Michigan 9, Bellarmine 13

In the long-lost preview for this game, I thought Michigan would have a good chance to squeak out their second win on the year. That didn’t so much happen, and let’s explore why.

Tempo Free

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

Michigan – Brian Greiner, specifically – had a rough day on faceoffs against a team that really hadn’t been particularly good coming in. Without seeing the game live (no option to buy just the one-game video stream on the Michigan website), it’s tough to say what led to the struggles, but 9/25 (J.D. Johnson took and won one faceoff) is pretty bad.

Neither team cleared the ball well at all, and again that can be explained by a multitude of factors – including that both squads have limited experience playing in huge stadiums.

From an efficiency standpoint, Michigan was quite poor and Bellarmine was just OK. Turnovers were a bugaboo for the Wolverines – though they managed to force enough out of Bellarmine to even up possessions.

Notes

I already mentioned a bit about faceoffs. Simply put, it was a poor performance. Unlike against Loyola, where the strategy involved a limited effort to win draws, instead relying on sound defense after losing them, this just wasn’t a good day in the middle. Greiner still managed to tie for the team lead in ground balls, with five.

As we’ve seen in most games for the Wolverines this year, they struck first. As we’ve seen all but once, they allowed the opponent to mount a comeback and take the win. I wouldn’t describe the trend as “troubling” – that would imply that there’s something mysterious or disappointing about it. On the contrary, this team simply doesn’t have the talent and depth to sit on a lead unless they play perfectly, and that’s something very hard to pull off. Some problems with this team won’t be fixed until a year or two down the road.

Taking those first two points in combination, Michigan didn’t lose this game at the faceoff X, but it likely played a role in the outcome. They were rolling early with faceoffs wins, but once Bellarmine started clawing back into it, they captured momentum with a dominant run on draws over the final three quarters, helping earn and ultimately seal the win.

Trevor Yealy led Michigan in scoring with two goals and an assist, and Will Meter wasn’t far behind him with two goals of his own. Alex Vasileff had a goal and an assist to close out multi-point scorers. LSM J.D. Johnson had an assist in the game.

I mentioned that turnovers were a problem for Michigan (though probably not a huge one, for once), and a pair of Wolverines – midfielder Willie Steenland and close defenseman Rob Healy – each committed three, the only players on Michigan’s team with more than one.

J.D. Johnson led Michigan with five caused turnovers – and didn’t commit any of his own. Along with the aforementioned assist and three ground balls, he had an excellent day.

Emil Weiss started and played three quarters in net. He allowed nine goals and made nine saves. Dylan Westerhold allowed four goals in the fourth quarter and didn’t make any saves. John Paul mentioned “we lost Emil” in the official site recap, so obviously he went out with injury. It’s unclear when he’ll return.

For the opposition, Troy Athens alum Andrew Bulgarelli won 15 of 23 faceoffs and scored a goal. The offensive headliner was attackman Austin Bright, who scored two goals and dished out three assists.

Elsewhere

Official site recap from Michigan, official site recap from Bellarmine, boxscore, photo gallery.

Up Next

Mount St. Mary’s visits the Big House Saturday at 3 p.m. The Mountaineers are 2-4 early in the season with the lone victories coming over Delaware and VMI.

The game will allegedly have coverage on GameTracker and streaming video, but since neither was both available for a reasonable fee and fully functional last weekend, stay tuned. I should be in attendance this time around, so you can follow on Twitter @GreatLaxState for blow-by-blow updates.