[Bill Rapai]

Friday, March 2, 2018

#3 Michigan 6, #6 Wisconsin 5

[Note: numbers refer to BTT seeding]

1st period

CALDERONE GOAL

UM 1 UW 0 EV 1:40 Assists: Marody & Cecconi

Cecconi puts some mustard on a backhanded clearing attempt and gets the puck out of Michigan’s defensive zone.

The puck stays more or less on the wall and looks like it’s about to be stopped by Tischke’s skates.

until it somehow gets through. You can see Marody locked onto the puck in the screencap above, and he’s in perfect position to pick it up and go once it gets past the UW skater. To Tischke’s credit, he makes the right move once the split second he realizes the puck is past him. He turns and moves to get into a position where he can take away Marody’s passing lane to his right.

That doesn’t mean Tischke’s actually able to take away said lane, though. Marody gets the pass through to Calderone, who’s perfectly aligned. This is extra dangerous for Wisconsin because Calderone is a right-handed shot, so he’s going to get the puck on his on hand.

It’s also extra dangerous because there aren’t many skaters at this level who can lift a puck from in tight like Calderone. This isn’t the closest to the net that I’ve seen him go top shelf this season, but it’s still impressive because he does it at full speed while allowing the puck to slide past the midpoint of his body to where he wants to shoot, slightly outside his frame to his right.

[Analysis of the other 743 goals after THE JUMP]

Inamoto goal

UM 1 UW 1 EV 3:58 Assists: Malone

Warren swims over Weissbach to get to a loose puck and then attempts to pass it to Piazza behind the net. The ref, though, has other plans, as he gets in the dang way and the puck bounces off his skate. It then hits the boards and Piazza, who was expecting to get the pass on his forehand, has to turn and attempt to gather it backhanded. Either he misses or the puck takes a hop; either way, it gets past Piazza and glides to his right.

Malone happens to be in the vicinity. He gets the puck and turns on it, throwing a pass in front for a one-timer from the slot. The pass is too far ahead of Freytag, though.

The puck takes a bounce off the boards that’s basically on a direct line to Inamoto. He readies the one-timer and fires.

Inamoto’s shot squeaks past Warren at the top of the circle and then Pastujov by an inch or two each. Lavigne is screened and can’t track the rising shot, which goes high near-side.

Freytag goal

UM 1 UW 2 EV 6:59 Assists: Malone & Kalynuk

Kalynuk starts to walk the blue line and instead turns and snaps a quick wrong-footed shot on net. I’m guessing he saw the screen and wide shooting lane and figured his best play was getting the puck on Lavigne and hoping for someone to clean up a rebound.

The shot worms through but Lavigne stops it. He allows a rebound to his right that Freytag is easily able to chop at.

Lavigne tries to bat the shot away with his stick but isn’t able to get much on it. Instead of flinging it to the corner he more or less rolls the puck vertically closer to the red line.

This was officially scored as Freytag’s goal but I’m not sure how. His shot is the one Lavigne pushed away; judging by the bend of Malone’s stick, he’s the one who buries the loose puck. Someone obviously lost a winger here, allowing Malone free access to the front of the net while Warren and Norris are both defending no one in the slot.

Wagner goal

UM 1 UW 3 EV 8:03 Assists: Frederic & Tischke

Lavigne clangs the puck off the glass in an attempt to move it up and possibly clear it from the defensive zone, but it takes about the worst possible bounce. It comes off the glass and lands on Tischke’s stick and in Dancs’ feet.

Tischke isn’t able to get much on it, more or less pushing the puck forward. Cutler Martin and Frederic both go for it and knock the puck back just as Wagner comes off the wall. He picks it up and carries to the high slot.

Martin takes a second to find the puck but closes the gap well when he does. His stick gets a bit ahead of Wagner’s blade, and he gets a fair amount on a wrister with no follow-through (because Martin is right in front of him). Wagner’s shot is perfectly placed, going in over Lavigne’s glove-side shoulder.

CALDERONE GOAL

UM 2 UW 3 PPG 13:14 Assists: Hughes & Cecconi

Michigan’s puck movement here is excellent, as it’s rapidly swung from Dancs down low to Cecconi to Hughes.

Hughes fires a one-timer that goes just inside the body of the defender at the top of the box who’s skinnying to block the shot. The low corner man then hits the ice to block the shot.

Calderone has slipped behind the nearest defender and gotten perfect low-slot position. He then makes a veteran move, getting his stick in position for a deflection as Hughes releases the puck. He places it perfectly, and the puck deflects off Calderone’s stick past Layton.

SLAKER GOAL

UM 3 UW 3 PPG 16:22 Assists: Piazza & Martin

Two Wisconsin defenders get out of position chasing the puck, so Luke Martin swings it for Piazza since he has acres and acres (seriously, look at the screen shot) of open ice to work with.

Piazza walks toward the slot and fakes a snap shot, which freezes the defender nearest him. It’s a brilliant move, as the defender biting on the move opens a cross-ice passing lane.

Slaker one-times a low burner from his knees that he tucks just inside the post. Wagner comes off the wall and tries to get his stick in the shooting lane, and Inamoto comes off of Becker and gets across the crease, but neither those two nor Layton can stop the shot. Layton does do a nice job of getting his left skate on the post in a hurry, though. Also, credit Norris for seeing the one-timer coming and jumping to get out of Slaker’s way.

HUGHES GOAL

UM 4 UW 3 PPG 18:09 Assists: Marody

Hughes finds Marody on an excellent stretch pass from Michigan’s defensive zone to the far edge of the neutral zone. Marody carries the puck in against two Wisconsin defenders, with Tischke the closest. Tischke extends with his right hand to try and knock the puck away, with the stick also intended to slow Marody, who just spins off of it.

Marody looks toward the blue line and again turns toward the net. He glides outside as Tischke moves inside. Marody then sees a passing lane on a diagonal behind himself.

Hughes is the lucky recipient of Marody’s pass. One of Wisconsin’s defenders thought he was swapping with Tischke by going low, but then Tischke goes back to what he assumes is his assigned spot and suddenly Wisconsin has three guys in a line in front of the net. Hughes uses Calderone as a psedo-pick on the one defender who decided to chase.

Hughes shoots a wrister that goes behind Linhart’s (crouched in the slot) back. Dancs screens Layton into oblivion, to the point that he’s peeking around Dancs as the puck hits the corner opposite the direction he’s leaning. Dancs just happens to be close enough to the middle of the crease for the shot to avoid hitting him.

2nd period

CALDERONE GOAL

UM 5 UW 3 PPG 3:20 Assists: Hughes & Cecconi

Looks to me like Wisconsin is in a wedge + 1 penalty kill, where the high man is responsible for pressuring the point and quickly getting in while the top point of the triangle comes out to pressure when the puck goes side-to-side. Cecconi sees the pressure coming and moves it down to Calderone, who quickly swings it to Hughes on the opposite side of the ice.

Hughes glides down the wing and neither Wisconsin defender on that side of the ice jumps out on him. Cameron Hughes even has his stick trailing behind himself, which open the cross-ice passing lane Hughes is looking for.

Meanwhile, Calderone has taken advantage of his positioning (he was always one step lower than Frederic when Frederic went high to pressure) to get open in the slot. He also puts his blade on the ice…

so that he can lift a one-timer when the puck arrives. You can see from the screencap below that Layton’s cooked before the shot is off Calderone’s stick.

Weissbach goal

UM 5 UW 4 PPG 10:00 Assists: Kalynuk & Wagner

This starts with pretty standard powerplay fare. Weissbach has the puck on the wing and swings it to Kalynuk at the point.

Kalynuk faces some nominal pressure but notices the gap Hughes is giving Weissbach and decides his best play is to pass back for a one-timer.

I can’t tell for certain but it looks to me like the puck hits Hughes’ blade and changes direction. That would make sense, too, because Lavigne is looking around the screen and seems to have a pretty good read on the entirety of the shot process and then next thing it’s behind him.

3rd period

Wagner goal

UM 5 UW 5 PPG 1:13 Assists: Hughes & Frederic

Martin stays up a bit to play Frederic, who decides to pass down the wing to Hughes.

Martin scrambles to cut off the passing lane to the slot. Cecconi sees Hughes skating toward the front of the net and takes a backhanded swipe at the puck. Hughes gets his pass to the slot away, but it hits Wagner’s skate. The puck then bounces off of Norris’ skate back to Wagner just as Martin slides past.

Lavigne sees this and tries to push off his right skate to get back across, but he can’t recover in time. Hard to blame him when a puck takes so many bounces.

CALDERONE GOAL

UM 6 UW 5 EV 11:07 Assists: Marody & Hughes

Dancs carries down the wing, stops on a dime, spins, and fires an excellent backhanded pass for Hughes.

Greenway makes the decision to hit the ice and attempt to block what he thinks is going to be a quick shot from Hughes, but Hughes just stickhandles his way around Greenway and gets to the back of the net.

Hughes gets as deep as he can before passing, threading a perfect one to Marody at the side of the net. Marody fires while Layton is still looking behind the net, expecting Hughes to emerge on his left. Marody’s shot hits the post.

Takes a pretty perfect bounce for Calderone, though. Baker sees Calderone go through the slot and tries to get over to cover him, but he gets to the side of Calderone and in position to maybe make a play on the puck after the shot is through Layton. I think it goes in through the space between the body and the blocker arm.

Saturday, March 3, 2018

#3 Michigan 7, #6 Wisconsin 4

1st period

Frederic goal

UM 0 UW 1 EV 00:23 Assists: Wagner & Tischke

A puck hits Dancs’ skate and bounces backward toward Michigan’s defensive zone. Calderone turns to get it but Frederic beats him to the puck. Frederic then takes a long stride and throws a pass in Wagner’s direction.

Wagner enters the offensive zone with Frederic, who turned and headed to the offensive zone after passing in the screencap above, to his left. Wagner passes to Frederic. It looks like Hughes decide to gap up on Wagner, which makes the pass to Frederic fairly easy considering the lack of a stick in the passing lane.

Cecconi is back and able to cover Frederic but times his swipe at the puck poorly, though that’s largely dependent upon Frederic’s excellent edgework. Frederic pulls the puck across his body from backhand to forehand.

Frederic fires and Lavigne misses, getting into his butterfly as the puck goes over his shoulder and just under the bar.

DANCS GOAL

UM 1 UW 1 EV 4:18 Assists: Calderone

Calderone tries to get the puck deeper in the zone but ends up passing into Ford’s body. Ford turns on it and meets the puck about the same time as Frederic, and the puck hops to the top of the faceoff circle.

Calderone comes off the boards (you can see him starting to move that way in the screenshot above) and gains possession. No sooner does he do that than Frederic goes blade-on-blade and strips Calderone. Frederic now gains possession of the puck.

Frederic skates to the middle of the faceoff circle, where he has his stick lifted by Marody. Kalynuk turns on the loose puck as though he’s going to flip it out of the zone on his backhand.

Kalynuk is indeed about to flip it out until Calderone, who has skated in a half circle since having the puck stripped near the faceoff dot, goes HULK SMASH. He bursts through Kalynuk and Wisconsin’s other netfront player, keeping his blade on the ground to push the puck away. Calderone then immediately turns his back to the puck and takes a big backhanded sweep at it, which moves the puck just inside and past a charging Ford.

Dancs then hurries into the high slot and puts his hands out in front so he can get a little extra on his wrister. He fires a low shot that beats Berry (Wisconsin opted to sit Layton on Saturday) five-hole.

BECKER GOAL

UM 2 UW 1 EV 13:41 Assists: N. Pastujov & Sanchez

Sanchez and Pastujov work this brilliantly. Sanchez wants to pass to Pastujov but Kalynuk and Johnson have taken away the passing lane. Sanchez finds another way to make the pass happen, though, sending the puck down the boards to the corner. Pastujov is outside of Kalynuk and glides behind him to retrieve.

Pastujov passes as soon as he gets to the puck, seeing Becker flying through the slot and connecting. Tischke is deep in the zone (he’s practically standing in the crease) and looking at the puck in the corner, which is to say he’s lost Becker.

I know this shot is blurry but I tried to draw in the outline of the outer edge of Berry’s pads to show that he’s still in his crouch when Becker has just released the shot. Looks to me like this one comes out of the corner fast enough to surprise Berry.

2nd period

WARREN GOAL

UM 3 UW 1 EV 00:53 Assists: Hughes & Norris

Tischke saves a goal, getting his blade on a puck that’s about a puck’s width from the goal line and pushing it to the side of the net. Norris, who was already behind the net when the puck was about to go in, gets to the newly freed puck. He takes a quick look back and decides his best move is passing up to Hughes.

Hughes walks the blue line and, with Wisconsin’s defenders all staying low, sets up a massive slap shot from the point.

This is a textbook example of why you take that point slap shot when the defense gives it to you. The puck hits a body in front and falls. Kalynuk gave Warren a cursory shove and then locked onto Cecconi, which allows Warren to get behind both defenders and establish excellent crease positioning, particularly when something like, oh, say, a loose puck appears.

Berry has to get into his butterfly for Hughes’ shot and then gets pressed up against Warren, so there’s no way for him to get over and do anything about the loose puck. Warren flips in an easy backhander for the goal.

Hughes goal

UM 3 UW 2 EV 6:08 Assists: Weissbach & Baker

Baker really, really wants to pass, but Piazza is in excellent position and is able to use his stick to force a slow-rolling, off-the-mark pass. Luke Martin gets ready to field the puck and throw it the opposite direction, but Weissbach swings through, hits Martin’s stick and the puck, and causes the thing to bounce upward.

Weissbach gets the loose puck and loops up to the high slot. Martin can’t go after him because Hughes is crossing in front of him and setting a coincidental pick for Weissbach.

Weissbach fires just wide of the net and his shot hits the boards. It bounces on a frozen rope to the side of the net, where Hughes happens to be after turning sharply for the front of the net after crossing in front of Martin.

Hughes is in the right place at the right time and jams the puck in just as Lavigne makes a valiant effort and almost seals the post with his left skate. Porikos never locks onto Hughes, gliding toward the slot as Hughes cuts in and turns hard for the net in front of him.

RAABE GOAL

UM 4 UW 2 EV 6:34 Assists: Porikos & Cecconi

Hughes gaps up on Davison and uses his inside positioning to get Davison to lift his stick, which separates him from the puck and leaves it trailing. Hughes spins and does a full 360 to get control. He then deftly stickhandles his way into a perfect pass, putting the puck on the back of the blade as the defender extends his stick. Hughes casually passes ahead for Porikos, who’s leaving the zone with speed so close to the wall he isn’t even in the frame below.

The rest of this is a perfectly-spaced thing of beauty. Porikos enters the zone and immediately has a 3-on-1. He hits the trailer in the middle.

Cecconi doesn’t really have to make a decision thanks to Kalynuk, who leans forward like he expects to have to block a shot. Cecconi passes back to Porikos—remember that he’s the forward furthest ahead since he’s the one who carried into the zone—to attack Kalynuk’s temporary flat-footedness.

Porikos sees Raabe on the opposite side of Kalynuk and realizes that he’s close enough to the goal that Berry is absolutely done if he can get a pass through. Kalynuk spins with his stick but his feet aren’t moving, and that gives Porikos the passing lane he wants laterally through the slot to the opposite faceoff circle.

Berry uses the low crouch he’s in to his advantage, pushing and stretching admirably to his right. Raabe therefore has to lift the puck, which he does off a one-timer from his knee.

Frederic goal

UM 4 UW 3 EV 9:16 Assists: Weissbach & Greenway

This starts as a pretty mundane 2-on-2. Weissbach carries into the offensive zone and starts to skate outside of Martin when he sees Frederic flatten his skating path. Frederic (that teeny bit of a helmet in the screencap below) essentially is skating perpendicular to him when Weissbach passes.

Frederic then gets on his edges with his legs about as far apart as humanly possible, and yet he’s still able to rotate his upper body 90 degrees in an instant to get away an unexpected shot.

It takes Piazza a long time to push backwards and change direction, and Frederic has the shot off before Piazza can do anything at all to prevent it from happening. Lavigne sees the puck and gets his arm up but his reaction time loses to the puck, which hits the top corner glove-side.

DANCS GOAL

UM 5 UW 3 EV 19:53 Assists: Calderone

WIsconsin starts the breakout with a nice stretch pass through the neutral zone. Dancs pressures, though it would be ideal if he swung his stick around and tried to dissuade Malone from passing through the middle of the ice and forcing it off the boards instead.

That doesn’t end up mattering, though, as the puck hits a skate and ricochets on a line to Michigan’s offensive zone. Dancs sees it and skates to the blue line to pick it off.

Dancs carries wide while Calderone flys up the middle, and they’ve rapidly created a 2-on-1. Malone is back but plays fairly deep; he isn’t in position to break up a pass from Dancs to Calderone, which could be justified by Tischke entering the picture a step behind Calderone. Malone never steps toward Dancs, though.

Dancs has all the room he needs to operate, and he opts to shoot a wrister from the top of the circle rather than pass to Calderone (you can the diagonal lane below; fine to pass that up, since I don’t see that pass creating a better offensive chance). Dancs’ shot is a quick riser that beats Berry over his blocker-side shoulder as he hits the ice. I can’t remember a game with more top-corner blasts that beat goalies over the shoulder.

3rd period

LUCE GOAL

UM 6 UW 3 EV 2:24 Assists: Boka & N. Pastujov

Pastujov starts with the puck in the corner and, thanks to a cluster of Wisconsin defenders collapsing on net, has a lane to Boka at the top of the zone. He makes the pass up, and I’m assuming it’s because he liked the amount of space they had to work with more than he liked the prospect of forcing a quick pass to the slot that was likely to be broken up.

Boka has a defender in his shooting lane but the nearest defender to Luce is way off, so he pass across for his fellow defenseman.

Luce pretty much just throws a shot at the net, but it’s a remarkable shot because it somehow weaves through not one but two screens on its way to the back of the net. Credit Sanchez and Becker for making Berry’s life difficult and Wisconsin’s defense for not picking up Sanchez.

Freytag goal

UM 6 UW 4 EV 15:18 Assists: Davison

Freytag carries into the offensive zone and goes all Leroy Jenkins, bombing a shot from just inside the line despite Michigan’s defense being clustered in the middle of the ice and Ustaski open and trailing to the right.

Of course the odd decision becomes the right one, but not without a cavalcade of insanity. Sanchez blocks Freytag’s initial shot, but Freytag is able to punch a shot out from between Sanchez’s skates. Lavigne stops it in so much as he gets in front of it; the puck hits the bottom of the palm in his glove and pops up in the air. The puck lands behind and to the side of Lavigne.

Freytag follows his shot to the net. Cecconi decides to go for the puck instead of the man and I don’t blame him here, as he almost has it dug out when Freytag crashes the net and pops the thing in.

SLAKER GOAL

UM 7 UW 4 EN 19:42 Assists: Cecconi & Norris

Cecconi clangs a puck off the glass just to get it out of the zone.

The puck takes a fortuitous angle off the glass, rolling on a diagonal that looks like it’s going to end in the net. Slaker, boxed in below, gets on his horse and takes off just in case.

The line that looked so good to start is obviously leading behind the net. Close. Oh well.

Until Slaker arrives. Chasing it down pays off, as he arrives in the frame seemingly out of nowhere, pulls it backhand-forehand to get around the post, and flicks the puck in.