neutral site games

Michigan hung the heads of two teams this weekend [JD Scott]

OFFENSE

	Corsi	House	Possession %
First Period	13	5	46%
Second Period	13	8	42%
Third Period	6	3	18%
Overtime	n/a	n/a	n/a
TOTAL	32	16	36%

Analysis: This is another game where overall Corsi is not as relevant as either Close Corsi or House Chances. I charted the game on a re-watch, and it really became a game of errors. Michigan definitely created some chances, but they also took advantage of some major gaffes by BU.

Over the first half of the game or so, the Wolverines were able to get into the House with relative ease, as close to half of their attempts came from a desirable location. After the fluky Slaker goal gave Michigan the lead, they mostly went into prevent mode, and BU applied tons of pressure to tie the game. Michigan was happy to sacrifice chances on net for protection of their own net. This wasn’t the best offensive output of the season by any means, but it was reflective of the game that Michigan was playing.

Even so, Michigan missed a few golden chances to extend their lead and end the game. CHN had close corsi at 32-24, BU, which is way more reflective of how this game went. Hughes was the beneficiary of a goal in which all six BU participants stood in a parallel line. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen that before. Warren’s hustle goal also came from a Plinko bounce off of the boards and Oettinger’s skate.

[After THE JUMP: shutdown defense, timely goaltending, and advantageous OMRs]

Cooper Marody played like a Hobey Baker finalist [James Coller]

OFFENSE

	Corsi	House	Possession %
First Period	23	6	55%
Second Period	24	8	71%
Third Period	15	5	50%
Overtime	n/a	n/a	n/a
TOTAL	62	19	58%

Analysis: Awesome. This was a wonderful output of offense from Michigan. The Wolverines consistently got into the House and created chances from all over the ice. While it was a tight game, the main reason that is stayed that way was Cayden Primeau. He made about 5-6 fantastic saves. Otherwise, there is a good chance Michigan hangs a couple more on the possession-starved Huskies.

The DMC line went head-to-head with the top scoring line in the country and hung a –3 on them. I’ll get more into the defense in the next section, but Cooper Marody danced throughout the offensive zone and connected with Calderone and Dancs on numerous occasions. Cooper’s first goal was a circling blind shot that snuck in short-side. Dancs added a soft goal to retake the lead, as he shot from a poor angle and was still able to deflect it off of Primeau and inside the far post. Marody’s game winner came from just outside the crease off of a deft dish from Tony Calderone, who had driven the wing and gotten to the goalline.

FWIW, the Slaker-Norris combination could have also had a couple of goals, themselves…including Norris missing a WIDE OPEN net from just under the dot. The Pastujovs-Becker line also created some havoc. Northeastern has a great scoring line, yet couldn’t always get them the puck in the offensive end. Michigan identified that and exploited it all night.

[After THE JUMP: come for the offense, stay for the defense (!). And special teams. And goaltending]

This is the appropriate reaction to Plink-O. [wiki.com and cnn.com]

I wrote this last year. It is more or less what I will say now, but with a couple of things shifted and an update to 2018. All of the block quotes are highlights from my previous piece. Later on this week, I will have a Northeastern/overall 2018 tournament preview. Let’s begin:

What Could Have Happened in 2018:

Final Top 16 (PairWise plus Conference Tournament Winners):

1 St Cloud State
2 Notre Dame
3 Cornell
4 Ohio State
5 Denver
6 Minnesota State
7 Providence
8 Michigan
9 Northeastern
10 Clarkson
11 Penn State
12 Minnesota-Duluth
13 Boston University
14 Princeton
15 Michigan Tech
16 Air Force

If we’re going to do Best-of-Three matchups at home sites, the format would follow the pattern of 1v16, 2v15, 3v14, 4v13, etc. We will need to take into account: 1.) no intra-conference matchups in the Round of 16 and 2.) travel costs versus bracket integrity.

Most of it seems fine. We’ll have to switch Penn State and Minn-Duluth, but the rest of it actually looks good, with a few already-close matchups. We could have St Cloud State and Notre Dame swap timeslots so that it's not as late in South Bend, but I’m guessing the Irish would rather be on national television. Obviously, there would still be an OCTO-BOX-esque RedZone channel, as well.

[After THE JUMP: what's broken and how to fix it]