GBMWolverine: Michigan Hockey -- Miami (OH) at Michigan -- Charting the Wolverines, Expectation, and Yost Bits -- Preview

Posted at 6:00am — 2/3/2012

GBMWolverine: Michigan Hockey — Miami (OH) at Michigan — Charting the Wolverines, Expectation, and Yost Bits — Preview

Charting The Wolverines:
I discussed Michigan’s off week exercises earlier this week and mentioned that David Wohlberg was injured at practice. The news is still mixed coming out of Yost. He is skating with the team, but is still questionable this weekend. It doesn’t sound as if Coach Berenson is confident that Wohlberg will not re-injure himself further against the Red Hawks.

AJ Treais and Jeff Rohrkemper have been practicing on the #1 line in Wohlberg’s spot. This will be a huge blow to the chemistry of the top unit- which parlayed my call for the rest of the team to kick it into offensive action. These are critical points against a team that holds a distinct psychological edge on Michigan right now. Two wins of any type, sans shootout wins, would lift a huge burden off of this team. As Derek DeBlois mentioned on the Red Berenson show on Tuesday, “we don’t care for that program (from Miami) too much.”

One of the areas of focus I want to include this week is the defense. Since Jon Merrill’s return, the blue liners have been terrific. Greg Pateryn and Lee Moffie have continued to contribute on the offensive ledger (Moffie leads the team with 17 assists and a +18) and Pateryn was key in assisting on the two PPG’s that Guptill scored at Notre Dame. Merrill is a +4 with 4A and is out for most special team situations. Mac Bennett (3-13-16) has grown nicely into the role that reminded me of Chad Langlais. Not real physical, but a real strong skater and a smooth transition player. His confidence has grown leaps and bounds from last season. Mike Chiasson (1-8-9, +13) and Brennan Serville have experienced some rough spots, rotating in and out of the lineup- but their play has been steady and improving. Kevin Clare has shown signs of real growth, but has been a bit inconsistent since his strong showing at the GLI.

The goal-tending has been particularly strong during the string of games since the Alaska trip. Shawn Hunwick has overcome the continued bumping and after whistle scrumming to post huge numbers. He is a legitimate Hobey Baker candidate and the team will go as far as he can take them. He is determined to make a point of that this weekend. He is 15-8-3 with a 2.17 GAA and a .928 save %. He is third in the conference (statistically) and 12th in the country.

Michigan’s offense in Oxford was led by Phil DiGiuseppe (1G, 1A), AJ Treais (2A), Lee Moffie (2A) and Mike Chiasson (2A). Similar production from the backend and from the other lines, especially in lieu of Wohlberg’s status, will be required this weekend.

Expectation:
The Wolverines need to keep their defensive focus, but not at the abandonment of their offense. Miami offers an imposing obstacle and there will be little room on the ice to free wheel. It will be, as Coach Berenson likes to say, “a real man’s game out there”. Michigan will have to match Miami’s intensity, physical play and yet will have to stay disciplined. The Wolverines do not match up well and can be intimidated- I have seen it against similar teams this season. Puck possession, clean breakouts and lunch bucket “dirty goals” will need to be scored this weekend. Miami is very good at pushing opponents away from the net and preventing shots from getting through. The defense will need to jump in to create. If the Notre Dame series was a preview of a tight physical series, this will be war. Whoever wins the special teams battle will take the weekend. Michigan has much to prove to this nemesis and I think they will.

Friday: 2-1 Michigan. Saturday: 3-2 Michigan in OT.

Yost Bits:
-Yost fans NOTE: Anyone that uses Crisler arena parking is advised to take Main Street to Stadium Blvd. to access parking lots due to construction. Stadium Blvd. will be closed east of Crisler Arena until November, 2012.

-Alex Guptill (CCHA Rookie Player of the month, 5-5-10) and Shawn Hunwick (CCHA Goaltender of the month, 4-1, 1.08 GAA, .971 save %) received honors again this week for their outstanding January. That is four weeks in a row that Michigan has captured CCHA honors.

-Michigan enters play 8th in the Pairwise rankings (meaning they would be the lowest 2nd seed in the NCAA tourney). They are also 10-8-4 against Teams Under Consideration (TUC) this season- an element in how the PWR is composed. Six CCHA teams are in position for the NCAA tourney with several others on the bubble.

– AJ Treais has the most points (2-3-5) of any active Wolverine versus the Redhawks. Wohlberg (3-1-4), Luke Glendening (2-2-4), Kevin Lynch (2-1-3), Chris Brown (2-1-3) and Lee Moffie (1-2-3) follow.
– Miami has the distinction of having lost three of four overtime games this season, while splitting two shootouts after being forced to ties. They defeated Michigan and lost to BG in shootouts.

-Michigan travels next weekend to East Lansing to play MSU on Friday. Both teams will play their annual neutral site game at JLA in Detroit on Saturday.

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