Friday, November 20, 2015

BU 3, UM 2

1st period

BU 0 UM 1 EV 06:06 Kile (3) from Motte (1)

Marody carries in and tries to pass, but it’s broken up by a defender’s stick. The puck slides to the corner. Motte picks it up, fakes to his right, and reverses course toward the area behind the net. Marody’s in nice position at the side of the net to effectively set a screen and give Motte extra room.

Motte spins and shoots; it’s a good shot- close to the net, unexpected thanks to a nice spin move, accurate. LaCouvee makes the initial stop, but Kile’s circled behind the net for a reason.

Kile knocks a backhander in; he has a partial-second window the make a play. LaCouvee has his pad sealed against the post but not his body, and Kile takes advantage by lifting his shot.

[After THE JUMP: does this site’s reverse jinx extend to other sports?]

BU 0 UM 2 PPG 10:28 Marody (5) from Kile (4) & Compher (6)

Michigan’s in their typical umbrella on the powerplay. Compher skates toward the middle and sees that Marody is cutting in. He tries to pass to him…

…but the puck hits a skate. Kile grabs it and passes to Marody, who’s at the bottom of the faceoff circle in the screen cap below.

Kile passes to Marody, who gathers and shoots immediately. He’s able to lift the puck over the goalie’s pad; the part of the sequence that goes from loose puck in the slot to Marody shooting is so fast that LaCouvee doesn’t have time to adjust.

2nd period

No scoring

3rd period

BU 1 UM 2 PPG 10:44 O’Regan from Grzelcyk & Fortunato

BU starts a really nice rush up ice with excellent passing. The first pass is to the left boards, and the second pass is a rapid one after noticing that there’s a skater behind the defender at center ice.

O’Regan skates into the offensive zone and takes a long shot that under most circumstances would be a waste.

This shot, however, beats Racine over his glove. The only thing I can think of is that Downing is obscuring Racine’s view of O’Regan; Downing’s in a nice position to make a play on the puck, so I don’t fault his positioning so much as a.) bad luck or b.) poor puck tracking by the goalie.

BU 2 UM 2 EV 10:56 Baillargeon from Carpenter & Greer

I get where De Jong was trying to go with this pass, but it’s not the best move. He sees a chance to break it out of the defensive zone, but the pass shouldn’t be attempted because of how close the forechecker is. Instead, De Jong should have made the safer pass to the opposite faceoff circle. The puck deflects off of the forecheker’s stick and lands in the high slot.

The BU player at the top of the faceoff circle in the screen cap above ends up with the puck, though it takes a while for him to settle it. He shoots, but the shot misses and hits the boards.

Two BU skaters get to the back of the net to dig out the puck; the one who gains possession is crushed by Boka, but is somehow able to backhand a pass.

Baillargeon skates right to left, turns, and jams a shot under Racine’s pad, which shouldn’t be off the ice.

BU 3 UM 2 EV 17:06 Somerby unassisted

Downing strips the puck from a skater along the boards which Werenski tries to flip out of the defensive zone. The problem with weak clearing attempts into the middle of the zone is that sometimes there’s a skater there to steal them.

Somerby takes a couple of strides, moves laterally to his left, and shoots. Somehow the puck avoids Marody in front, beating Racine high on the near side.

Saturday, November 21, 2015

BU 2 UM 4

1st period

BU 0 UM 1 PPG 03:50 Marody (6) from Downing (4) & Compher (7)

Downing fakes a slapshot from the point. which draws a defender. Compher’s open to Downing’s left, and he passes. The defender has to reverse course, and Compher uses the space he’s given to skate almost into the faceoff circle. He sees that there isn’t a pass worth making in the slot, but with the defense collapsing toward the net a pass back to Downing is viable.

Downing one-times a shot. Marody has slipped behind the defense unnoticed, and he gets his stick on the puck, redirecting it past LaCouvee. This is a really nice play by Marody; not only does he see that he’s got a defender sleeping on him, he quickly reads Downing’s intent and gets his stick up for a deflection attempt. Downing’s decision to shoot quickly with the amount of space he’s being given is great as well.

BU 0 UM 2 EV 08:08 Warren (3) from Calderone (3) & De Jong (3)

BU’s Bobo Carpenter is carrying the puck down the right wing and attempts a centering pass, but it’s knocked down by De Jong. Calderone gathers and turns, sliding the puck under an oncoming defender, picking it up on the other side, and launching a nice outlet pass as he’s about to get leveled. (It was really hard to get a screen cap that wasn’t blurry; what’s below is after Calderone has picked up the puck and right before he’s going to collide and slide the puck through the blur of a defender charging through the faceoff circle at center ice.)

Calderone’s cross-ice pass to Warren is perfect. He receives it in stride and skates in, first going to his forehand. The goalie plays this conventionally, not wanting to hit the ice too early and take away his lateral mobility while exposing the top corners.

Warren sees that there’s not much a forehanded shot can do other than be absorbed by the goalie, and he rips the puck across the crease to his backhand while flipping a shot to the top corner in one fluid motion. There’s no chance for the goalie to get his glove on this considering the speed with which Warren made his move.

BU 0 UM 3 PPG 17:07 Kile (4) from Motte (2) & Downing (5)

Michigan’s on the power play again, and Downing has the puck at the point. His shot is headed into a pretty standard formation; BU’s playing a box, and they aren’t sending their players out high to cover the point. Not a surprise, then, that Downing shoots into traffic with the hope that it gets tipped in.

Downing’s shot gets through traffic and to the goaltender, who stops it. He can’t stop the rebound, though, and that bounces out to the slot. The defender who was on Kile is slow to react; Kile immediately sees he’s going to have an opportunity for a backhander given that the goalie is still in his butterfly. He lifts a shot in as he’s falling forward.

2nd period

BU 1 UM 3 EV 17:37 Lane from Oksanen & LaCouvee

Oksanen’s outlet pass starts from his defensive zone…

…and ends up connecting to Lane on the cusp of the offensive zone. That Cutler Martin is even remotely close to this is fortunate (and good defensive positioning).

Martin isn’t able to alter the shot attempt, so it’s a one-on-one with Racine. He kicks at the puck as it’s shot, which opens up the five hole; the puck slides in under his pads.

3rd period

BU 1 UM 4 EV 16:32 Shuart (1) from Connor (5)

Connor swipes at a loose puck near the blue line, knocking it into the neutral zone for he and Shuart to attempt to retrieve.

The puck takes a lucky glide to the right, drifting toward Connor. No one’s able to gain possession during the race through the neutral zone, but Connor is able to once again swipe at the puck, this time effectively passing to Shuart.

Shuart skates in and doesn’t even have to make a move; he sees a gap worth aiming at and hits it before the goalie constricts his pads.

BU 2 UM 4 EV 19:55 Oksanen from O’Regan & Forsbacka Karl

O’Regan sees that the defender on Oksanen is giving a big cushion and makes a nice pass through two Michigan defenders.

Oksanen receives the pass, gathers, and shoots. This allows Werenski to close the gap a bit, though he still turns his body away from the shooting lane. Still, Racine isn’t exactly screened; this one’s not a good goal to give up even if it was inconsequential.

Notes/Ramblings:

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 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.