Michigan 11, Saint Joseph’s 8

Win Two.

Tempo Free

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

I’ll be honest… either stats were improperly kept for this game (I know the team’s primary statistician was not available), or an insanely slow game that featured exactly no defense. I lean toward the latter without having seen the game, because such a performance is just so far out of character for Michigan.

Notes

In a game where the offense practically explodes (despite playing by far the fewest possessions of any game this year, Michigan hit double-digit goals for the second time this season), it’s tough to give too much credit to the D, but… Gerald Logan, man. His .652 save percentage is pretty impressive on its own, but taking a look at his late-game heroics really draws that into perspective. He faced 13 shots on goal in the second half, and saved 11 of them. After his team went down 8-7, he saved the final nine shots on goal while his teammates rallied with four straight goals to seal the win. That’s huge.

Also huge in turning the momentum: faceoffs. Michigan was mediocre in the first half, finishing just below .500 (Kevin Wylie was exactly .500 with a win on two draws, while Brad Lott was 5/11). After that, it was dominance, with Lott taking 7/9 after the break. Lott also scored his first career goal in the game. His lack of experience (missing all of fall and most of the pres-season practices due to injury, then missing the first game due to suspension) was the bigger issue than a lack of talent all year. He’ll be a bright spot going forward.

As for the bulk of the offense, look to the usual suspects. Senior midfielder Thomas Paras has three goals and two assists, and freshman midfielder Kyle Jackson has two goals and two assists. Sophomore attack Will Meter had two goals. Freshman middie Mike Hernandez didn’t have a huge day, with just a single goal. Speaking of Paras, he was not listed among the Senior Day honorees… it would be huge for this team in 2014 if he were to use his fifth year of eligibility.

Volume shooting is still a thing for this Michigan team, with Meter and Paras each launching eight (five on goal) and Jackson putting up nine – only four on goal. Quite a bit more research is required to determine whether missed shots (on or off goal) are necessarily a bad thing, what with clean saves, backup, etc. coming into play. I’m not ready to do that research just yet, but definitely keep an eye on this team’s tendency going forward.

Michigan limited the turnovers in a huge way, committing only seven for the game. That’s two straight with single-digit TOs, a huge improvement over some of the sloppiness earlier in the year. Five of those were caused by the Hawks, so only two uncaused in this win.

Michigan also didn’t force a whole lot the other way, with St. Joe’s committing only eight total, and five caused by Wolverines. Going forward, the identity of this defense will not rely on caused turnovers, but the numbers will nudge upwards when Michigan has more talent at its disposal.

Mike Francia put in work on GBs, leading all players with six on the day. More impressively, he didn’t rack that up by playing the wing on faceoffs (only one GB he won was on the faceoff), so it was mostly old-fashioned hard work. Chase Brown, David Joseph and Brad Lott – all of whom did play significantly on faceoffs – had three apiece.

For the Hawks, attack Kyle Williams had a goal and two assists, while Matt Sarcona, Pat Swanick, and Johnny Simanski had two goals apiece. Dustin Keen made 12 goals between the pipes, but needed a couple more to get the win for his squad.

Elsewhere

The official boxscore. Michigan official site recap. Postgame notes. Official photo gallery. SJU recap. You can re-watch for “not free.” Play-by-play from Gametracker.

Up Next

Unfortunately, just as soon as Michigan capitalizes on building quite a bit of momentum… they have one game left, and it’s against the recently-dethroned No. 1 team in the country. The Wolverines will have to use that momentum to stay competitive against Denver, then build in the offseason.

The days of winning one game a year are likely over, but 2013 will end that way.