Detroit 8, North Carolina 18

Detroit finally managed to get onto the winning side of the ledger against Michigan, and was hoping to get the season back on track after a rough start. The loss against North Carolina was disappointing, but not surprising, all things considered.

The Heels are simply a better team than the Titans – a fact that I don’t think anyone was doubting going into the contest. The result on Saturday afternoon doesn’t bode particularly ill for the rest of the season.

Tempo Free

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

The possession game continues to be something of a bugaboo, thanks in large part to faceoffs. That’s going to be a theme throughout the year, especially against good faceoff men. Carolina’s R.G. Keenan – who won 16 of his 18 draws before the Heels emptied the bench and went 3-for-9 the rest of the way – certainly qualifies.

As for the ride/clear game, Carolina was excellent on its clears last year, so their success there comes as no surprise. Coming the other way, Detroit had decent success. Carolina had a bad ride last year, but there’s not enough data this season to know if they’re improved.

On offense, Detroit had an OK day, but certainly nothing to write home about. Defensively, Carolina put up a great efficiency number. As for what both of those marks mean going forward… not much. I mean this with the utmost respect to the Titans when I say: sometimes you’re just Detroit playing against Carolina. It happens.

Notes

Neither of Detroit’s primary faceoff specialists was awesome, but I think Brandon Davenport is starting to separate himself at this point in the season. He and Corcoran have very different styles, so there are always matchups to take into consideration, but he’s winning more at this point, and with Detroit’s wing play, he has a chance to succeed going forward.

Shayne Adams and Alex Maini each had three points, but in opposite ways – Adams only scored goals, Maini only contributed assists. Both were outdone by Tewaaraton watchlister Joel Matthews, who scored two goals of his own while adding a trio of assists.

It was a frustrating day for the Titan defense, causing only eleven turnovers in a very fast-paced game. Jamie Hebden was held off the scoresheet for the first time in his career. Again, sometimes you just run up against a really good team. You’d have a hard time finding anyone who is claiming that UNC is anything less.

The goalie situation remains muddled four games into the year. A.J. Levell got the start and took the loss, allowing eight goals and making ten saves. Chris Kelly entered at halftime and fared much worse, allowing ten goals and saving only three shots. It’s tough to say too much about their respective performances without getting a chance to see the game. You may recall the third quarter in Columbus as one that made the goalie look (statistically) worse than he is.

Two of the goals allowed by Levell and one by Kelly were on the man-down, which brings us around to the non-faceoff story of the season so far: penalties. The Titans cleaned up their act a bit after starting the year sloppy, but stil allowed three man-up goals (two in one penalty, following an unreleasable against Jason McDonald to close the first quarter).

For Carolina, nobody notched more than four points (Marcus Holman and Chad Tutton did that), but six reached or exceeded three. It was a balanced effort for the Carolina offense, which you’d expect from such a talented team.

The Titans were outshot 44-26. That’s expected with the possession battle in Carolina’s favor, in addition to their talent advantage in the 6-on-6.

Elsewhere

Official site recaps from Detroit and from North Carolina. UNC-centric highlights. Photo gallery on LaxPower.

Up Next

The toughest part of Detroit’s schedule (Michigan notwithstanding) is behind them now. It’s certainly frustrating to get spanked by North Carolina, but playing the best will really prepare UDM against the rest of the schedule.

Mercer should be a nice breather on Saturday, ahead of a contest at Georgetown in two weeks. The Bears are much improved from last year – they’re actually staying within double digits of Ohio State and Bellarmine, something they couldn’t say last year.

Detroit is still a good enough team to get a road win. Full Mercer preview coming later in the week.