steve rohlik

[Bill Rapai]
Comment Count

2

Hockey Weekly Got Put In A Pressure Cooker
Alex.Drain • January 18, 2023 • 4:30pm

After a month off for the Christmas/WJC break, Michigan Hockey was back in action this past weekend against the Ohio State Buckeyes at Yost Ice Arena. It was an eventful series, with Michigan suffering a disastrous defeat on Friday night before rebounding to take the Saturday game 4-2. The split wasn't quite what Michigan wanted but it was acceptable considering the rustiness after such a break. Today we'll be talking about the OSU series, looking at the B1G and NCAA picture, and quickly checking in on the WJC results, NHL Draft notes, and Wolverines in the pros. 

 

Ohio State's Full-Court Press

The story of this past weekend's tussle with Ohio State was what the Buckeyes did tactically to give Michigan fits. Steve Rohlik dialed up a hyper-aggressive offensive zone forecheck, one that sent F1 (the first forechecker) deep into the zone, always below the goal line, to apply immediate puck pressure on whichever Wolverine was recovering the loose puck. The other two forwards F2 and F3, were providing aggressive support, either on-puck, or pinching on the walls to take away the first outlet passes. If a Michigan player tried to skate with the puck out of the zone, F1 would stay glued onto him and another forward would arrive quickly to hound the puck. Any chips of the wall were met with a hard pinch at the point by the defensemen as well. 

Here's what it looked like in action: 

Luke Hughes gets the puck in front of his own net, tries to skate it out of the zone, and is met with immediate puck pressure. F1 separates him from the puck and F2 is right there to scoop up the loose puck and keep the possession going. It resulted in a goal on that play, but many times it didn't- it merely kept Michigan hemmed in their zone for minutes at a time. Ohio State paired this aggressive strategy on dump-ins and retrievals with a shoot from everywhere approach to offense. They flung pucks at the net from all over, knowing that Erik Portillo's struggles to control rebounds this season would end with those pucks ricocheting to the boards, where their retrieval approach could recover them quickly. 

[AFTER THE JUMP: analysis and all-stars]

Read More