offensive line standing by, stationary, like cops by the side of the freeway (Hey, that guy's going by us way too fast. He's gonna cause an accid...see? See, that's what I was saying). 

Forget about all that for a minute and get lost in the glorious charts of a Michigan team ranked #2 in the latest USCHO poll. That's right, there's a Michigan team that's climbing up the polls! If they continue playing the way that they have (read: willing to battle for puck possession, realtively intelligent passing, good forechecking) then there are going to be a lot of people who find a more enjoyable way to spend their Saturday nights once football season is over.

Friday, October 25 vs. Boston University (W, 2-1)

1st Period

	Michigan	BU
Goals	0	1
Shots	12	4
Missed	5	2
Blocked	7	1
Total	24	8
%	75.00	25.00

2nd Period

	Michigan	BU
Goals	0	0
Shots	16	7
Missed	7	3
Blocked	5	2
Total	28	12
%	70.00	30.00

3rd Period

	Michigan	BU
Goals	2	0
Shots	12	7
Missed	8	6
Blocked	8	3
Total	30	16
%	65.22	34.78

Overall

	Michigan	BU
Goals	2	1
Shots	40	18
Missed	20	11
Blocked	20	6
Total	82	36
%	69.49	30.51

Saturday, October 26 vs. UMass Lowell (L, 1-2)

1st Period

	Michigan	UMass Lowell
Goals	0	0
Shots	12	12
Missed	0	7
Blocked	3	5
Total	15	24
%	38.46	61.54

2nd Period

	Michigan	UMass Lowell
Goals	1	1
Shots	18	14
Missed	7	6
Blocked	5	4
Total	31	25
%	55.36	44.64

3rd Period

	Michigan	UMass Lowell
Goals	0	1
Shots	8	10
Missed	4	4
Blocked	5	4
Total	17	19
%	47.22	52.78

Overall

	Michigan	UMass Lowell
Goals	1	2
Shots	38	36
Missed	11	17
Blocked	13	13
Total	63	68
%	48.09	51.91

 

Friday, November 1 vs. Michigan Tech (W, 3-2 OT)

I am Mario and MGoBlueTV is the castle. Someday I shall breach those daunting castle walls, but last Friday was not that day. In other words, no charts.

Saturday, November 2 vs. Michigan Tech (W, 2-1)

1st Period

	Michigan	Tech
Goals	1	0
Shots	10	6
Missed	5	1
Blocked	4	4
Total	20	11
%	64.52	35.48

2nd Period

	Michigan	Tech
Goals	0	0
Shots	11	8
Missed	8	3
Blocked	5	5
Total	24	16
%	60.00	40.00

3rd Period

	Michigan	Tech
Goals	1	1
Shots	8	10
Missed	0	3
Blocked	0	6
Total	9	20
%	31.03	68.97

Overall

	Michigan	Tech
Goals	2	1
Shots	29	24
Missed	13	7
Blocked	9	15
Total	53	47
%	53.00	47.00

Assorted Thoughts

• Winning the Corsi battle correlates with winning in the three games charted. It does not, however, correlate with scoring margin. The caveat is the small sample size, which is why I'm charting everything I possible can; we'll see how this plays out over the season.
• Michigan has only won once (against Boston College) when they have had a worse possession percentage than their opponent in the first period. Maybe there's something to be said for starting strong.
• Michigan has looked flat in the third period too often this year. It cost them against UMass Lowell and it could have cost them against Michigan Tech on Saturday. This "flatness" is reflected in the possession numbers above.
• I'm collecting power play data too, but my plan is to publish that around the midseason point in a longer post.