Welcome back to another edition of Analytics with Augie, this week Tech is taking on the *checks notes* Augies? That can’t be right, I wasn’t even in Houghton last weekend. Something must be wrong here, are you sure??
Friday, November 3rd Michigan Tech 6 – Augustana 4
So that first period was a bit rough eh? I’m sure none of you were ready to sell the team after that though, we all knew that they had that second period in them the whole time right? Yeah for sure, lets go with that. Jokes aside, holy cow that second period was what we have been wanting this team to look like all year. Tech definitely trailed off after the 5th goal, but that was likely due to them playing a bit more defensively to protect the lead.
That was a rough first period, but after that it was all Tech. By the end of the game the Huskies had the edge in both quantity and quality of shots which is always a recipe for success. Not much else to say about this one, it was bad and then it was good.
Hey, so it seems like that Isaac Gordon kid is pretty good at playing hockey from looking at the advanced stats, I wonder if that translated to the actual game or not. What’s that? He had a hat trick including a goal on the power play and a goal on an empty net, both of which didn’t contribute to his performance on this chart because it only accounts for 5v5 hockey? Huh, maybe he actually is good at playing hockey. I’m very surprised by how low Jack Works is on this chart, I thought he looked excellent both games this weekend but the stats didn’t seem to back that up. Based off his past performance, I’m inclined to believe he is still a very good player and this week is an outlier. Either way, I’m glad he is healthy and back putting in the work on the ice.
Saturday, November 4th Michigan Tech 4 – Augustana 3
Well after giving us all a taste of what the team could be in the second period on Friday, the first two periods were a pretty rough way to start on Saturday. Luckily the Huskies started to find some life again near the end of the second and were able to carry that through the rest of the game. Tech ran the show in the third period (and OT but that isn’t shown on this chart) and were able to just barely come back to tie the game and win it in OT, thanks to some last second heroics from Mosley
Its funny looking at this shot map because Tech had so many chances from in close to the net which should be much more likely to be goals, and yet only one of them went from in tight. But a shout from the faceoff circle and one from the point did go in. Hockey is a weird game sometimes, and that’s part of what makes it beautiful.
Don’t let the fact that Ryland Mosley had a 70% on Ice xG at 5v5 distract you from the fact that he is in fact allergic to 5v5 hockey. The absolute madman had a hattrick on Saturday night with zero goals scored during 5v5 hockey despite being on of the best players on the ice during 5v5. Jed Pietila tried to take over the spot Brett Thorne held last year of “defenseman that plays a crazy amount of minutes and is good doing it” on Saturday. I for one welcome our new Time On Ice overlord, please clap.
No thoughts, just vibes
No thoughts, just existential crises. I’m just glad that Dirk referred to our opponents as the Vikings because I’m worried the whiplash might kill me if I hear Dirk talking about Tech playing against the “Augies”
Closing Time
I hope you enjoyed taking a look at some nice charts and graphs with me. If you have any questions about the charts, my analysis, or just want to say hello, please leave a comment or reach out to me on the THG discord server (@Augie) and I’d be happy to try and answer your questions.
Special thanks to Livonia Technical Services for being the official sponsor of all InStat analytics at Tech Hockey Guide
