The Wolverines head to Oxford, OH this weekend to take on Miami in a crucial series.
Here are 10 things to know about the RedHawks.
1) Miami comes in 14-9-5 on the year, ranked 18th in the latest Pairwise. Most of their struggles have come away from home, though. They're 8-3-1 at Cady Arena and just 6-6-4 away from there.
2) The RedHawks are 3-4-2 in their last nine games and two of those wins were against a fairly hapless Bowling Green team. Last weekend they split a pair of shootouts at Notre Dame.
3) Even through the recent struggles they've been scoring goals at a steady clip-28 over the last nine games, 3+ on six occasions, and fewer than two just one time.
4) The defense has been much more hit and miss though. Over the past nine games, they've given up 4, 1, 5, 1, 1, 7, 0, 5, and 2 goals. Really inconsistent.
5) Cody Reichard has the better record between the two goalies (9-4-1 to Knapp's 5-5-4) but their numbers are almost identical. They both have GAAs a tick over 2.25 and save percentages of .901. Aside from a blip against FYS where he gave up 4 on 12 shots and got yanked, Reichard has been solid lately. Prior to that game, he had given up 1 goal in each of his last four starts. He also gave up 2 at ND. Knapp has been a little more iffy. He has given up 3+ in three of his last four starts and took the loss in a relief role against FYS, giving up 2 on 9 shots in just over a period. Both goalies are down 20 in save percentage from a year ago.
6) The thing to really worry about with Miami, though, is the offense. Both Andy Miele and Carter Camper have asserted themselves as Hobey contenders. Miele has 15-34--49 and has only been held without a point in 5 games. He has 15 points in the last 6 games. Camper has scored a career-high 46 points already but has cooled off after a scorching start. By cooled off, I mean he ONLY has 9 points in his last 8 games. They're the two leading scorers in the country.
7) I haven't even gotten to sophomore Reilly Smith, who leads the team in goals with 19. He had three against ND last weekend. Pat Cannone also has almost a point per game. Those guys and 11 goal scorer Alden Hirschfield, who scored the second overtime goal in the Michigan/Miami Regional Final last year, make up the majority of their 7th ranked offense.
8) As you would expect, their power play is really good: 24.8% on the season, ranking third nationally. They have allowed 5 shorties. The PK has been good as well, 8th ranked at 86.5%. They've scored five SHGs of their own.
9) This is a big weekend for Miami. After this series, they'll have just four games left to play, including a pair against surprising Western Michigan. They sit four points behind Michigan and five behind Notre Dame. Michigan has two games in hand on both teams. If they don't sweep the Wolverines, it would be really hard for Miami to pass Michigan in the standings. Even assuming 18 points for Miami (and a sweep this weekend), Michigan would need five wins in their last six to pass Miami. A split, though, and we'd only need nine points even if Miami wins out.
10) David Wohlberg (3) and Kevin Lynch (2) are the only guys with multiple career goals against Miami. Rust, Hagelin, and Cappy all have a goal and a slew of assists. Hunwick is 1-1-0 against Miami and was great in both games: Last year's CCHA semifinal and the screwjob in the Regional Championship. Miele has 5-4--9 in 11 games, but we have held him without a ppg and he is -3. Camper has 1-5--6 against Michigan. Cannone killed us last year (3-2--5 with two goals in the regional). Knapp is 2-1 with a 2.00/.929 but we've been able to get to Reichard (2.59/.899)
Friday's game will air on CBS College Sports. Saturday night, the game will air on Fox Sports Detroit.
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8 comments:
i still am, and forever will be, angry about getting screwed out of the frozen four last year. FYM...(OH)
Yeah, getting screwed out of the FF in Detroit did and does still hurt, but after watching the games BC was a buzzsaw. I would have loved a shot at them, but I think they would have tore us up just like they did Miami and Wisconsin. They were truly the best team and takes some of the sting away.
I still don't think Miami has recovered from that, either. Exposed some issues- basically speed IMO and some ways on how to attack Miami's system.
Awesome post!
... On the bright side, Travis Lynch has 4-4-8 in his last 5 games, with a +5, 5 PIM, 1 PPG, 2 PPA and 1 SHG. And has a .146 shooting percentage on 82 shots. He has 12-9-21 in 38 games, one point behind Austin Czarnik (but only 30 games) and about half of their leading scorer. However, he is tied for 2nd on the team in goals with Czarnik (though again in 8 more games). If somethings clicked for him and he's not just on a pretty good hot streak, that would be a very, very welcome surprise coming into next season. Obviously he's still not exactly lighting it up, but as long as it doesn't come at the expense of his defense, a little more offense never hurt!
On a little more analytical note, what are the chances we see Treais move up this weekend? Kid leads the team in sht pct with .182, bu has only 44 shots. In comparison, Louie has .082% on 98 shots and Matt Rust has exactly half the % of Treais on the same amount of shots. Maybe a shake up would be a kick in the pants of either senior centerman and might generate a little more offense out of one of the top lines. And it might be good for AJ to get his feet wet before he has to step in and be (probably?) our top-line center next year. Maybe Red's tried it in practice and it didn't work so well, but I'd like to see that shakeup, though I'm not sure whether it should be Cappy or Rust.
Red's keeping AJ on the third line centering Wohlberg and moving Moffatt to his natural RW. Lynch has been dumped back to the 4th line center position, also his natural spot, between Winnett and DeBlois.
Capo is centering the top line with Hagelin and Brown. Vaughn has been moved up to the 2nd line with Rust and Glendening.
Unless things change this week, Sparks and Rohrkemper will be out. Sparks would be the next guy in the lineup with DeBlois out.
Interesting. Yost Post has it differently.
Cappy-Hagelin-Rust
Wohlberg-Treais-Moffatt
Vaughn-Rust-Glendening
Winnett-Lynch-DeBlois
The two differences being the switch of 2nd and 3rd lines and Hagelin centering the first line. I think the middle two lines might get about equal time regardless as sort of a 2a 2b, so that might not matter so much. As I recall, Red tried Wohlberg centering Cappy for one game, to get him going, but it failed spectacularly. He might be trying that again, with Hagelin, who might be a better center than Wohlberg. But then, he's also tried Cappy centering Hagelin, so it really could be either.
I'm fine with Sparks being out, he hasn't really done much outside the GLI (albeit in limited time). Derek has occasional chances and is normally pretty solid defensively, so I think that's the right call. If there was room on the third line, then I might put Sparks in, but for a 4th liner, DeBlois is probably the right pick.
As for Lynch at center, is that something we'll likely see next year on a long-term basis, do you think? It is his natural position and there are 3 centers graduating and I'm not sure any of our recruits are natural centers.
These are all line combo's they are trying at practice. Red won't decide until Friday what he'll throw out. Anything to get the offense going. (I assume you made a typo, Anon, Rust should be Brown- top line.
Totally agree about DeBlois. Sparks and Rohrkemper don't bring a ton of offense, and Derek is a decent two way player.
Good point about Lynch, too. Maybe he should shoot the puck more, IMO, especially if indeed this move to center is to feature next year.
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