Goal by goal analysis (GBGA) is something I've been doing on my Red Wings blog for a little over a year. I've been meaning to do another Michigan one since I did my first one back in November, but between grad school and getting terrible acid reflux from watching this team I haven't been able to find the time/patience to do so. 

A couple of notes about the images below:

• Dashed lines indicate something that did not happen but could have. The first screencap from the first goal is a good example of this with a pass that could have been made but wasn't. 
• Solid lines indicate the action of the play. Shots, passes, or a player's movement can all be indicated with solid arrows.
• Circles indicate a player integral to the developing play. Also, circles are awesome and fun to use because I don't have to hand draw them.

1st Period

07:58 UM 0 OSU 1: PP Tanner Fritz (9) from Craig Dalrymple (9) & Ryan Dzingel (18)

DeBlois makes a nice read and moves in to intercept a puck that OSU was trying to rim around the boards.

DeBlois carries the puck up the boards but holds on too long. If he moves the puck to his man in the faceoff circle a split second earlier then this play never unfolds, but instead he holds and OSU closes the gap quickly. The passing lane is taken away and DeBlois turns the puck over.

The puck is deflected and goes directly to the OSU player who was in the faceoff circle in the above screen cap. He carries the puck into the slot and creates a holy trifecta of hell for the netfront Michigan defender (I think it's Bennett but the video's so grainy it's hard to tell). The OSU player can attempt to pass it low if probably-Bennett steps up on him, shoot if probably-Bennett stays where he is, or pass to the man at the side of the net if....well, if he feels like it. He chooses to shoot and beats Racine glove side. 

08:19 UM 1 OSU 1: Andrew Copp (7) from Alex Guptill (12)

The OSU netminder stops the puck behind the net and reverses it up the boards to his teammate. Guptill is in on the forechek and gets in the passing lane. The puck hits Guptill's stick and trickles out to the high slot, where Guptill picks it up.

Guptill carries the puck for a second or two before backhanding a shot on net. See that big blue box in the screencap above? So does Copp, who goes hard to the net for a rebound. Lo and behold the OSU netminder makes the save on Guptill's backhand and gives up a rebound to Copp, who taps the puck past the outstretched OSU goalie.

"THIS IS A LOT MORE EFFECTIVE WITHOUT THE CAGE BUT YOU GUYS GET THE IDEA."

12:05 UM 2 OSU 1: Justin Selman (3) unassisted

Hyman picks up the puck behind the net and carries it into the faceoff circle. He doesn't have a pass option thanks to the carbon fiber drawbridge taking away the far side winger, so he instead shoots. His shot is stopped, but a rebound ends up in the slot. 

OSU lucks out and gathers the puck in front of the net. The OSU defender has two options here; skate it left and then either go behind the net or turn it up the boards, or skate into traffic to the right. 

The defender chooses option 3 and decides to pass into traffic. Selman is right there and must have listened to his coach when he was little because he's got his stick on the ice. It pays off, as Selman just has to snap the puck into the open net. How does the OSU defender feel in the above screencap?

HAGERUP FACE

15:48 UM 2 OSU 2: Tanner Fritz (10) from Max McCormick (13) & Clark Cristofoli (2)

This goal's hard to stomach as it seems like a pretty standard and unspectacular play. There's a wide open shooting lane with only one OSU player in front of the net. The problem here is that OSU's netfront player is screening the h-e-double-hockey-sticks (hockey puns, groan) out of Racine. The crease should be cleared by Michigan's defender but isn't, and the byproduct is Racine not being able to track the shot. It hits him and he falls backwards as the puck trickles past the goal line.

2nd Period

02:59 UM 3 OSU 2: Phil Di Giuseppe (7) from Boo Nieves (17) & Jon Merrill (4)

PDG looks like he's going to carry towards the blueline when he cuts hard and turns it back down ice. He absorbs a hard hit along the boards and starts to carry behind the net. It looks like PDG is going to try and thread a pass through the crease....

Which he sorta does. Is it a shot? Was it supposed to be a pass? It doesn't matter because the puck deflects off of something (the goalie's skate? a stick? Tacopants?) and ends up in the net.

05:16 UM 3 OSU 3: Max McCormick (11) from Tanner Fritz (22)

Bennett tries to feather a puck at the blueline and turns the puck over. OSU ends up with a 3-on-1, and if there's one thing that this year's Michigan hockey team has taught us it's that a situation like that probably won't end well.

Hey look, it doesn't end well! The pass goes to the right winger, who emphatically wrists is past Racine. Trouba does just about everything he can here. It's just a terrible overall situation.

3rd Period

05:25 UM 4 OSU 3: Alex Guptill (11) from A.J. Treais (13) & Jon Merrill (5)

Guptill attempts his best Pavel Datsyuk impression here and in the process creates what the play-by-play man called the best goal he's seen all year. He starts by dangling outside the defender.

Guptill then pulls the puck inside and skates through the faceoff circle, then again pulls the puck outside his body.

He then pulls the puck back inside and backhands a shot past the assuredly confused goaltender.

11:20 UM 5 OSU 3: Andrew Sinelli (2) from Justin Selman (5) & Jon Merrill (6)

This goal is so straightforward I'm going to write about it in passive voice to make things interesting (or more frustrating, whichever). The puck is carried through center by Sinelli. The puck is carried towards the faceoff circle by Sinelli. The puck is shot by Sinelli. The net is hit by the puck that was shot by Sinelli. The goal is scored by Sinelli.

15:56 UM 6 OSU 3: EN Phil Di Giuseppe (8) from Kevin Lynch (13) & Bool Nieves (3)

PDG actually does a really good job of protecting the puck here, carrying it past two defenders and dumping it into the empty net to put the nail in Ohio State's coffin.

NEXT UP:

Friday and Saturday tilts against Ferris State at Yost. Ferris State is currently tied for fourth in the CCHA with Ohio State, while this past weekend's sweep of OSU moved Michigan up to ninth. Of note is that both Friday and Saturday's game will be televised; Friday's on CBS College Sports Network and Saturday's on Fox Sports Detroit.