Detroit 8, Jacksonville 7

The Titans ended a two-game mini-slump against Jacksonville on Saturday, and in the process all-but sealed their berth into the MAAC Championship. Good weekend in Detroit.

Tempo Free

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

Both teams cleared pretty well – nobody was setting records on the ride Saturday. They were about even on faceoffs, which I guess is bound to happen when two pretty bad faceoff teams (both around bottom 10 in the country) square off. Anything close to 50% is pretty good for this Detroit team, and they should be able to win a lot of the game in which they don’t get killed there.

In a one-goal game, the winning team is bound to have a better efficiency mark, unless there’s a big disparity in possessions. One possession either way could have changed the outcome, so the difference is amplified.

Notes

As noted above, the faceoffs went much better than the season average for UDM. In fact, they were just one loss – by non-regular faceoff man Nick Garippa, for example – from being dead even. This was a pretty slow game, so each faceoff was pretty important, and the Titans were able to hold their own.

Offensively, Shayne Adams was once again the focal point with Joel Matthews out of the lineup, but unlike last year, he had plenty of help, as well. His four goals were matched by two goals and two assists from Alex Maini atop the points board. Wes Steen added two goals – his first points of the season – to close out multi-point days.

On defense, you will assuredly be SHOCKED to find out that Jordan Houtby and Jamie Hebden led the team in caused turnovers with four and three, respectively. Chris Nemes wasn’t far behind with two of his own.

A.J. Levell had a good day in goal, saving 10 of the 17 shots he faced. Six of those saves came in the fourth quarter (in which he only allowed one goal) to will UDM to a win.

The Titans looked a lto like Michigan in terms of their scoring pattern. They ran up a 3-0 lead, then allowed six straight from the end of the first quarter through the middle of the third. Unlike Michigan, however, they were able to respond in a big way. Five straight goals earned them the win.

For Jacksonville, T.J. Kenary’s four goals and Max Gurowski’s three assists led the team on the day. Kenary had been underachieving compared to expectations to this point on the year, but his big day came at the expense of the Dolphins’ leading scorer Cameron Mann, who had just one goal and one assist.

Both teams were terrible on the man-up, going a combined 0-for-10. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, Detroit actually committed fewer penalties than Jacksonville.

Elsewhere

Coach Holtz postgame:

A.J. Levell and Wes Teen postgame interview. UDM official site recap. Jacksonville site recap features a typo in the headline. Good times.

Jim Davenport photo gallery in three parts.

Up Next

Detroit has a non-conference date against Bellarmine next weekend before closing out the MAAC slate at VMI. The ECAC opponent isn’t going to have a great effect on their greater season-long goals (now amounting to “win the MAAC tournament or bust”), but it is a chance to add a non-conference victory.

The bigger game is the one against VMI, but even that might not be super-relevant to the conference standings by the time it rolls around.