2022 big ten hockey tournament

Sieve Sieve Sieve Sieve, it's all yer fault!

Until two Michigan penalties in the last 2 minutes led to an interesting conclusion, Portillo was a wall, and Michigan dominated the hottest team in hockey to take home a banner. Also Women's Basketball slaughtered American to move on to the 2nd round, and Gymnastics won the Big Ten Championships in Columbus. May 3/19/2022 never end!

And because you can’t have one without the other.

Two muppets in a row? MGoHistorians, has that ever happened?

The Essentials 

THE US 

Michigan has arrived in the B1G Tournament Championship Game, just like we always thought. Despite a bumpy end to the regular season that cost the Wolverines the regular season title, they have bounced back and played their way to within a game of the tournament title. Michigan blasted MSU in a two-game sweep in the quarterfinals, then defeated Notre Dame in a tight and physical semifinal matchup at Yost. Michigan is 2nd in PairWise and can jump into the pole position (thus locking up the 1st overall seed for the NCAA Tournament) with a win in this game. 

Michigan's points and goals leader is Matty Beniers, who has 19 and 40, respectively. Right behind him in the goals column are Brendan Brisson and Luke Hughes. I presume that Mel Pearson will stick with the same lines as last weekend, which had Beniers centering Brisson and Kent Johnson as the top line. Thomas Bordeleau has typically been centering Michael Pastujov and Mark Estapa the last few weeks, while the third line has been set for a couple months, with Dylan Duke, Johnny Beecher, and Mackie Samoskevich on it. After such a complete performance last weekend, I think Mel ought to keep the line configurations consistent. 

THE THEM

I was one of the many people who left Minnesota for dead back in late January. The Gophers lost starting goalie (and old friend) Jack LaFontaine to the NHL in a surprising mid-season move, and were entrusting their crease to unproven backup Justen Close. Two weeks into the Close era the team was 2-2, with Close posting an .882 SV% in those games, in line with his performances when he had played previously. He looked shaky and the goaltending fundamentals were not terribly sharp when I watched him play against Michigan. Combined with Minnesota about to lose its Olympians for three weeks, I thought they were cooked. I was wrong. 

Since we last saw Minnesota, the Gophers are 10-0-1, ripping off win after win and in the process locking up the regular season conference title and thus the top seed in this event. Close (who I will discuss later in more detail) caught fire and the team rose to a new level. The big story of this winning streak is how stingy Minnesota has been defensively, which is partially goaltending, but also because they are a very good defensive team. In those eleven games since Michigan last saw Minnesota, the Gophers have surrendered >2 goals in regulation once. 

[Madeline Hinkley]

Minnesota has a good balance of organic program guys and also plenty of NHL picks. They don't have Michigan's level of high end gems, but they are still one of college hockey's two or three most talented teams when it comes to future pros. Their top player is not a drafted guy, but he will be in an NHL organization very soon: C Ben Meyers. Meyers has posted 16 goals and 36 points in 30 games, playing very well at both ends of the ice, plus being a faceoff savant. He will be one of the top two or three undrafted free agents once the NCAA season ends. Other forwards to know are a pair of veterans, Sammy Walker and Bryce Brodzinski, who should be inducted into the JT Barrett/Aaron Craft/Jordan Bohannon Hall of Feels Like They've Been There Forever. A couple freshmen NHL prospects round out the forwards, Matthew Knies (2nd rounder, TOR), who is a bona fide stud and netfront menace, as well as sniper Chaz Lucius (1st rounder, WPG), who has had a slow freshman year but possesses immense talent. 

The Gophers pride themselves on their NHL-laden defense corps. Brock Faber (2nd rounder, LAK) is probably the #1 D from a defensive perspective, but there are plenty of more names. Jackson LaCombe (2nd rounder, ANA) is the highest scoring defenseman, and Ryan Johnson (1st rounder, BUF) isn't a slouch either. Minnesota is a team with impact players up and down the lineup and they are meticulously coached by Bob Motzko. Fundamentally sound, fast, skilled, and competitive. The Gophers have a lot to play for when it comes to the NCAA Tournament too, with the ability to nail down a #1 seed for the second straight year if they beat Michigan. Otherwise they're left hoping that WMU and North Dakota do poorly in the NCHC Tournament. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More preview]

3/12/2022 – Michigan 2, Notre Dame 1 – 28-9-1 (16-0-5-3 B1G) 

Hockey is a sport where the flow of the game hinges on energy level. Brian called basketball "a game of runs" in a column last year, and I don't think hockey is dissimilar. The only twist is that because hockey is such a low scoring sport, the best way you can tell who is in the midst of a "run" is through watching the game. That, or tracking shot attempts on a minute by minute basis. One team will start racking up the chances, then they commit a penalty, and suddenly the other team gets a power play, and they also get the opportunity to go on a run after it ends, even if they don't score on it.

Those runs are driven by energy level, when one team's skaters just have a little more jump in their step than those on the opposing team. They start winning more puck battles, look more tenacious on the walls, and seem a bit faster on the rush. When the other team is strangling your team, it's up to your skaters to pick up the energy level to try and match them. I've been writing about hockey strategy on this site for over a year now, and have studied it for far longer, but one thing I've learned is this: you can study the strategic and systematic component to the sport all you want, but the X's and O's only matter so much if your energy level as a team isn't matching your opponent's. That's why if you ever watch clips of hockey coaches mic'd up behind the bench during a game, they rarely are saying "you know what guys, we need to adjust our neutral zone forecheck to have F1 go a little lower towards the goal line" with a whiteboard out. Instead they're barking things like "we're dragging now! They're kicking our ass! Wake the fuck up and COMPETE." Energy level, baby. 

Michigan rose their energy level on Saturday night. They came out guns blazing in the Friday game against ND back in late February, but that game saw ND quickly tie it and then things went sideways. In the second game of that series, Michigan's energy level was middling as they were committed to playing a tight, mistake-free game. That worked okay for awhile, until they made a mistake in the second period. Neither of those formulas were the right one to crack the Irish code, and so Saturday they came up with a new plan: just outwork Notre Dame for nearly the entire 60 minutes. Right out of the gate, Michigan was competing at a higher level than they had at any point previously in the season against the Irish.

[James Coller]

The Wolverines were winning nearly every puck battle in their own zone throughout the entire first 25 minutes of the game. They disrupted Notre Dame's flow through the neutral zone, won the battles when the dump ins came, and were able to force play in the Notre Dame half of the ice. They seemed much more prepared for this sort of game than the last time around, knowing that they had to shoot more often, even if many were going to be blocked by Notre Dame's defensive positioning. Michigan was willing to do so, because they had the jump in their step to win a good amount of the ensuing puck retrieval battles. Energy level. 

The result was a 1st period that saw Michigan dominate the shot attempts tally. Notre Dame got one good look on net, and Portillo made the save. Otherwise, it was all Michigan. They did the same thing early in the second, looking faster and more determined than their opposition, like they wanted it more. The Wolverines finally got the goal to go up 1-0 off a brilliant rush chance finished by Matty Beniers and Brendan Brisson. But that's when the energy level shifted, as it often does. Notre Dame picked their level up, and started battling. They got some generous help from the Puck Luck Gods and were able to cash in a chance off a long cycle possession that was extended by Michigan's clearing effort going off the referee and staying in the zone. 

But Michigan came right back. Notre Dame had found a way to match the Wolverines' energy level, and Michigan responded by finding a way to want the victory more. Their play and compete level found a new notch, and pummeled Notre Dame in the third period. Shot attempts were as lopsided as the first period, Michigan got the go-ahead goal, and then the Irish got nothing the entire rest of the way. Needing to put away a game, the Wolverines continued to skate circles around Notre Dame and suffocated the Irish offense until there was no time left. Shot attempts in the third period were something like 20-4 in favor of Michigan, and for the game they were 84-37 at even strength. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: More narrative, HockeyBullets, and PWR]