Maryland 13 - Michigan 5
The Wolverines were able to jump out to an early 1-0 lead by way of Thomas Paras. However, the Terps scored six of the next seven goals in the first half, taking the 6-2 lead into the locker room. Ian King scored the lone Michigan goal during that stretch for his 18th of the season.
Maryland's Jay Carlson had a hat-trick in the first half, but noticeably absent from the scoring was freshman phenom Matt Rambo. Rambo went into Tuesday's game with 13 goals on the season, but just couldn't find the cage against Michigan...until he decided to make the game his from 6:45 left in the third quarter to 8:18 to go in the fourth. In that time, Rambo was able to string together four consecutive scores, the only Maryland scoring in that time.
Ian King's second score of the day was the last score for Michigan, bringing the final to 13-5 Maryland. Last week's OT hero against Bellarmine, Mikie Schlosser, tied King with two goals in the game, but it was disappointing that the Michigan offense just could not find more.
Shots | Saves | Face-Offs | Ground Balls | Extra-Man Opps | |
Michigan | 31 | 11 | 9-20 | 22 | 0-1 |
Maryland | 42 | 8 | 11-20 | 27 | 0-3 |
The other area I feared that mediocrity would rear its ugly head was at the face-off. Brad Lott was coming off a 21 of 24 performance against Bellarmine, but was just 8 of 18 against the Terps who took 11 of 20 chances at the dot. Michigan's defense just looked too slow against the Maryland clear, and did not put much pressure on the Terps who were able to execute time after time.
After falling to 4-5 on the season, Michigan next welcomes the St. Joe's Hawks to the Big House. So, what about these Hawks?
St. Joe's Hawks(5-2, 2-0 Northeast Conference)
Date: March 22
Time: 3:00 p.m. Eastern
Place: Michigan Stadium
Coverage: MGoBlueTV
After starting 1-2 in the first three games of the season, the Hawks of St. Joe's have won four in a row.
Attack: after missing most of last year, redshirt junior Ryan McGee has come back with a vengeance for the Hawks and is leading the team in scoring with 17. He also had 8 assists and has picked up 17 ground balls. Pat Swanick was last year's leading scorer on the team, but he has only one so far in 2014. Sophomore Matt Blasco has 9 goals this year, and had won NEC Player of the Week back in February for his 3 goals and 6-point day against the VMI Keydets.
Midfield: Mike Dougherty is leading the midfield crew with 10 goals and 8 assists. Dougherty's getting some great support from senior teammate Johnny Simanski's 6 goals.
FOGO: the Hawks are splitting the FOGO duties between senior Will Abbott and freshman Mike Lanham. Abbot is 31 of 61 at the dot, while Lanham is 36 of 51, for a .708 win percentage.
Defense/Goalie: sophomore defenseman, John Winchell, is leading with 20 GBs, but has an impressive 100% shooting percentage. Okay, he's scored one time on one shot, but 100% is 100%, right? Will Farrell is not Will Ferrell, but he has a talent for causing turnovers, leading the team with twelve. Farrell has also picked up 13 GBs...and did not star in Anchorman 2 (worst sequel ever). Junior goalkeeper Dustin Keen has started six games in 2014 and has a save % of .547, while allowing an average of 7.16 goals per game.
The Outlook
Michigan walked away with an 11-8 victory against St. Joe's last year, after falling to the Hawks in an exhibition match in 2012. St. Joe's toughest competition so far this year has been match-ups with High Point (who defeated Michigan this season) and Penn. The Hawks were outscored 23-11 in those two games.
Michigan | St. Joe's | |
Goals-Shot attempts | 94-354 | 66-244 |
Goals scored per game | 10.44 | 9.43 |
Shot % | .266 | .270 |
Shots on goal-attempts | 200-354 | 136-244 |
SOG % | .565 | .577 |
Total Goals | 94 | 66 |
Man-Up Opps | 14-32 | 5-29 |
Ground Balls | 273 | 196 |
Turnovers | 130 | 112 |
Caused Turnovers | 71 | 63 |
Face-Offs | 124-235 (.527) |
86-144 (.597) |
Clears | 155-173 (.896) | 106-118 (.898) |
Saves | 86 | 56 |
Keep in mind that these stats are through nine games for Michigan, while St. Joe's has played only seven. I still believe that the Wolverines have shown enough output to be able to handle the Hawks for a second year in a row, but it could be a close game. Michigan will probably find themselves down more than once during the game, but they'll be able to move ahead late in the fourth quarter for a narrow two point win.