I just never had a good feeling about this one. I caught it on the DVR and managed to not hear anything one way or the other, but from the start of the game I was pretty convinced that we weren't going to win.
State came out flying in the first period and carried the play, despite holding just a 10-9 margin in shots. Michigan State got on the board first very late in the second period, as the Chelii got some small measure of revenge for getting abused regularly by Michigan this year. Jake fired a shot just past Hunwick's right pad to put the Spartans up 1-0. Louie Caporusso made it 1-1 just 37 seconds later. He made a nice pass to Scooter on the far side and the puck eventually deflected back to him. He pulled it through the crease and was able to slip it past Yanakeff with just 16 seconds left in the period.
Michigan had a huge edge in shots in the third (14-7) but the only goal was off a Zach Josepher shot that rebounded to an uncovered Joey Shean for his first of the year.
There weren't a lot of great scoring chances in the first period, but the game had a lot of flow. I think there had only been two or three stoppages eleven minutes into the game. Hunwick's best stop was four minutes into the game, and was the first thing I jotted down. He was peeking behind the net as the Spartan centered it. Somehow he was able to get back turned around and get his pad down on the ice. Yanakeff had a couple of good stops as well, notably on Glendening and a shoulder save on Wohlberg.
I thought Michigan had the majority of the good scoring chances in the second period. Yanakeff stopped Wohlberg (I think) on a 2-on-1 while Michigan had the goalie out on a delayed penalty. He also made a nice stop on Chris Brown, when the Wolverines tried to run the old Max Pacioretty play on a power play. Brownie was set up right in the slot on that one.
Outside of Caporusso's goal, the highlight of the period was Greg Pateryn sending Perlini into next month. Glendening also saved a goal with a great backcheck.
Both teams had good chances in the third, but it was only the Spartans who were able to put the puck into the net.
Hunwick did make a huge stop on Walrod after Langlais lost a puck battle on the boards. One of our defensemen also helped out by cranking Gazely as he was about to put the puck into an empty net.
Michigan missed some doozies, though. Kevin Lynch had a penalty shot pretty late in the game and put it into Yanakeff's pad. Chad Langlais also put a bomb off the post to Yanakeff's right. We weren't able to get anything much going with the goalie out and that was all she wrote.
It's strange, even though we're getting next to nothing in Production from our forwards, I don't think they're really playing badly. Rust and Hagelin's line is always buzzing in the offensive end just because those guys are so fast and so good at battling for the puck. I thought Rust, in particular, had a really good game even if he had just one shot on goal. Glendening and Wohlberg were out there for both Spartan goals (one was a PPG) but they both had ample opportunities in the offensive end.
The pucks just aren't going in right now. They'll need to this coming weekend at Miami, but on the bright side, the RedHawks haven't exactly been as stout defensively as you'd typically expect. In the last seven games, they've been hit up for 5+ on three occasions. The other four games, they've given up four goals total, so it's been a little feast or famine for opposing offenses. Still, there have been cracks in the wall.
Other thoughts:
-We can win a championship with the goaltending we're getting. The offense needs to pick it up.
-Will Yanakeff is a good goalie. At least against us, he's a lot better than Palmisano.
-Hayes made a couple of great defensive plays for the Spartans in that game to help keep Michigan to just one goal.
-I mentioned this on The Wolverine, but you can just see the talent oozing out of Mac Bennett. He may not be a great defenseman at this point, but you can see that he's improving, and it's not going to be long before he puts it together. Man that kid has wheels. He turns the puck over quite a bit, but I've noticed several times that he's moving so fast that he just overskates the puck, or he stumbles. It seems like he's always on supersonic or something. Once the game slows down a little bit for him, he's going to be really good, and I hope he stays around Michigan for a few years. Once his comfort level matches his talent, he's going to be something.
-My sympathies to Daultan Leveille and his family over the loss of his brother, Clayton. That's a sad story. Really sorry to hear about that.
-More thoughts on the game from MGoBlog.
-I didn't mention this on the main site, just on Twitter, but former Wolverine Jason Bailey has sued the Anaheim Ducks and a couple of their affiliates for Anti-Semitism. Scott Burnside has an article up on ESPN.com with more details about the suit and the nature of the things that were allegedly said to Bailey.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Having a Seat Over There: Alex Kile
Another nice catch by MHNet. Just a couple of days after nabbing a commit from Max Shuart, the Wolverines pulled another player out of the MWEHL. This time it's Alex Kile, a forward for Detroit Honeybaked Midget Major. Honeybaked lists him at 5'11" 190. He currently has 18-19--37 in 32 games with just 6 PIMs.
He leads Honeybaked in goals, assists and points and is 11th in goals and 9th in points in the MWEHL. It's worth noting that several of the guys in front of him are 92s, and he's a 94.
Last year with Honeybaked he had 13-13--26 in 33 games, which was good for sixth on the team.
As Jason pointed out, Shuart and Kile are very close in age, but Shuart is listed as a 2012 commit and Kile is listed as a 2013. That's how I'll list them on the sidebar until I hear otherwise.
He was a 14th round pick of London in the OHL Draft. Green Bay holds his USHL Futures rights.
He leads Honeybaked in goals, assists and points and is 11th in goals and 9th in points in the MWEHL. It's worth noting that several of the guys in front of him are 92s, and he's a 94.
Last year with Honeybaked he had 13-13--26 in 33 games, which was good for sixth on the team.
As Jason pointed out, Shuart and Kile are very close in age, but Shuart is listed as a 2012 commit and Kile is listed as a 2013. That's how I'll list them on the sidebar until I hear otherwise.
He was a 14th round pick of London in the OHL Draft. Green Bay holds his USHL Futures rights.
Saturday, January 29, 2011
Having a Seat Over There: Max Shuart
According to MHNet, Michigan has picked up another verbal for the entering class of 2012. Max Shuart, a forward for Victory Honda, has pledged a commitment to the Wolverines. He has 8-15--23 in 26 games to rank third on the team in scoring. He's also played a few games with the Under 17s, though he didn't register a point.
His uncle, Alex Roberts, played for Michigan from 1986-87 through the 1989-90 season.
He also played with Michigan target Jacob Trouba on the Compuware team that won the 14U Tier I National Championship a couple of years ago.
His uncle, Alex Roberts, played for Michigan from 1986-87 through the 1989-90 season.
He also played with Michigan target Jacob Trouba on the Compuware team that won the 14U Tier I National Championship a couple of years ago.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
10 Things to Know About Alaska
1) The Alaska Nanooks come into Yost this weekend 10-8-4 (7-7-4-2 in the CCHA) on the season. They're 4-4-2 on the road, and are coming off a split at CCHA-leader Notre Dame last weekend. They lost 2-1 on Friday night before winning the second game by a 4-1 score.
2) As you can probably expect with Alaska, they don't score a ton of goals and they don't give up a ton of goals. They've given up more than 3 goals on the season just four times this season. They've scored more than three just six times. Three of those have come in the last seven contests, however.
3) For the season, they ranked 50th in offense (2.32 goals per game) and they're 5th in the country in defense (2.14 goals per game allowed). Scott Greenham ranks 8th in the country in goals against (1.97) and 10th in save percentage (.926). Greenham has played every second this season for the Nanooks.
4) The Nanooks have four players tied for the team lead in goals with 6 (Cody Kunyk, Kevin Petovello, Nik Yaremchuk, and Carlo Finucci). Kunyk leads the team in points with 16. They've also gotten 16 points from Joe Sova back on the blueline (3-13--16). All three of Sova's goals have come on the power play.
5) Their power play is 38th in the country at 15.8%, but it generates almost a third of their offense. Michigan's power play is closer to a quarter of our offense. The PK is 84%, which is 18th.
6) Last weekend, Michigan faced one of the top goaltenders in the country and yet, despite Pat Nagle's fantastic numbers, we've always had great success against him. Things have been a little more hit or miss against Greenham. He's played against the Wolverines on 5 occasions. He's blanked Michigan twice, and in the other three games he's given up 3 (on 11 shots before being yanked), 3, and 4 goals. Those are, however, the only two times in history that Michigan has been shut out by Alaska.
7) Despite the fact that Alaska traditionally is pretty good defensively, the games between these two schools aren't usually close. I don't mean that in a negative way toward Alaska, because Michigan is just 4-3-1 in the last eight. But going all the way back to our 4-0 win on 11/3/01, just two contests have been decided by 1 or fewer goals. There have been just 5 one-goal games in the 49 game history of the series. In fact, Alaska's shootout win last season was the first time in history these teams had even gone to overtime.
8) Michigan leads the all-time series 39-9-1. We're 20-3-1 at Yost against Alaska.
9) Louie Caporusso has 4-5--9 in 10 games against the Nanooks. Carl Hagelin hasn't scored, but has 6 assists. Chris Brown has 6 points in just five games. Shawn Hunwick has never faced Alaska.
10) Alaska currently sits in a tie for 18th place in the PWR rankings. They're in a tight battle in the CCHA. They currently sit two points out of a bye in the first round, and yet they've only got home ice in the first round by 8 points over an LSSU team that has two games in hand. In terms of winning percentage, they're in a four-way tie for 5th. These are as big of points for them as they are for us.
Friday night's game will air on FSN Plus. Saturday's game will be online at bigtennetwork.com.
Other Stuff:
In addition to picking up a commitment from Travis Lynch today, there were a few other things of note for Michigan fans:
-The Regents approved $20 million for new HD scoreboards for Michigan Stadium, Crisler Arena, and Yost. The goal is to have them in place by next season. So enjoy the days of "GO! FIGHT! WIN!" while you can, because soon we'll actually have, you know, replays.
-Chris Summers played in his first NHL game tonight, and Chad Kolarik picked up his first career NHL point.
2) As you can probably expect with Alaska, they don't score a ton of goals and they don't give up a ton of goals. They've given up more than 3 goals on the season just four times this season. They've scored more than three just six times. Three of those have come in the last seven contests, however.
3) For the season, they ranked 50th in offense (2.32 goals per game) and they're 5th in the country in defense (2.14 goals per game allowed). Scott Greenham ranks 8th in the country in goals against (1.97) and 10th in save percentage (.926). Greenham has played every second this season for the Nanooks.
4) The Nanooks have four players tied for the team lead in goals with 6 (Cody Kunyk, Kevin Petovello, Nik Yaremchuk, and Carlo Finucci). Kunyk leads the team in points with 16. They've also gotten 16 points from Joe Sova back on the blueline (3-13--16). All three of Sova's goals have come on the power play.
5) Their power play is 38th in the country at 15.8%, but it generates almost a third of their offense. Michigan's power play is closer to a quarter of our offense. The PK is 84%, which is 18th.
6) Last weekend, Michigan faced one of the top goaltenders in the country and yet, despite Pat Nagle's fantastic numbers, we've always had great success against him. Things have been a little more hit or miss against Greenham. He's played against the Wolverines on 5 occasions. He's blanked Michigan twice, and in the other three games he's given up 3 (on 11 shots before being yanked), 3, and 4 goals. Those are, however, the only two times in history that Michigan has been shut out by Alaska.
7) Despite the fact that Alaska traditionally is pretty good defensively, the games between these two schools aren't usually close. I don't mean that in a negative way toward Alaska, because Michigan is just 4-3-1 in the last eight. But going all the way back to our 4-0 win on 11/3/01, just two contests have been decided by 1 or fewer goals. There have been just 5 one-goal games in the 49 game history of the series. In fact, Alaska's shootout win last season was the first time in history these teams had even gone to overtime.
8) Michigan leads the all-time series 39-9-1. We're 20-3-1 at Yost against Alaska.
9) Louie Caporusso has 4-5--9 in 10 games against the Nanooks. Carl Hagelin hasn't scored, but has 6 assists. Chris Brown has 6 points in just five games. Shawn Hunwick has never faced Alaska.
10) Alaska currently sits in a tie for 18th place in the PWR rankings. They're in a tight battle in the CCHA. They currently sit two points out of a bye in the first round, and yet they've only got home ice in the first round by 8 points over an LSSU team that has two games in hand. In terms of winning percentage, they're in a four-way tie for 5th. These are as big of points for them as they are for us.
Friday night's game will air on FSN Plus. Saturday's game will be online at bigtennetwork.com.
Other Stuff:
In addition to picking up a commitment from Travis Lynch today, there were a few other things of note for Michigan fans:
-The Regents approved $20 million for new HD scoreboards for Michigan Stadium, Crisler Arena, and Yost. The goal is to have them in place by next season. So enjoy the days of "GO! FIGHT! WIN!" while you can, because soon we'll actually have, you know, replays.
-Chris Summers played in his first NHL game tonight, and Chad Kolarik picked up his first career NHL point.
Having a Seat Over There: Travis Lynch
Bob Miller first mentioned Travis Lynch a few weeks back, and today Lynch dropped as the sixth member of the incoming class of 2011.
From the sound of it, he's not going to be one of those high-end offensive players, but he sounds like he'll be a perfect fit on the third line and will help out with what will be a gaping hole on our PK unit.
He has 8-5--13 in 33 games this year for the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL, but has 3-2--5 in his last three games. Last year he put up a 6-16--22 line in 58 games and contributed two game-winning goals during Green Bay's run to the championship. He's said to be one of the top penalty-killers, and the Gamblers have killed off 92.4%(!) of the penalties they've taken.
He's listed as 6'0", 181 and hails from White Lake, MI. Here's a profile in his own words:
He says that he is a "fast player" who likes to "throw [his] body around" and will always make the smart play. He calls himself a good "defensive offenseman".
From the sound of it, he's not going to be one of those high-end offensive players, but he sounds like he'll be a perfect fit on the third line and will help out with what will be a gaping hole on our PK unit.
He has 8-5--13 in 33 games this year for the Green Bay Gamblers of the USHL, but has 3-2--5 in his last three games. Last year he put up a 6-16--22 line in 58 games and contributed two game-winning goals during Green Bay's run to the championship. He's said to be one of the top penalty-killers, and the Gamblers have killed off 92.4%(!) of the penalties they've taken.
He's listed as 6'0", 181 and hails from White Lake, MI. Here's a profile in his own words:
He says that he is a "fast player" who likes to "throw [his] body around" and will always make the smart play. He calls himself a good "defensive offenseman".
Monday, January 17, 2011
A Statement Sweep
When I was doing the breakdown of this past weekend's games, I had a hard time figuring out if we had more in our favor or going against us on Friday night. We had the positives of playing at home, our success against Pat Nagle, and the fact that we've done really well against FSU at Yost in the past going up against our abysmal Friday record, Ferris's solid record on the first night of a series, and Zach Redmond against our track record of defending offensive defensemen.
Wouldn't you know it. Early in the second period, we were down 2-0 and a defenseman (Chad Billins) had himself a power play goal. Positively shocking, I know. But Michigan rebounded. Lee Moffie slid one through off a Matt Rust face-off win just a couple of minutes after Billins made it 2-0 and it was game on. Burlon was able to slip one through as well and it was a new hockey game. Late in the second period, Hagelin worked his butt off and was able to feed Chris Brown in the slot for what would be the game-winner. Hunwick made 29 saves in the victory.
The next night was some high-quality Saturday Michigan hockey. The Wolverines got out to a 2-0 lead behind goals from Hagelin and Wohlberg 16 seconds apart, stunning the crowd at Ewigleben. I had a feeling the Wohlberg goal was coming a few seconds before it happened, courtesy of the "AWWW COME ON!!!!!!!!" yelled by the FSU fan who was right by the radio mic.
Lee Moffie added his second of the weekend en route to CCHA Defenseman of the Week honors. Vaughan added his eighth of the year short-handed in the second period, which chased Pat Nagle from the net. After Filinger made it 4-1 in the early third period, Derek DeBlois notched his first career goal and David Wohlberg scored on a 5-on-3.
Hopefully we'll look back on this as a statement weekend. Playing a home-and-home against a team right behind us in the standings, with our "home" part of the weekend on the night where we've typically struggled, Michigan came from behind to win one night and then thumped the #1 defensive team in the country the next night.
Putting up 8 goals on a team that gives up under two a night is no small feat. Rendering Zach Redmond completely ineffective when you're a team that has struggled to defense the points is even better. Redmond was -5 on the weekend with no points and 4 shots on goal.
The Hagelin, Rust, and Brown were pretty great this weekend. Rust won 14 of 18 faceoffs in the win on Friday night and assisted on the first goal of both contests. Hagelin had the effort-play of the game, which led to Chris Brown's game-winner, and kicked things off Saturday.
Moffie, of course, had a 2-1--3 line on the weekend and as I mentioned was CCHA Defenseman of the Week. Not a bad weekend, considering that it wasn't too long ago that he had completely fallen out of favor.
I actually thought the power play was pretty decent on Friday night, despite going 0-for-6. They didn't score, but the chances were there. Sparks and someone else (Brown I think?) fanned on wide-open nets. Those were both sure goals. I want to say out of the six power plays, there was only one where it really felt like we got nothing going. The setup was there, we had chances, but none of them found the back of the net. The next night, we cashed in on 2 of 7. Overall, a pretty good effort against the #3 PK in the country.
This puts us back just one point behind Notre Dame in the CCHA with a game in hand. Best of all, the team has won 7 of their last 8 games since the debacle against Minnesota followed up by that heartbreaking overtime loss to OSU. Pucks are starting to go in (we've scored 3+ goals in each of the last 8 games) and they are starting to stay out of our net for the most part. In conference, we're the only team giving up fewer than 2 goals per game.
The stretch run is fairly difficult--out of our final 11 conference games, only FYS is below .500 in the conference. (To be fair, there are only 3 teams in the CCHA below .500 in terms of points.)
Brian has some nice thoughts on the weekend, including a mini-breakdown of the PWR considerations. I echo the thoughts on Merrill. It's unreal that he's this good this soon, and that he never seems to take penalties.
MHNet has a couple articles you should see about our former defensemen: Steve Kampfer is having a nice run since he's been called up to the Boston Bruins and JMFJ tells his story.
John Gibson was ranked 46th in TSN's midseason draft rankings, which come from the opinions of 10 NHL scouts.
Wouldn't you know it. Early in the second period, we were down 2-0 and a defenseman (Chad Billins) had himself a power play goal. Positively shocking, I know. But Michigan rebounded. Lee Moffie slid one through off a Matt Rust face-off win just a couple of minutes after Billins made it 2-0 and it was game on. Burlon was able to slip one through as well and it was a new hockey game. Late in the second period, Hagelin worked his butt off and was able to feed Chris Brown in the slot for what would be the game-winner. Hunwick made 29 saves in the victory.
The next night was some high-quality Saturday Michigan hockey. The Wolverines got out to a 2-0 lead behind goals from Hagelin and Wohlberg 16 seconds apart, stunning the crowd at Ewigleben. I had a feeling the Wohlberg goal was coming a few seconds before it happened, courtesy of the "AWWW COME ON!!!!!!!!" yelled by the FSU fan who was right by the radio mic.
Lee Moffie added his second of the weekend en route to CCHA Defenseman of the Week honors. Vaughan added his eighth of the year short-handed in the second period, which chased Pat Nagle from the net. After Filinger made it 4-1 in the early third period, Derek DeBlois notched his first career goal and David Wohlberg scored on a 5-on-3.
Hopefully we'll look back on this as a statement weekend. Playing a home-and-home against a team right behind us in the standings, with our "home" part of the weekend on the night where we've typically struggled, Michigan came from behind to win one night and then thumped the #1 defensive team in the country the next night.
Putting up 8 goals on a team that gives up under two a night is no small feat. Rendering Zach Redmond completely ineffective when you're a team that has struggled to defense the points is even better. Redmond was -5 on the weekend with no points and 4 shots on goal.
The Hagelin, Rust, and Brown were pretty great this weekend. Rust won 14 of 18 faceoffs in the win on Friday night and assisted on the first goal of both contests. Hagelin had the effort-play of the game, which led to Chris Brown's game-winner, and kicked things off Saturday.
Moffie, of course, had a 2-1--3 line on the weekend and as I mentioned was CCHA Defenseman of the Week. Not a bad weekend, considering that it wasn't too long ago that he had completely fallen out of favor.
I actually thought the power play was pretty decent on Friday night, despite going 0-for-6. They didn't score, but the chances were there. Sparks and someone else (Brown I think?) fanned on wide-open nets. Those were both sure goals. I want to say out of the six power plays, there was only one where it really felt like we got nothing going. The setup was there, we had chances, but none of them found the back of the net. The next night, we cashed in on 2 of 7. Overall, a pretty good effort against the #3 PK in the country.
This puts us back just one point behind Notre Dame in the CCHA with a game in hand. Best of all, the team has won 7 of their last 8 games since the debacle against Minnesota followed up by that heartbreaking overtime loss to OSU. Pucks are starting to go in (we've scored 3+ goals in each of the last 8 games) and they are starting to stay out of our net for the most part. In conference, we're the only team giving up fewer than 2 goals per game.
The stretch run is fairly difficult--out of our final 11 conference games, only FYS is below .500 in the conference. (To be fair, there are only 3 teams in the CCHA below .500 in terms of points.)
Brian has some nice thoughts on the weekend, including a mini-breakdown of the PWR considerations. I echo the thoughts on Merrill. It's unreal that he's this good this soon, and that he never seems to take penalties.
MHNet has a couple articles you should see about our former defensemen: Steve Kampfer is having a nice run since he's been called up to the Boston Bruins and JMFJ tells his story.
John Gibson was ranked 46th in TSN's midseason draft rankings, which come from the opinions of 10 NHL scouts.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
10 Things to Know About the Ferris State Bulldogs
This weekend's opponent is the Ferris State Bulldogs. Friday's game from Yost will air on CBS College Sports and Saturday's contest up in Big Rapids will air on Comcast. If you don't get Comcast, you can watch the game on pay-per-view through Ferris State's website for $7.
Here are ten things to know about the Bulldogs:
1) The Bulldogs, picked 7th in the preseason coaches' poll and 6th in the media poll, currently sit a surprising 3rd in the CCHA standings. They are 8-6-3-2 in the CCHA and 11-8-4 overall. They're just two points behind the Wolverines, though Michigan has a pair of games in hand.
2) They've been a little bit inconsistent. This past weekend's sweep of Bowling Green was their first six-point weekend of the year in CCHA play, though they did take 5 points from Miami in early November and swept St. Lawrence back in October. They following up the two-win weekend against Miami by getting shutout by LSSU back-to-back games, so yeah.
3) In the earlier series this year, Michigan took four points, winning the game at Yost and losing in a shootout on the road. Shawn Hunwick gave up 2 goals on 28 shots in the loss. Hogan gave up 2 on 24 shots in the win. Clearly we'll see Hunwick in both games this weekend. Michigan was 1-14 for the weekend on the power play. Ferris was 2-9.
4) Defenseman Zach Redmond leads the Bulldogs in goals (uh oh) and points with a 6-9--15 line in 17 games. He had 1-2--3 in the sweep of Bowling Green this past weekend and scored a power-play goal in FSU's win over Michigan earlier this year. He had a goal against us last year as well. Chad Billins has 4-6--10 from back on the blueline. Those two defensemen have combined for five game-winning goals and five tallies on the power play.
5) Up front, they don't have any forwards really tearing it up. Their leading goal scorer is Nate Hennig with 6, and their leading point-getter is Mike Embach with 5-6--11 in 23 games. Matthew Kirzinger does have 2-2--4 in a three-game point streak and has 2-4--6 in his last seven.
6) In net it's been Pat Nagle most of the way, and with good reason. The senior netminder is 11-6-4, with a 1.76 goals against (!) and a .930 save percentage. Those numbers are good for 3rd and 8th nationally, respectively. Pretty impressive, and a guy that could certainly steal a game any given night.
7) Offensive/Defensive numbers: The offense, as you might guess by their lack out output from forwards, is only scoring 2.39 goals per game, 45th in the country. Behind Nagle, however, the Bulldogs are the number one defensive team in the country. They're the only school giving up fewer than two goals per game (1.96), a tenth of a goal per game better than Merrimack. Also, as you might expect, the power play sucks (14.0%-49th) and the PK is really good (88.4%-3rd) and has scored 5 SHGs on the season. Adding in the 5 shorties, they're only -8 on the 112 power plays they've given up.
8) Redmond has 2-3--5 in 8 games against Michigan. Justin Menke is the only other Bulldog with multiple goals in his career against Michigan. The Wolverines have had a fair amount of success against Nagle. He's just 1-4-1 with a 3.59/.882 against the Maize and Blue. Hagelin has 3-3--6 in 8 games against FSU. Wohlberg, Rust, Cappy, and Glendening all have a pair of goals. Shawn Hunwick's appearance earlier this year was his only game against FSU. He's 0-0-0-1 (or 0-0-1 if you prefer) with a 1.87/.929.
9) Bob Daniels picked up his 300th career win last weekend against Bowling Green. Redmond was named CCHA Defenseman of the Week for his performance.
10) Things that don't bode well for us this weekend: We suck on Friday nights and are 2-4-1 on the first game of a CCHA weekend. FSU is 5-2-1. The Friday night game is at Yost, where you'd typically expect to win. Hopefully they come out with a little bit better of an effort than we typically see on Friday night. The good news is that FSU has only beaten Michigan at Yost one time in the last decade.
Here are ten things to know about the Bulldogs:
1) The Bulldogs, picked 7th in the preseason coaches' poll and 6th in the media poll, currently sit a surprising 3rd in the CCHA standings. They are 8-6-3-2 in the CCHA and 11-8-4 overall. They're just two points behind the Wolverines, though Michigan has a pair of games in hand.
2) They've been a little bit inconsistent. This past weekend's sweep of Bowling Green was their first six-point weekend of the year in CCHA play, though they did take 5 points from Miami in early November and swept St. Lawrence back in October. They following up the two-win weekend against Miami by getting shutout by LSSU back-to-back games, so yeah.
3) In the earlier series this year, Michigan took four points, winning the game at Yost and losing in a shootout on the road. Shawn Hunwick gave up 2 goals on 28 shots in the loss. Hogan gave up 2 on 24 shots in the win. Clearly we'll see Hunwick in both games this weekend. Michigan was 1-14 for the weekend on the power play. Ferris was 2-9.
4) Defenseman Zach Redmond leads the Bulldogs in goals (uh oh) and points with a 6-9--15 line in 17 games. He had 1-2--3 in the sweep of Bowling Green this past weekend and scored a power-play goal in FSU's win over Michigan earlier this year. He had a goal against us last year as well. Chad Billins has 4-6--10 from back on the blueline. Those two defensemen have combined for five game-winning goals and five tallies on the power play.
5) Up front, they don't have any forwards really tearing it up. Their leading goal scorer is Nate Hennig with 6, and their leading point-getter is Mike Embach with 5-6--11 in 23 games. Matthew Kirzinger does have 2-2--4 in a three-game point streak and has 2-4--6 in his last seven.
6) In net it's been Pat Nagle most of the way, and with good reason. The senior netminder is 11-6-4, with a 1.76 goals against (!) and a .930 save percentage. Those numbers are good for 3rd and 8th nationally, respectively. Pretty impressive, and a guy that could certainly steal a game any given night.
7) Offensive/Defensive numbers: The offense, as you might guess by their lack out output from forwards, is only scoring 2.39 goals per game, 45th in the country. Behind Nagle, however, the Bulldogs are the number one defensive team in the country. They're the only school giving up fewer than two goals per game (1.96), a tenth of a goal per game better than Merrimack. Also, as you might expect, the power play sucks (14.0%-49th) and the PK is really good (88.4%-3rd) and has scored 5 SHGs on the season. Adding in the 5 shorties, they're only -8 on the 112 power plays they've given up.
8) Redmond has 2-3--5 in 8 games against Michigan. Justin Menke is the only other Bulldog with multiple goals in his career against Michigan. The Wolverines have had a fair amount of success against Nagle. He's just 1-4-1 with a 3.59/.882 against the Maize and Blue. Hagelin has 3-3--6 in 8 games against FSU. Wohlberg, Rust, Cappy, and Glendening all have a pair of goals. Shawn Hunwick's appearance earlier this year was his only game against FSU. He's 0-0-0-1 (or 0-0-1 if you prefer) with a 1.87/.929.
9) Bob Daniels picked up his 300th career win last weekend against Bowling Green. Redmond was named CCHA Defenseman of the Week for his performance.
10) Things that don't bode well for us this weekend: We suck on Friday nights and are 2-4-1 on the first game of a CCHA weekend. FSU is 5-2-1. The Friday night game is at Yost, where you'd typically expect to win. Hopefully they come out with a little bit better of an effort than we typically see on Friday night. The good news is that FSU has only beaten Michigan at Yost one time in the last decade.
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