Michigan vs. LSSU in the CCHA first round, open thread
The game is on Comcast tonight, Hunwick is in the nets again and the puck drop is in about 20 minutes.
What has now become the obligatory Daily live blog:
http://michigandaily.com/node/53474
End one.
Treais with the goal. Winnett with a big time save...
We're playing at home and I'm sitting at my parents house, watching the game on TV, putting up with Comcast's rather weak video quality.
I guess I should just count myself fortunate that I at least have the channel... unless I see the guy I sold my tickets to on TV... already pretty sure I saw one of the people I sit next to and talk with...
Why couldn't they have just screwed up one or two times less this year and got the first round bye. Spring Break wouldn't have been in issue then.
fwiw
UM dominating shots per usual
4-2, hunwick allows weak goal through 5 hole
Wings win 5-2 to pull within 3 of Nashville!
UM wins 5-2 to go up 1-0 in the series
this pleases me.
Not that we are as good as that 07/08 team, but because we dominated this team so badly it wasn't if, but how we'd win. Good puck posession all night long. LSSU's goals sure seemed to energize them, but Llebler's goal to make it 4-1 was a great answer. Not very many penalties until the very end. Good win, let's close it out Saturday.
a lot better before you learn that they were missing three players. And I think that two of them were 1-2 in LSSU's scoring. That might not be completely correct, but they're both up there. I'm not sure about the third, but he would have played had he been healthy, so they were worse off without him. Yes we dominated most of the game, but we had some help from the flu. We took less penalties than normal, but that might have been more the ref's letting them play than us not doing things to deserve penalties, we still had way too many people looking lost like they had no idea where the puck was, we had about a million and a half whiffs, and bad passes, I think turnovers were down, but LSSU was down 3 starters and well, we swept them this year on the road which should tell you how good they are, we had a soft goal and even though their first goal was kind of fluky, we looked really lazy coming out of the 5-on-3. Maybe I'm just being overly pessimistic, but despite the decent job of dominating them we did, it didn't really seem like it was us so much as them. Other than the second period, that looked more like we were a good team, but at the same time, we didn't finish. Past seasons, if U-M dominated the period but didn't score much it was just a tough night, this year it's the story of the season, so I'm hesitant to say we can continue that kind of play or take full advantage of it even if we do.
Luckily, I know next to nothing about hockey, so I'm probably wrong, we're going to kill LSSU tomorrow, get by MSU next weekend, stay hot, defeat Miami and someone else, get into the tournament, pull off the (2nd) crazy run of the decade and win an NC!! Hey, if State can do it, we definitely can!
Their top 3 scorers were in fact out with the flu, and indeed with those 3 in, we might not win this game.
But considering the countless time fate has screwed us, I think we've earned a cheap series thanks to some misfortune on the other team's part.
As much as I want to like Hunwick, he's just not Hogan. Hogan has been good for a softie or two this year, but he almost always keeps us IN games after that. See goal differential as proof, which IIRC I read was second best in the conference. When we lose, its almost always by one goal, no matter what the final score. Our offense has started to make a little more noise, and our defense while error-prone, has improved over the circus of early season.
If we can get Hogan back and get another actual goal or two on our offensive opportunities, I don't think it'd be unheard of that we can win this tournament. MSU I think has backslid just a bit, and with the factors I've already mentioned, I like our odds in a 2 of 3. Miami is going to take 110% and maybe a little luck to go on top of it, but this is hockey, and crazier things have happened. If we manage to get by State AND Miami, I think we can get by whoever we play in the Finals without much trouble. The way this team has played, I know that might be wishful thinking, but hey, when winning the tournament is our only hope left at making the NCAA tournament, what more is there to have?
has been surprisingly good, I thought, actually. Maybe it's because when he was first put in, my thoughts were something like "oh shoot, he's going to let in every other shot" and he's been quite a bit better than that. He's doing alright. You can't blame him on the first one tonight, the second one was soft, but Hogan also generally lets in a soft one a game, so it's really no different and Hunwick made some decent stops in the beginning. I think Hogan would be better, of course, but I'm fine with Hunwick for THIS weekend. Ideally, having Hunwick in net makes our defense better, then they put the same improved defense in front of Hogan. I think if our D plays up to the level everyone expected at the beginning of the season, we can beat anybody. The key is to carry over defensive improvement from a depleted LSSU team to a rival MSU one.
Maybe I just don't like Comley, but I always think we have a chance against State. It seems like Summers gets up a little more for State too, generally and when your senior Captain first rounder plays like a senior captain first rounder, good things happen. I agree MSU has definitely gone backwards a little bit, but against us, you know we'll get their best effort. I think Tropp (ARGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! RIPTEARKILL) has either 2 or all 3 GWG against us this season and he's definitely fallen off his scoring pace, so maybe that's the difference we need. Either way, the loser of that series is NOT making the NCAA's so that's double to play for. We beat them the last game, we should have at least tied them the game before that and we only showed up for 10 minutes, so there's definitely a chance.
Miami is very, very good, in fact they might beat us 9 times out of 10, but on any given night... And I don't actually think they beat us 9 of 10. I think we're a different team that played them last, I think if Robert Morris can beat them twice, we can beat them once. I think if we get to the Joe, we'll have more fans there and I think we're more comfortable at the Joe than they are and I like home-ice advantage. I think if we got that far, the strategy becomes to rattle them. As much as they're regarded as even-keeled, they're also a very good team that takes a lot of penalties, which tells you they probably aren't. And Rico's already been thrown out of a game this season. If we can unnerve a little bit and keep ourselves focused, I like our chances, especially in single-elimination.
I agree on the hypothetical final. Miami is really the only team that scares me in the league this year. Anything could happen, but I would like our chances. Also, I did the math and if we sweep LSSU, sweep MSU (MSU, not Ferris) and win one at the Joe, we're just on the outside of an at-large, so with a little help, that's still technically possible. Though less likely than us just winning the conference.
We definitely have the talent to skate with anybody and we have one of the best coaches in the business, so I don't think anything would be too unbelievable. We've only lost two games (2nd Mimai game 1-5, second UNO game 1-4) by more than two goals this whole season and we haven't been shut-out since the second Notre Dame game, the last CCHA game of 2009. we've actually been shut-out less this year (3) than last year (5). It's been the inability to convert one and two goals games into ties that has killed us this year. We have as many conference wins as MSU (2nd in the conference) and as many total wins as the teams that are on the inside of the bubble for the tournament. Hogan was definitely starting to play better, so if he eliminates his customary one softie and we manage to get that one more goal (maybe learn how to play on a power play... (or maybe ref's gain eyes and don't "intend" to blow the whistle), we become an extremely tough out. We become the team everyone expected at the beginning of the year. It's a tall order, but I've re-talked myself into believing that we're getting to #20. Go Blue!
Holy hell that's a long post my friend
I think everyone including Hunwick has more confidence in him now. My issue with SH is that he's very slow to his feet on rebounds and often gets beat side to side on things like wrap around attempts. Experience and depth is always good, just wish it wasn't as a result of Hogan getting hurt. All the people who dogged Hogan earlier should realize how good he actually is, relatively speaking.
Between the goalie situation turning out to be not as bad as we anticipated and the flu taking out some of LSSU's better players, maybe our luck is turning. I'll take a win any possible way this year.
BTW, goal differentials (including empty netters):
Wins: +2.9 (4.4 vs 1.5)
Losses: -1.8 (1.6 vs 3.4)
Yeah, I agree with you on Hunwick. He has played a lot better than I expected he would. I was sweating bricks when he first went in against ND, but I still don't trust him to make the impossible saves.
He's solid at basics, but he hasn't had to face very many that make your jaw drop when he actually stops them. Hogan has had to make a pretty good crop of those all year, to the point we probably could/should have won more games if he hadn't given up a cheap one and still should/could have won if the offense was playing up to the standard we've been used to for the last 20 years. I just don't trust Hunwick in the net against teams like Miami and MSU. For this weekend though, I agree that its good for him to get some starts and experience in case he is ever called upon again. Given LSSU's fortunes with wick players, its the perfect chance for him to just concentrate and do his best.