Whatever the reason, Trevor Yealy really likes playing against Minnesota-Duluth. The junior attackman scored 9 goals against the Bulldogs on Saturday, just two shy of the team-record 11 that he put on them last year. By himself, Yealy outscored UM-D by a score of 9-7, and his teammates chipped in five more goals to provide the 14-7 final score in the victory.

This Michigan team is starting to really round into form, dominating opponents like they did last year (when the Wolverines' top scorer could have beaten the opponent by himself 4 times, and tied them 6 others). It may seem like a discredit to his teammates, but it often seems as though this Michigan team plays some of its best ball when Trevor Yealy is the Wolverine stuffing the statsheet. Of course, that may just be an illusion, as four different Wolverines led the team in scoring in the four MCLA tournament games last year, but I digress.

This game was played at a neutral site on the campus of Marquette University in Milwaukee, with the Bulldogs serving as the nominal home team. It was the Wolverines, however, who seemed right at home, scoring the first two goals of the game and rushing out to a 5-1 lead by the end of the first quarter, with four goals from Yealy and one from Jordan Kirshner. Yealy put in three more during the second period of play, and Kevin Zorovich added one of his own to give Michigan the 9-2 lead going into the half. Following the break, Svet Tintchev and Yealy each notched a goal, with Duluth only able to manage one, to build Michigan's lead to 11-3 going into the fourth quarter. The Wolverines substituted liberally in the final quarter, allowing Duluth to keep the game somewhat close, but Kirshner, Thomas Paras, and Yealy each scored a goal, providing the final 14-7 margin.

This game was dominated from start to finish by the Wolverines (which, duh - one guy outscored the entire other team), as they had scored as many goals halfway through the second quarter as Duluth would all game. They managed to scoop up 62 to ground balls to the Bulldogs' 47, and won 54% of faceoffs. The opposition did win a couple of categories, tallying more shots than Michigan and clearing the ball slightly better. Complacency with a big lead was likely to blame for some of this (along with Michigan's sloppy play, as the Wolverines committed 35 turnovers).

Mark Stone got the start in net, and played the first three quarters before yielding to Andrew Fowler. He seems to be the first option in goal this season, after Fowler seemed to play slightly better for much of last year (and went wire-to-wire in the National Championship Game). Faceoff specialist David Reinhard had a subpar game compared to his lofty standards, winning just 54% of his faceoffs when he entered the game winning nearly 73%.

Up Next

The Wolverines host two conference opponents next weekend, taking on Western Michigan on Friday, and Central Michigan on Saturday. Both games are 7PM starts in Oosterbaan Fieldhouse. Both the Broncos and Chippewas are in the CCLA North - Michigan's division of the conference. Warning on these previews: the worse teams in the MCLA don't have the most accurate statkeeping, so some of this stuff might not be quite right.

Western Michigan

Record: 4-1 (0-0 CCLA)
Rankings: Prodigy NR, MCLA Lax Mag NR, LaxPower NR, Computer 69
Common Opponents: None
Previous Meetings: 2009 Regular Season.

Offensively, the Broncos have a trio of players scoring over 3 pts/gm. Senior attackmen Mitch French and Evan Pavlick are at 4.75 and 4.5, respectively, With french getting slightly fewer goals, but more assists. Sophomore attack Greg Lindow scores 3.5 pts/gm, with the majority of those coming via assists.

The team's top three ground ball leaders are midfielder Ryan Juntunen, LSM Charlie Thibault, and defense/midfielder Nicholas Facca. Western has played four different goalies, but the main man is senior Patrick Riley. He allows 5.25 goals per contest, and saves 68.2% of shots he faces.

Central Michigan

Record: 2-4 (0-1 CCLA)
Rankings: Prodigy NR, MCLA Lax Mag NR, LaxPower NR, Computer 63
Common Opponents: L 3-13 Minn-Duluth
Previous Meetings: 2009 Regular Season, 2009 CCLA Tournament.

Offensively, the Chippewas are led by sophomore Attack Jeff Wood and junior Attack Justin Shaufler, the only players over 2 pts/game. Both are goal scorers rather than setup men, and it's a pair of midfielders, senior Darren Rivard and sophomore Nick Culp who have the most assists on the squad.

Defensively, it's tough to really know how good players are without having seen them play, but junior Brad Bialaniek and senior Chuck Vierk lead the team in ground balls with 17 and 10, respectively. In the cage, junior James Latini has gotten the most run, and has stopped 54.9% of shots he's faced. Sophomore Sean Coates has also played for the Chippewas.

BONUS!

Not too much extra material this week, though there should be some good news coming out pretty soon (not varsity-status related, at least not directly so that I know of). I'll also work on a couple other pieces for the next update.