Michigan 15, Vermont 13

Michigan’s offense clicked, the team won a game. Hooray.

Tempo Free

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

This was a moderately fast game, but the high scores were more attributable to outstanding offense (or maybe lack of defense) than the pace of play. Michigan was slightly less efficient, but had more possession – and you could consider a couple of the Catamounts’ goals in “too little, too late” territory, for not much of a concern, anyway.

Notes

About those defenses, though. Not only did Michigan allow 13 goals, Gerald Logan also made 18 saves. A shot on goal per possession is not a defensive effort that’s going to win you a lot of games. Fortunately, Michigan got the (far) better end of the goalkeeping equation, with his counterpart Jon Kaplan only saving 10 shots while allowing 15. Part of that is shot selection and accuracy (Michigan actually put just 25 of 46 on-cage), sure, but Logan seemed to pull Michigan’s feet from the fire, to an extent.

Also fortunate: Michigan had both Ian King and Kyle Jackson on the field together (which wasn’t the case throughout the season – Jackson missed four games, while King missed two and parts of a couple others). The duo combined for ten points (Jackson three goals and three assists, King two goals and two assists), including just one where they linked up together – they helped spread the wealth. Decker Curran had a goal and two assists, while Peter Kraus, Justin Gibbons, and Evan Glaser each had a pair of goals.

One area the Michigan offense made hay? The extra-man offense. They had six opportunities, and converted four of them. A sloppy game from Vermont could have cost them the win, to an extent. Michigan retook its first lead since 1-0 on an EMO tally from Brent Noseworthy late in the second quarter, then a five-goal run in the late third to early fourth included two extra-man tallies to extend the lead to six.

Brad Lott had a decent day on faceoffs – though against a Vermont team that’s just OK on draws, it wasn’t anything to write home about. 17/32 (.531) is a fine number, but it did include beating up on little-used Ian Mackay (0/2, and went 3/10 on the year) and Taylor Boyd (0/2, went 10/27 on the year). Against Vermont’s better faceoff men, he had a bit more struggle, with Luc LeBlanc winning 2/3 and TJ Subel – who was under .500 on the year – notching a 13/24 mark (.542).

Michigan didn’t necessarily play a clean game, committing 11 turnovers with only two forced by the defense. King was the biggest culprit there, with four giveaways, but when he and Jackson (one TO) are responsible for so much of the offense, so be it.

Elsewhere

Boxscore. Michigan recap. This happened. Vermont recap.

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