**PSA: There will be no Breakdown tomorrow night (and possibly not for the next few Saturdays) due to unfortunately scheduling. Stay tuned**

 

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

 

What just happened (TL;DR): Michigan got their butts handed to them. Penn State out-skated, out-thought, out-worked, out-shot, and out-scored the Wolverines. Noah West kept Michigan in it as long as he could, but by the mid-third period, Michigan was just struggling to gain the red line. Erik Portillo missed the game because he didn’t feel well. Alex looked at me and wondered if everyone on the team didn’t feel well. It kinda looked like it. Regardless, Michigan will need a better performance on Saturday night.

 

FINAL CORSI NUMBERS (www.collegehockeynews.com)

	Total Attempts	Even Strength	Power Play	Close (within 1)	Even Strength %
Penn State	74	64	10	38	58%
Michigan	54	51	3	25	42%

Forward Notes.

-Oof. Michigan struggled to move the puck…anywhere, really. At times the top line was able to gain the zone and circulate a little, but they never really got any Grade A chances that they could get on net. Pucks jumped, bounced, or drifted all night. There were very few smooth entries or sustained offensive pressures. This was the worst offensive night from a Michigan hockey team in quite some time.

-I don’t think I even have a second thing to say about Michigan’s forwards/offense. It was that rough.

Defense Notes.

-Just sloppy all around. The Wolverines were stuck in their own zone for basically the whole game. Penn State pressured them with reckless abandon, and Michigan could not get a controlled exit all night. It didn’t matter who was on the ice, no one could string passes together and move out of the defensive end. A rough showing all around. Nothing was worse than a couple minute stretch where Michigan turned the puck over, missed passes, threw the puck to…who knows where. Ture Linden finished off that sequence with and open net, backdoor goal. Blah.

-Seamus Casey made a few nice plays in the offensive zone (the few times Michigan ventured that far down the ice). He created space and got some looks at the net. Alex said he’s been Michigan’s best defenseman all year. It’s hard to argue with that. Luke Hughes is starting to look a bit too much like an older brother at times. Jacob Truscott has been good, but also inconsistent. Ethan Edwards upside is great, but he still makes mistakes in his own zone and gets caught in the wrong spot. The season is still young, but there is plenty of figuring out yet to do.

 

 

 

SPECIAL TEAMS CHART

	PP Opportunities	PP Corsi For	PP Shots/Minute
Penn State	0/3	10	1.4 (7/5)
Michigan	0/2	3	0 (0/3)

Power Play. Michigan had two power plays and did not register a shot. Woof. They only had three minutes of advantage time and didn’t really do much at all in the offensive zone. It was kind of like the rest of the game. There was a potential missed call when Dylan Duke was cross-checked in the face that would have theoretically given Michigan a five minute All-You-Can-Eat power play in the first period. It was reviewed and ruled no penalty. I don’t know. Given everything else, it may not have mattered anyway.

 

Penalty Kill. Michigan’s penalty kill was…good. It got a little sticky on the last advantage as Noah West had to make a couple of big saves, but Michigan mostly kept Penn State’s power play to the edges and out of the zone. In the end, hanging a bagel on this end of special teams is a positive talking point.

 

 

Noah West was far from the problem (David Wilcomes)

GOALTENDING CHART

	Michigan Shots Faced (House)	Penn State Shots Faced (House)
First Period	16	4
Second Period	18	10
Third Period	15	3
Overtime	n/a	n/a
TOTAL	49	17

Notes. On a night of “oofs,” “woofs,” and “ughs,” Noah West was pretty solid for Michigan. Erik Portillo missed the game for apparently not feeling very well, but it certainly didn’t matter. Noah West was…good? He stopped 46 of 48 shots he faced, including a couple from point blank range. He also made a nice save on a 3v1 OMR. He doesn’t move the best and his rebound control was iffy at times, but he handled his positioning well and made the saves that he could. At the very worst, Michigan can feel better about its goaltending depth.

 

Well, one of those guys is happy (David Wilcomes)

ODD MAN RUSH CHART

Defense	Rushes	Advs	Escape%	Offense	Rushes	Advs	Scoring%
1st Period	n/a	n/a	n/a		n/a	n/a	n/a
2nd Period	3	2v1, 3v1, 3v2	66%		n/a	n/a	n/a
3rd Period	n/a	n/a	n/a		1	4v3	0%
OT	n/a	n/a	n/a		n/a	n/a	n/a
Total	3	2v1, 3v1, 3v2	66%		1	4v3	0%

Notes. Like every other aspect of the game, Penn State out-skated Michigan in transition, creating multiple dangerous OMRs. They worked a very nice 3v2 that beat Gavin Brindley and Jacob Truscott rather easily for the Lions second goal. It was a very nice tap-in backdoor. Noah West had no chance. West did come up big on a 3v1 to keep Michigan vaguely in the game as the second period came to a close.

Michigan had one kinda-sorta OMR, a 4v3, that resulted in a shot on goal! Something they only did 17 times on Friday night…supposedly.

 

FINAL THOUGHTS

In some ways, this game was always coming. Michigan has played fast and loose all year…and mostly gotten away with it. At some point, you have games like this (in every sport). However, this was a particularly bad performance in almost all areas…and Noah West was the only rock between 3-0 and 7-0. Hopefully, everyone just had a rough night, and they can figure some things out and look better on Saturday. If so, alright. If not, questions will start to rise. Saturday night at 7:30 on BTN+. Identical to football…of course.