Friday, November 14, 2008

WMU 2, Michigan 1

Screw this, you're getting a copy and paste job from my notes. I don't feel like reliving this one again to formulate a usual post-game wrap. There's a little analysis at the end...

I wish Hagelin had scored on an opportunity in the early part of the first period. He took the puck backward at center to build up some speed, moved through center, split the D at the line, lost control, regained the puck back in the corner, got away from two guys there, and then thought about wrapping it around before bringing it out in front of the net. He tried to chip it short side and Gill stopped it. It would've been one for the highlight reel for sure. Great play nonetheless and some hard work out of a guy we've come to expect it from.

Ice is tilted our way in the early going. WMU has had one rush but that's about it. Michigan has been buzzing, but no grade A chances just yet.

WMU seems pretty content to sit back and play D right now. They're playing solid defense, but they haven't had anything even approaching an offensive opportunity.

Really good work by Hagelin and T-Llew. They've got Cirualo in for Fardig tonight. I wonder if that's an effort to change things up on the PK a little bit.

Good kill. WMU didn't get any chances on that one.

There's a big save by Gill late in the period. Wohlberg knocked the puck into the slot and Rust had a couple pops at it. The second one was a REALLY nice stop. Wohlberg has been strong in the last few games.

It's been that kind of year for Travis Turnbull so far. He turned the puck over deep in our offensive zone with 20 sec left in the period and then took a slashing penalty away from the play on a nothing rush. WMU has 1:50 on the PP at the start of the 2nd.

Nice step up by Llewellyn to break up a potential scoring chance. Gambled, but it paid off. Summers with another nice play on the 2nd PK of the period.

Three good kills so far tonight. WMU had a couple opportunities on that last one but I don't think they've gotten a quality shot off this whole game so far.

Summers just gave a glimpse of why we want him playing forward. He went FLYING down the left wing and tried to stuff one five hole. Palushaj tried to jump on the rebound and ended up in the net.

We're outshooting them pretty badly but a good number of our shots have been from the perimeter.

Great feed by Palushaj to Caporusso for a shot right at the periphery of the crease but he didn't have much space to work with and Gill made a good save. That's been our best chance so far.

WMU just had their best chance. They found Clackson in front with a pass from behind the goal line and Sauer was strong making the stop point-blank.

Woot! PPG! Lebler from Langlais and Palushaj. Nice to see Lebler get rewarded. I think he's been playing pretty well. Gotta admit, I looked up at the Wings game for a second and missed what happened, so no comment on the goal itself.

Shots are 22-6 right now. WMU just isn'tvery good, but they're playing a solid enough game for a team that's overmatched in talent. Michigan's only had about 3 real good chances. They're giving up shots, but they're playing solid enough defense that they aren't a bunch of high percentage chances.

WMU back to the PP. High hit by Miller. Not real smart.

Big block by Winnett after a turnover by Vaughan. Hagelin has really enjoyed playing the puck back into his own end on these PKs (he is European, after all). It's worked pretty well but it almost bit us there when Vaughan toe-picked. Another really good kill. WMU hasn't gotten anything going on the PP. Or even strength.

Summers with a partial breakaway stoned by Gill. He's jumping up some tonight and I like it. I feel like Summers should get the Jack Johnson green light to jump into the play a little more often. Maybe you have to curtail it with the injuries on our blueline, but I really like what he brings when he jumps into the play and he hardly ever does it.

End 2 with Michigan up 1-0. That goal just might hold up (errr.....nope!) with the way WMU is playing offensively, but I'd prefer to pop in a few more and end this thing.

Wow. Billy was down and out there and Squires tried to bring it around the net and tuck it but Sauer somehow got over and gloved it. Beautiful save on a scary moment. Holy buckets!

And they score 2 seconds later off a draw. Awesome. Got tipped in front.

Great (scary) individual effort by Caporusso out by the blueline. He shrugged off 2 WMU players and got it to Hagelin. He had an open lane to shoot but it looked like he tried to pass it and fanned. Later in the shift, they hit on a really nice cross ice pass and tried to go back into the slot. Hagelin's shot was blocked.

I really like watching Robbie Czarnik skate. He's so smooth out there. Really random comment but I thought that at least 3 times tonight...

WMU is really buzzing. Our defenseman fell and led to a great scoring chance but the guy didn't get it on net. Then the puck came back out in front and Sauer made a couple of saves.

I dunno why we can't score when Sauer is in net for us. Michigan has given him NO goal support this year. Then again Jeff Lerg would probably take the goals we've given him. Still, 12 in 6 games is not the way to win hockey games.

Caporusso just beat their whole team. I have no idea how that stayed out. He is crafty. We're all over them, but it's still tied with 7 min left.

Sauer with a nice save on Galivan when he cut to the middle on Langlais.

I don't think Sauer's play has been that different from Hogan's this year, butHogan is so much better at handling the puck. Sauer scares the hell out of me when he goes behind the net.

Wow wow wow. He might have been screened but if he wasn't, sweet Jesus was that a bad goal. Oh, Billy, Billy....No replay, so it's hard to really comment on it. I hope he was screened because that was just bad.

2 goals by their D, who had 2 goals the whole year combined. Stellar.

And this is why you can't let teams hang around. A faceoff win and a fluky goal and suddenly we're losing to the worst team in the CCHA.

Czarnik set up Hagelin from a bad angle but Gill was there. He's been pretty darn good tonight.
Rusty was in cold turkey and Gill made the stop. Getting some chances, but they just can't solve Riley Gill.

Can't even get Sauer of the net. This is really nice. Icing with 18 seconds leftand we'll get one more crack.

Won the draw but nothing much comes of it.

Unreal.

Gotta give WMU credit. They played the perfect game for a 1-6 hockey team. Play solid defense, keep yourself in the game and see what happens. They've scored just 12 goals in their last 7 games, but they've actually managed a win and three ties in those seven games. It means they're getting some solid play in net and that they're not all that bad defensively.

I don't understand why we can't put the puck in the net when Sauer is in there. I have to believe it's more of a Friday/Saturday thing than a Sauer/Hogan thing, but they need to get it together. You can't crap away points to the WMUs and Alaskas of the world...and we're still the only team in conference that NMU has beaten (btw, they're 1-5-1-0 in the CCHA...talk about underachieving). This isn't the time to be pissing away points.

This might be a knee jerk reaction, but I think I liked Palushaj better with Rust. Caporusso is good enough that he doesn't really need Palushaj to create for him (he had like 5 goals before Palushaj was moved to his wing). Rust has had a couple chances, but has otherwise been pretty invisible lately. He's only got one point in his last six games.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tim,

Saw the second WMU goal right in front of me. Yes, blame Sauer for napping, but he was screened by Vaughn. Palushaj was tired and tried to get the puck out for a change and misplayed it. Their d-man moved up and didn't have time to keep it in, so he snapped a 65 footer from the near boards. Perfect shot.

WMU played a perfect road game, physical, semi-disciplined for them, and clogged the shooting and passing lanes. I think they play a version of the LW lock. Gill was solid, but really only had to make a handful of tough saves. Mostly perimeter shots.

Did the team get frustrated? Yes. Tired from Alaska? Yes. Have enought to beat that sorry team? Definitely.

The only forward creating was Hagelin and maybe Louie.

The officiating was good, but I think that western could have been called for a couple of more penalties when U-M was pressuring. Blatant interference stuff on the trailer for instance. Shegos' pattern, especially in the third.

Let's face it, this team is still trying to find itself and keeps shooting themselves in the foot.