WMU Wrapup, 10 Things to Know About Alaska

Hey! We swept a series, and I went another week without writing.

From the sound of it, the game at Lawson was the type of game that we've lost this year: Outshoot the hell out of the opponent, give up a bad goal or two (another goal from behind the net?), but this time we actually put the puck in the net.

The best part? Thank my lucky stars, we scored four--four--power play goals....ah ah ah. We've actually scored a PPG in 11 of the last 12 games. That stat kind of shocks me. Those are the types of things you don't realize when you never get to catch a game anymore....

Where the hell did Lindsey Sparks come from? Kid has 3-2--5 in the last three games, and is seeing some power play time. The downside to that? His 3-3--6 in 10 games this year puts him tied with Lynch in points and ahead of Treais. Lynch actually has five points in his last three games as well, after having just one point the rest of the season.

Another guy who has been coming on as of late: Lee Moffie. He's been in the lineup six straight games and has 4 points.

No one is hotter, though, than Carl Hagelin. He has points in four straight games and 11 of the last 12 contests. Over the past four games he has a 3-6--9 line.

The wins over Western Michigan vaulted Michigan up to 7th in the CCHA standings. If they were to win both of their games in hand on OSU, LSSU, Alaska, and FYS, believe it or not, they'd be in a 4th-place tie, six points back of the Spartans for third. There's still a long way to go to get back into the race for a first-round bye (let alone the race to make the NCAAs) but at least we're breathing.

The next three weeks provide a great opportunity to make a move. Michigan will take on fourth-place Alaska, first-place Ferris State, and third-place Michigan State back-to-back-to-back. Put together a good stretch and that not only helps in the CCHA, but it helps the ole tournament resume. I still don't think we're making the tournament, but the opportunity is there to get back in the mix.

Alaska is up first. They come into Yost for a pair of games. Friday night's game will air on FSN+, which is 448 on Dish Network and 664 on DirecTV. Fox Sports Arizona is also televising the game, making them more useful than the Big Ten Network. Saturday's game is on Comcast 900.

1) After a 5-0-1 start, Alaska is 10-6-4 on the year (7-6-3-3 in the CCHA). They've won just two of their last eight, and haven't swept a series since they beat Ferris State twice over Halloween. Over that time, they've lost to BGSU, LSSU, Notre Dame, UNO twice and Western, along with tying 10th-place NMU twice. They appear to be as good at losing to bad teams as we are!

2) The teams have met once this year, in the season opener. Alaska won the game 2-0, despite almost being doubled-up in shots.

3) Freshman Andy Taranto leads the way with a 9-15--24 line in 20 games. He ranks second in the nation in points per game by a freshman. Dion Knelsen has 10 goals to lead the team.

4) Goalie Scott Greenham has played every minute for the Nanooks, putting up a 2.31/.914. He's not nearly as hot as he was early on in the season. He gave up 2+ goals just one time in the first eight games of the year. In the last 12 games, he's given up two or fewer just four times--though two of those were in his last two appearances, where he made 75 saves.

5) Greenham ranks 19th in the country in goals against, one spot ahead of our own Bryan Hogan. He's 23rd in save percentage.

6) The Nanook offense is 34th in the country in goals per game (2.90). They have the #11 defense in the country, however. The Wolverines are 23rd and 9th, respectively.

7) This really shocks me: Alaska is the least penalized team in the country, at just 8.6 minutes per game. There is a 2 PIM/game spread from 10th to 25th (16.6 to 14.6), 25th to 43rd (14.6 to 12.6), 43rd to 57th (12.6 to 10.6), and 57th to 58th (10.6 to Alaska's 8.6). Somewhere Packer fans are screaming about a Nanook conspiracy.

8) For a team that doesn't have much of an offense, their power play is quite good. The Nanooks rank 14th in the country in power play percentage at 21.6%. They've scored 22 of their 58 goals with the man advantage. They're 19th in PK at 83.8%. They have not scored a short-handed goal, and they have not given up a short-handed goal. For as big of a disaster as our power play was at the start of the year, Michigan is up to #22 nationally. 20.2% really isn't all that bad.

9) It probably speaks to the usual quality of the UA goaltending, but the Wolverines don't really have any players that have torn up Alaska in their careers. Louie Caporusso leads with a 2-3--5 line in six games. Wohlberg is the only other player with multiple goals. Hogan is 2-1-0 with a 1.67/.922. He has never faced the Nanooks in Ann Arbor.

10) The Nanooks have never beaten Michigan in back-to-back games, and have never won twice in a three-game span in the series. Keep in mind that they won the most recent meeting. Only one of the last 22 meetings has been decided by a single goal. Only five of the 45 games in the history of the series have been decided by one goal. Michigan has won all five of those games. The teams have never tied and have never gone into overtime.

Fast Facts About WMU

Probably not writing enough to call this a true "10 Things to Know" so here are some fast facts to get you ready for the series against WMU this weekend:
-WMU is 6-10-4 on the season and 2-9-3-1 in the CCHA, which means, yikes!, they're actually behind us in the standings!
-They started the year 4-0-0, which means they've won just two of their last sixteen.
-They've been shut-out in three of their last four, including a 0-0 tie against Bemidji.
-Leading scorer is JJ Crew, with 7-6--13. Greg Squires has 1-12--13.
-Riley Gill gets most of the work in net and he's still pretty darn good: He's 5-7-3 on the season but he has a 2.38/.929.
-Offense is #54 out of 59, at 2.10 goals per game. Only BGSU, Tech, American, and "The Yukon"--as my brother would say--are worse.
-Defense is 19th at 2.60 goals per game.
-Power Play: 11.3%...toward the bottom
-Penalty Kill: 82.2%, which is middle of the pack
-Michigan has actually won 7 in a row at Lawson.
-After this weekend, there is only one more game that won't be televised.
-It looks like the video for both games this weekend will be PPV. Friday's game is on WMU's website, Saturday on BigTenNetwork.com, which is lame since we used to get those games for free and I've heard less than glowing reviews of BTN's online coverage. If you're not going to actually, ya know, put games on TV, at least don't **** up our free live feeds, huh?
-Caporusso, Hagelin, and Rust all average a point per game or better against WMU. Hogan is 3-0-0 with a 1.07/.945 against the Broncos.

Need. Six. Points.

Having a Seat Over There: Boo Nieves to Michigan

Chris Heisenberg is reporting that Cristoval "Boo" Nieves committed to Michigan. He's the one that I mentioned a little further down the page. He's a 94 birthday who will enter school in the fall of 2012.

USHR said the following about him after the Select 15 Player Development Camp in July:
Up front, we liked Cristoval “Boo” Nieves, who we saw as a significant notch above any other forward in camp. Nieves will be playing with the Syracuse Nationals (former Syracuse Stars) midget minor squad in the upcoming season. He’s 6’2”, dynamic, skilled, and is a strong, powerful skater. Didn’t score much here, but no matter -- he has the earmarks of a future high-round NHL draft pick. Michigan offered him recently and that appears to be where he wishes to attend college.

He's listed as 6'1" 185. His team, the Syracuse Nationals, has won quite a few tournaments this season.

Elsewhere, Lucas Lessio had a 2-3--5 line in 6 games as Ontario took Silver at World Under 17s.

Here's a feature about Lessio that St. Mike's put up on Youtube.

Fellow 2011 recruit Alex Guptill (6'3", 183!) has been going bonkers since he got traded from Brampton to Orangeville. He has an 8-11--19 line in 10 games since the trade (and only three of those points have come on the power play), including 13 points and a +9 rating in his last five games. He's already 9th on the team in scoring and he's played 10 out of a possible 39 games.

Annnnnnd that kid who was supposed to come play goal for Michigan next year just back-stopped the Americans to the World Junior Championship. Le sigh.

JMFJ, Komisarek on US Olympic Team

More about the GLI in a little bit, but I just wanted to make a quick post to congratulate JMFJ and Mike Komisarek for being named to the US Olympic Team. 29% of the defense corps for the USA played at the University of Michigan. That's pretty cool.

GLI Semi-Final Preview: 10 Things to Know About RPI

Hey, remember when there used to be this site called The Blog That Yost Built, and the guy who wrote for it would actually do things like provide weekend previews, game recaps, and once-in-awhile, gasp (!) a thing called analysis? Hmm....I don't either.

Sorry about the last month. Real life got in the way and I had a hard time motivating myself to write things like "Yup, split another weekend. Shocking." or "Nope, not making the tournament".

Anyway, the Wolverines (finally) return the ice tomorrow to take on the RPI Engineers in the semifinal of the Great Lakes Invitation, a tournament that Michigan is looking to win for the third year in a row.

One plus is that for the first time in over a decade, the Wolverines come in to the GLI with their entire roster. Yes, that's right. Michigan did not lose anyone to the World Junior Championships.

Their first opponent is in the nightcap tomorrow. Here are ten things to know about the Engineers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute:

1) They come into the GLI with a 9-9-1 record on the season (3-4-0 in the ECAC). After a pretty good start that included a wins over UNH and Yale, and a tie against Alaska, RPI has lost six of their last eight (though their last win came against the defending national champions--yeah they're down this year, but it's still a win over BU). Four of those six losses were by a single goal.

2) They're paced offensively by junior Chase Polacek, who has a 12-14--26 line in 19 games and comes in riding a 13-game point streak. He ranks 15th in the country in points per game. Freshman Brandon Pirri has 18 points, which is seventh amongst freshmen in points per game. He was a second round draft pick of the Chicago Blackhawks. Another freshman, Jerry D'Amigo, will miss the GLI as he is playing for Team USA at the World Juniors.

3) Goaltender Allen York (a Columbus draft pick) has lost six straight starts after winning his previous five, giving up 23 goals in that span. He was in net for the win over UNH. Freshman Bryce Merriam made 32 saves in the recent win over BU, but has only played 4 times this year. He does have a 3-1-0 record with a 2.27/.898 however. York is 6-8-1 with a 2.93/.895.

4) RPI's 55 goals in 19 games rank them 26th in the country in offense at 2.89 goals per tilt. Michigan is just a little further down the list at 2.78 (ugh). Defensively they're 28th at 2.79 goals per game. Michigan's team defense is actually pretty good, ninth in the country at 2.28.

5) The special teams: 22nd in power play at 20.2% (they have the same number of goals in the same number of chances as Miami). Way down the list in 46th on the PK at 76.9%. They've given up 24 power play goals in 19 games. By comparison, Michigan's anemic power play is at 16.9% (37th in the nation) but they rank second in penalty killing at an impressive 91.0%.

6) The last meeting between these teams was in 1986, an 11-10 overtime victory for the Wolverines. That game was the last time Michigan trailed by 4 goals and came back to win. They were down 4-0 in that game. Michigan trails the all-time series 3-6-1. All four of RPI's previous appearances at Joe Louis Arena came in the 1985 calendar year. This is their second appearance in the GLI. They knocked off Michigan in their previous appearance.

7) Junior defenseman (and captain) John Kennedy is the only Michigan native on the roster. He hails from Saginaw.

8) You want to see patience? Senior defenseman Christian Jensen was drafted in 2004, by the San Jose Sharks in the ninth round.

9) RPI has not won a game the entire season when they've scored fewer than three goals. They're 0-6-1 in those contests.

10) The goals that they've scored and allowed are fairly consistently spread out through the game. They've scored 17 in the first, 19 in the second, 17 in the third. They've allowed 14 in the first, 19 in the second, and 19 in the third.

A few things from the Michigan perspective:
-Louie Caporusso has 5 goals in 4 career games in the GLI. Lebler, Langlais, Glendening, Summers, and Wohlberg all have 3 career points in the holiday tournament.
-Bryan Hogan is 2-0-0 with a 0.50/.971 in the GLI.
-Caporusso is at 57% on draws this year and Rust is at 55.2%. Nice!

The semifinal games and the third place game are not televised. The championship game will be shown on Fox Sports Detroit.

Prep Watch

Michigan fans might want to read this article. Just sayin'......

Shut Down the Internet

Michigan Against The World wins. This is my favorite blog post ever.