Although Quinnipiax is going to have a pretty rough season, a win is a win for the Titans, and today they picked one up on the road against a hotbed team. That’s progress.
Tempo Free
From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:
| Quinnipiac 2012 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Detroit | Quinnipiac | ||
| Faceoff Wins | 10 | Faceoff Wins | 17 |
| Clearing | 14-16 | Clearing | 15-17 |
| Possessions | 28 | Possessions | 36 |
| Goals | 13 | Goals | 10 |
| Offensive Efficiency | .464 | Offensive Efficiency | .278 |
I was expecting a pretty quick game, so it’s a surprise to see so few possessions. I figured with Detroit’s takeaway style, they’d force enough turnovers to build up possessions, I also thought they’d cash in easily on the other end.
The latter happened, the former did not, at least in terms of making it an end-to-end game. Detroit ripped up the nets efficiently, and while Quinnipiac actually didn’t have a poor day on offense, that wasn’t enough to overcome an awful day on D.
Notes
Damie Danseglio got the start and went the distance for the Titans, thanks to A.J. Levell and Chris Kelly both being unavailable due to injury/sickness. In his first extensive collegiate action (he played four minutes against Mercer), Danseglio made seven saves while allowing ten goals.
The star of the day, however, was Joel Matthews. The Tewaaraton watchlist member put up seven points on three goals and four assists, proving that he belongs in consideration (though, coming from a low-profile team, he likely won’t be) to win the award.
Since the Titans had an offensive explosion, a few other players had good days offensively. Alex Maini had two goals and two assists, and Scott Harris put up a hat trick. Shayne Adams had two goals and Scott Drummond had one and one.
On defense, LSM Jordan Houtby and close D Jason McDonald had excellent days – including a little offensive output for each. Houtby led the way with four caused turnovers and 6 GBs, and assisted on one of Shayne Adams’s goals. McDonald caused three turnovers, picked up one GB, and scored a goal on his only shot.
Two Bobcats had good offensive days – and they probably would have been happier about it in a win. Michael Sagl had four goals and two assists, while Basil Kostaras had a goal and three assists.
As expected (forever and ever), Detroit struggled on faceoffs. They won just .370. It will be interesting to see if that liability comes back to harm them in conference play, because it certainly has at times during the non-conference schedule.
Elsewhere
Official site recap from Detroit. Official Boxscore. Official site recap from Quinnipiac. Photo gallery.
Up Next
The Titans keep up the road warrior routine, staying away from Titan Field to take on Canisius on the road in the MAAC opener. Last season, UDM beat the Golden Griffins 10-9 in overtime at home.
This time around, the game is in Buffalo, and the Titans will look to get the conference started off right, in hopes of advancing to the program’s first NCAA Tournament. Canisius has started the year 1-1 with the win coming yesterday against winless Albany.
For the Tulley haters…
This point last year the Titans were 1-6 with 54 goals for.
This year they are 3-4 with 69 goals for.
Without injecting myself into the “Tully sucks!” “no he doesn’t!” debate, I think it’s fair to expect much, much more from this year’s offense than from last year’s.
It added a Tewaaraton watchlist member (I’m too lazy to look it up, but I think it’s a fair assumption that he’s UDM’s first ever), and a ton more experience, while losing practically nobody from last year. Not relying on a freshman to carry the team – as Adams did most of last year – is a huge improvement in itself.
It was the fact the offense looked out of sync.
They rarely used tullys offense during the first half of the quinnipac game
I think losing Coach Karweck really hurt this team.
I think you’re right. Karweck was a great coach and a good friend. I think having these guys play with the same OC for a 2nd year while adding in Joel, Birney, Drummond and a few others they would be even more dynamic.
That being said, I think they are still starting to click a the right time rolling into league play.
I think Coach Karweck’s loss goes well beyond how the offense performs. I believe he was a great motivator and had the respect of the entire team. I don’t think that void has been filled.
They lost one really important coach to the program early during this season also.
Amen,
Losing the S&C coach Nick Wilson was a blow to the program. He was one of the best in the game and a lot of these guys really looked up to him. The timing was absolutely terrible too.
Titans went on the road this weekend and hung 17 on Canisius after splitting a pair of 1 goal games with them the last 2 years. They were down 11-10 with about 3 min to go in the 3rd before they blew the game open. Team win too. After they were down one Lehto started the scoring to go on a run that put them up 16-11 and put the game away. Goals in that run from Adams (2), Maini, Harris and Matthews showed that this team is not just going to have to rely on Joel to carry them through league play.
Add in that they had 17 CTs on the day, Davenport goes 14-26 on faceoffs, they get ANOTHER goal out of senior defenseman Jason McDonald and Joel Matthews has a dominant 7 goal 3 assist performance and that’s a hell of a win.
1-0 in the conference and just as good of news, Manhattan upset Mercer last week. Finally they get back to campus and host their first true home game this Saturday is awesome. Should be a great day.
How is Manhattan vs. Mercer relevant (just curious)? I’d assume UDM would expect to be better than Manhattan. Mercer did get their first D1 win over Wagner, so congrats to them.
I think the real competition is Marist, Sienna and Jacksonville. Jacksonville isn’t consistent, but can be dangerous. Sienna looks beatable, but should still be tough. Marist beat Stoneybrook and Sacred Heart, so should also be tough.
You’re right Jason. At this point in Detroit’s development Manhattan and Mercer should be irrelevant to what they are doing. This weekend against Marist is HUGE. I’m looking forward to a two game day. Marist at UDM at noon, then MSM at UM at 3. Two D1 games in one day! Who needs to live in Baltimore? Not sure I ever expected to be able to do that here.
The rest of the season sets up really well for the Titans with every tough MAAC game at home and weaker Manhattan and VMI on the road. They even get a pretty good Bellarmine team at home. If the key guys stay healthy I don’t see an obvious loss the rest of the way. Would love to see an 8 game win streak heading into the MAAC tourney.
You’re right. Total brain fart. Mixed up Marist and Mercer when I did a quick look at the standings.
That’s not an upset.