1st period

Michigan 0 OSU 1 EV 10:09 Johnson from Niddery and Stork

Ohio State catches Michigan in transition. Niddery has the puck in the neutral zone and banks it off the boards. Serville is too slow stabbing at it, and the puck gets past him to Johnson. Downing is the lone defenseman back who can make a play.

You can see from the above screencap that Johnson skates the puck out as wide as possible. He’s trying to draw Downing to him and open up space in front of the net because he sees he has a trailing teammate charging the net hard. Downing doesn’t bite, or at least he doesn’t bite entirely. He starts to dive to take away the pass.

Regardless of what happens with this shot Michigan’s not in a good position. It just so happens that the shot it perfect, so the danger of a rebound or a redirection in front is moot. This is obviously a bad goal for Nagelvoort to give up from that sharp of an angle, but he made some otherwise spectacular saves in the first period. Johnson’s shot hits the farside post and deflects up and in for the goal.

Michigan 1 OSU 1 EV 12:49 Hyman (7) from Larkin (11) and Serville (2)

Larkin carries the puck wide, and the defenseman picks him up and moves wide with him. Behind Larkin Hyman skates toward the middle of the ice, giving Larkin someone to center the puck to if the defender over-commits.

Larkin skates just a couple more strides before he drop passes to Hyman. Larkin actually could have held the puck a few more strides, as the defender is still in a position to make a play on the puck. Hyman makes a smart play, seeing that the defender is near enough to him that he’ll have to release the puck immediately to avoid the defender’s stick. You can see from the screencap below that he’s already loading up to shoot, and the puck’s been on his blade for a fraction of a second.

Frye stops Hyman’s shot, but he is unable to glove the puck or absorb the shot. The puck is deflected and goes up and over him.

Larkin has continued his skating arc from the outside of the zone to the inside, and he’s at the side of the net by the time the puck goes up in the air. His positioning pays off, as he bats down the deflection for Michigan’s first goal.

[After THE JUMP: a five-minute-long Christmas miracle]

Michigan 2 OSU 1 EV 19:48 Werenski (3) from Nieves (7) and Compher (8)

Compher wins an offensive-zone faceoff and the puck trickles back directly to Werenski. He has a lot of open space, a tangled mess of forwards in front of him, and a second to shoot before a defender will be in the vicinity.

Werenski’s first thought is to shoot because of the situation he sees in front of him, and it’s not a bad decision. He could alternatively pass to Downing at the point and likely create a scoring chance as good or better. Shuart has moved into the slot, and it’s hard to tell from the video but I think he and the OSU players near him obstruct Frye’s view such that he never sees Werenski’s shot.

2nd period

Michigan 3 OSU 1 EV 04:17 Lynch (4) from Motte (6) and Serville (3)

Motte sees that there are two defensemen ahead of him and two behind the play, which means he has a pass he can make across to the trailing Lynch with little risk involved. The circled defender is going to end up in a one-on-one matchup with Lynch.

Lynch skates into the faceoff circle and shoots. It’s not the best time or place to shoot, and the defender easily blocks the shot. That’s when Lynch gets lucky. Like, Denard-fumbles-and-recovers-his-own-fumble-and-scores lucky. The momentum of the three OSU players and the one M player is carrying them to the left of the goaltender. Lynch picks the puck back up and moves toward the slot.

Look at the goaltender’s legs. He’s still in his butterfly from Lynch’s first shot attempt while Lynch is preparing to launch a backhanded shot. He shuffles to try and square up with Lynch, and though he does accomplish this it also opens up a space over his left shoulder along the nearside post; that space is where Lynch’s backhander ends up.

 

Michigan 4 OSU 1 PPG 06:39 Copp (6) from Downing (4) and Motte (7)

Downing’s shot from the point (an aside: Downing is a fit for the point because of his puck skills. I like this so much better than last year’s arrangement with Clare at the point) deflects off of the end boards, bouncing to the side of the net…

…where Copp is in perfect position to put it in top-shelf. Downing shot this puck with the intent of having Shuart, who has gone across the slot and is now on the goaltender’s right, tip it. Even though he didn’t mean for the puck to go off of the boards this can be an effective shot for the very reason we see here; Nick Lidstrom used to miss intentionally all the time in order to use Joe Louis Arena’s notoriously bouncy end boards.

Michigan 4 OSU 2 EV 07:45 Schilkey from Angeli and Oddo

Werenski skates it into the offensive zone and passes to Hyman, but Hyman can’t hold on and turns the puck over near the blue line. Ohio State picks it up and has a 2-on-0 break the other way.

To his credit Hyman tries to get back and backcheck, but he can’t make up enough ground to make a difference. Nagelvoort comes way out of his crease to challenge as Angeli passes to Shilkey.

Schilkey fakes a move to the forehand and Nagelvoort bites on it. He puts his right leg pad down and starts to get his glove up and left leg pad out when Schilkey pulls the puck to his backhand.

Once Nagelvoort’s committed to the forehand there’s no way he can recover; he simply doesn’t have enough time. Schilkey deserves credit here because he waited until he was in very tight before making his move. Nagelvoort putting the right leg pad down doesn’t eliminate his ability to push across laterally, but it takes more time than he has. To put it simply, he got beat.

Michigan 5 OSU 2 PPG 11:44 Copp (7) from Shuart (7) and Motte (8)

The next three goals are part of a five-minute power play that Michigan was on because Ohio State’s Nick Oddo got tossed for head butting. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a player tossed for head butting, but sometimes I guess the only swift kick in the butt your power play needs is for someone to get tossed for head butting.

I’m sorry, if you’ve read this far I really shouldn’t subject you to jokes that bad. Moving on, Michigan’s puck movement over the next five minutes is about as good as I’ve seen it all year. Motte receives a pass and instantaneously redirects it to the front of the net with a pretty touch pass.

Shuart squares himself to the goalie and hesitates just long enough to make it look like he’s going to shoot, but he instead decides to circle back behind the net. His hesitation is enough to get the goalie to drop into his butterfly.

Shuart sees Copp at the bottom of the faceoff circle and moves it to him. OSU’s goaltender decided to get up instead of pushing across the crease and, uh, maybe that wasn’t the best idea. Look at Copp and whether or not he’s in position to shoot (spoiler: he is). Look at the goaltender and the position that he’s in. Guess how this ends.

Copp one-times it, banking it in off the farside post. A bank shot is the best you can hope for from that extreme an angle, and it happens to work here.

Michigan 6 OSU 2 PPG 14:39 Kile (8) from Larkin (12) and Werenski (9)

Michigan is using the umbrella formation here, while Ohio State is…well, one guy’s playing chase near the point, two are in line, and one is to the side. Werenski passes to Larkin above the faceoff circle, and the only guy who tries to defend him is the aforementioned playing-chase-up-high guy.

Larkin sees that Ohio State’s defense is collapsing on Kile but no one’s actually in position to check him. Hyman’s screening the goaltender, and Larkin’s pass is hard enough that Kile just shovels it toward the goal. The goaltender never sees it. I’d include another screencap but it’d just be three Michigan players raising their arms in celebration and one Ohio State defender falling over himself.

Michigan 7 OSU 2 PPG 16:14 Kile (9) from Larkin (13) and Werenski (10)

Michigan’s in the same umbrella formation that they were a moment ago with the same personnel. The puck is swung from Werenski at the point to Larkin. Also, thanks to the BTN’s beloved super zoom for making it easy to see the spacing on this play.

Larkin takes about two strides forward before he passes to Kile in the slot. Kile tips it an the shot is stopped, but there’s a rebound right in front of the goalie.

Kile lifts it and easily scores his second power play goal of the game.

3rd period

Michigan 8 OSU 2 EV 01:11 Calderone (2) from Motte (9) and Serville (4)

Michigan gets the puck in their defensive zone and skates it through the neutral zone and into the offensive zone. It looks like 2-on-2 rush, except it’s not. Calderone is split out wide and nobody seems to notice. Nobody on Ohio State, at least.

Motte’s centering pass actually isn’t intended for Calderone; it’s deflected. It ends giving Calderone a one-on-one opportunity.

Calderone has two places he can shoot; the goaltender opens his butterfly too much and the five hole is there, as is room in the top corner over his shoulder. Calderone picks the top corner and scores.

Michigan 8 OSU 3 EV 05:04 Greco from Moser

Ohio State has just entered the offensive zone and Greco puts a shot on net that barely has a prayer. Until it goes in. This is just a bad goal for Racine (who has replaced Nagelvoort for the third period) to give up.

The one caveat that may apply if you look at the above screencap is that Racine is potentially being screened here. Still, if Racine is a bit further to his right he doesn’t let this one by him, so there are some positional issues to address as well.

Notes

Power play: extant

Ohio State’s killing 78.4% of penalties, so they aren’t exactly the best penalty killing unit Michigan’s going to face this year so expectations should be tempered; add in a five-minute power play and the numbers end up a bit skewed. Still, it’s still good to see Michigan actually do something when their power play had previously scored on only seven of their 51 man advantages.

The defensive zone

Let’s move it out of there, please. Michigan remains slow to get the puck out of their end and liable to turn it over. Their passing was better offensively and on the power play, and I’d like to see this translate to the defensive zone as well. Some guys could also benefit from just moving their feet and trying to skate it out instead of passing around. Basically, pass when there’s a clear pass there, but don’t force things; if there’s nothing there just skate.

Overall, this is a very talented team offensively. It is also a team that’s prone to turnovers and coverage lapses that lead to odd-man opportunities. The odd-man rushes were still a problem in this game, though the score doesn’t show it. As I mentioned above, the power play looked better but whether that was just doing what you’re supposed to against a not-very-good team or actual progress remains to be seen. I’m feeling fairly bullish about this team if only because I think the issues that are still present are correctable.