Michigan 8, Brown 22

U-M played one of the best teams in the country, and in a shocking turn of events it didn’t go so well.

Tempo Free

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

This game was played at a blistering pace (no surprise, given Brown’s style of play), and the Bears did what they do in such situations: score a ton of goals. Michigan had a bunch of possessions itself – staying even in faceoffs against one of the top faceoff teams in the country is an impressive feat, for example – but couldn’t get anything going.

Notes

An unconventional but appropriate place to start looking at this game: the opposition. Brown had two six-point scorers (likely Tewaaraton winner Dylan Molloy and attackmate Kylor Bellistri), two five-point scorers (Carson Song and Bailey Tills), and a four-point scorer (Henry Blynn). That’s a ton of output. Let’s not even talk too much about the long-pole production, something Brown is getting a lot of credit for in the NCAA Tournament thus far. It wasn’t star LSM Larken Kemp (a measly one goal) that lit the scoreboard against Michigan, but rather Alec Tulett, a close defender who notched a goal and an assist on the day.

Where else did things go poorly? Special teams. Not only was Michigan uncharacteristically penalty-heavy with five committed for 4:00 (albeit in a really fast game, so maybe it’s not as bad as it looks), but they gave up goals on three of their man-down defense situations, and also had one put on their face during a man-up chance (while going 0/4 in converting). Unsurprisingly, it was a longpole – sophomore Max Gustafson – who did the deed.

Michigan had a decent day on faceoffs against one of the best faceoff teams in the country, though that does come with some caveats. U-M was 9/24 through three quarters before Brown really emptied the bench – the Bears’ top guy, Will Gural, went 11/18 and the others combined to go 8/16. Michigan’s Brad Lott was 7/16, and Mike McDonnell was actually the best, going 5/7 – but he didn’t face Gural once.

Sticking in the possession game, Michigan actually rode Brown pretty well – right at .889, about their season-long average, when you’d expect a bad team to be below that – but didn’t clear particularly well themselves. When you’re getting beaten up in the possession game against a team that’s ruthlessly efficient on the offensive end (and then don’t make up for it at all with your own offense), things aren’t going to go well.

Michigan had three multi-point scorers, and they came from relatively unconventional sources. Brent Noseworthy scored three of his six goals on the year, Pat Tracy had three of his five assists on the year, and Brendan Gaughan scored his only two goals of the year. Ian King was shut out, and Kyle Jackson scored just one goal. That speaks to future depth for U-M (Noseworthy was a freshman this season, Tracy a sophomore, Gaughan a redshirt junior), but not so much positive in the way of getting your offense through the means you’re used to doing it.

Poor Gerald Logan. He faced 38(!) shots on goal, and did yeoman’s work to save 17 of them against a very potent offense. The U-M defense didn’t do a ton to help him out, though Chris Walker did cause two turnovers and pick up five GBs to lead that unit.

Michigan committed 24 turnovers on the game. yes, that’s Brown’s style, but again, you need to value the ball against that style even more than usual, because not only are you sacrificing an offensive opportunity, you’re giving the Bears some transition.

Elsewhere

Boxscore. Michigan recap. Brown recap. Snuff film.

Up Next

Unfortunately, we’ve seen Michigan’s last win of the year already. It’s going to be some tough times in the final six recaps (the Dartmouth story is already in the books).