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