Friday, October 16, 2015

Michigan 6, Mercyhurst 4

1st period

UM 1 Mercyhurst 0 EV 04:45 Nieves (1) from Connor (1) & Martin (1)

Nick Boka has the puck at the blueline and passes to Cutler Martin after reading his defender, who’s close enough to warrant not shooting. It’s a smart pass; Martin’s defender is moving across and giving him a big cushion. He takes advantage of that, gathering the puck and taking time (maybe even too much time) before firing.

The puck sails into traffic, and if we’re to believe the official score sheet it hits Kyle Connor at some point before reaching the goaltender. The goalie stops it but can’t gather, allowing a plush rebound to his left. The two netfront defenders have pinched in, and you can see from the screen shot that the distance between the nearest defender and Boo Nieves is not great for Mercyhurst.

The goaltender has to make a lateral push that’s basically impossible to do in time to cover; there’s no way he’s locking down the post when he has to go from the middle of the crease to the side. All Nieves has to do is flip a backhander over the goalies shoulder, which isn’t the easiest thing from that sharp an angle. Still, he’s got the necessary space to do so and executes.

[Hit THE JUMP for the rest]

UM 1 Mercyhurst 1 EV 06:50 Cook (1) unassisted

Martin’s lined up just a hair inside the player with the puck and that makes all the difference. He has given up the inside path, and that allows Cook to swim past and gain the massively open middle of the ice.

This is the moment a decision must be made. Boka’s playing this one as he should; he’s attempting to take away the pass. There’s a bit of room, so it’s possible that a pass could have snuck through but with the momentum from being a step ahead Cook decides to keep it.

This is just a bad goal to give up. Racine sees him coming from a mile away and yet still gets beat. A shot going in from that far away with that much notice is a bit of a red flag. So yeah, it took less than half a period to break out the first red flag of the season. Hooray.

UM 1 Mercyhurst 2 EV 09:13 Lammon (3) from Lancaster (2) & Verboom (1)

Boka’s forced to make a split-second decision on a rapidly developing rush, and I can see why he decided to cover the guy closest to the boards. He has to either stick with No. 27 or step toward the puck carrier, and if he sticks in the middle of the ice that allows the puck carrier a free lane down the wall. He thinks he can get the stick out to disrupt a pass, but the pass gets by him anyway.

Martin has the 2-on-1 rush handled for a moment, but for some reason he draws his stick back in. The puck carrier sees an easy pass across, and the timing is fortunate for him as Boka is just about to get back in the frame and in position to limit the passing opportunity.

This is very close to being a puck that’s knocked off a stick and turned into an opportunity to scramble and chase and basically not skate to the goaltender unimpeded. That puck, though, is not on Lancaster’s stick. Because of that, this turns into a chance to skate to the goaltender unimpeded.

Lancaster carries in and Racine is thinking about sealing the ice with his pads but delays a bit, and that’s when Lancaster pulls a toe drag that’s not really stopped. It hits Racine’s pad, but with his leg up there’s a big gap in the five hole and a loose puck in front.

Naturally Lammon flies in from out of the frame and shoves the puck in. Racine gets the pad down, but his momentum carries him backwards with the puck under his leg, and he slides across the goal line. At this point in the weekend we had no idea how tired we’d be of things in green and white appearing from nowhere and doing the improbable. Ah, to be young and naïve.

UM 2 Mercyhurst 2 SH 16:58 Connor (1)

Boka gets burned by a swim move here, and it looks like it’s time to start grumbling about last year and this year and things are dumb, etc. A sharp-angle shot is deflected, though, and the puck ends up in the faceoff circle.

Connor taps it ahead to himself off of the boards, and there’s nothing but open ice between him and the goaltender.

He dekes forehand-backhand-forehand, and this gets the goaltender to hit the ice. The last move back to the forehand is where Connor releases his shot, and it sails over the goalie’s shoulder and hits the farside top corner.

2nd period

UM 2 Mercyhurst 3 EV 12:37 Charbonneau from Barach (3) & Cook (6)

Cook sees that he’s about to get plastered by Martin and has the awareness not to chip the puck ahead but to toss it toward the middle of the ice, as he sees he has a trailer who has gained a step on Evan Allen through the neutral zone.

Boka comes over to help because he has to. If Mercyhurst shoots and there’s a rebound Michigan’s in trouble. You can see that the two Michigan defenders are hemmed in the middle and bunched together, while Mercyhurst has a free skater lurking behind.

Instead of shooting Barach takes another stride and dishes across to Charbonneau, the trailer. And you thought my foreshadowing was heavy handed when it wasn’t even foreshadowing at all. What a twist. Charbonneau executes a really nice spin move and just throws the puck to the front of the net, where it hits Boka’s skate and deflects in.

UM 3 Mercyhurst 3 EV 13:31 Calderone (1) from Marody (1) & Warren (1)

Brendan Warren passes to Cooper Marody, who’s about to get hit. The puck deflects up and bounces all over, eventually settling along the boards.

Marody gathers the puck and passes to Tony Calderone, who’s open thanks to the two Mercyhurst defenders converging on Marody and trying to pin him along the boards. Warren, meanwhile, has started to drift toward the front of the net to set up a screen.

Calderone loops into the faceoff circle. The two low defenders come off the wall and head for the front of the net; Warren’s screen is able to keep them out of the play. Two more defenders skate down and try to help but can’t before Calderone spots a perfect shooting lane between Warren and another netfront defender. He releases the puck and beats Wildung, somehow placing the puck inside the defender, outside Wildung, and just inside the farside post.

UM 3 Mercyhurst 4 PPG 17:21 Lancaster (2) unassissted

I can’t find video of this one. C’est la vie.

UM 4 Mercyhurst 4 EV 18:16 Marody (1) from Werenski (1) & Downing (1)

Werenski gathers a puck in the middle of the defensive zone and shovels it ahead for Marody, who starts a solo breakout the other way. Marody gets to the blueline before making his move, turning the puck outside and skating around the defender

Marody shoots, and it’s gloved…sort of. Maybe for a second, but not long enough for a whistle.

At some point and somewhere in that mass of bodies the puck creeps across the goal line. Hockey, man.

3rd period

UM 5 Mercyhurst 4 EV 02:57 Motte (1) from Compher (1) 

JT Compher reads this incredibly well. The Mercyhurst player is off-balance, and the puck is behind him. Compher gets around him and somehow has the awareness to know that if he backhands a pass Tyler Motte will be able to retrieve it with lots of room to operate.

That whole “room to operate” thing was momentary, as Motte has a defender on him quickly. Still, he had time to get toward the center of the ice. With the goalie backed into his net Motte’s improved his chances. He shoots, and the shot flutters toward the net before sneaking in just under the crossbar. Also, nice job by Kile getting to the front of the net. He draws a defender both out of the way of the shot and into the goaltender’s line of sight.

UM 6 Mercyhurst 4 EN 19:44 Connor (2) from Selman (1)

Connor’s puck hawking (I don’t know, I just made it up) on the forecheck creates enough pressure for the Mercyhurst forward to flip the puck back up the boards.

The puck carrier is in way, way deeper than he knows; Selman’s about to strip the puck from his stick when Connor, who’s peeled off his previous check, comes up and just shoves the guy off the puck.

Connor bounces a long, backhanded shot through traffic and into the empty net for what is one of the nicer, more skill-dependent empty netters I’ve ever seen.

Sunday, October 18, 2015

Michigan 3, Mercyhurst 2

1st period

UM 1 Mercyhurst 0 EV 17:03 Kile (1) from Downing (2) & Boka (1)

Boka dishes to Downing laterally at the blueline. The defenders are playing off Downing, so he shoots immediately. Wildung makes the initial save, but he allows a rebound.

Kile, who’s been doing a nice job screening, isn’t really even challenged here. He gathers the loose puck and taps it in while the defenders around him hover as if repelled by a force field.

2nd period

UM 1 Mercyhurst 1 PPG 01:52 Riley from Cook & Barach

Mercyhurst is in the umbrella on the power play, and as expected the move the puck to the point. The point-man shoots, the shot is deflected, he gathers and shoots again. This time the puck makes its way through traffic to Nagelvoort.

Nagelvoort stops the shot but doesn’t corral it; Cook is able to dig it out, and I don’t think he’s making a pass so much as just trying to get possession of the puck when it rolls to the side.

The screenshots make it look like Martin, one of the low defenders, should have made more of an effort to unbunch and take the man at the side of the net but on video it’s such a quickly developing play I can see why he takes a swipe at the puck in an effort to clear instead. The problem is that he misses, and that allows Riley a simple tap in to an empty net.

UM 2 Mercyhurst 1 EV 05:08 Allen (1) from Shuart (1) & Selman (2)

Shuart retrieves a loose puck off the wall and carries in on a 2-on-1. The defender makes a move and tries to…actually, I’m not quite sure. He’s out of position to stop a pass now and he’s also too far away to alter a shot attempt. He makes Shuart’s decision to pass pretty easy; put it a little bit ahead (and under the defender’s stick, which is off the ice for some reason) and Allen has a scoring chance.

Michigan’s in an ideal situation. The pass causes the goaltender to push across, and he’s already in his splits and needing to get his glove hand up when Allen’s ready to shoot. All he has to do is roof the puck to score, and that’s exactly what he does.

UM 2 Mercyhurst 2 EV 11:03 Charbonneau from Best & Wu

Mercyhurst enters the Michigan zone on a 2-on-1, albeit one in which the trailer is so far behind he doesn’t really factor in until later; you could justifiably call this a 1-on-1. Martin is the lone defender back, and he sees that the pass isn’t going to be there. He attempts to slide to take away the shot, but he doesn’t get there in time.

You can see in the screen cap below that Martin’s slide doesn’t influence the shot, which Nagelvoort stops for a second. He can’t hold onto the rebound, however, and the puck that was practically on his chest protector bounces away.

I mean, you know what’s going to happen. The spoiler’s in the title of the post. That’s a massive amount of space for Nagelvoort to cover with a guy charging and wielding a stick ready to thunderously whack the puck in. To Nagelvoort’s credit he does sprawl and take away the bottom of the net, but Charbonneau lifts it up and over.

3rd period

UM 3 Mercyhurst 2 EV 15:51 Connor (3) from Selman (2) & Werenski (3)

Selman has the puck in the neutral zone near center ice when he puts a perfect pass through the zone of Connor on the opposite wing.

Connor draws the nearest defender to him; that defender is the guy in the middle of the ice in the screen cap above. He’s working from a bad position, and he’s gliding for a moment. That’s enough time for Connor to gain the zone and set up his shot at full speed.

This is why people sometimes make a big deal out of a defenseman’s handedness. Mercyhurst’s D is at a disadvantage from the start because is he’s going to alter Connor’s path or shot he needs to swing his stick around (that’s what the dotted line below represents). However, he’s unable to do that before Connor can unload his shot.

This shot beat the goaltender cleanly from the middle of the faceoff circle. I be like dang.

Notes/Ramblings:

Mercyhurst is pretty good. They’re currently 23rd in the way-too-early-but-I’m-gonna-mention-it-anyway PairWise and RPI; Michigan is 15th in both.

That doesn’t excuse shaky goaltending. I thought Racine looked worse than Nagelvoort. Still, I don’t think this is a competition that’s settled anytime soon. We could be in for a replica of the last two years.

Kyle Connor is pretty, pretty good. I’m not going to make the comparison yet but a few more weeks of that and maybe it’s fair to say we replaced our Larkin with another Larkin dang couldn’t make it to the end of the sentence without mentioning him.

Hey, maybe playing desperate is a good thing. Red said after Sunday’s win that he liked his team when they play desperate, and that they did that and were able to lock down defensively in the third. I, too, like when Michigan plays desperately and in fact have been waiting for that for like three years. That’s the reason I’m not going to make 2014 comparisons, even though Friday felt like that. Sunday’s win was enough to make me think that maybe Friday was a team still ironing things out in the early season and not a repeat of the unit that could score and not defend.