Michigan 8, Fairfield 9

I’ve said it before about this Michigan team: while there shouldn’t be any moral victories in the world of sports, they’ve come about as close to that as possible. With a one-goal (overtime) loss to Cornell earlier this season, they outperformed expectations, and they did it once more Saturday by only falling by one goal to Fairfield. No matter the margin, however, a loss is a loss.

Tempo Free

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

The efficiency margin was razor-thin here, such that one possession in either direction could have either sent this one to overtime (about which more later) or given the Stags a little more comfort in the win.

The difference then was the possession game. Michigan’s clear and ride were both good, but the faceoff game – supposedly the Wolverines’ biggest strength – really failed them in this one. It’s easy to say “it happens,” but there have been too many times this spring where it’s just happened.

Notes

So… what’s the deal with Brad Lott? He’s capable of dominating some of the game’s best faceoffs men, then goes against a mediocre group and gets dominated himself. That’s not the first time this season, and at this point it would be fair to describe him as “mercurial.” A 7/20 mark is out of character for him, and if he’d been .500 (or better yet, his season average of .563), Michigan would have had a real shot to prevent Fairfield’s early momentum and steal this game.

The ebb and flow of this game was an interesting one. Fairfield scored the first two goals of the game, then Michigan evened things up before the Stags’ 6-2 run to end the first half let things get out of control. Michigan came back with the #clamps in the second half though, shutting down the Fairfield offense (a single goal in 12 possessions). Michigan made a few mistakes to turn the ball over late in the game though, and couldn’t close the gap all the way.

Fairfield also benefitted from scoring two goals late in a quarter. They found net with under :30 left in the first quarter and with just a few seconds left in the first half (both coming out of timeouts), and those two doomed Michigan, preventing U-M from stymieing any momentum.

Robbie Zonino deserves a bit of credit for this game. He ended with eight saves and nine goals allowed (meaning that the team defense deserves even more credit for allowing only 17 shots on goal). However, a couple goals in the first half were pretty soft – particularly a slow-moving bounce shot – and with one or two more saves, especially on those easy ones, the end result of this game could have been different.

Mack Gembis hulked up to cause four turnovers and pick up two ground balls (how much did Michigan miss him in the three contests he was either out or limited with injury), while fellow pole Chris Walker caused two turnovers of his own while also snagging two ground balls.

David Joseph (the day after turning 22) was your offensive leader, with three goals on ten shots (six on goal). On the downside, he also committed six turnovers, including the one that sealed the game for Fairfield coming out of a Michigan timeout late in the fourth quarter. Freshman Mikie Schlosser scored on both of his shots, while midfielders Thomas Paras and Kyle Jackson each had a goal and an assist.

Michigan was on the wrong end of all four of the game’s penalties (at least one, a trip against Walker, looked like a pretty bad call live and without the benefit of a replay). However, the man-down managed to keep the Stags from converting on any of those.

It was a pretty even scoring output for the starting Fairfield offense, with Colin McLinden leading the way by notching two goals and three assists. Four other Stags had two points, and two more recorded a single point on the day. Faceoff specialist Michael Roe was the star for the team, winning 11 of 16 draws, including four ground balls.

Elsewhere

Michigan recap. Boxscore. Fairfield recap. Maize n Brew covers the game. Fairfield is on the fringe of the top ten, so a one-goal margin is no embarrassment.

Up Next

Michigan has a tough task, heading to Columbus to play in front of probably the largest crowd they’ve ever encountered, and certainly the largest hostile crowd. Ohio State’s athletic department is wise enough to put their lacrosse game (“Showdown at the Shoe”) before the spring football game, not an hour-plus after.

Ohio State’s record is not shiny this year at 4-6, but the Buckeyes have suffered most of their losses to really, really tough opposition, and they’re probably looking forward to an easier opponent to get back on the right side of the ledger. It’s unclear just how easy Michigan will be, but certainly the Buckeyes are the favored squad.

Michigan’s no stranger to the underdog role, of course, but this would be the biggest win (by a wide margin) in program history, from an upset standpoint.