GBMWolverine: Michigan Hockey -- Michigan at Northern Michigan -- Wolverines Head North To Open CCHA -- Preview

Posted at 6:00am — 10/21/2011

GBMWolverine: Michigan Hockey — Michigan at Northern Michigan — Wolverines Head North To Open CCHA — Preview

#1 Michigan (4-0-0) vs. #17 NMU Wildcats (3-1-0)
7:35 p.m.Berry Events Center, Marquette, Mi. TV: none.

This is Michigan and NMU’s 49th meeting since 1981 with the Wolverines holding a 35-18-5 all time record. The teams last met in February, 2011 (3-2, 5-0 wins.) The last NMU win against Michigan was in 2010, a 3-1 decision at Yost Arena.

Rewinding Michigan’s Previous Action:

The Wolverines embarrassed the St. Lawrence Saints, 10-3 last Thursday night at Yost arena, completing the first four games of the young season at 4-0. Luke Glendening led Michigan with a three goal hat trick in a game pretty much decided in the first period. David Wohlberg added a goal and two assists.

Scouting the Wildcats:

Northern Michigan is back to being a rather sticky team to play, especially on their home ice. Lat season the Cats folded in the second half of the season partially due to injuries and mostly due to inexperience. This season, NMU has (so far) gotten back to Coach Walt Kyle’s style of hockey- physical, punishing defense, timely goal scoring and solid goaltending. The Cats opened the season at Wisconsin and took the Badgers to the limit, stealing a 3-2 OT opener before losing by the same score the next night. They opened their home schedule last weekend by downing WCHA opponent Saint Cloud State by a 5-2 and 3-2 margin which gives them the momentum coming into this series-after all Wisconsin and SCSU were probably a bit more potent than the powder puffs Michigan faced, all at Yost arena.

I wouldn’t say that the Cats are loaded, but they will try to out work and out hit their opponents. It is difficult to gage a team so early in the season-yet NMU has gotten contributions from each class represented in their lineup. Senior Captain Justin Florek so far leads the offense (by committee) with a 4-0-0 line in four games. Fellow Senior Captain Andrew Cherniwchan has netted 1-2-3 along with Junior forward Matt Thurber’s 0-4-4. Sophomore Reed Seckel missed all of last season with an injury, but has added 2-1-3.Six freshmen dot the lineup with the headliner being 6’6” defender Jake Baker and 6’1” forward Ryan Daugherty. The forwards are their usual pesky, physical selves and the defense is, as Coach Berenson describes them as “Huge, with good skill to go in front of good goalkeeping”.

Speaking of goalkeeping, the Cats roll out a pair of experienced net-minders in senior Reid Ellington (2-0-0, 1.92 GAA, .931 save %) and sophomore Jared Coreau (1-1, 2.53 GAA & .909 save %.) Both faced Michigan last season in the Wolverines CCHA regular season title clinching sweep in Marquette and both rotate with Ellington on Friday and Coreau in net on Saturday. The biggest difference from last season, according to Kyle, is that the Cats have gotten back to fundamentals in making opponents work hard for their offensive zone opportunities and have gotten breaks along the way. “We’re just better and the freshmen have blended in nicely” Kyle added. Although both of the WCHA teams are a bit down this season, they gave Kyle a good measuring stick of what he has to work with. SCSU is a good team, Kyle went on to say, and spoke to the preparation they gave NMU for Michigan in that the Wolverines will bring speed, offense and senior goal-tending to the BEC. “SCSU has many of the same attributes, potent offense and good goal-tending.” The one area that the Wildcats stand out for improvement is their discipline, as they have taken 25 total penalties (T-17th worst in the country) in their first four games, with 20 of them on the road in Madison. Luckily their penalty kill has been effective, only yielding 2 goals out of the 22 PP chances for their opponents, ranking them 8th in the country. Overall, their offense isn’t too bad (3.25 GF/T-19th) and their defense has been above the notch (2.25 GA T-14th.) It’s hard to tell if their PP can sustain this clip, but at 3/14 chances, .214 is acceptable (20th overall.) The Cats are no pushovers and will stay close to the young Wolverines, especially on their home ice.

Charting The Wolverines:

Michigan heads out onto the road for their first trip this season wearing the heaviest crown a young team can wear: the #1 team in the country, at least according to the pundits at USCHO. I would say with great confidence that this team has the makings for being very good, but are not top five worthy in the country. Berenson was very clear that this team hasn’t been challenged on the road nor have they played anyone in the CCHA, either, so such proclamations must be taken with “an extreme grain of salt” as he put it.

This is a perfect recipe for finding out what they truly have with a tough pair of games in a rather unruly and difficult environment. Last Thursday’s game was a bit of an anomaly, especially since this addition of the Wolverines are suppose to struggle in the offensive zone. (A rather tart twitter from goaltender Shawn Hunwick last week suggested that the team is rather thorny about the pre-season concerns.) Well boys, here is you opportunity to prove us all wrong- #1 ranking, difficult road quest, Olympic style ice… time to put up and show us what you have.

The first place to start would be with their strength which must be their goaltending. Shawn Hunwick is 3-0-0 with a 1.04 GAA and a .944 save% so far this season. On top of that, he has a 4-0-0 record against the Cats lifetime, with a 1.36 GAA and a .95 save%. I don’t doubt that he can fulfill his end of the bargain. He’s been lights out this season and has kept Michigan in close games against below average opponents until they have been able to pull away late in at least two of the games.

Senior leadership emerged with a bang last week with Luke Glendening easily potting three goals on an over-matched Saints team. I doubt that NMU will give up easy goals to Michigan, and that Glendening (2-1-3 lifetime against NMU) will have to be a bit more physical around the net. The guys to watch though will be fellow senior David Wohlberg (2-4-6 this season, 2-1-3 lifetime against NMU) and junior AJ Treais (3-3-6 this season.) Both of these upperclassmen have been consistent in leading the offensive charge in each game with Treais being a star in at least three of the four Michigan victories. Lindsay Sparks (3-2-5) will also be in the spotlight for the Wolverines as his season has gotten off to a bang offensively. The big ice at NMU should enhance his speed and energy. On the defensive end, Lee Moffie has so far shown why he is an offensive threat, posting a 1-4-5 line this season. Mac Bennett chipped in with three assists last week, a career high in one game and stands at 0-4-4. Senior Greg Pateryn has quietly netted 2-2-4 for the season. On the freshmen front, Phil DeGiuseppe has surprised every one with his 3-2-5 effort so far, including 1-1-2 against St. Lawrence. Travis Lynch has also been a pleasant addition making his presence known on most shifts and gaining high praise from Berenson when he mentioned that Lynch reminded him of a young Bobby Hayes (for those of you that remember the edgy two time national champion forward from ‘95-‘98.)

The bus does have a few passengers, though, that do need to get their collective acts in gear. Senior Kevin Lynch has been hampered by a chronic back problem, but saw action last week- and promptly took two ill advised penalties within minutes of each other, with one costing Michigan a PPG. Lynch also has not shown up on the scorecard which has not hurt so far- but will be required when the competition gets tighter in the next few weeks. The other is junior Chris Brown, who, although has contributed 2-2-4 this season, has also taken a team leading eight minutes in penalties- with some being on the unnecessary side. Both of these players need to use their size and offensive talents to their benefit and stay out of the box.

Expectation:

The Wolverines cannot expect an easy road trip this weekend, but have the makings of a very good first half of the season. They currently sit 2nd in the NCAA in scoring (6 GPG ave.) and 2nd in goals allowed at 1.25 per game. The PP is a robust 23.5% conversion (T-13th) and their PK is an improvable 84.2% (23rd overall.) Once again, this trip will be their first trip with this large class of freshmen- with three on defense- Chaisson, Szuma and Serville making their initial trip to an Olympic size rink. It is an extreme adjustment to normal defensive spacing and poses a danger especially in the second period when changes become treacherous due to the distance to the bench. This will also be an opportunity of sorts for the new leaders on this team to really show their offensive wares. This team can fly and this may the perfect venue to prove it.

It would also be nice to lift some pressure off of some other freshmen- namely Zach Hyman who appears to be pressing. He has yet to pot his first collegiate goal- and this would be a great setting to do it. The other would be Alex Guptill who reminds the writer of a young Jason Ryznar (former U-M player from the early 2000’s-big, strong forward with a nose for the net) but has played well but has missed more opportunities than he has converted. Overall, the #1 ranking is too lofty to maintain with a team that has hidden its flaws with an early menu of cupcakes and home cooked offensive fireworks. This will be a barometer test that I feel the team will embrace, but… not complete in full.

Friday: Michigan 3-2. Saturday: NMU 4-3

Yost Bits:

-Michigan gains the top spot in the USCHO poll for the first time since 2008 when they entered the Frozen Four atop the polls. All five teams ahead of Michigan lost which opened the door for the Wolverines: Boston College (to Denver), Denver (to Boston University), North Dakota (two weeks earlier against BC, and then a tie at home against Maine), Miami (to Colgate) and Notre Dame (to Ohio State.)

-The Wolverines are 4-0 in their last four meetings against the Wildcats and are 6-2-2 in their last ten. Conversely, NMU is 1-9-0 in their last ten home meetings against Michigan and are 6-12-3 overall in Marquette. Both teams will meet again at Yost arena for a pair of games in February, 2012.

-NMU will move on to the re-vamped WCHA in two seasons and Michigan will not venture up to Marquette again in CCHA play after this trip. This may also be Red Berenson’s final trip to NMU.

-Michigan has outscored their opponents 24-5 so far this season and look to move to 5-0 for the first time since 1996-97 when that juggernaut Frozen Four team started the season 6-0.

-Speaking of the mid-90’s: many of you may not remember the dynamic offensive teams that Michigan had in the mid-90’s that barnstormed through the CCHA and met bitter disappointment at the hands of LSSU and Maine in the NCAA tournament. These teams finally broke through in 1996 and 1998 with national championships. Well, Cottage Inn use to run a promotion where all fans at Yost that witnessed Michigan score 10 goals against their opponent would receive a coupon for free pizza. The campaign basically broke the chain until they pulled the promotion after 1998. Last week’s 10-3 win was only the 2nd time Michigan reached that plateau at home since a 10-1 CCHA round 2 tourney win over UNO in 2008. Time to bring the pizza back!!

Yostmeister’s Three Stars from last Thursday:

1. Michigan – Luke Glendening – 3G on a night where his work around the net was rewarded not so much for the beauty but the importance of the goals.
2. Michigan – David Wohlberg – 1G and 2A on a night where just about everyone got on the scoreboard.
3. Michigan – AJ Treais – scored an NHL quality goal and has been one of the most dangerous and consistent forwards this season.

Become a GBMWolverine member and talk hockey in the forum. Stay tuned to the forum for the latest Michigan Hockey news… Go Blue!

Please comment on our GBMWolverine Message Board about this article and read what others comment.

You can contact us at our e-mail address: GBMWolverine

Written by GBMWolverine Staff — YostMeister

Go Blue — Wear Maize!

Home/Michigan Wolverines News