Attacker: checked. Mann: still puck tracking. [JD Scott]

Michigan Hockey 2018-19, Game #8: Michigan 2, Notre Dame 1

David November 9th, 2018 at 10:56 PM

OFFENSE

	Corsi	House	Possession %
First Period	15	4	47%
Second Period	12	5	50%
Third Period	19	9	70%
Overtime	n/a	n/a	n/a
TOTAL	46	18	59%

Analysis: For two periods, Michigan’s offense was fine. They created a few chances and held their own. Then came the third period. Wow. Nineteen attempts on net and nine of those coming from the House. Michigan basically had the puck the entire period, even when the Irish needed to be more aggressive to press for a tying goal. The Wolverines won faceoffs and kept the puck in the attacking zone for almost the entire time at even strength.

Last year they held on for a 1-0 win down the stretch. Tonight they kept their foot on the gas and took it right in front of Morris. Slaker looks awesome with Norris and Lockwood. As far as I’m concerned this is now the SNL line. They had a number of fantastic chances. The other line that is worth talking about is the fourth line of Raabe/Van Whye/Moyle. They had a couple of nice zone exits, extended some forechecking pressure, created a couple DZTOs, and could have had a goal or two. The HockeyCast talked about the need for developing a couple of bottom lines. Perhaps Michigan has found one.

MGoBlog_JD Scott_Michigan vs Notre Dame-Hockey (1 of 11)

I’ll take that! [JD Scott]

DEFENSE

	Corsi	House	Possession %
First Period	17	5	53%
Second Period	12	6	50%
Third Period	3	1	30%
Overtime	n/a	n/a	n/a
TOTAL	32	12	41%

Analysis: Michigan had a little trouble getting the puck out of their end early on in the first period as all three pairings struggled. After that, everything seemed different. There were obviously a couple of OMR slip-ups (spoiler alert), but overall, Michigan’s even-strength defense was fantastic. They checked attackers, controlled gaps, pressured shooters, and didn’t gave away many good looks at Mann. This was by far the best defensive game that I’ve seen Michigan play this season. If this can become the norm, the team’s ceiling just exploded. There are four drafted defensemen, four Non-Hughes skaters in their third or fourth season, and also just Quinn Hughes. This should be the strength of the team. If dreams of going to Buffalo are going to be fulfilled, it needs to be. They played like it tonight, and now it needs to be consistent. Three attempts on net when the opponent was down a goal. Fantastic.

MGoBlog_JD Scott_Michigan vs Notre Dame-Hockey (4 of 11)

Morris got this one, but he was crowded all night [JD Scott]

SPECIAL TEAMS

	PP For	PP Against	PP Corsi For	PP Corsi Against	PP Shots/Min For	PP Shots/Min Against
First Period	n/a	0/1	n/a	1	n/a	.5(1/2)
Second Period	2/3	0/1	5	4	.8(4/5)	1(2/2)
Third Period	0/2	0/2	10	3	1.75 (7/4)	.5 (2/4)
Overtime	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
TOTAL	2/5	0/4	15	8	1.22 (11/9)	.63(5/8)

Analysis: Michigan’s power play looked fantastic, as they scored on their first two chances. Hughes entered the zone, got behind the net, threw the puck in front where it deflected off of Lockwood directly to Slaker, who finished easily. Mike Pastujov then beat the clock with an upper 90 snipe from below the faceoff circle. Michigan did not score on their next three opportunities, but they created plenty of chances and forced Morris into a number of tough saves. They averaged over a shot/minute and tallied 15(!) attempts on goal. Until Michigan fully develops multiple scoring lines, this is how they will have to win games. Different lines drew penalties, and they took advantage. Anthony and I talked at length about this being an area for improvement from last season, and it seems to keep getting better.

Speaking of improvement…Michigan’s penalty kill. Yikes. Coming into the game, they were sitting around 78%. Not anymore. The Wolverines killed all four Irish power plays tonight and did not really let them set much up all evening. There was only one penalty that I really didn’t like. Other than Martin’s neutral zone lunge, there did not seem to be a rash of head-scratchers. More improvement!

GOALTENDING

	Shots Faced	Shots from House Faced
First Period	14	5
Second Period	11	4
Third Period	2	0
Overtime	n/a	n/a
TOTAL	27	9

Analysis: Strauss Mann started in net for Michigan tonight. Lavigne has been…alright this season. Fine, but not great. Mann got his chance and got his first Big Ten win. I thought he had a couple of loose rebounds early, and then he was lights out. Obviously, the defense also played a huge role in that. One thing I noticed is that he skated out to a lot of pucks when he had the space. I thought that was interesting. He also seemed very positionally sound and kept his balance very well, allowing him to move as needed. It’s difficult to talk about his ceiling because other than a couple of instances, he didn’t have to steal anything. However, he rose to every challenge and seemed to look more comfortable as the game continued. Great night for him. I expect to see him in net tomorrow.

ODD-MAN RUSHES

Defense	Rushes	Advs	Escape%	Offense	Rushes	Advs	Scoring%
1^st Period	n/a	n/a	n/a		2	3v2 x2	0%
2^nd Period	2	3v1, 2v1	50%		n/a	n/a	n/a
3^rd Period	n/a	n/a	n/a		1	1v0	0%
OT
Total	2	3v1, 2v1	50%		3	3v2 x2, 1v0	0%

Analysis: Michigan had a couple of hiccups early in the second period with a neutral zone turnover that led directly to Notre Dame’s lone goal: a 3v1 that Mann had no shot at stopping. Hughes then got caught out, but Cecconi’s dive to break up the pass saved an open net goal. Other than that, the Wolverines were super tight and stayed sound in the defensive end.

On the other end, Michigan created three OMRs. One resulted in a deflected pass. The second saw Slaker hit Norris across the ice, but Josh missed the open half of the net with his shot. Quinn Hughes just dusted a fellow on the third rush. He broke in alone, beat Morris, but the puck fluttered wide of the post.

FINAL CORSI NUMBERS

I had: Michigan 46, Notre Dame 32