Friday, November 27, 2015

MIchigan 7, Dartmouth 0

1st period

UM 1 Drt 0 EV 05:05 Motte (6) from Downing (6) & Compher (8)

Michigan gets the puck deep in the offensive zone, and JT Compher thinks about taking it behind the net before reversing course and turning back up the boards. As he turns, he sees a huge seam through the defense. You can see Zach Werenski in the frame waving for a pass, but Compher passes to Michael Downing because of the off chance the defender in the high slot jumps the pass.

Downing takes a stride forward with the puck before shooting. It has to be a seeing-eye shot to get through the defenders in the slot, and luckily it is.

The rising shot hits the goaltender and ricochets to the slot. Defender #1 has no idea where the puck is, and defender #2 thinks he sees it and goes to clear, with the primary issue being that he’s wrong. The aforementioned ricochet is fortuitous for Michigan, as it lands right in front of Tyler Motte.

Darthmouth’s goalie, James Kruger, does pick up on where the rebound went, but he has no chance at this. Motte lifts a shot into the top half of the net.

[After THE JUMP: pretty passing, offensive onslaught]

UM 2 Drt 0 PPG 07:02 Marody (7) from Compher (9) & Kile (5)

Alex Kile manages to get a nice backhanded pass away before he’s taken out by both a defender and the goalie. Marody has a lot of room between himself and the nearest defender, which gives him the gift of time to make a decision.

He reads the defense and sees an open passing lane through the slot to the opposite side of the ice. You can see form this screen cap that Dartmouth’s really, really taking the whole collapse on net strategy seriously.

Compher obviously is also gifted plenty of time to make a decision, and he skates in a bit before he spots the same passing lane open again. He threads a pass through the slot and gets the puck back to Marody.

The defense is pulled the opposite direction again, and things are aided a bit by the goaltender starting to tip over. There’s one defenseman in the crease, and he makes a valiant effort to block Marody’s shot. The problem is that doesn’t usually work unless you’re Nick Lidstrom. Lest you worry, I have conveniently added a label to the screen cap.

UM 3 Drt 0 PPG 09:09 Motte (7) from Kile (6) & Compher (9)

Compher carries through the neutral zone and, seeing that a defender is about to make converging on him, bounces the puck off the boards to himself while skating through contact.

There’s no pass to be made through the crease, but Kile is in good position as the trailer. Compher notices where Kile is and executes a nice drop pass.

Kile one-times a pass to Motte after instantaneously reading the defender in the high slot and seeing that he’s too far behind to get his stick in the passing lane.

The goaltender is squared to Kile, so the pass to Motte is going to require the kind of lateral quickness that not many goalies outside the NHL have. If Kruger had it then we wouldn’t really be talking about what happened in this space.

2nd period

UM 4 Drt 0 PPG 17:55 Werenski (3) from Connor (6) & Calderone (4)

Tony Calderone has three Dartmouth players around him and one teammate supporting the puck, so he passes to said teammate. This is pretty much the only play to be made here.

Kyle Connor sees Werenski decide to pinch, and he threads a perfect pass past the outstretched stick of his defender and through the slot.

Kruger is still standing, so it’s not terribly hard for him to move across and try to square up Werenski. There’s a small window in the top corner that Kruger doesn’t take away, and Werenski’s shot is perfectly placed. He’s so offensively gifted and his offense is so polished compared to other college defensemen.

Dab on ‘em, Zach.

UM 5 Drt 0 EV 18:38 Allen (2) from Shuart (3)

Evan Allen gets crushed into the glass, but he keeps the puck underneath him and is able to regain possession post-hit. He backhands a pass to Max Shuart just before another defender gets his stick in the passing lane.

Ninety percent of the time a guy who gets a similar pass behind the net is going to skate to his right; if you look at the defenders, that’s the direction everyone is starting to move. Shuart, though, dishes a backhanded pass that’s just outside the net; he’s expecting Allen to come off the boards and head to the front of the net, and he guesses correctly.

Allen shoots through a tangled web of legs and skates, and…

…is stonewalled by Kruger, who does an excellent job of reading the puck and getting his pad locked on the post. He does not, however, do such a great job of smothering the rebound.

Allen follows up on his shot and flips it skyward over Kruger and in at the last possible second, and with a defender draped all over him.

3rd period

UM 6 Drt 0 EV 08:01 Nieves (2) from Cecconi (2)

Cecconi passes ahead to Nieves, who winds up and unleashes a big ol’ slap shot. He has the space to skate it in deeper, but Nieves’ shot is good enough that I at least understand the decision.

I can’t tell if this hits Kruger’s glove or shoulder, but it glances off of something and still ends up in the net.

UM 7 Drt 0 PPG 12:27 Werenski (4) from Downing (7) & Connor (7)

Connor passes to Downing and works a bit lower in the zone; in a minute he will be stick-wavingly open. Downing skates in, fakes a slap shot, takes another stride, and fakes a slapshot again.

The defender in front of him bites on the fake and drops to a knee to block the shot he thinks is coming, while the defender in the slot below Connor freezes. Downing sees Werenski deep in the zone and threads a pass through the slot despite Connor being loaded up for a one timer.

Tic-tac-toe. Yet another perfect pass leaves Kruger in a nearly impossible place made worse by Werenski’s incredibly accurate shot.

Saturday, November 28, 2015

Michigan 1, Dartmouth 1 (though Michigan won the unofficial shootout)

1st period

UM 0 Drt 1 EV 02:40 Hesler from Barre & Ferguson

Dartmouth just dumps the puck in. They’ve got a couple guys deep, and one is able to pick the puck up off the boards before Sam Piazza can get there.

Barre carries behind the net and emerges to the goaltender’s left. He spins…

…and his shot hits a skate and is redirected in. Can’t do much about flukes like this.

2nd period

No scoring

3rd period

UM 1 Drt 1 EV 07:56 Calderone (5) from Nieves (4) & Selman (5)

Calderone is in the process of being hit and with another defender about a second away from making contact as well, and yet he somehow skates through the hit just enough to backhand the puck to Nieves.

With the two defenders on Calderone still in the corner, Nieves has a clear path to the front of the net. He bull rushes it.

Nieves shoots as he’s in the crease, and Devin Buffalo, who was otherwise excellent in this game, stops the shot but doesn’t smother the rebound.

Calderone is out of the corner and on the cusp of the crease when the puck drops in front of him. He shovels it under Buffalo.

Calderone gets taken out and he and the goaltender slide toward the net as a defender pulls it off its moorings. The goal is waved off, but a review overturns that call.

Notes/Ramblings:

Friday night played into Michigan’s hands; they were gifted six power-plays and converted four of them. Their ability to make incredible, nuanced plays when the offense is given lots of space was on display, and the results were as expected. Saturday night things bogged down for Michigan as Dartmouth checked better, and a better defensive game from the Big Green led to the kind of turnovers that have frustrated all year. Michigan went 0-4 on the power-play, lost Steven Racine to injury, and gave up a fluke goal to put them behind early. It was the kind of game that we’ve come to expect Michigan to lose; they’ve split a number of series over the past few seasons when they aren’t able to get the offense flowing, and yet this time they hung on. It only counts as a tie, but some growth could be seen this weekend. Michigan held Dartmouth scoreless on six power-plays Saturday night; the defense of the forward corps on special teams and at even strength was impressive, and both Nagelvoort and Racine played as well as I’ve ever seen.

All this against a Dartmouth team that’s better than their 2-5-1 record; they’re 26th in the PairWise and RPI rankings, and while that’s not exactly going to get Michigan a quality win bonus it’s…something considering Michigan’s 12th, Penn State’s 18th and the rest of the Big Ten is 37th or lower.

Since this seemed to work, no reason not to close with this again:

Brian’s talked a bit about reverse jinxes in his recent game previews. It’s funny, because I thought I was the one with that power; my freshman year at Michigan was 2006, and I started doing these posts the year The Streak ended. Whenever I go all-in on something it seems to take a multi-year turn south. After this impressive road home split, though, I really need to test this. Key Matchup: EVERY SKATER versus THE TURNOVERS THAT MAKE ME HOLD MY HEAD IN MY HANDS AND THEN RUB MY NECK TO MAKE THE HEADACHE GO AWAY versus MY 100% DEAD CERTAINTY THAT THOSE TURNOVERS ARE WHY MICHIGAN WON’T MAKE THE TOURNAMENT AGAIN.