Re: '12-13 Michigan Tech Season Thread: Screw the Election, Let's Play Hockey!
Although I do think alot of our defensive woes can be put on the goalies letting in too many easy goals.
Yeah they can be just back breakers when the easy goals go in for the other team.
Mel Pearson show summary for 12-17:
Not the weekend we wanted
Did some good things at time, but results weren't there, a lot of credit to UND, they're a good team
Our problems are a lot of little things, if it's one major thing you can work on it, but every night it's something different, bad goal, blown coverage, not in a passing lane etc
These are all very correctable, just need to quit doing them, we'll continue to get better and see progress
4-10-3, brighter things coming in 2nd half
Break is at a good time, need to get away, especially younger guys, it's been a grind
Like our 2nd half schedule, Juniors and Seniors had a tough 1st half, they will get better
Our goalies have a feel for what it's like to play in this league, can only get better
On Friday game:
UND PP goal, 1-0, Kristo/Knight/Gleason, put them on our team we win the series, their best players came through, all very good
Saunders played extremely well, 9-8 in favor of UND for grade A soring chances
Shots 35 Friday, 32 Sat, generating chances, not finishing, so every goal against is huge
NHL problems, maybe wouldn't see high end players back for Senior year, Kristo, Bjustad (UMN) happy they're in college hockey, better game/league, overall good for our youngs to see a guy like Kristo stay 4 years
End of 1st period, they score with 1 sec left, we had puck, 8 secs left, need to know situation, should've eaten the puck, threw it up boards, UND made play and a Knight goal, unforced turnover
Those are the mistakes we're making, not systems, coaches, need to teach players to not do it again
B. Pietila goal, good backcheck by D. Johnstone, down 2-1, from that point crowd is into it,
Petan with an opportunity right after that, shot a little high, shortly after that, nice rush, Stebner to Petan, tipped it off goalpost
Shortly after that we take a penalty (Hyland) bad penalty, don't need to take, Gleason scores, 8 secs left in penalty they score, blown coverage, UND all alone
Did a lot of good things on PK, it was 2-5 so doesn't look good, but did good things
Shots 38-35, MTU PP 0-5 9 shots, UND 2-5 8 shots, can't give up 6 goals and expect to win, need to take advantage of chances
On Saturday game:
Tough goal to give up 1:30 in, Kevin would likely have that back
PP goal to tie it, D. Johnstone, nice goal, most of the weekend we moved the puck well on the PP, David will have a good 2nd half
Friday D. Johnstone tried to do too much, looked really good Sat
UND makes it 2-1, faceoff goal, high slot shot, don't see many of those go in, most goalies stop that, Kevin may want it back
Their top line really took it to us, have to play UND 5x5 and test their depth, too much 4x4 or PP/PK time
Delayed penalty, then Eick gets hauled down on breakaway pass from Rix, so 2 penalties, one is a penalty shot, could take 5x3 or penalty shot and minor
Easy decision, someone from ice has to take penalty shot (not just guy that got hauled down, Eick), Mel knew that but tried to throw Blake P out there, UND got excited, and Rix got the shot, could've been 4-2 and going on PP
And then we get penalty while on PP, Kevin shouldn't have thrown the puck up there, he made some bad decisions with the puck, should've held it, let us regroup and attack with speed
Too many penalties in 3rd, didn't give ourselves a chance to fight back, 5 penalties
It seems like we were on the PK most of the 3rd period Sat, what improved so that we didn't get scored on?
Goalie needs to play well, Kevin wsa better. Also need better shot blocking and sticks in passing lanes etc.
Why isn't the guy who leads the team in goals not on the PK1 unit?
Blake is on one unit, we want two good units, Blake is in a spot where he can score, don't want all scorers on a single unit. Also, want to think post PP< don't want all top guys on same unit, could be tired.
What's Sova's status?
Might be ready for UMD series, but doubt it. Maybe the 1st part of Feb, after UMD is Bemidji then a bye. Needs to get into game conditioning and speed. He had surgery last Tuesday, that set him back. Sutures have to come out to get a playing cast. We miss him on PP and 5x5.
We missed Stebner Sat due to minor injury and had to sit out. Miss Justin Fillion too, you can tell by goals against. Thought our goaltending would be better, new there'd be ups/downs, and there's been progress, but need better consitency from all 3.
Thought Dmen would be a lot better. It's team defense, all groups need to do better. Looking at statistics, we have to do a better job.
How's recruiting going?
Good, really happy with recruiting, would like to FF and bring gus in, but have to be patient. Good guys in pipeline in future, doign well in their leagues. Don't know how many we'll bring in next year. Had a recruit this weekend and another one today, really excited about the future.
Another question about why wasn't B. Pietila on the ice Saturday on PP, down 4-1, maybe instead of Furne? Blake gets a lot of ice time, Furne had the most goals last year. Every player has a role, trying to keep Blake fresh with another group and be in a spot for him to have success.
Did anyone on ice or bench notice puck hitting net when it was 1-0 Friday?
Yeah, it hits netting, didn't notice it from bench, Shields and others upstairs noticed. UND comes down and scores with 1 second left. Watching it back, hard to distinguish if it hits net.
Why are there no sophmore/junior goalies, is that a concern?
We talked about that recruiting and taking both goalies, should we spread them out? Need two goalies, likely to have 2 freshment, need 2nd and 3rd, like to spread it out, want 2 years speration, it just worked out that way. We liked them both, they can push each other.
GLI:
Won the tourney every year Mel played in it. It's different than at MI, longer road trip. Should be a good crowd with no NHL.
Good field, UM, MSU, Western Michigan.
GLI prize pack winnter, $662 prize pack. Chase Sturos won
Mel will have practice for 2-3 days this week, a little recruiting, a couple days off for Christmas, and then teh GLI
Good luck to B. Pietila, at WJ Camp as we speak, pretty sure he'll make the team, he'll be in Russia during GLI, good representative of MTU
If doesn't make it, he'll be at GLI
Thanks for your support, means a lot to players/team, have faith/patience, good GLI will be a springboard to 2nd half
