Michigan Hockey: Icers Snatch Their 11th Regular Season Title; Await CCHA Playoff Foe

Posted at 6:45pm — 3/4/2011

Michigan Hockey: Icers Snatch Their 11th Regular Season Title; Await CCHA Playoff Foe

#6 MICHIGAN (23-9-4, 20-7-1-0) now awaits the first round of the CCHA playoffs held this weekend.
The Wolverines will host a best of three home series next weekend against the lowest remaining seed in hopes of advancing to Joe Louis Arena to play in the CCHA Championship round.

Rewinding Last Week’s Action:
The Wolverines, in must win fashion, gutted out a tight 3-2 victory last Friday at NMU and followed it on Saturday with a convincing 5-0 rout of the Wildcats. Both teams played a cautious, defensive game on Friday, with Northern supplying most of the early scoring chances. It was Mac Bennett, though, that gave Michigan a 1-0 advantage on a seeing eye point shot just five minutes into the contest. David Wohlberg followed with a marker with just over three minutes left in the period to extend the lead to 2-0. NMU scored an early second period goal to tighten the margin, but Chris Brown stroked a laser right from a faceoff to put the Wolverines up for good late in the second period. NMU scored in the first four minutes of the third period to set up a tense final stanza. The Cats were held to five shots in the period, though, as Michigan clamped down on defense. NMU’s best chance to tie the game came late during a PP, as they also pulled their netminder for an extra skater. Brandon Burlon saved a game tying effort swiping a rolling puck out of the crease in the final minute. Shawn Hunwick was named the #1 star in the contest, knocking away all but 2 of the 23 shots at him.

On Saturday, Michigan came out slow again, but benefited from a break just over halfway through the period to take a 1-0 lead. Carl Hagelin fired a pass intended for Brown in the slot that banked off a defender then off of goaltender Reid Ellingson into the net for a PP score. The game was still very tight as neither team could generate much. The game pretty much stayed that way until late in the second period when Luke Glendening deposited a rebound past Ellingson to give the Wolverines a 2-0 advantage. Michigan outshot NMU 13-2 in the period. Carl Hagelin iced the game for the Wolverines early in the third, blistering a shot past Ellingson for a 3-0 lead, ending the goaltender’s night. Jared Coreau came in and was greeted by a Matt Rust short handed tally just four minutes later on a fine assist from Scooter Vaughn. David Wohlberg wrapped up the scoring on a breakaway with: 23 left in the game. Michigan held NMU to just 16 shots on goal, and fired 33 shots at NMU. Carl Hagelin led the Wolverines with a 2G 1A evening, and Shawn Hunwick stopped 13 shots before graciously yielding the net to Bryan Hogan with just about six minutes to play. Hogan stopped 3 shots in what may have been his last appearance between the pipes for the Wolverines.

Michigan’s sweep, combined with Western Michigan’s upset of Notre Dame in South Bend on Saturday, opened the door for the Wolverines to claim their 11th Regular Season CCHA banner. Michigan outdistanced the Irish by two points in the standings.

One note of concern though, as Louie Caporusso collided (knee on knee) with a NMU forward behind the Michigan net on Friday night and suffered a knee injury. There is no report on the extent of the injury outside of Coach Berenson stating that Caporusso may miss anywhere from 3-6 weeks depending on how he responds to treatment. He is doubtful for next week’s weekend series and questionable for the semi-final game at JLA in two weeks, IF Michigan wins next weekend. Let’s hope we can get back one of our top forwards for the playoffs. Caporusso added two assists on Friday and did not play Saturday night.

Yostmeister’s Three Stars of the weekend:
1. Shawn Hunwick – Michigan-the unsung hero this season in my book, kept Michigan in the Friday game until they could scratch together some offense. He was solid Saturday, even if he need not be spectacular.
2. Carl Hagelin – Michigan- I sound like a broken record, but Hagelin took this team on his back down the stretch, playing both ends of the ice like a true leader. He moved to center on Saturday taking Cappy’s spot and responded nicely.
3. Chris Brown – Michigan- Potted the game winner Friday and added two assists on the weekend. His physical presence, though, opened up space for his linemates all weekend.

Season Recap and Some Analysis:
Michigan’s regular season championship comes as no real surprise. They were chosen as pre-season favorites along with Miami because of the depth and talent of each team’s senior class. The real surprise was the resurgence of the Fighting Irish who were led by two outstanding freshmen and a well balanced offensive attack. Look for these three teams to lead the CCHA into the NCAA playoffs in a few weeks. But first, let’s review Michigan’s season and their chances at taking the CCHA tournament title, also.

The Wolverines are a bit of an enigma….and to a Michigan fan, a bit frustrating as well. Nothing was more indicative of their inconsistent play than their opening night folly at Yost, where they allowed a poor Mercyhurst team to rally from a 4-0 deficit to tie and almost win the game in OT. Thankfully, there were only a handful of stinkers this season to go along with some fine overall efforts. It was enough to post the most conference wins after a mediocre showing against non conference opponents.

The good news is, Michigan was almost unbeatable at home, posting a 14-2-1 mark between Yost and Michigan Stadium where the Big Chill was played. It didn’t start out this way, though- as Michigan struggled to a 3-2-1 home mark out of the gate. The only two losses came to Notre Dame and Nebraska-Omaha- both of which will compete in the NCAA tournament and both of which came within points of winning their respective conferences. Michigan rattled off eleven consecutive victories after the Notre Dame series which is part of the reason they won the CCHA. Not all of the wins were convincing, though- and that is a dual edged sword- since Michigan won seven games in their stretch run by one goal. The capper was the miraculous OT finish provided on Senior Night against WMU. Is this good? Yes- it shows that Michigan can win close games against good opponents. It also shows that Michigan’s top weakness is the long stretches it can go without consistent goal scoring and the minor defensive lapses in critical moments.

Michigan is a fairly average team on the road- going 7-6-3 which is a concern considering that they will conclude play away from Yost after next weekend. Of the seven wins, four came against teams they should beat- Bowling Green and Northern Michigan. Michigan did manage to tie and beat Ferris State on the road, which is traditionally a difficult place to play- and the Bulldogs hovered around the top 20 rankings most of the season. The Wolverines also split at OSU- in a four game series (2H, 2A) where every game was decided by one goal this season. Michigan gave away one of the games in Columbus, losing a lead in the last ten seconds and then dropping the game in OT. It was one of those games that I was ready to point at in the event that the Wolverines lost the CCHA crown by a point or two. One other similar game was up in East Lansing, where Michigan dropped a 4-3 OT affair. Michigan came from behind in the closing seconds to tie after being behind 3-1, but ended up coughing up a turnover in OT that ended up in their net.

If you want to talk about bad losses, we can beat the drum about being swept in Miami. The Wolverines didn’t respond well to a game they probably should have had a better fate in on Friday- blowing a third period lead and eventually losing on a late goal- and then they totally didn’t show up on Saturday. Luckily, there were only a handful of those types of games, too. One series that they did bounce back from a tough loss was up in Alaska, where after being shutout the night before, the Wolverines got some bounces and beat the Nanooks. One of the truly bad losses on the road was at Minnesota for their last CHS game. Minnesota is not a bad team, but not a vintage juggernaut either. Michigan was listless in a 3-1 loss.
I don’t usually rail about ties on the road- but Michigan coughed up two games that they led most of the way- at New Hampshire and at Wisconsin- which impacted their PWR. Both could have been huge boosts if they held on for wins- and in both games were lucky that Shawn Hunwick bailed them out in OT or they may have lost.

Michigan does like Joe Louis Arena ice and ended up sweeping a poor Michigan Tech team and outlasting a young and offensively gifted Colorado College team (both of the WCHA) for the GLI title. Look for CC to try to keep their position as a bubble team for the NCAA tourney. It was a good win for Michigan and actually showed how offensively gifted they can be if they execute.

Probably the most important game Michigan didn’t execute well in occurred against MSU at JLA. Michigan needed to keep pace with Notre Dame and take this game against the Spartans, but ended up losing on a third period goal. That game may have ended the conference opportunity for Michigan if not for some help from other conference foes. It also parlayed Michigan’s tailspin at Miami.

In summary, Michigan was a strong home team winning tough, tight games, but sometimes lacked the drive it needed on the road to finish games. The Wolverines averaged almost a goal a game more at home, and gave up almost a goal a game more on the road. These are areas that they will need to improve as the playoffs approach. I have talked all season also about the inconsistent special team play- basically a PP that ranks in the bottom half of the nation and a PK that has rebounded- but still isn’t Berenson like. In general, Michigan’s defense has been good enough to win games, but the offense has dried up OR their special team play failed. All of these components will be necessary to drive to a CCHA playoff championship- especially against teams like WMU, Miami or Notre Dame.

Let’s look at how the Wolverines finished the regular season:
-1st in the CCHA in points (61), wins (23) and ranking (#6)
-4th in the Pairwise, meaning that they would have a #1 seed in the NCAA playoffs
-finished 10-6-2 against ranked teams (at the time they played them)
-14th in scoring offense at 3.39 GPG (Miami #5 and Notre Dame #10 rank ahead of Michigan)
-8th in scoring defense at 2.31 GAPG (Ferris #3, Miami #5 and Alaska #7 rank ahead of Michigan)
– 36th in penalty minutes (out of 58 teams and 6th in the CCHA)
-32nd in PP conversion at 17.4% (Miami #4 nationally)
-27th in PK conversion at 82.3% (Ferris and Miami, 1-2 respectively in the country)

So, from a statistical standpoint, Michigan isn’t going to outscore many of the top teams in the country, but will stay close with them due to their defensive game. The special team units will be the x-factor- and they are currently at a decided disadvantage. Goaltending is a given this time of year, with Shawn Hunwick an underrated choice for first team all conference in my opinion.

Prediction:
Michigan should win their CCHA quarterfinal match-up against either LSSU, Ohio State or Michigan State- the lower seeded teams most likely to win their series. My hunch is that Michigan will play the winner of the LSSU/Ohio State series, IMO Ohio State in three.

My prediction for the other first round series:
NMU over BG in two
Alaska over MSU in three

This would set up a quarterfinal series of:
#1 Michigan vs. #9 OSU- Michigan in two
#2 Notre Dame vs. #7 Alaska- Notre Dame in three
#3 Miami vs. #6 NMU- Miami in two
#4 WMU vs. #5 Ferris State- WMU in three

Michigan would then be matched up with WMU at JLA
Notre Dame would play Miami at JLA.
Michigan will defeat WMU and Miami will defeat ND.
Michigan will defeat Miami to win the CCHA tourney.

Check back next week for the quarterfinal round preview.

Stay tuned to the forum for the latest Michigan Hockey news… Go Blue!

Written by GBMWolverine Staff

Go Blue — Wear Maize!