GBMWolverine Hockey Preview: Northeastern & Union Fill Thanksgiving Hockey Schedule

Posted at 12:00pm — 11/25/2011

GBMWolverine Hockey Preview: Northeastern & Union Fill Thanksgiving Hockey Schedule

#11 Michigan (7-5-2, 3-5-2-1 8th CCHA) vs. Northeastern (3-7-2) & #13 Union (6-3-3)
7:35 p.m. Friday 11/25 & 3:05 p.m. Sunday 11/27. Yost Ice Arena, Ann Arbor, Mi.
TV: None.

The Wolverines are reeling after being dumped twice at home by Ohio State last weekend by 3-2, 6-5 scores and are 0-3-1 in their last four. Michigan steps out of conference play in what would have been traditionally (at least since 1993) the holiday weekend match-ups with Minnesota and Wisconsin in the College Hockey Showcase. The Wolverines filled the hole in the schedule with games against HEA’s Northeastern Huskies and the ECAC’s Union Dutchmen. Michigan holds an overall 4-2 mark against Northeastern, but is 1-2 in their last three games: a Yost split in 2006 and a loss in 2004 at the Lefty McFadden tournament in Dayton, Oh. The Wolverines have never faced Union.

Rewinding Michigan’s Previous Action:

Ohio State completed their first sweep at Yost Arena since 1986 last weekend, by taking two one goal games. Friday night saw a back and forth affair that started well for the Wolverines, but ended better for the Bucks. Michigan jumped to a 1-0 lead only to relinquish it to end the first period. OSU took a 2-1 lead in the second, but Michigan scored late to tie it 2-2. The decisive goal came midway through the third period as Ohio State through a puck from the corner into the crease where it deflected through Shawn Hunwick’s legs (apparently off of his stick.) Michigan couldn’t gain the equalizer.

Saturday, Michigan jumped in front again only to see the Bucks roar back and take a 2-1 lead. Michigan tied the game at 2-2 until the tide turned on a five minute major on Chris Brown. OSU scored twice on the PP to take a 4-2 lead. The teams traded goals from that point on, including a late SHG by Michigan to narrow the gap to 6-5. Once again, Michigan couldn’t tie the game late and has now put them into a very precarious position in the conference. Penalties and lack of defensive coverage were the biggest culprits, something that Ohio State forced with their pressure style of play. The Wolverines will try to regain some momentum this weekend before traveling to Alaska for two games next weekend.

Scouting the Huskies & Dutchmen:
Northeastern (an inner city Boston institution) has played a rugged schedule out of the gate, all of which have been conference games. The Huskies have battled six ranked HEA opponents and are 1-5-1 in those games with the lone win coming against New Hampshire. They have forced two overtime games (both losses) against BC and #1 ranked Merrimack and will no doubt play their usual physical, tight checking style against the Wolverines.

The Huskies come into Yost arena winning their last two games at Providence and at home against Vermont. Northeastern has played five of their past seven on the road and will take on Notre Dame in South Bend next weekend, ending a brutal stretch that saw the Huskies play ten of their first fifteen games on the road.

Northeastern is no stranger to CCHA teams, having played them to a 19-19-5 overall record. They have played all eleven teams in conference except for Ohio State. The Huskies are led by Stockholm Sweden native (freshman) Ludwig Karlsson (6-4-10). Four juniors play prominent roles otherwise: Justin Daniels (5-4-9), Steve Quailer (3-5-8) and set-up man Vinny Saponari (1-8-9). The nets are manned by Chris Rawlings (3-6-2, 2.59 GAA, .927 save %.) Sophomore Clay Witt backs Rawlings and is 0-1, with a 3.59 GAA and a .911 save %. The roster is young with only one graduating senior and also features two Michigan natives.

The Huskies will not overpower opponents, but systematically press a strong forecheck in order to create offensive chances. Their statistics are not impressive- 2.58 GPG (35th), 2.92 GA (36th), yet it is obvious that they would rather be defensively cautious than play an up and down game against better teams. The one area that has hurt the Huskies is in their special teams, where they convert on 8% of their PP chances (53rd) and only kill 77.4% of their penalties (46th.) Coincidently, they take an average of 16 minutes in penalties per game (13th worse in the country.) When they do manage to stay on the ice, they are a tough team to create offense against and typically get stronger as the game progresses.

Union College (1795) is a small school located in the upstate New York town of Schenectady. Once the laughing stock of division I college hockey, the Dutchmen have emerged in the last couple of seasons as a one of the up and coming programs in the country. Last season saw Union battle perennial ECAC favorite Yale and Cornell for the league title and their first ever NCAA tournament berth. One of the handicaps the 2011-12 team is facing is rebuilding from losing a good deal of their experienced talent from last season. The Dutchmen have not had the most daunting schedule to date playing the likes of Army, Niagara, RIT and American International as part of their non-conference schedule. The most difficult opponents they have faced outside of conference play have been the CCHA’s WMU team which battled to two ties on Union ice. They also traveled to UNH and dropped an overtime decision to the Wildcats. The Michigan game by far will be Union’s most taxing challenge to date. They have also played five conference games and hold a 3-2 mark against St. Lawrence, Brown, Yale, Clarkson and RPI. The Dutchmen are coming off of home losses to Brown and Yale and defeated RPI on the road on 11/15. The roster is young, with fifteen of the twenty-six team members being underclassmen, including nine freshmen.

Union relies on senior Kelly Zajac (3-13-16) to lead their offense. Junior Wayne Simpson (6-4-10) and sophomore Daniel Carr (5-5-10) also are scoring threats on the top line. Juniors Jeremy Walsh (7-2-9) and Kyle Bodie (2-7-9) offer secondary scoring potential. The blue line is led by sophomore Mat Bodie (2-10-12). Goaltending duties are handled by a pair of underclassmen: sophomore Troy Grosenick (5-2-2, 1.62 GAA and .935 save %.) and freshman Colin Stevens (1-1-1, 1.98 GAA and .920 save %.) The Dutchmen don’t take many penalties and are fairly strong on special teams, holding a 26% PP conversion (5th) and an 87% penalty kill. More importantly, they outscore their opponents 3.17-1.75 per game, but over a quarter of that is due to their PP. They may be young, but play a very strong defensive game with the capability of pushing offense when they can. The biggest factor is that they have not really faced a high powered talent away from their home ice yet-but they are 12-1-1 in their last 14 road games. Still, they will be an interesting team to watch against Michigan even if their one marquee game this season was a 4-0 loss to Yale and the aforementioned ties against WMU.

Charting The Wolverines:
The Wolverines continue to hamper themselves and are looking to put together sixty minutes of sound hockey. They continue to turn the puck over at key times and yield untimely goals- to go with a streaky offense and special teams. Another factor is the lack of discipline that has crept into their game- and the lack of overall urgency and intensity which is uncharacteristic for a Berenson led team. I predicted at the beginning of the season that there would be bumps in the road especially against equally talented teams- and it has fermented the last five or six games. There is no easy break this weekend, either. Both Northeastern and Union face good competition in their leagues and are capable of biting Michigan. The Wolverines cannot be complacent against either team- and I doubt that the scoreboard will allow that to occur anyway. These are important games also from the standpoint of correcting mistakes and, from a macro perspective, impacting the Wolverines PWR in the race to secure an NCAA tournament berth.

AJ Treais (6-7-13) and Lindsay Sparks (5-8-13) are on top of the offensive chart for the Wolverines. Sparks is struggling now after jumping out to his best start in his career. Chris Brown (4-8-12) is contributing points in most every outing, but is costing his team with dumb penalties. Freshman Phil DiGiuseppe has cooled off, but is leading his class at 6-5-11. Lee Moffie leads the blue liners in scoring at 1-10-11. Freshman defender Mike Chiasson (1-8-9) shares the +/- honors at +13 with Treais. Conversely, the goat ears are squarely on junior Kevin Lynch (2-1-3) who has had a perpetual offensive slump his whole career at Michigan. Chances are he is still suffering from a chronic back issue that held him out earlier this season. But, there is no excuse for his defensive fails as he carries a team worst -3 on the ice. His play must improve as does freshman forward Zach Hyman, who is also struggling on both ends of the ice.

Shawn Hunwick probably played his worst series of hockey last weekend since becoming Michigan’s starting goaltender. The Friday night goal was a fluke, but still a positioning error on his part. Frustration simply set in on Saturday as the Bucks capitalized on poor Michigan coverage and special teams. Still Hunwick is the man at 7-4-2 with a 2.10 GAA and a .929 save %. The rebound bugaboo is hurting him big time, though. Many of the easy goals that have been scored on him this year were due to fat rebounds sent out to an uncovered opponent. It’s time Shawn re-focuses his effort and hopefully his team will take the cue.

Expectation:
Northeastern may not match Michigan’s talent or speed, but will be a frustrating team to battle against. If Michigan can rattle the Huskies early and gain a comfortable margin, they should handle them. Settle into an even affair and continue to take ill advised penalties and/or make poor defensive decisions, Northeastern will gladly take them. Michigan can win this game even with out their best effort- like many of the games this season so far. Don’t underestimate the Huskies- they have already demonstrated the ability to shut down some of the best offenses in Hockey East.

Conversely, Union will turn Michigan errors into offense, especially if you put them on the PP. The Dutchmen may try to skate with the Wolverines which are exactly what Michigan wants. Union is better balanced than Northeastern, but has shown the same type of early season tendencies as Michigan: great offensive potential, great margin for error. If Michigan can jump on Union early, they have shown the tendencies to self implode. Otherwise, it could settle into a close nailbiter that could go either way.

Friday: Michigan 3-2. Sunday: Michigan 2-1.

Yost Bits:
-Michigan last played Northeastern at Yost on 10/27-28, 2006. The Friday night affair saw Chad Kolarik potting a game saving goal with five seconds left and Kevin Porter winning it on OT. The next night, Northeastern rode a mid third period tie breaking goal to a 3-2 victory.

-Union and Michigan will meet for the very first time this Sunday. This will be the last ECAC team that Michigan has never played.

-Keep in mind that the Union game is SUNDAY, due to the Michigan-OSU football game on Saturday.

-Yost fans: please be aware that after Sunday’s game that State Street will be closed for two weeks at Stadium Blvd. due to reconstructing the Stadium Blvd. bridge that goes over State. Anyone that uses Crisler arena parking is advised to take Main Street to Stadium Blvd. to access parking lots. This will impact the traffic for the MSU game on 12/9. Stadium Blvd. will be closed east of Crisler Arena until next November.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff — Yostmeister

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