Saturday, March 12, 2016

#9 Michigan 6, #14 Penn State 1

1st period

CONNOR GOAL, MICHIGAN

UM 1 PSU 0 EV 06:27 Assists: Martin

Martin banks the puck off the boards and up for Connor, and you can see from how many defenders are low in the PSU offensive zone that there’s going to be an odd-man rush.

As expected, an odd-man rush does develop, and it just happens to feature two of the highest scorers in the nation. Connor carries in and has Compher a step behind. Brooks is shaded toward Compher, and he has his stick in a position where he could feasibly take away the pass even if he doesn’t drop it.

Connor then takes a couple of quick strides and Brooks realizes his only course of action is to lunge and stab at the puck. Technically speaking he did what he was supposed to in not allowing a pass to Compher; still, there are few things more terrifying than Connor streaking down the wing unopposed, so Brooks’ attempt to help doesn’t have a downside. McAdam gets beat over the near-side shoulder. For what seems like the hundredth time this season, look at that release. The puck comes off his stick so quickly that goaltenders at this level have and will continue to have an incredibly tough time stopping it; add his seemingly perfect accuracy and you can see why he has 30 goals.

[After THE JUMP: the beauty of being on the right side of #chaoshockey]

Scheid goal, Penn State

UM 1 PSU 1 EV 09:06 Assists: Loik & Berger

Scheid carries the puck in and puts on the brakes, creating a little space for himself but not creating a particularly dangerous situation.

Then Scheid shoots, the puck hits Cecconi and changes direction, and the situation becomes quite dangerous.

I know it’s tough to see, but the puck (circled) [No, really. Trust me.] travels over Racine’s shoulder, between his mask and glove, and ends up going in far-side just under the bar. Don’t think there’s much you can do about that.

SHUART GOAL, MICHIGAN

UM 2 PSU 1 EV 16:29 Assists: Dancs & Downing

Dancs skates in with the puck and runs into two converging Penn State defenders. He lets the puck slide toward the corner and skates through contact to retrieve it.

Dancs somehow executes a drop pass through traffic that almost gets knocked away, but Shuart picks it up and starts skating through the faceoff circle.

Shuart drags the puck around the defender in the slot, and in doing so pulls it from his backhand to forehand. He emerges with the puck on his forehand in the slot, and McAdam thinks a shot’s coming. He gets into his butterfly, but Shuart continues to skate.

McAdam can only dive to try and stop the shot, so Shuart goes high and puts it in the acres of space across the top of the net.

NIEVES GOAL, MICHIGAN

UM 3 PSU 1 PPG 18:48 Assists: Selman & Marody

Downing’s shot from the point is wide. It hits the boards and bounces to the goaltender’s left, where Marody picks it up. He passes to Selman, a left-handed shot who’s able to catch the puck on his forehand, in part because the defender in the bottom of the faceoff circle is a right-handed shot and therefore has his stick to the opposite side.

Selman catches it and spins, but instead of jamming the puck on net he loses control of it. The puck slides through the crease and hits a Penn State player’s skate, and McAdam paddles it away as slides to the middle of the crease.

Nieves happens to be right where McAdam paddled the puck, and he snaps a shot high and in. McAdam can’t do anything but dive at it, and he’s not able to paddle the puck away twice.

2nd period

CONNOR GOAL, MICHIGAN

UM 4 PSU 1 PPG 06:18 Assists: Werenski & Motte

Kile tries to one-time the puck with a straight-armed redirection, but instead he accidentally flips the puck into the air. Motte picks it up and banks it off the boards for Werenski.

Werenski actually skates down a little more than this frame shows, which holds McAdam to his right as long as possible. Werenski passes through the slot to the opposite faceoff circle, somehow sneaking it past the outstretched stick of Autio. Connor catches it the way he’s pictured in the screen cap below; he’s going to be able to turn his hips and put a ton behind the shot.

You can see the stick bend in the screen cap below; the shot’s incredibly fast. You can also see that McAdam doesn’t have his glove up yet and because of that he has no shot at stopping it. Connor beats him high near-side.

COMPHER GOAL, MICHIGAN

UM 5 PSU 1 PPG 07:47 Assists: Motte & Werenski

Werenski shoots from the point and McAdam kicks it aside, but the rebound doesn’t go far.

McAdam thinks that Motte’s about to have a prime tap-in opportunity, and this frame justifies that. McAdam’s only able to fall and stretch to his right because he was already in his butterfly to make the initial kick save. Things become problematic for him when Motte falls over the puck and Compher comes in to clean up.

McAdam’s only able to get his stick across the crease, so Compher shoots high. Compher’s on the puck quickly enough that there’s no time for McAdam to try to get up and slide across. Motte falling down coincidently hems the defender in, which also aids in Compher having as open a shot as he did.

3rd period

NIEVES GOAL, MICHIGAN

UM 6 PSU 1 EV 00:48 Assists: Kile & Selman

Selman one-times a loose puck, but it’s stopped and directed behind the net. He ends up battling for the puck along the boards, and it eventually slides away from him but toward Kile. Kile backhands a pass to Nieves at the top of the faceoff circle.

Nieves one-times it with a lot of time and space; a PSU skater skates down to help behind the net, and the guy at the bottom of the faceoff circle seems to be thinking about it up until the puck’s picked up by Kile.

Skoff (who’s replaced McAdam at this point) is playing unusually deep in his own net; it looks like the puck would be across the line if he made a toe save. This is an aftereffect of believing for a split second that Kile’s going to attempt a wraparound and subsequently locking down the left post, not pass into the faceoff circle. He gets beat five-hole when he tries to butterfly.