8 — Tuesday, December 10, 2019
Sports
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

The good, the bad and the ugly: Michigan hockey at the halfway point

One game past the halfway 
point of this season, it’s no 
secret that the Michigan hockey 
team’s year hasn’t gone to plan. 
At 6-10-2 overall and 2-7-1 in 
the Big Ten, the Wolverines 
are nowhere close to what 
they expected of themselves 
entering the season.
In the first half, Michigan 
suffered 
through 
a 
seven-
game winless streak and only 
swept its opponent once — Oct. 
18-19 over Lake Superior State, 
which currently sits at 5-14-
1. The Wolverines were swept 
on the road at Ohio State and 
in a home-and-home against 
Michigan State.
In 
short, 
it 
hasn’t 
been 
pretty. The Daily breaks down 
the good, the bad and the ugly 
halfway through the year:
The good
Sophomore 
goaltender 
Strauss Mann has been a clear 
bright spot for the Wolverines. 
A year after Michigan finished 
59th of 60 teams in save 
percentage at .887, Mann is 
12th in the nation with a save 
percentage of .931 and allows 
just 2.06 goals per game, good 
for 14th out of 71 goaltenders.
Michigan has given up the 
seventh-most 
shot 
attempts 
in the country this year, so 
the Wolverines have had to 
rely on Mann as a backstop — 
sometimes much more than 
Michigan coach Mel Pearson 
would like.
Regardless, 
Mann’s 
performance 
has 
been 
impressive and sorely needed 
after the debacle that was 
Michigan’s 
goaltending 
last 
season.
“I 
love 
the 
guy,” 
said 
freshman 
defenseman 
Cam 
York on Friday. “Nothing seems 
to faze him. He just stands on 
his head every game. We need 
him badly. When he plays really 
well, he gives us a chance to win 
every game.”

In 
front 
of 
Mann, 
the 
Wolverines have been sound 
defensively. They give up 2.17 
goals per game on average, good 
for 11th in the nation.
Last 
weekend, 
Michigan 
allowed just two goals at even 
strength — and just four total 
in the series — to Penn State, 
which has the highest-powered 
offense in the country at 4.29 
goals per game. Despite giving 
up quite a few shot attempts, 
the Wolverines and Mann have 
kept things together on the 
back end and not given up many 
goals.
Michigan has given up more 
than three goals in a game just 
twice on the year and has shut 
out its opponents twice.
“I like this team,” Pearson 
said Saturday after a series split 
against Penn State. “I like our 
goaltending. I like our team 
defense against maybe the best 
offensive team in the country.”
The bad
The Wolverines scored a 
power-play goal in the first 
period at Ohio State on Nov. 1. 
Three weeks later, Michigan 
scored a power-play goal at New 
Hampshire. In between those 
two tallies, the Wolverines went 
0-for-12 with a man advantage.
As it turns out, Michigan’s 
3-of-5 
performance 
on 
the 
power play in its exhibition 
game Oct. 6 was a bit of an 
outlier. 
Things 
have 
been 
looking a bit better of late, but 
the Wolverines’ power play is 
still 42nd in the country at just 
16.2 percent.
Pearson and associate head 
coach Bill Muckalt, who runs 
the power play, have made 
repeated changes to both units 
because of injuries and a desire 
to switch up what isn’t working, 
and the result of that has been 
two power-play units that are 
still struggling to find a rhythm.
Last year, the Wolverines 
finished 44th in the nation at 
15.6 percent, and that was part 
of why Pearson had Muckalt 
take over the power-play duties 

this season. But so far, things 
haven’t improved all that much.
The ugly
You knew this was coming. 
The ugliest part of this team is, 
without question, the offense.
The 
Wolverines 
average 
2.17 goals per game, 49th in 
the country. Of the teams 
that have scored fewer goals 
than Michigan’s 39, none have 
played as many games as the 
Wolverines 
have. 
Michigan 
scores on 6.7 percent of its shots 
— third-to-last in the nation.
Freshman forward Johnny 
Beecher leads the team with 
nine points from a team-best 
five goals and four assists. York 
is tied for second with senior 
forward Jake Slaker at eight 
points, and then three skaters 

have six points apiece and four 
have six.
In contrast, Penn State’s 
top producers have 23, 21 and 
20 points, respectively. A lack 
of offensive output is clearly 
hindering this team, and it’s 
hard to pinpoint exactly what’s 
causing it.
Michigan is fourth in the 
country in shots on net with 
584 and ranks third in total shot 
attempts with 1,078. Its Corsi-
for percentage — a measure 
of how many shot attempts 
a team generates compared 
to the number it allows — is 
51.2 percent, which is just 
above average and means the 
Wolverines generally outshoot 
their opponents.
Pearson 
and 
his 
players 

have frequently commented on 
Michigan not getting bounces 
this season, and at times, it’s 
sounded like an excuse for a 
team that can’t score. But with 
such a high shot total and such a 
low shooting percentage, there 
may be some truth to it.
College Hockey News tracks 
Corsi-for 
percentage 
and 
Twitter user Recovering Ops 
publishes a chart comparing 
Corsi-for 
percentage 
and 
PDO — which is essentially a 
measure of luck — each week. 
To calculate PDO, a team’s 
shooting percentage is added 
to its save percentage. Average 
is considered to be 100 percent, 
and Michigan is just below that 
mark right now while being 
above 
average 
in 
Corsi-for 

percentage.
The numbers suggest the 
Wolverines have been a little 
bit unlucky, but probably not 
unlucky enough to account 
for 
their 
anemic 
offensive 
numbers. And Michigan has 
also battled the injury bug 
this year, with Beecher, York, 
Slaker and senior forward Will 
Lockwood all missing multiple 
games.
But this team is pretty deep 
at forward, and at the beginning 
of the year, Pearson expressed 
excitement about the offense. 
Senior forward Nick Pastujov 
said Michigan was going to be 
able to score at a high rate with 
all four lines.
That clearly hasn’t happened. 
Instead, it’s been far, far uglier.

BAILEY JOHNSON
Daily Sports Writer

ALEC COHEN/Daily
The Michigan hockey team sits at a disappointing 6-10-2 overall and 2-7-1 in the Big Ten halfway through its season after splitting a series with Penn State.

DESIGN BY ALEC COHEN

