Michigan Hockey 17-18, Game #6: Michigan 5, Penn State 2

Five point weekend for Ol’ Dex (Patrick Barron)

OFFENSE

Analysis: Michigan’s offense in this game resembled last season’s offense. Five and 13 attempts in the first and third periods, respectively. Not awesome. They scored goals because Peyton Jones kinda sucks. Also, Penn State had some terrible giveaways. Give Michigan credit, they took advantage of what Penn State gave them. There is a lot to be said for that, but aside from a bluster in the middle of the second period, Michigan was doing more chasing of the puck. They did manage to get quite of a few good looks– 45% of their attempts came from the House, so when they shot the puck, they were generally in quality positions to do so. Some of the lack of shots is probably related to the avalanche of penalty minutes that they had to kill...more on that later.

[Hit THE JUMP for defense, special teams, goaltending, and more]

DEFENSE

Analysis: Penn State has yet to see a shot they haven’t liked. The Lions literally ripped from everywhere, again. This is not a surprise. They’ve done this for a couple years, now, and last night was no exception. PSU doesn’t seem to have overwhelming individual talent, but they have a lot of continuity in their forwards, know their system, and execute it as well as possible. I thought Michigan did a pretty good job of keeping them out of the slot –and to an extent the House in general- and forcing PSU to bomb away from distance. Michigan did a much better job on Saturday of staying in front of shooters and not hanging Hayden Lavigne out to dry. Even so, that’s still a lot of attempts.

Tony Calderone: the Power Play Sniper (Bill Rapai)

SPECIAL TEAMS

Analysis: Whoa. So, Michigan took nine penalties that led to seven penalty kills. Against a supposedly great power play unit. That cannot happen. For some reason, Penn State could not unlock Michigan’s kill, though. They tried 36(!) times, including registering 17 shots! Hayden Lavigne was phenomenal. A majority of Penn State’s man-advantage looks did come from distance, but still…that is just A LOT of attempts on goal. One of Michigan’s penalties was of the five minute variety. So, Penn State spent almost a third of this game on the power play and got nothing for it. I’ll have to look around and see if Michigan is doing anything different (I’m sure there’s at least something) or if they are just getting lucky, but my hunch right now is the latter. Fantastic goaltending, for sure, but that’s just a ton of pucks to the net. On the flip side, Michigan managed to get Tony Calderone free in the slot, and he patiently waited for an opening and took advantage of a poor goaltender giving Michigan a power play goal in one of their two chances, tonight. Not to be a downer, but I think Michigan got very lucky on special teams over the course of the weekend. I hope I am wrong. We will see in a few weeks when Minnesota and Wisconsin come calling.

GOALTENDING

Analysis: I will argue that Lavigne’s performance was just as impressive as JLF’s amazing Friday night showing. While Lavigne didn’t quite get the volume of shots that LaFontaine did, he was basically in front of a firing squad due to spending a third of his evening with one less friend on the ice. He also gave up no bad goals. On the first, he was screened and the puck was deflected at least once. On the second, two Michigan players missed clearing chances and the puck literally went around the net in a full circle before it was batted past him. He also had some point-blank saves. This was not the stand-on-your-head type of performance, but it was one of great positioning and vision. JLF probably has a little more upside, but Lavigne could probably start on almost any team.

ODD-MAN RUSHES

Analysis: Michigan’s defense continues to be disciplined and not get caught up ice needlessly. I believe both instances that they did, Michigan was on a power play. Hughes, again, tried to make a play near the boards and Luke Martin got back to diffuse the two-on-one. The second was a great outlet pass that saw Lavigne shut down the PSU attacker who had split the Michigan defenders. The OMRs can happen on special teams because of the nature of different players playing together and positioning on the ice (or just lack of guys on a penalty kill). So, I won’t hammer Michigan for that. It is very encouraging that there are still very few, and they are not happening at even strength.

FINAL CORSI NUMBERS

I had: Penn State 59, Michigan 42

www.collegehockeynews.com had: Penn State 61, Michigan 47