Midweek Roundup: November 17, 2021
Preview the weekend’s showcase with 14th-ranked Notre Dame and bask in the statistical brilliance of your beloved Wolverines
The University of Michigan men’s ice hockey team, once again number-one-ranked in America, is set to begin a six-game home stand this weekend with a pair of matchups against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish. In this edition of the midweek roundup, we will preview the weekend’s action, take stock of the Irish, and recap a few of the dizzying statistics around the Wolverines.
Scouting the Irish
At present, the Irish rank number fourteen in the USCHO poll and carry a four-game winning streak into the weekend. They head to Yost beginning Friday night on the heels of a sweep of Wisconsin by a combined score of 8-1. However, because they were swept by Minnesota in their only other Big Ten series to date, the Irish sit at fourth in the conference despite their high rank in the national polls.
No small part of the Notre Dame formula this season is their success in the transfer portal. The team added defensemen Chase Blackmon from UMass-Lowell and Adam Karashik from UConn this offseason, both of whom have made an immediate impact in South Bend—Karashik to such a degree that he already wears the “C.”
Though Blackmon and Karashik have no doubt contributed a steadying presence to the Irish blue line, their most impactful transfer plays between the pipes. That, of course, would be Matt Galajda, a super senior who came to Notre Dame by way of Ithaca, NY, where he spent three seasons as the Big Red’s highly decorated goaltender. At Cornell, Galajda posted a .930 over his three seasons, the heartbeat of one of the nation’s stoutest defensive teams.
After COVID knocked all Ivy League teams out of action a year ago, seniors were eligible to spend an extra season on campus, but Galajda nonetheless opted to head west to South Bend.
Galajda has shown no signs of slowing down with his move from the ECAC to the B1G. In eight starts this year, he is 7-1 with two shutouts and .943 save percentage.
Compounding the difficulty of scoring against the Irish is their elite penalty kill, currently the best in the nation at a 95.3% effective rate. The Irish PK against the Wolverines’ pair of lethal power play units will be one of the defining match-ups of the weekend. Suffice it to say, the Wolverine offense, clinical last weekend in Happy Valley, will need to be in top form this weekend to best Galajda and the Irish.
To that end, the discourse around this Notre Dame team is that they are a defensive outfit, a conversation that has grown loud enough for head coach Jeff Jackson to offer his two cents on the matter to USCHO a week ago. Jackson said “I really hate when people say we’re a defensive team. We’re a puck possession team in my opinion.” He followed it up by arguing that his team was more likely to win if it could control the puck for 60% of each game, a claim I wouldn’t dare dispute.
That Jackson expressed such strong frustration regarding a narrow distinction in the conversation AROUND the team, rather than an actual on-ice issue is noteworthy. The most logical explanation is that the notion that the Irish play “defensive” hockey has emerged on the recruiting trail.
As you may have noticed, Michigan is in the midst of an unprecedented run of recruiting dominance. The Irish are one of several schools with a clear incentive to interrupt that run and knock the Wolverines from atop that perch.
This weekend, the Irish will not just be looking to make up ground in the Big Ten standings but also win the affections of heretofore undecided recruits.
Back on Top
As we alluded to above, Michigan has returned to the top of the college hockey mountain for the time being, sitting at number one in the USCHO and USA Today polls for this week.
Last time Michigan found themselves atop said polls, they suffered their first loss of the season at home to Western Michigan (allegedly following some peacocking on behalf of this very newsletter).
As we said after that loss, we are no longer particularly interested in litigating the rankings, a stance made even firmer by the vast distance separating us from the NCAA tournament.
My sense is that Michigan fans don’t need a reminder of just how exceptional this team is—both on paper as a feat of roster construction and more importantly on the ice as a show of the dazzling potential of modern hockey.
Nonetheless, we will take a moment here to review some of the staggering statistics surrounding these Wolverines. Here are a few of the most notable ones:
At 4.33 goals per game, the Wolverines are the nation’s highest scoring team.
At 10-2, Michigan is the first and only team in college hockey to ten wins. (This is the best Michigan start since Kevin Porter’s Hobey Baker-winning season in 2007-08.)
With 4 goals and 16 assists, Kent Johnson leads the NCAA in both points and assists. Owen Power sits at second in assists with 15.
Luke Hughes leads the nation in +/- at +16 (yes, we know it’s a mostly silly stat, but the fact that a freshman defenseman leads the entire country in it feels at least somewhat notable)
More B1G Stars
Beyond the stats above, Michigan’s draft-topping duo of Matty Beniers and Power took home the Big Ten’s first and second stars of the week, inverting the order in which their names were called in the summer’s draft. (Incidentally, Galajda earned the third for his two victories against the Badgers).
First up is Beniers, who earned this distinction for the second straight week on the strength of his dominant two-hundred-foot performances against Penn State. With 9 goals on the season, he could easily surpass last SEASON’s total of 10 this weekend.
The week’s second star is Owen Power, who offered another casual display of facilitating dominance in State College, showing once again the smooth skating and puck handling that made him irresistible to the Buffalo Sabres in last summer’s draft. As stated above, his fifteen assists are second in the nation for all skaters. Toss in his three goals and Power is the country’s fifth-highest scorer overall and highest scoring defenseman. There are no other defensemen in the top ten.
Weekend Vibes
To send you off into the weekend with spirits high, behold this montage of Michigan’s 2020 5-1 drubbing of the Irish, played before a sold out crowd at Notre Dame Stadium