Hockey Snowflakes - On to Tampa!
We get football snowflakes and basketball snowflakes. Why not hockey snowflakes for such a big win
- Feels great to finally win a significant OT game in the tournament. Unless I'm mistaken, that's the first tournament OT winner Michigan has secured beyond the opening round since the 1998 national title...hmmmmm
- The team continues to really cut down on their penalties. I thought the refs let 'em play a bit but still saw very little to call on Michigan. The trip was obvious but otherwise great discipline
- Souliere played a great game, but I also thought we shot a ton into his body. Mackie's winner felt like one of the few shots we really made him reach for and hoooo boy what a shot that was
- Michigan's forecheck continues to be pretty impressive. I don't know if I ever remember Michigan being a good forechecking team
- On a more sour note, I thought Luke Hughes had a game to forget. I think I counted 5 offensive zone turnovers from him trying to do too much. He could've easily blown the game single handedly for us trying too hard to make something happen. Sometimes when 2 guys are on you, you just need to dump it in deep man
- I hope that contract is sitting on Narauto's desk just waiting for him to get back from Tampa. You can't not sign the guy at this point
March 26th, 2023 at 10:09 PM ^
What's the ticket situation etc. for the Frozen Four?
March 26th, 2023 at 10:40 PM ^
I've already found some on tiqiq for under $200 entry price. Bigger problem may be flights... That's easter weekend and still in middle of spring break season. Good alternatives to flying into Tampa (Tpa) or Orlando (mco) are tampa-st Pete (pie), sarasota-brandenton, or Orlando Sanford. The latter three are serviced by discount airlines and may have more availability. For hotels look inland away from the beach and downtown, like Brandon or Winter Haven.
March 26th, 2023 at 10:59 PM ^
YMMV, but I did some playing around and....
(from Cali) flights into Sarasota and out of Orlando were cheaper. Even more bizarre, the one way rental (Sarasota to Orlando) was cheaper than a car from Sarasota, Orlando, or Tampa.
I only fly United so no clue how tickets look on other airlines.
March 26th, 2023 at 11:03 PM ^
I bought resale tickets last year and somehow ended up on the NCAA hockey mailing list. There was a presale in November and I risked it and bought tickets. $600 for all 3 games on the glass.
I can't find the in my Ticketmaster account which is a bit concerning but still time to figure that out.
Hotels in Tampa are pretty stupid, but if you don't care about Tampa you can go 10 or so miles away for relatively cheap.
I went to a Lightning-Wings game earlier this year in Tampa and parking downtown isn't too bad if you go a few blocks away from the arena.
March 26th, 2023 at 10:13 PM ^
Now that I have started to breath again, is there going to be a replay of the game available?
March 26th, 2023 at 10:42 PM ^
BTN needs big ten hockey in 60
March 26th, 2023 at 10:14 PM ^
I'm just glad we won - everything else will have to wait until tomorrow.
March 26th, 2023 at 10:14 PM ^
After the year we went through with basketball, feels good to pull out a clutch win.
March 26th, 2023 at 10:26 PM ^
i'll be right there to post. just give me a minute to restart my heart....
March 26th, 2023 at 10:29 PM ^
Sure, Hughes had his turnovers but essentially saved the game with a single play for Michigan in the 3rd as well.
March 27th, 2023 at 12:58 AM ^
Yes, Luke Hughes saved the game a couple minutes before we scored in regulation.
He will be in an NJ Devils jersey within 24 hours of our season ending.
Enjoy him while you still can!
March 26th, 2023 at 10:38 PM ^
Good idea.
Postseason hockey is by some margin the best tie-breaking format in sports. It is also, for the partisan, the worst sporting experience imaginable.
- I think you're right about the "beyond first round" bit with OT. I will say that the win over St. Cloud in 2011 was the first OT win of any kind and propelled the team to the championship game, so I tend to think of it as reasonably significant. Plus the way that one fan right in front of the camera signaled the call on the winning goal was one of the best fan celebrations I've ever seen.
- Hard agree on penalties. Team is visibly more disciplined and it makes a huge difference.
- I've been too spotty in watching hockey to give a firm analysis of Michigan's varying qualities of forecheck. We've had them before. Some of our better teams in the last 20 years were more defensively sound, though. The early 2000s teams with guys like David Moss and Jason Ryznar and Jed Ortmeyer had terrific forechecks.
- Hughes *did* have a pretty key play before Michigan tied the game up:
The visible thing with this game is that it was nothing like the first game. And, frankly, not much like other Michigan-Penn State games. That's playoff hockey. That Michigan gutted out a win when Penn State was fighting toe-to-toe... well, it doesn't matter how they played. It matters that they won.
March 26th, 2023 at 10:47 PM ^
I have to rewatch to make sure but I'm pretty sure Gadowski is going to come in for a good medal of coaching in this game. He tweaked Penn st's setup so that they were going balls out like they usually do with two players while devoting a third player to the backchecking instead of offensive rushing. Michigan still had a lot of offensive rushes but that consistent third man back for Penn St took away ths middle cutback lanes and drop passes that Michigan has used so effectively this year. Forced us into a lot of perimeter shots and dump ins just over the blue line. Samo's gwg is a herculean solo effort because instead of driving into the three man PSU defensive line, he held up, forced the third PSU defender to take the on coming late man for UM and that opened up the cutback center lane for Samo to get into and shoot while Souliere was readjusting his angles.
March 26th, 2023 at 11:02 PM ^
+1 fascinating analysis.
March 26th, 2023 at 11:13 PM ^
Yeah live I didnt know who made that play. More accurately maybe I shouldve said “Luke giveth and Luke taketh away”. Sometimes he just tries to do too much on offense
March 26th, 2023 at 11:55 PM ^
Yeah, Luke almost gave away the game a couple times (most obnoxiously with ~5 minutes left) but he absolutely saved the game and the season.
Which is kind of the Luke Hughes experience.
Wow! I never caught that Hughes blocked that. Even the announcers said it was off the side of the net.
March 26th, 2023 at 10:40 PM ^
My snowflakes...
March 27th, 2023 at 12:17 AM ^
New username for you: 'DoilyDevotee'.
March 26th, 2023 at 10:43 PM ^
The team voices its opinion about Coach Naurato:
Someone email this to Warde stat
March 26th, 2023 at 10:58 PM ^
Michigan hitting posts kept Penn State in the game
March 26, 1997 and 2023!
March 26th, 2023 at 11:03 PM ^
I've seen most of the games this year & the team is playing some of its best hockey right now.
They are not perfect & I agree that Luke seems to be trying too hard to take the game over instead playing within the system so the more he can tamp that down the better the team will be. On the other hand those are some of the traits that made him a 4th overall pick in the draft so yin & yang I guess
March 26th, 2023 at 11:15 PM ^
When I saw it was going to OT I couldnt watch, this is pretty much how I felt
Thank the lord it didnt end up that way!
March 27th, 2023 at 12:45 AM ^
Hockey is ice chips, not snowflakes. That said, I agree with all points of the OP's post except Hughes forays into the PSU defense. You live and die with your blue line puck carriers. The better they are, the better you're offense is.
As college goes, PSU was a difficult team, clearly not up to Minnesota capability. Michigan is just so talented. And when you combine its talent with hockey grit, well, you've got a national championship contender. We've got a great shot heading into the Frozen Four. We've been there more than so many others, but what a great team we have. We should just enjoy how they play together.
On a good day I like to consider myself maybe an average hockey mind on this blog, so certainly someone more knowledgable can tell me I’m wrong but I thought theres normal Luke being aggressive and you live and die with it vs last night where I thought multiple turnovers were just boneheaded and clear poor decisions where he wouldnt give up the puck even when it was obvious he had nowhere to go
He clearly saved the season in the 3rd with that save, but I thought he was basically the Jonas Mouton of hockey last night. If he got UFR’d it feels like he’d be like +15 -14
The lack of penalties could be all not seeing Big Ten refs getting involved this weekend. In many of the games, things that would have been a major-upon-review in the Big Ten was a simple 2-minute. Rohloff was incensed in the OSU game. Maybe our league over-officiated all year long.
March 27th, 2023 at 11:03 AM ^
You might be on to something. That play reviewed near the end of the OSU game yesterday was much worse than many of the 5 minute majors called on us this year.
Portillo has a .962 SV% with a 1.00 GAA in the NCAA tourney so far. he’s playing the best hockey of his career. if he plays like this in Tampa they are winning the title. the rest of the team is too fast, talented, gritty, and can shoot the lights out.
I get wanting to remove the interim tag from Narauto, but, come on, don't you want to see another interim Michigan coach win a national championship? I don't even know how to search that, but there can't be another school that can claim one much less 2 coaches who have done this.
A great way to get to Tampa. Consider hotel in Passe a Grill, rated top 5 beaches. From St Pete downtown ( 10 minutes ) take the water ferry and be dropped off at the arena. Skip traffic and see the sights. At the site of the pier Saturday morning music and good eats. Downtown similar to Saugatuck, arts and museums. Helluva lot cheaper than Tampa
The Tampa Bay Alumni Club of Tampa might consider group package. Don't know as of yet.
https://alumni.umich.edu/communities-clubs/tampa-bay/
https://www.visitpassagrille.com/https://
www.thecrossbayferry.com/schedule-rates/
Go Blue
March 27th, 2023 at 10:49 AM ^
"Souliere played a great game, but I also thought we shot a ton into his body. Mackie's winner felt like one of the few shots we really made him reach for and hoooo boy what a shot that was"
Yes it was frustrating but I think in part that was due to Souliere having an outstanding game positioning-wise and tracking the puck. He as moving side to side very well and just getting in front of things. We also sailed a ton of shots (and good ones) just wide of the net (or just over) and hit the post at least 3 times. I kept saying "just put it on net" late in the game so it's a delicate balance.
On a side note, Fantilli's goal had very little room and somehow he found the daylight. Great shot.