CLICK HERE for Game Recap from Kristy McNeil and other pertinent information.

FINAL CORSI NUMBERS (www.collegehockeynews.com)

Forward Notes.

-First off, Western plainly outskated, outplayed, and outworked Michigan, tonight. They played a much crisper, more coherent game. The Broncos iced eleven juniors and seniors and it showed on Friday night. They were very sound defensively and rarely ceded chances to the supremely talented Wolverines.

-Michigan was sloppy, disjointed, and struggled to string passes together. They also tried to skate through the well-positioned Broncos, and consistently turned the puck over and every line possible. Going down multiple goals early didn’t help, but when the younger Wolverines pressed, the experienced Broncos made the smart, fundamental play, and broke up most of the home team’s attacks. Some of those, unfortunately, led to too many great chances the other way.

-The Michigan forwards also hung their defense and goalie out to dry by not back-checking very consistently. Early in the second the Beniers/KJ line was late into their own zone and Rhett Kingston had a slam dunk goal from the low slot. That effort level seemed to repeat itself until it the Wolverines were down too far, and Western could sit a bit deeper and protect.

-Lastly, Brandon Bussi had a game. He saved five to six Grade A chances as the game went along. Every time the Wolverines looked like they could get back into the game, Bussi slammed the door. Hat-tip to him.

Defense Notes.

-Owen Power was very up and down, again. It was easy to see his skill and speed, but sometimes he tried to forces passes or stick-handling and turned it over in frustrating situations. At times, he will try to skate the puck into the zone and be dispossessed…instead of just making a technically sound dump-in that allows his teammates to gain possession. He does create tons on his own, but when he learns to make the simple play with consistency, his game will really mature.

-The defense overall struggled early on when the game was close. They could not connect on passes to get the puck out of their zone with any consistency at all. Western was able to create a number of chances by Wolverines defensemen donating the puck in the Wolverine end. Even as the game wore on, and Michigan started pressing, passes were all over the place, often times hitting Bronco sticks just as often as Wolverine sticks.

-Jacob Truscott had a bit of a rough time. He had multiple bad DZTOs early on that lead to great looks for Western. He was also in good position on a 2v2, but was beaten to a puck in his own end. That lead to the 4v2 that will be discussed later.

While not technically a PPG, it is in the World of David and Alex (JD Scott)

SPECIAL TEAMS CHART

Power Play. Michigan has tried to do one thing on their power plays, this season. Get the puck to Brendan on the BrissonDot. Western was sitting and waiting for it. When Brisson was able to get those shots away, Brandon Bussi up every one of them. That was pretty much all that the first unit was able to accomplish. The second unit was a little better, but not a ton. While it wasn’t technically a man advantage goal, Mike Pastujov made a couple of nice moves and dished the puck to Hughes on the dot, and Luke floated a shot over a sprawling Bussi. Alex and I always talk about power plays never end until the Kill unit can change. This was one of those instances. Unfortunately, that was the only bright spot for the Wolverines on the man advantage. They also really struggled with Western’s ability to deny skating the puck into the zone. That will be a coaching point to keep an eye on for the Saturday night tilt in Kalamazoo.

Penalty Kill.  The penalty kill wasn’t too much better. While the Broncos scored a soft goal on their first shot, they created many more shots and chances in their subsequent power plays. Michigan failed to check Cole Gallant in front of Portillo, allowing him to redirect the shot from straightaway. Coming into tonight, Michigan had been pretty great when down a man. While tonight was not their best showing, the game was not lost in this phase of the game.

Whoops. Not all were on #1, but  this one was (JD Scott)

GOALTENDING CHART

Notes. Erik Portillo started in net on Friday night and had an…interesting game. While only one of the goals looked to be definitively on him, he also had misadventures with puck-handling. We talked about this on the HockeyCast. It will come back to burn him at some point, and it almost did tonight. He hit Pehrson on a clear-out pass. He had a cross-slot pass to a defenseman that was almost picked off an deposited for an open net goal. The only goal that he could take the brunt of the blame for came on the power play. A shot form the dot hit his pads and trickled through him. Portillo hasn’t given up many soft goals this year, but this definitely was. The first goal just picked a corner and felt a little unlucky. Two other goals Erik was hung out to dry pretty badly. The fifth goal was deflected by an unchecked guy right in front of him. Not much he can do with those three. To his credit though, he did make a number of point-blank positional saves.

Tough to defend rushes from your seat (JD Scott)

ODD MAN RUSH CHART

Notes. Hoo boy, that’s a lot of OMRs. Granted two came once Michigan was pressing to get back in the game, but the first four were not. The Wolverines misplaced a number of passes all night, and did not always back-check extremely hard…especially on the fourth goal. The Broncos start with a 2v2 and two more stampeded into the zone ahead of any Wolverine forward. Dylan Wendt took a stroll down the slot and beat Portillo easily. Michigan got lucky on a breakaway that was shot high. Ugh.

Michigan did create a single 3v2 and could have/should have scored, but Brandon Bussi made two outstanding saves on that sequence. 

FINAL THOUGHTS

Alex mentioned how this was a great schedule for Michigan. I agree. Western is an older, physical, well-structured team. Michigan showed a bit of naivete and overconfidence against a very tough opponent. They got their behinds handed to them. After a sky-high weekend, the Wolverines came crashing back to earth. And that’s okay. October is when these lessons need to be learned. Will they skate harder tomorrow night? Will they be more sound in transition? Can they come up with more ideas on the Power Play? Let’s see in Kalamazoo Saturday night at 7:00pm