Re: Wisconsin Badgers 2014-2015
This is an ongoing issue for the Badgers and one that I'll agree will lessen as Pankowski et al age/mature, but I will also say that I felt it was more pronounced this weekend than normal.
Put it down to being the first game back from break, or being hyped against Minnesota or the yips or whatever reasoning you want to put on it, but the girls were sailing shots in a way that they haven't tended to do otherwise this season. They were peppering the glass and boards behind Leveille, which just isn't their normal MO. It was worse on Saturday, but it happened some on Sunday, too.
As ARM mentioned, Minny blocked quite a few in the 1st period Sunday - the Badgers attempted 24 shots, but only 6 were on goal. 11 of those were blocked, but the rest were scattered. They settled some for the other two periods, but that's indicative of the issue over the weekend.
It wasn't til the end of Saturday's game that I really crystallized the thought about the ladies sailing all those shots, so I didn't keep track of shots attempted vs on goal that game and I didn't see final stats sheets for either game, sadly.
Additionally, and I think this is two-fold, the Badgers were shooting from way outside, especially on Saturday. Ammerman and Turnbull have been a little stymied and I think they was looking for a breakthrough, so were putting pucks on net from pretty much wherever they got them on the ice. My thoughts on Leveille's tendency to give up rebounds are well documented (on Twitter anyway). Minny does a great job of surrounding her and packing the crease with great defenders. Because of that packed in D, I think the Badgers were shooting pucks from further out, looking for deflections or having Leveille screened by her own players. Unfortunately, the girls were rarely on target and those pucks were sailing all over the place.
Agreed. SOG after the first period were 11-6 Gophers, but the Badgers had numerous shot attempts blocked and/or go wide. If those had been on-net, they would have been in.
This is an ongoing issue for the Badgers and one that I'll agree will lessen as Pankowski et al age/mature, but I will also say that I felt it was more pronounced this weekend than normal.
Put it down to being the first game back from break, or being hyped against Minnesota or the yips or whatever reasoning you want to put on it, but the girls were sailing shots in a way that they haven't tended to do otherwise this season. They were peppering the glass and boards behind Leveille, which just isn't their normal MO. It was worse on Saturday, but it happened some on Sunday, too.
As ARM mentioned, Minny blocked quite a few in the 1st period Sunday - the Badgers attempted 24 shots, but only 6 were on goal. 11 of those were blocked, but the rest were scattered. They settled some for the other two periods, but that's indicative of the issue over the weekend.
It wasn't til the end of Saturday's game that I really crystallized the thought about the ladies sailing all those shots, so I didn't keep track of shots attempted vs on goal that game and I didn't see final stats sheets for either game, sadly.
Additionally, and I think this is two-fold, the Badgers were shooting from way outside, especially on Saturday. Ammerman and Turnbull have been a little stymied and I think they was looking for a breakthrough, so were putting pucks on net from pretty much wherever they got them on the ice. My thoughts on Leveille's tendency to give up rebounds are well documented (on Twitter anyway). Minny does a great job of surrounding her and packing the crease with great defenders. Because of that packed in D, I think the Badgers were shooting pucks from further out, looking for deflections or having Leveille screened by her own players. Unfortunately, the girls were rarely on target and those pucks were sailing all over the place.