Wolverines Advance to the Joe!

Michigan drew a dangerous-but-underachieving Notre Dame team in round two of the CCHA Tournament and likely sent the Irish home for the season, sweeping the best-of-three series by 2-1 and 3-1 scores.

Friday night's contest was a goaltender duel, and Shawn Hunwick was slightly better than Steve Summerhays for the Irish. Michigan scored just over a minute into the contest when AJ Treais broke up a clearing attempt. Phil Di Giuseppe got off a nice shot that Summerhays got 90% of. It trickled in behind him, nicked the goalpost, and sat right on the goalline. Luke Glendening was driving the net and knocked it home.

That would be it for Michigan for the next 80 minutes of hockey. The Irish tied the game up about halfway through the third period. Hunwick stopped Tynan on a 2-on-1, but the Irish were able to regain control of the puck and get it to Anders Lee, who fired one past Shawn.

One overtime wasn't enough to settle things, even though both teams had numerous chances. Both goalies made some great saves to keep their respective team alive, and both goalies had some help from the iron. By my count (listening on the radio), the Wolverines hit three posts in the first overtime and the Irish hit a pair. Michigan had numerous chances early in the overtime. They had the benefit of a power play and nearly ended things several times, but couldn't get a puck to find the back of the net.

Early in the second OT, Travis Lynch and Jeff Rohrkemper won a battle on the sideboards for a puck. Lynch got it back to Bennett at the point, who found Chris Brown all alone by the faceoff circle to Summerhays's right. Brown sniped one shortside and the Wolverines had themselves a 1-0 lead in the series.

Hunwick made 37 stops in the contest. Tiny Jesus was spectacular at times, stopping numerous odd man rushes and flashing his glove to stymy the Irish (check out picture 25 in the photo gallery). Coach Berenson and Luke Glendening gave him credit for stealing that game.

The next night Michigan got out to a 3-0 lead behind two goals by David Wohlberg sandwiching a PDG tally. Notre Dame drew back within two on Peter Schneider's second of the year, but that was the last goal they'd score. Hunwick made 25 saves in the game, including a breakaway while it was still 0-0, and Michigan advanced to the CCHA semifinals for the 24th consecutive year. Hunwick is now 15-4 in playoff games.

Michigan took a 1-0 lead when Luke Glendening won a battle on the boards to get the puck down to PDG. Di Giuseppe centered for Wohlberg who put one off the water bottle.

The Wolverines increased their lead on another goal set up by an AJ Treais takeaway. He stripped Lorenz of the puck and threw one in front of the net that PDG tipped home. 6 1/2 minutes later, the Wolverines would score their last goal at Yost for the year. Alex Guptill tried to split the defense and had the puck poked away. It went right to Wohlberg who blasted one past Summerhays for his second of the game and 15th on the year.

Notre Dame scored just 19 seconds later to get back within two on a shot that Hunwick had no chance on. One of the Domers dumped one high off the glass out of the zone. Moffie caught it but was immediately knocked to the ice, which set up a 2-on-1 for Notre Dame down low. Sheahan got the puck across to Schneider and he was able to get one past Hunwick.

Notre Dame would come close on a shot that rolled up over Hunwick and down his back, but it somehow stayed out of the net. They had some chances in the waning moments, but the "second best" goalie in the CCHA prevented the Irish from making a game of it, and the Wolverines swept their rivals from South Bend.

For Notre Dame it's a likely end to a disappointing season that started with a lot of promise. The Irish went 10-2-3 out of the gate, Anders Lee looked like a Hobey contender, and then things pretty much just fell apart, even as their goaltending got better. (Summerhays had a sub-.900 save percentage at the time of the first meeting between these teams and ended up with a respectable-enough .910.)

The Wolverines will head to the Joe once again. Their opponent will be determined by the outcome of the lone Game 3 in the CCHA Playoffs tonight. If Ferris State beats Bowling Green, the Wolverines get Western Michigan. If the Falcons are victorious, they'll be the Wolverines' opponent. Miami absolutely rolled FYS and will be the fourth participant at the Joe.

Michigan now sits second in the Pairwise, behind only Boston College. Ferris State and Miami are 4th and 5th. Michigan State and WMU are part of a 3-way tie for 14th and the final two spots in the tournament. As things currently sit, they'd both be part of the field and Merrimack would be out. Merrimack has a Game 3 against Maine tonight. Northern, Notre Dame, Ohio, and Lake State are the next four teams out.

CCHA Quarterfinals: Notre Dame Preview

Thanks to NMU losing a home playoff series to BGSU for the second year in a row, the Wolverines will take on the Notre Dame Fighting Irish in the second round of the CCHA Tournament. Notre Dame advanced by putting Ohio out of their misery, 2-0 and 4-2.

In Friday night's contest, ND used two Billy Maday goals and 33 saves by Steve Summerhays (11 in each period) to take a 1-0 lead in the series. On Saturday, Ohio scored a pair of goals in the first period to take a 2-1 lead into the intermission, but the Irish scored three unanswered (including a Maday ENG to seal it) to end Ohio's season in all likelihood. Unbelievably, the Buckeyes were 14-4-1 on New Year's and won one game the rest of the season and finished the year .500.

Notre Dame is a more dangerous opponent than you'd typically expect to see in the second round as the #2 seed, but the Irish stumbled to an 8th place finish in the conference this year. They're 19-16-3 overall and were below .500 (12-13-3) in conference. Like Ohio, they got off to a good start (10-2-3 in their first 15), and then got wildly inconsistent. They lost 4-straight (including an ugly 9-2 loss to Northeastern), won 3 in a row, then went 6-10 down the stretch (including 5 straight losses, where they were outscored 18-4).

The offense hasn't been there lately and the defense has been hit or miss. The four goals they scored against Ohio in the clinching game of the first-round series was the first time they've put up more than 2 in a game since late January. They had gone 9-straight scoring two or fewer. The defense gave up 18 in their five game losing streak, but only gave up 25 over the past ten as a whole.

I can't imagine we'll see Mike Johnson in net. Steve Summerhays played both games last weekend, gave up 2 goals total, and made 30+ saves in both games. Johnson hasn't won since February 3 and has an ugly stat line: 9-10-3 with a 2.69/.883. Summerhays is 10-6 with a 2.43 and a .907. He's given up two goals in his past three starts, but lost his four starts prior to that. He was chased in two of them, including 5 minutes into a game against Ferris. Summerhays did hold Michigan to three goals on the weekend the last time these teams met.

Despite the offensive struggles (42nd nationally in offense), this team does have some talent up front. Everyone knows about TJ Tynan (13-28--41) and Anders Lee (16-17--33) by now. Behind them are Billy Maday and Riley Sheahan, who both have 20+ points. It doesn't seem like they get a whole heckuva lot out of the top two lines though. Outside of their top 5 forwards, no one has more than 5 goals (and no other forward has more than 11 points).

Tynan has been held in check lately. He has just one goal and four points in his last nine. He had two assists in ND's Friday-night win against Michigan earlier this year. Lee has scored goals in two of his last three, but before that he was held out of the goal column in 14-straight games and 23 of out his last 24(!!!!). He started the year with 12 goals in his first 11 games, but has really cooled off since.

Tynan, Lee, Maday, and Sheahan have combined for 24 power play goals on the season (also, all four of Robbie Russo's have come with the man advantage). ND is middle of the pack on the PP and PK.

None of the Wolverines have been overly successful against ND in their careers. No active player has more than 2 goals or 4 points against the Irish. Hunwick has a .931 save percentage, but hasn't gotten much help. He only has a 3-3-0 mark. The big stat in Michigan's favor: They've made the CCHA semifinals in 23 straight seasons.

All two/three games will be at Yost and will be 7:35 faceoffs. Saturday night's game will air on Comcast Local, but there is no TV for the other one/two games. This sure would be a nice time to have the live internet video back, Dave Brandon!

Michigan Splits with Bowling Green, Finishes Second in CCHA

This weekend the Wolverines needed to sweep Bowling Green and have Western Michigan sweep Ferris in order to earn a share of the CCHA Championship. They got neither. On Friday night, the Falcons scored twice in the last seven minutes of regulation to down the Wolverines 3-2. It didn't matter from the CCHA Championship perspective as the Ferris State Bulldogs took WMU to a shootout to earn the one point that they needed to clinch the title.

On Saturday, the Wolverines rebounded with a tougher-than-the-score 3-0 victory. That was enough to tie WMU for second in the conference. Michigan gets the #2 seed via their one-win edge in conference wins over Western.

What does that mean? Michigan will have a bye in the first round of the CCHA Tournament and will then play one of the following teams in a best of three at Yost: LSSU, Notre Dame, Ohio, or Alaska. If all the home teams win in the first round, it will be LSSU.

The matchups in round one are:
Bowling Green at NMU
Alaska at LSSU
Ohio at Notre Dame

We know FYS will travel to Miami in round 2.

On Friday night, the Wolverines got off to a quick start, with Phil Di Giuseppe scoring just 38 seconds into the contest to give Michigan a 1-0 lead. Bennett got the puck up ice to Treais who slid it over to PDG. The lead was short-lived, however, as Chad Sumison scored his first of the year just six seconds later.

David Wohlberg knocked in the rebound from a Bennett shot to put the Wolverines back on top at the 4:58 mark of the first period, but once again the Falcons had an answer. Cameron Wojtala beat Hunwick over the blocker with about six minutes left in the opening frame. Moffie may have screened Hunwick on that one.

Late in the second, Brown worked it down low to Wohlberg who sent a centering pass in front that Guptill was able to tip home for his team-leading 16th goal of the year.

Adam Berkle tied things up for BGSU with just under seven minutes left in regulation. Cameron Sinclair put a shot on net and Hunwick left the rebound. Berkle jumped on it and got it past a diving Hunwick to make it 3-3. That's one that Hunwick would want back. The initial shot didn't seem particularly difficult.

The game seemed headed for overtime, but with just over a minute remaining Bryce Williamson picked Jon Merrill's pocket as he was bringing the puck out of the zone. Williamson turned around and sent one over Hunwick's glove for the game-winner.

It was a rough night for Moffie and Merrill, who were each -3. Pateryn and Bennett were +3 in the game.

If you're so inclined to watch the highlights, here they are:

On Saturday, it seems the goalies were the stars of the show. Hunwick and Andrew Hammond were the first and second stars of the game, which ended in a 3-0 Michigan victory.

The game was tied 0-0 after two periods, despite a 31-15 shot edge for Michigan and eleven power plays between the two teams. The Wolverine penalty killers again did their job, surrendering just five shots on the seven BGSU power plays through two. At one point, power plays were 6-1 in BGSU's favor. In one stretch the Wolverines killed five straight BGSU power plays without surrendering a single shot on goal.

Granted the CCHA officiating is, in large part, incompetent, but this is an alarming trend where Michigan ends up spending significantly more time in the box than their less-talented opponent. (I didn't see either of these games, so I have no idea as to the quality of these calls or if it was more Gongshow.)

After going 0-for-3 on faceoffs the night before, Alex Guptill won a big one five minutes into the third. He drew it back to David Wohlberg who let a shot go that somehow found its way past Hammond.

A few minutes later, Kevin Lynch gave the Wolverines a two goal lead. He won a draw back to the point. The shot deflected around and Moffatt got a stick on it. The puck sat just to Hammond's right and Lynch found it before anyone else, diving head-first toward the net and knocking it home.

Michigan would add an ENG from Mac Bennett for the final margin of victory. Hunwick made 22 stops for his 10th career shutout. Hammond stopped 46 Michigan shots in the loss.

AJ Treais put ten shots on net in the game. Kevin Lynch had seven of his own. Only Hyman, Travis Lynch, Rohrkemper, and Sparks were not a plus on the night. All the other Wolverines were on the ice for one of the Michigan goals.

Highlights are here.

As MGoBlog predicted, a split wasn't too damaging in the PWR. The Wolverines sit 2nd in the RPI, .01 behind BC, and rank third in the PWR behind Minnesota-Duluth and BC. If the tournament started today, North Dakota and Merrimack would be the last two teams in. Cornell would be the first team out, closely followed by 4 CCHA teams (WMU, Ohio, Notre Dame, and LSSU).

Tory Krug and TJ Tynan tied for the CCHA Scoring Title. Reilly Smith's 18 goals were good for the conference crown in that category (by 5). Alex Guptill was tied for 2nd in goals and tied for 6th in points.

Connor Knapp led the CCHA in GAA (1.41 to Hunwick's 1.93) and save percentage (.945 to Hunwick's .937), but also only played half the minutes that Hunwick did. Hunwick was second in GAA, Save %, and minutes played. He led the conference in shutouts with 5.

JMFJ Traded to Columbus

Jack Johnson was traded to Columbus as part of a deal that sent Harvick family-favorite Jeff Carter to the Kings. The Kings need help offensively as they are dead-last in the NHL at just a hair over 2 goals per game (125 goals in 61 games). Helluva team you've built there, Dean Lombardi!

It's a cruel fate for Johnson, who now has to live in Columbus, Ohio and play for that crappy team. On the bright side, Michigan fans will get to see him play more often and he gets away from Lombardi.

JMFJ ends his Kings career with 30-94--124 in 343 games. His numbers have been down this season, largely because it's hard to get assists when no one on the team can score. His best season was one year ago, when he had 42 points, including 28 on the power play.

Cue the haters in the comments....

Bowling Green Preview

Have you voted Shawn Hunwick for Hobey today? Here's the link. It literally takes 2 seconds. 

The final weekend of the regular season takes the Wolverines down US-23 to Bowling Green, Ohio. After giving up just six goals in a 4-0-1 start, the Falcons have struggled to a 9-20-5 record this season (4-18-4-3 in the CCHA). Just four of those wins have come at home. They've beaten LSSU, Alaska, WMU, and Notre Dame in conference play.

BGSU comes in having lost their past four games. Last weekend they went up to Big Rapids and were handed 5-1 and 4-1 losses by the #1 Bulldogs.

They've given up 4+ goals on fifteen occasions this year, and haven't scored more than 3 since a 4-4 tie against Miami back on November 19th. They've scored just 26 goals in the 20 games since. In 14 of the 20, they've been held to 0 or 1. They rank 57 out of 58 in offense at 1.65 goals per game. Alabama-Huntsville is the only team below them (with a dreadful 1.19). They haven't won a game when they've given up more than 2 goals.

As you'd expect with that kind of offense, the numbers aren't pretty. Jordan Samuels-Thomas, the leading scorer the past two years, took his 46 carer points and transferred to Quinnipiac. The Falcons have just five players who have cracked the 5-goal barrier and five players who have double-digit points.

The good news for BGSU is that 43 of their 56 goals have come from underclassmen and their five leading scorers are made up of three freshmen and two sophomores. They're led in goals, assists, and points by freshman Ryan Carpenter who has 8-12--20. Camden Wojtala is right behind him with 7-11--18.

Lee Moffie has outscored their entire defense corps by 2 goals and 6 points. Robert Shea is the top-scoring blueliner with 4-4--8.

CCHA Commissioner Fred Pletsch's son Ted is a freshman forward. He has 5-1--6 on the year.

The power play is 55th at 9.5% and they haven't scored with the man advantage in their last 35 opportunities, dating back nine games. Both Wojtala and 7-goal scorer Alan Williamson have 3 PPGs to lead the team.

Defensively they aren't that bad. They rank 32nd in the country at 2.82 goals per game, tied with Notre Dame for last in the conference (but still fairly middle-of-the-pack overall). The PK is 25th, despite having given up a goal in five-straight games.

In net it's been Andrew Hammond all the way. He's started every game this year and has every decision but one. He has a 2.67 goals against and a .896 save percentage. He's done his part, despite a 19 point drop in his save percentage from last season. He currently ranks 4th in the CCHA Perani Cup Three Star Award standings.

Andrew Wallace is a 60% faceoff guy, but no one else on the team is higher than 50%.

Michigan has won seven straight in the series and was 4-0 last season, outscoring the Falcons 17-5. No Falcon player has more than one career point against the Wolverines. Wohlberg (9), Moffie (4), and Merrill (4) all have averaged one point per game against BGSU. Shawn Hunwick has faced the Falcons on three occasions and is 3-0-0 with a 0.72 goals against and a .963 save percentage.

The Wolverines can wrap up a share of the CCHA Title with six points against the Falcons, combined with Western Michigan sweeping Ferris State again. Michigan has locked up a bye in the first round of the CCHA Tournament and will clinch home-ice in the second round with two points this weekend. There is no video for either Michigan game, though the Friday night WMU/Ferris game will air on FSN-Detroit.

A Few Links of Note

VOTE SHAWN HUNWICK FOR HOBEY!!! Here's the link. It literally takes 2 seconds. 

AJ Treais and Lee Moffie were named CCHA offensive and defensive players of the week, respectively, for their performances against NMU. Treais had 1-3--4, including the game-winner in OT on Saturday. Moffie also had 1-3--4 on the weekend. It's kind of funny that the Defensive Player of the Week award tends to be given based on offensive stats, but whatever. Congrats to them both!

Matt Slovin from The Michigan Daily covered Shawn Hunwick's Hobey chances. Chris Peters gives his take on Hunwick's chances from more of a national perspective. I'd agree that the chances aren't great. Only two goalies in history have won the award and Hunwick's numbers aren't nearly as good as Ryan Miller's were. That said, Peters is right, you'd be hard-pressed to find a player that is more important to his team. He needs to at least be a finalist. He's clearly the top goaltender in the country and the field should be wide-open this year. I'll break it down more once the finalists are announced. Call me conference-ist, but man I don't care about Austin Smith. Like, at all.

The Daily also covered the defensive-zone turnover problems and AJ Treais's metamorphosis into a sniper.

MHNet has the weekly recruiting update and a chat with Evan Allen.

Bob Miller from College Hockey PROSPECTive has a profile of JT Compher.

Michigan Sweeps NMU, Still Has a Shot at CCHA Crown

It wasn't the model of perfection for a hockey weekend, but this weekend the Wolverines swept the NMU Wildcats at Yost. The wins jumped them past Western Michigan into second place in the CCHA.

On Friday, the Wolverines were perfect on special teams (2-for-2 on the power play and 6-for-6 while short-handed) en route to a 4-1 win in a game that was closer than the score.

Michigan jumped out to a 2-goal lead in the first period thanks to goals from two freshmen. Phil Di Giuseppe scored a goal for the first time since December 2nd, and Alex Guptill notched his team-leading 15th of the year. Treais skipped a pass off a defenseman's foot and it ended up on PDG's stick right in front of the net. He popped one upstairs to give Michigan a 1-0 lead one second shy of the halfway point in the first period.

With Reed Seckel in the box for "elbowing", which could have easily been five the way they've called contact to the head this year, Pateryn let a shot go from the point and Guptill got a gorgeous tip on it to put Michigan up by a pair. That was a great-looking power play. Michigan had three good scoring chances, four shots on goal, and one found the back of the net.

Most of the rest of the game was me seething about the officiating. Michigan didn't play well in the second period, but that was at least partially influenced by them killing so many penalties. This is the part of the article where I point out that I was really happy we won that game going away so this doesn't sound like sour grapes. Red was diplomatic after the game, but admitted he hadn't seen the penalties. I suspect he had a different opinion when he saw the tape. It was bad enough at times that I had to dig this guy back up:

In the first period, DeBlois was sent off for cross-checking on another one of those "the forward pushed him and so he fell into the goalie a lot harder than he should have" plays that Miami worked to perfection. Then in the second, Sparks was pushed into Coreau. He was sent off for goalie interference. Of course he was. Midway through the third, Luke Glendening was pushed into the net. He was called for high-sticking the goalie. Mac Bennett was called early in the second for "cross-checking" on a perfectly clean shoulder-to-shoulder hit that prevent a scoring chance as a guy drove the net. It was amazing to see some of the decisions that Hall and Miller made. That said, I'd take both of them over Sergott.

To their credit, they called a pretty good game Saturday. It just amazes me how officials consistently get calls around the goalie wrong. I can see the DeBlois one going against him. The ones against Sparks and Glendening were absurd, and the Bennett call was worse than either of them. It didn't matter, though, because the penalty killing was fantastic. Northern had four shots on goal combined on their six power plays. 

NMU did make it 2-1 on Ryan Daughterty's first career goal, and it was a beauty. Hunwick made the initial save and the rebound came to Daughterty. He basically shot it from between his legs. That made it 2-1 with about 8 1/2 left in the second. Sparks was called for goalie interference immediately afterwards, which was special. Michigan killed that one off pretty easily.

In the third, Glendening was called after a great-looking give and go with PDG. Coreau absolutely robbed Glendening. NMU didn't come anywhere close to the net on that power play.

DeBlois gave Michigan an insurance goal off a great feed from Merrill. That was a nothing play at center ice, but Merrill got into position to spring DeBlois on a partial breakaway. DeBlois went five-hole.

Tyler Gron was sent off on a "make it look good" penalty (we didn't get a replay...it could have been legit) and the Wolverines implemented what we'll call a power-kill, since running two minutes off the clock was just as important as scoring. But they did the latter as well! Merrill over to Moffie for a one-timer and Michigan iced it with a minute and a half left.

Shawn Hunwick made 26 stops in the game, but the penalty killers were the story of the game. They were absolutely phenomenal. They only gave up multiple shots on goal on one of NMU's six power plays. The Sparks and Glendening penalties were complete garbage calls and it was a one-goal game. In those four minutes, Michigan outshot NMU 1-0. Two huge chances for the Wildcats to tie things up and Michigan didn't give up a shot. That's championship-caliber penalty killing right there.

Saturday's game was alarming because Michigan got back to their struggles in getting the puck out of the zone. Chiasson had a brutal turnover early in the game, but Hunwick was able to stop Daughterty. Both goalies made some good saves in the first period. Hunwick had a beauty with the right pad and then Ellingson stoned Guptill.

The Wolverines took a 1-0 on a goal by Luke Glendening. Moffie brought the puck into the zone then made a beautiful pass back to Glendening out by the point. The NMU defenseman tried to block the shot and ended up deflecting it past Ellingson into the net.

DeBlois nearly made it 2-0 moments later. He walked out from behind the net and Ellingson made a fantastic save on the first shot. The rebound went off the goal post.

The Wildcats tied it up off a Michigan turnover. The puck was centered for Florek and he doesn't miss too many chances like that.

Gron snapped a Wolverine player's stick in half almost immediately after the goal and Michigan would capitalize on the power play. Jon Merrill got a shot through a Luke Moffatt screen for his first goal of the year.

Michigan had a chance to pull further ahead but Brown missed an empty net and then Andrew Cherniwchan went end-to-end, walking Merrill, and roofing one over Hunwick. Great goal, 2-2.

In overtime, the Wildcats turned it over, Glendening sent it cross-ice to Treais, and Treais sniped yet another one for the game-winner. It seems like all he's done lately is fire lasers from the top of the circle past goaltenders. His 15th of the year gave the Wolverines another dramatic Senior Night win and kept them in contention in the CCHA.

Greg Pateryn was absolutely fantastic in the game. He leveled no less than four Wildcats with clean checks (and to the officials' credit, they didn't call penalties on any of them!) and late in the game beautifully broke up a 3-on-1. He didn't get a star in the game, but he very easily could have.

The officiating was much better on Saturday. The only play that really got me up in arms was when Guptill was racing Ellingson for the puck. Guptill got there, Ellingson dove into his knee, sent him awkwardly into the goal, and there was no call. It's ridiculous because he didn't get the puck (and in college I don't think it matters), and he took out a player's knee. They called Hasek for flipping Gaborik back in the day, and Hasek did get the puck first (and in the pros that matters). But they let the teams play Saturday. NMU had one power play, Michigan had two. Again, the Michigan penalty killers came up big. Moffie was called for boarding in the middle of the third period and the Wolverines didn't give up a shot.

Hunwick had 26 stops for the second straight night. 

Michigan is still six points behind Ferris State with two games to play. A Michigan sweep of Bowling Green and a WMU sweep of Ferris would give the Wolverines a tie for the CCHA crown. They would win the tie-breaker and take the #1 seed into the CCHA Tournament.

It's not as unrealistic as it sounds. Michigan should sweep the Falcons, who have won just four conference games and have only scored 3+ goals on three occasions since Thanksgiving. You'd like to think that happens. The WMU sweeping Ferris piece is a little tougher, but the Broncos did sweep the Bulldogs in a home-and-home earlier in the year, so it's certainly not out of the realm of possibility.