Detroit 10, Marquette 15

I just don’t know, man. Losing to Marquette is a totally reasonable outcome. To be slightly better than non-competitive is en extreme disappointment.

Tempo Free

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

This was an extremely close game, especially by Detroit’s standards (they’ve been one of the fastest teams in the country since time immemorial, it seems). Marquette managed to clear cleanly and dominate on faceoffs, and that allowed them to run up a nice advantage in possession.

Both offenses had great days (probably just as much as a function of playing against bad defense as their own steps forward), and Marquette’s number is the best in their program history.

Notes

I slightly teased this a second ago, but the offenses were outstanding, and that’s because they were facing weak defense… it’s tough for a defense to stand strong when it’s playing with fewer guys than the opposing offense. UDM had eight(!) EMO opportunities, converting on five of them. Marquette had six, and scored on four. That’s a lot of man-down defense trying its best but not succeeding.

Most of Marquette’s offense came from four players. Everybody knows Tyler Melnyk is either going to get his or open things up for his teammates, but Detroit could neither slow him down nor prevent his teammates from going off. You have to do one (stop Melnyk) or the other (make him be the one to beat you), and Detroit walked a fine line of… letting him destroy everything in sight while his teammates did the same. He had five and one, Bryan Badolato had four goals, Conor Gately had two goals and an assist, and midfielder Ryan McNamara had two goals and three helpers. That’s eighteen of MU’s 23 points on the day.

Detroit’s offense was also pretty prolific, though not as much as Marquette’s (obviously) and quite a bit more reliant on the EMO. Seven of 17 points came on the man advantage. Mike Birney and Shayne Adams led the way with five points apiece, four goals and an assist for Birney (on 12 shots, just seven on goal) and two goals and three helpers for Adams. Alex Maini had two goals and an assist, and Tom Masterson had one of each.

Defensively, it was not a day of great performances. Paul Bitetti and JD Hess each caused a pair of turnovers, but no defensive player aside from goalie Jason Weber had more than a single GB. Marquette had 32 ground balls to Detroit’s 18, so it’s easy to see where that might have been one of the differences in the game.

Weber actually had a solid performance in defeat, especially since his defense wasn’t doing him a whole lot of favors. He saved 14 shots while allowing 15 goals, just below .500, which isn’t spectacular but Melnyk and Co. will do that to some teams, especially with plenty of EMO time. Still, Weber’s performance didn’t solidify him as the permanent starter yet, either.

The possession game… at this point I don’t know. Detroit’s FOGOs are capable of playing really well, but it’s clear at this point that they’re going to be back to the status from a couple years back where it just doesn’t seem like it will go right for them. Since I said this, they’ll naturally come out and dominate to the end of the season, and that’s just fine. Damien Harris was 6/18 and Tyler Corcoran was 2/7, and every one else who took a draw or three was 0-fer.

There is always a bit of noise in the stats, but nearly every Detroit possession ended with either a goal or a Titan turnover (Jimmy Danaher’s six saves say otherwise). Turnovers are still a bit of a problem for the Titans, but they’re getting much better in that respect. Nine of their 15 TOs were forced by Marquette players. Continuing to clean that up will help them take the next step.

As expected, Marquette cleared the ball just fine, but I think there’s some disappointment in UDM failing three clears in limited opportunities. Especially when the faceoff thing just isn’t going to happen, you have to value those possessions that you do get.

Elsewhere

Boxscore. Detroit game recap. Postgame press conference. Photo gallery. Marquette recap.

Up Next

The Titans transition from playing zero conference games to playing only conference games for the rest of the season. They open MAAC play in Buffalo against Canisius.

With the disappointing way the non-conference schedule went, this is a chance for UDM to wash their hands of that part of the year and get a fresh start. They have a six-game season now, and they have to do well enough against that competition to make the MAAC Championships in order to have a chance at a second-straight NCAA Tournament.

Canisius has really struggled early in the year, with a 3-3 record, but against a really weak slate (two of those wins were against first-year programs and the third, a head-scratcher over Air Force). They’re two spots behind Detroit in the national rankings at No. 55. They started conference play over the weekend with a win against Monmouth.