GBMWolverine: Michigan Hockey -- Michigan vs. Michigan State -- Preview -- Part I

Posted at 6:00am — 2/9/2012

GBMWolverine: Michigan Hockey — Michigan vs. Michigan State — Preview — Part I

#4 Michigan Squares Off Against #17 Spartans With Playoff Implications
#4 Michigan (17-9-4, 11-7-4-1 3rd CCHA) vs. #17 MSU (15-12-2, 10-9-3-2 t7th CCHA)
7:35 p.m. Friday 2/10 Munn Ice Arena, East Lansing & Sat. 2/11 Joe Louis Arena, Detroit
TV: Friday-BTN (DirecTV Channel 610); Saturday-FSD (DirecTV Channel 663).

The Wolverines returned home from their four game road trip and swept the Miami Red Hawks, 4-1 and 3-0 last weekend in a penalty filled set of games. MSU traveled to Columbus and swept the Buckeyes 6-3 and 4-3 to create an even tighter logjam in the CCHA. Michigan moved into sole possession of third place, one point behind WMU and three points behind Ferris State. The Spartans are tied with LSSU and trail a trio of teams (OSU, Miami and Notre Dame) by one point. Three points separate them from the Wolverines. Six points separate first place from eighth place. The Wolverines are 2-0-1 against MSU this season and have not lost to the Spartans since 1/29/11 at JLA. MSU is 4-4-2 in their last ten games, 2-2-2 at Munn arena in their last six. They are 8-3-4 overall at home this season. Michigan is 3-4-3 this season on opponent’s home ice and has a 2-0 record at JLA this season.

Rewinding Michigan’s Previous Action:
Michigan played perhaps their finest hockey of the season in dispatching Miami. Friday’s game started off with a Chris Brown tally just two minutes into the contest to start the Wolverines on a three goal first period barrage. AJ Treais scored twice, including a PP marker to stake Michigan to the 3-0 lead. Both teams traded goals in the second period, with Miami’s Reilly Smith surprising Hunwick with a fluttering shot. Luke Moffatt re-gained the three goal margin with a nice deflection of a Jon Merril point shot also on the PP for a 4-1 margin after two periods. There was no scoring in the third period, but plenty of action, as both teams wore a path to the penalty box. Shawn Hunwick stood tall, knocking away 24 shots. Miami was 0-6 on the PP and Michigan 2-5. A total of 35 minutes in penalties were called including a five minute charging major assessed to Miami’s Blake Coleman for drilling Hunwick with just seconds remaining.

The emotions boiled over into the second game especially after Coach Berenson made some biting remarks regarding how the officiating is not protecting his goaltender enough. Maybe in a bit of retaliation, the stripes assessed Michigan with four first period penalties to go along with two additional offsetting calls. The penalty kill unit turned the tables though and scored the game’s first goal. Lee Moffie took a beautiful feed and beat Miami’s Connor Knapp for a 1-0 lead. Moffie followed that with his second goal of the game in the second stanza to build the lead to 2-0 after two periods. Controversy stopped play midway through the final period when Miami got a lucky break during a Michigan PP and took advantage of a Jon Merrill broken stick. The Miami forward raced in on Hunwick who made the save, but the puck trickled out of his pads and dangerously close to the goal line. Lee Moffie was there to sweep the puck away prior to it completely crossing the line.

Video replay upheld the call on the ice, much to Miami Coach Enrico Blasi’s displeasure. The officials took a second look at the play based on video played on the jumbotron, but again the call was ‘no goal’. Moments later Chris Brown sealed the game with a highlight reel goal started in his own end. He accepted a pass at the blue line, drove through center ice and deked the Miami defender, Will Weber right. Brown them slid the puck through Weber’s legs and cut left, went in on Knapp and beat him high to the glove side. The building exploded and Brown jubilantly celebrated “Tebow style”.

The Red Hawks were visibly frustrated and began taking penalties. Inside of the final three minutes, two contact to the head five minute majors were issued to both teams (Spinell for Miami, Pateryn for Michigan) on hits that were borderline at best. That was followed by a vicious charging call on Smith to set up the final minute, 4×3. A face-off took place in the Miami end and a weak Merrill shot was stopped. Alex Guptill, who was held to one assist all weekend, poked at Knapp’s pads causing a reaction from all three Miami players who pinned him into the corner (and Guptill deftly speared one of them.) Brown raced in to come to the aid of his line-mate and immediately began wrestling with Weber. Both players attempted to throw punches (Weber actually landed one after being separated) and both were given fighting majors and game disqualifications, meaning both would miss their team’s next game. Michigan swept the series, dominated a hated nemesis but lost Chris Brown for Friday’s game in East Lansing.

Also lost in this was Hunwick’s fine performance, stopping all 29 shots including many during Miami’s six PP’s. He was the #1 star of the weekend. Michigan was assessed 52 minutes in penalties and Miami 46. After the game Berenson flatly commented that he would not discuss the officiating, but did in fact talk about it indirectly. He was clearly angry that his players were drawn into the scrums and commented that “if you want to fight, go in the parking lot after the game.” He thought Blasi could have done a better job containing his players (although later he mentioned that Blasi indeed sat out Coleman for Saturday in an attempt to rein in emotion.) Both teams could have used better discretion, but the real problem lies in the manner in which CCHA officials are allowing games to get out of hand and then over-correcting the actions by the players. It is inconclusive if either Brown or Weber deserved their DQ’s, but that is what happens when incompetence and inconsistent officiating are the rule and not the exception. Berenson referenced the fact that Miami knew they were playing with house money since their players could be suspended for a non-conference weekend meeting next weekend- where Michigan had MSU in an important two game set.

One other interesting tidbit: Blasi’s antics on national television Saturday (during the video replay) was only bested by his trashing of the visitors locker room on Friday- allegedly tossing chairs and clearing out the security staff by his tirade. Yost arena hasn’t been too kind to Blasi- 3-13 now in his appearances in Ann Arbor. I doubt that he or Berenson will be sending Valentines wishes to each other next week, nor, in the future, going out of their way to set up non-conference games when Michigan goes to the B1G Ten and Miami to the NCHC.

Scouting the Spartans:
Michigan State has been stuck in neutral since the last meeting with Michigan in the GLI Championship game. They went 2-2-2 during a six game home stand to start the second half, being swept by Miami and tying and defeating NMU and LSSU. The Spartans then ventured to Ferris State and were swept again before rebounding against the Buckeyes last weekend in Columbus. Sophomore forward Lee Reimer (8-19-27) is the leading points maker for MSU. Captain Torey Krug (8-16-24) is probably the only offensive threat from the blue-line. Senior Mike Merrifield leads the Green & White in goals (11-5-16). Brett Perlini has chipped in 7-7-14. One separate storyline is the return of defense-man (senior) A.J. Sturges to the lineup. Sturges was the player attacked by members of his football team while attending a party. He was severely beaten and suffered what was thought to be a career ending concussion and other injuries. He scored his first goal of the season last week and has given the Spartans an emotional boost.

The goal-tending duties are still being manned by senior Drew Palmisano (5-6-3, 2.77 GAA, .914 save %) and sophomore Will Yanakeff (10-5-1, 2.37 GAA and .927 save %.) Palmisano tied the Wolverines last time the teams played at Munn, and won the shootout, 1-0. Look for both goaltenders this weekend.

Tale of the Tape:

Michigan is 10-2-2 in their last fourteen games and has greatly improved defensively since the return of Jon Merrill. They are basically cutting their goals against in half since his return and the stellar play of Hunwick. The Wolverines have advanced to 8th in scoring (3.40 GPG) where the Spartans are a decent 15th at 3.13 GPG. Considering Michigan is on the road and at JLA, I’d say that there is a slight advantage for MSU on Friday and neither has an advantage on Saturday.

Michigan’s strength is their 5th best defense (2.23) compared to MSU’s 22nd best (2.63). That margin is razor thin, though, on the road so Michigan will have to simplify their game. Michigan has won three of their past four road games mostly on the strength of their team defense. Advantage: Wolverines.

MSU has a clear advantage on penalty kill units with a 2nd best 89.1% conversion. Michigan’s unit has vastly improved, only allowing two PPG’s in their past five games. They have jumped from 26th last week to 15th nationally this week on the strength of a perfect 12/12 PK last weekend. The flip-side to that is the PP units on both teams are not strong. MSU is 44th at a 15.9% conversion where Michigan has been much better- five PPG’s in their past four games and a 16.1% conversion (43rd.) I’ll call this a draw and hope that Michigan’s 5×5 play can be the difference in East Lansing even without Brown.

The last category, PIM’s, is a bit deceiving. Michigan took a hit (on average it went up a whole minute) because of the Miami series. They drifted up from 37th to 25th (out of 58 teams) at 13.83 PPG. The Spartans are a more disciplined team, only taking 11.7 minutes per game (t45th). The two teams have played a rather clean three games, but a late PPG helped MSU tie the game in East Lansing last time in. More penalties for Michigan means less time attacking offensively. Let’s hope poise and discipline reign over the urge to take it up a notch against another rival.

Video Highlights:
2-3-12 Michigan vs. Miami Highlights

Ice Hockey: Chris Brown’s goal from Feb. 4, 2012 vs. Miami

Ice Hockey: Post-game reaction from Feb. 3, 2012 vs. Miami

Tomorrow we will discuss Charting the Wolverines, Expectations, and Yost Bits.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff — YostMeister

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