Detroit 8, Bellarmine 9

As I said in the preview, this is a game that, ultimately, didn’t mean a whole lot one way or the other for UDM’s season. However, given the way it happened… this was a terrible, horrible loss.

Tempo Free

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

Detroit faced off very well in this game, something that they don’t usually do. Considering Bellarmine is juuuust below average nationally, that’s impressive. The Knights’ ride gave UDM some trouble, though it didn’t really kill them.

In efficiency terms, Bellarmine’s late flurry turned what had been a really bad day into a very good one for the Knights’ offense. Detroit’s offensive output was about what you’d expect.

Overall, this was a very slow game, not necessarily what you’d expect out of the country’s fastest team and one that’s above-average in terms of pace.

In-depth tempo-free stuff from TempoFreeLax:

Notes

Just to make sure we’ve got the story straight here, Detroit led 8-4 with 4:06 left in the game. In order to win, Bellarmine had to score four goals in just over four minutes to even get it to overtime. Instead, they scored five goals in just over four minutes, and the game-winner arrived with just 12 seconds to spare in the game. For a Detroit team that dominated the contest up until those final few minutes, the final result is nothing short of an embarrassment.

Faceoffs went really well for the Titans. Tyler Corcoran won eight of 11 draws, Brandon Davenport won five of nine, and Danny Preston even got a chance on senior day, winning his only faceoff. It’s a shame that the strong performance – a rarity for this team – was unable to help deliver a win.

Joel Matthews was out of the lineup once more. Not sure on his status with the team at this point, but he’s still listed on the roster (when Matt Gregson left the team last year, his name was immediately removed from the roster, so that can be telling). It’s unfair to speculate beyond “I wonder if Matthews is going to be back this weekend,” so I’ll refrain from doing anything more.

With Matthews out of the lineup, it should come as no surprise that Shayne Adams carried the offense for Detroit. He scored a hat trick, and even shared the love a little bit, adding an assist on LSM Jordan Houtby’s goal. Alex Maini had two goals and an assist, while John Nowicki and Scott Drummond both had one of each.

Houtby’s performance wasn’t just strong because of the rare goal. He also caused two turnovers and picked up five ground balls during the course of the game. Jamie Hebden was the only other Titan to cause two turnovers (yet another rare occurrence for this UDM team). A.J. Levell went the distance, and saved 14 shots while allowing nine goals. That’s not a bad performance, but for the “L” next to his name on the scoresheet.

This was a tale of two halves, even moreso than a tale of the first 55 minutes and the final five. The Titans outshot Bellarmine 17-13 in the first half (12-4 in the second quarter) and were outshot 22-11 in the final two quarters. Most of the other stats remained pretty even (or even, in the case of faceoffs, s;anted toward UDM), but the shot numbers are pretty telling.

Elsewhere

Boxscore. UDM game story. Senior Day photo gallery.

Up Next

After that gutpunch, UDM travels to Lexington, Va. for what should be a fairly routine win over VMI. This Titan team seems to be dealing with psychological tests at every turn, so they’ll have to buckle down (especially in the instance that Joel Matthews doesn’t play) in order to avoid being upset.

They clinched a spot in the MAAC Championships with weekend losses by VMI and Manhattan, but should be able to improve their seed with a win over the conference’s cellar-dweller. Stay tuned later this week for a MAAC bracketology post.