Michigan 13, Bellarmine 5

File photo (via U-M Media Relations).

Bellarmine has been an up-and-down team from a Michigan perspective, both in terms of how they play the Maize and Blue and just what quality of opponent they’ll be in a given year. In 2017, they were an easy win… but unfortunately, that appear to be in large part because they’re not any good.

Tempo-Free

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

Both teams had their fair share of trouble clearing, but Michigan won the faceoff dot handily, and was far, far more efficient than the Knights, resulting in the easy win.

Notes

The offensive efficiency was more-than solid for Michigan, which is made al the more impressve by the fact that they started out cold, cold cold. U-M shot 13 times before finally finding the back of the net, and with only two total saves for Bellarmine in the first quarter, that means at least 10 of those 12 misses to open the game weren’t on-cage. That’s no good.

Fortunately, Michigan settled in very nicely once they did finally get on the board, with an extremely prolific day on offense. Brent Noseworthy led the way with five goals and an assist, and six other Wolverines had multi-point days. Rocco Sutherland and Ian King had three and two assists, respectively, Decker Curran and Patrick Tracy each had a pair of goals, and PJ Bogle and Avery Myers had a goal and an assist apiece.

With a game that was out of hand by halftime (or certainly within the first few minutes of the third quarter), it was good to see some guys get a bit of significant run for the first time this year – depending on whatever you call the fourth quarter against Detroit.

Though both teams failed on four clears – which is pretty bad, though the Bellarmine style of being a heavy-ride team combined with their pretty poor clear explains part of it – this wasn’t a particularly turnover-prone contest. There were 23 between both teams, and even though this was a somewhat-slow game, that doesn’t feel like a particularly high number.

Goalie Tommy Heidt, as will be the case many times this year, was one of the most important performers for the Maize and Blue. He allowed five goals while making 11 saves (.688 save percentage), and has established the bar such that anything below .667 is going to be a disappointment. That’s probably not fair, especially given that the competition is going to get tougher, but such are the downsides of success.

Michigan was very solid on faceoffs, and it was actually Matt Dellacroce (4/6) who outperformed starter Mike McDonnell (9/15). Establishing multiple successful options there will be important for Michigan, and something they’re going to continue to work on when they can. McDonnell will be the guy in competitive games for now, but the more comfortable the staff can get with Dellacroce, the better.

Michigan’s man-up was 1/6 on the day, which can be interpreted in a couple of ways. Given that the total numbers (a couple weeks later) are 7/14, it can be viewed as just an aberration – and an indicator that the score of this game could have been worse. It can also be seen as a chink in the armor that good teams will be able to exploit. I lean more toward the former.

No statistical performances on the defensive side of the ball (outside of Heidt’s) stand out, but a couple team stats look pretty shiny: the outstanding Tucker Ciessau scored two goals, but it took him five shots on goal to get there, and 11 total shots. That means fewer than half his shots were on-cage, a solid indicator of good team defense on the opponent’s best player. Of course, on the other hand, Ian King managed to put only one of his eight shots on cage… but his team won by eight so whatever.

Elsewhere

Michigan recap. Bellarmine recap. Boxscore.

Up Next

Michigan’s undefeated start to the season came to a bitter end in South Bend.