A week after a pretty poor performance against a mediocre-or-worse opponent, Michigan put together one of their best performances of the year against some of the best competition to date. Go figure. They let Harvard go on a run, as Michigan opponents so often do this year, but clawed back to keep it close in the end. Within a year or two, this will be a game that they could steal.
Tempo Free
From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:
| Harvard 2012 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Michigan | Harvard | ||
| Faceoff Wins | 12 | Faceoff Wins | 10 |
| Clearing | 15-19 | Clearing | 15-19 |
| Possessions | 35 | Possessions | 33 |
| Goals | 7 | Goals | 11 |
| Offensive Efficiency | .200 | Offensive Efficiency | .333 |
It’s rare when Michigan outperforms the opponent on faceoffs this year, especially when facing a good specialist at the position. Harvard’s Sean Mahon won six of 12 against Brian Greiner, and a couple other members of the Crimson did a bit worse. Is it replicable or indicative of improvement going forward? Maybe not, but we’ll have to wait and see.
The teams had identical 15/19 days clearing the ball. Against a skilled Ivy League team, that’s something I’ll absolutely take out of this Michigan squad. They’re undermanned compared to the best competition on the schedule, and treading water is more than good enough.
The difference in this game came in the efficiency metrics. The Wolverines committed only 22 turnovers in comparison to Harvard’s 18, and picked up more ground balls than the Crimson, as well. The biggest difference came in shooting and goalkeeping. Harvard launched 40 shots, 24 on goal, and 19 of Michigan’s 32 shots were on the cage.
Notes
Speaking of goalkeeping, it seems like we’re starting to see a pattern emerge (much like Michigan’s ability to score first and then give up a big run to the opponent) of Emil Weiss starting games a little poorly, and then improving as the contest goes on – even when the opposition starts shelling him more. That seems mostly like a product of inexperience, and something that will improve with more time at the D-1 level.
I briefly touched on faceoffs earlier, and mentioned them as a net strong point for Michigan. However, a bad job on draws in the first quarter – when Greiner won one of seven draws – is what initially allowed Harvard to build up their (ultimately insurmountable) lead. Opponents’ first-half runs this season have mostly come when playing “make it, take it,” and without a better performance there, it will continue.
Offensively, Will Meter was a standout with three assists (and only one turnover committed). Michigan’s other multi-point scorers were Trevor Yealy, David McCormack, and Thomas Paras, with two goals apiece.
Turnovers have been a problem for Michigan this season, but not so much in this game. Willie Steenland committed four, while Trevor Yealy and Doug Bryant committed three each. Bryant also scored one goal on eight(!) shots, only two of them on goal.
Defensively, J.D. Johnson and Austin Swaney had pretty good days with eight(!) and four GBs, respectively. Johnson caused one turnover while Swaney caused two, but also committed a penalty which resulted in a Harvard man-up goal.
As mentioned above, Emil Weiss took a little while to feel out the game, but ultimately ended up with a decent performance. His team wasn’t doing him many favors early in the game, what with losing so many faceoffs and allowing 17 Crimson shots in the opening frame, but he settled in and played well.
Harvard’s Jeff Cohen entered the game as one of the nation’s leading scorers, and did not do anything to move down the ranks in this one. He scored seven goals and added an assist on 13 shots. For a team that has been sliding early much of the year, they were sure as hell slow to slide to Cohen in this one.
As mentioned above, this was a very positive performance overall for the Wolverines, especially coming off a couple weaker efforts. Playing to an even 6-6 game after the awful first quarter? This team will take that. The key is leveraging it into improvement over the remainder of the season to build something going into next year.
Elsewhere
Official box score. Michigan site recap. Harvard Crimson recap. Harvard official site recap. Highlights.
Up Next
Michigan returns home to take on an up-and-down Delaware squad on Saturday at 1 p.m inside Michigan Stadium. The Blue Hens are just 3-7, but that includes a blowout win over Detroit and a couple big wins over Bucknell (on the road in overtime) and Villanova.
The following week, the Wolverines will welcome Ohio State into the Big House following the football spring game.
Regarding Cohen, this was an interesting quote from Paul in The Daily:
“We aren’t playing a style right now to take away one player,” Paul said. “We are playing a defensive style that is trying to limit total opportunity for the other team. We are choosing to play a team-style defense right now. They only had four other goals so I feel like … that was one of our better defensive performances of the year.”
It’s probably pick your poison for Michigan.
TO some degree, that played a role. However, in the linked highlights, a lot of Cohen’s points were just thanks to slow reactions by Michigan’s defense (he dodged from X and there wasn’t a defender even thinking about sliding to him until the ball was already in the back of the net).
That’s going to happen with this inexperienced, undertalented Michigan team. There’s no way around it with the cards they’ve been dealt (and yes, some of that is their own doing). The trick will be to fight through some of their shortcomings, overachieve at times this year, and set the table for next year.