CLICK HERE for Game Recap from Kristy McNeil and other pertinent information and HERE for current Pairwise Rankings.

What just happened (TL;DR): Michigan and Minnesota play a even, sloppy first period to a 2-2 tied. Then, the Gophers tallied three straight times on the power play to take a commanding lead in the second. The third period was nugatory (thanks, Craig). Jake Barczewski was pulled. Michigan’s offense created bupkis all evening. Minnesota came ready to play Michigan and straight up zamboni’d the Wolverines.

FINAL CORSI NUMBERS (www.collegehockeynews.com)

	Total Attempts	Even Strength	Power Play	Close (within 1)	Even Strength %
Minnesota	72	61	11	36	60%
Michigan	44	41	3	19	40%

Forward Notes.

-After a first period that was mostly even across the board (sans maybe goaltending), Minnesota pretty much shut down Michigan and then outworked, outskated, and outplayed the Wolverines. They shut down their own House (and really defensive zone) for the remaining two periods. While the penalties helped in the second, I’m not sure there was really an argument about any of them. The Gophers were clearly the better team, and they finished their chances, taking advantage of a poor goaltending performance in Michigan’s net.

-Garrett Schifsky scored on a rocket of a shot, as he flew down the slot after a Gopher DZTO. That was a legit snipe, beating Justen Close on the glove side. He also created a couple more chances in the third period, including a breakaway. Schifsky has continued to look like a player as the season has progressed. It probably didn’t hurt that it was his first game back in his home state since coming to Michigan.

-I don’t really have anything to say about any other forward on the ice. I honestly didn’t really notice anyone else being particularly dangerous…especially when the game was in doubt. That’s a real bummer to say coming off of Michigan’s only conference sweep at Yost with third place in the Big Ten still on the line…let alone an NCAA Tournament birth. The team better come ready to play on Saturday or else it will be quite an embarrassing weekend.

Defense Notes.

-Ethan Edwards didn’t play, and the Wolverines really missed his skating and puck movement. They struggled in their own zone way too often. No one looked very fleet of skate at all. One of the speedier teams in all of college hockey looked very slow and plodding for most of the night. Minnesota eventually took advantage, and Michigan never really responded.

-Last week (and even going back a few games prior), Michigan’s defense had improved noticeably. Friday night…it was a reversion to a previous iteration. Obviously not having Edwards made an impact, but Steve Holtz again looked out of place. Luca Fantilli was up and down. I honestly didn’t notice Tyler Duke at all. Not great.

-Where is Seamus Casey? All season, he’s been Michigan’s most consistent skater and scorer. He now has one point (a secondary assist) in his last eight games. Tonight, he took two obvious penalties, leading to Minnesota goals. He’s not really looked like himself in the offensive end: skating, probing, making dudes look slow. Michigan needs their puck maestro to return…and fast!

 

 

SPECIAL TEAMS CHART

	PP Opportunities	PP Corsi For	PP Shots/Minute
Minnesota	3/5	12	.77 (5/6.5)
Michigan	0/1	3	.66 (1/1.5)

Power Play. Michigan had one power play on Friday night. They created a couple of good chances, but the passes were just a bit off and the open looks could not be fired on time. Not terrible, but they needed to draw more penalties.

Penalty Kill. After solidifying into a strength for a lot of the second half of the season, Michigan’s penalty kill had it’s worst statistical showing since the football team was playing against Big Ten teams. After a perfect kill on the opening Gopher advantage, the Wolverines allowed three straight power play goals. Barczewski deflected one in (that was going wide). The second was a bit unlucky, as a shot careened off the end boards to a waiting Jaxon Nelson, who tallied from a sharp angle into an open net. The last one was an inevitable poke-in after a scramble in front. The kicker was that Casey unintentionally passed the puck to Oliver Moore, the goal-scorer. An evening to forget, for sure.

 

Justen Close was the better goalie…and it wasn’t Close (Bill Rapai)

GOALTENDING CHART

	Michigan Shots Faced (House)	Minnesota Shots Faced (House)
First Period	8	8
Second Period	10	6
Third Period	11	7
Overtime	n/a	n/a
TOTAL	29	21

Notes. Jake Barczewski started in goal on Friday night. After posting a couple of his best games as a Wolverine last weekend against Notre Dame, he had maybe his roughest outing of the year. Despite Seamus Casey getting blown up behind him, Jake allowed the first goal to go through his arm. While the defense was a bit shoddy, the second goal went through his legs. The third goal was going wide, but hit his pad and deflected behind him. Minnesota scored a couple more power play goals, but he didn’t have a chance on either. Barczewski was pulled in favor of Noah West in the third period. Michigan will need a much better goaltending performance on Saturday night.

ODD MAN RUSH CHART

Defense	Rushes	Advs	Escape%	Offense	Rushes	Advs	Scoring%
1st Period	2	3v2 x2	100%		n/a	n/a	n/a
2nd Period	2	3v2, 2v1	100%		n/a	n/a	n/a
3rd Period	2	3v2, 1v0	100%		3	3v2, 3v2, 1v0	0%
OT	n/a	n/a	n/a		n/a	n/a	n/a
Total	6	1v0, 2v1, 3v2 x4	100%		3	3v2 x2, 1v0	0%

Notes. Michigan gave up OMRs all evening. While none of them came back to haunt them, it was a bit alarming that after being mostly positionally solid in the second half of the season, the Wolverines looked very sloppy trying to keep the Gophers in front of them.

Michigan finally got a few OMRs late in the third, but the game was over by that point. Also, all three of them were so poorly executed that none of them resulted in a shot on net…including a breakaway. Woof.

FINAL THOUGHTS

With everything to play for, Michigan probably played it’s worst game of the season. The loss in South Bend was bad, but there were a lot of other reasons for that one. Friday’s game…was just bad. They looked like there was nothing on the line. I’ve bounced around with some mental blocks or motivations with this team. I’m not close enough to the program to know, but for this performance on this weekend with this much at stake? I don’t know. Alex would say “Bad!” He would be right. I suppose those games happen in hockey, but the timing could not be worse. Saturday’s game isn’t technically a Must Win, but if they don’t win, they might need to win the Big Ten Tournament just to get into the NCAAs. Uh-oh. Saturday at 8:30pm on BTN.