Michigan 7, Yale 13

Michigan has played pretty well against top competition this year, so Saturday’s result was a little bit disappointing. When some of the things U-M is planning to rely on don’t go their way though, it’s bound to happen against top-10 teams.

Tempo Free

From the official box score, a look at the tempo-free stats:

Yale was fairly dominant on faceoffs (three of Michigan’s nine wins came in the fourth quarter with the game well out of hand), and though the Bulldogs had fewer clearing attempts, that faceoff advantage allowed them to win the possession battle.

Michigan’s offense was only sort of bad – especially given the caliber of defense the Wolverines were facing, but the defense once again struggled, and against an offense that has been good-not-great all season.

Notes

The game started very well for Michigan, with Yale not even getting a shot off until nearly five minutes had elapsed. However, once an extra-man tally got the ball rolling for the Bulldogs (followed by a quick goal off the faceoff), the floodgates opened to a certain extent. Michigan was never any closer than two goals once the score passed 3-1 Yale. A big part of Yale’s early success (despite offensive struggles) was the play of goalie Eric Natale. He’s really, really good, and was the difference early in the game until the Yale offense and possession game started clicking.

“We tested him, and the kid made some really great saves,” said freshman attack Ian King. “The kid made some really great saves and he deserves it. I don’t know his save percentage but the kid played well.”

Faceoffs were once again an issue for Michigan, and although Michigan was trying to mostly take away transition (though they still gave up two transition goals off faceoffs), they need to get more wins there with a talent like Brad Lott on draws. He’s struggled in recent weeks, and that’s something that a team like Michigan – which can’t match up man-for-man basically anywhere else on the field – won’t be able to overcome often.

“[Yale’s Dylan Levings is] one of the top faceoff guys in the country and we didn’t do horribly against him,” said Michigan coach John Paul. “Our strategy was to not give up transition against their faceoff game. We wanted to win some and we did, but we wanted to make sure we didn’t give up transition and we didn’t, so we executed what we wanted to execute there. We wanted to win more of them.”

King was one of the stars for Michigan. Two goals on seven shots (six on the cage, just another indication of Natale’s great day) won’t turn many heads, but his second score of the day – wriggling away from a hold check to finish a bounce shot – certainly did. He also eclipsed Trevor Yealy’s single-season record for goals, one that he’ll likely break a couple more times in his career.

Midfielder David Joseph had a goal and an assist, and Mike Hernandez had two assists. The surprise performer was newly-minted midfielder Brendan Gaughan. The redshirt freshman got his second game action of the season after switching from attack, and notched two goals of his own.

“Brendan Gaughan who has been playing great in practice, buried a couple, maybe earning more time going forward,” Paul said. In practice right now he’s switched positions. I don’t know how long that’ll last but right now he’s a middie.

“We’re pretty attack-heavy on this team, so we’ve been moving guys around through the course of the season. Brendan had been playing midfield most of the season on our scout team. He was tearing up our starters as a scout team midfielder, only because we needed him in that position on the scout team. It kind of became apparent that we thought he had a good skill set there.”

Gaughan was an Under Armour All-American out of high school, but missed his freshman season after knee surgery. He’s getting back on the field in his new role.

“It was a slow process coming back,” Gaughan said. “I’m trusting Coach Danehy and coach Paul to make the rigbht decisions. I’m very thankful for them having trusted me to go on the field, and I’m glad that the entire line on offense produced when I was on offense. It wasn’t just me, it was the entire offense.

“The line I always say: ‘high school is high school, and everyone’s good in high school.’ This is Division-1, so having not played last year, it wasn’t what I wanted, but I’m really glad to be back and helping the team out as much as I can.”

Michigan’s defense was an issue, with Yale’s Brandon Mangan notching a goal and five assists – he’s really good- and fellow attackmen Jeff Cimbalista (four goals) and Conrad Oberbeck six goals and two assists) the primary beneficiaries of that. A lot of Yale’s scoring came frighteningly close to the crease – which has been a theme of Michigan’s defense through three years of varsity play – and that’s something Michigan wants to shore up the most.

“We’re doing a much better job on-ball than we did at the beginning of the year and last year certainly,” Paul said. “We’re way better there than we were. We’re still not a very good off-ball team, we’re still not a very good inside team. We give up some stuff inside where we’re still playing just a little bit soft. That’s experience; that’s the guys being on their toes and being aware off-ball a little bit more. Aware off-ball will come with more comfort and playing more and more at this level. That’s it. Off-ball and inside.”

One defensive player who is really rounding into form was freshman goalie Robbie Zonino. He was a bit of a whipping boy at times early in the season, but he did make 10 saves while allowing 12 goals (senior walkon Bobby Riso allowed the other Yale score), including a couple nice ones. He’s still not on Gerald Logan’s level, but has shown he has what it takes to succeed at this level.

“You look at Robbie this point in the year compared to the beginning of the year, he really is a different goalie,” Paul said. “Is he giving us some of the saves that Gerald gave us last year? Not right now, but he’s playing really solid.”

Some of Michigan’s weak points defensively will be helped with returning players next year. LSM/D Chase Brown and Logan are out for the season with injury, and coming off redshirts next year, they should be a shot in the arm. That doesn’t help right now, btu does show that there is a bright future in the years to come.

Elsewhere

Boxscore. Michigan recap. Yale recap. Michigan Daily gamer from Chloe Aubuchon.

Up Next

Michigan enters Saturday’s game against Robert Morris knowing that they’re already in the postseason (the No. 4 seed in the ECAC Tournament May 1-3), and that this could be one of their last strong chances to win a game this season, barring a major upset in the league tourney. That should mean they play loose – which can be both a good and bad thing.

The Colonials are a middle-tier outfit, a couple notched below U-M in the Tempo-Free Lax rankings. With such factors as the season finale, homefield advantage, and simple hunger for wins this season (and few opportunities to get them against a slate much tougher than you’d expect from such a young team), Michigan should have an edge.

We’ve seen that not amount to much in the past, but this is a truly winnable game for Michigan, and they’re not in any position to look past such opportunities.