Robert Morris 14, Detroit 13

The Titans continue to show serious signs of a breakthrough, with a pair of 1-goal losses (including one to ranked Ohio State) on the season. However, as they say, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades. You don't play for the moral victory, you play to win the game. Unfortunately, I was unable to make it out to this game, although I had been planning to do so.

The Titans almost pulled off the feat against Robert Morris, coming from three goals behind in the fourth quarter to tie the game with more than seven minutes to go. However, they squandered opportunities to end the game in regulation (including a 2-man advantage), and allowed a Colonial goal with 1:35 left in overtime to end the contest.

I get the feeling that this is going to be a particularly painful tempo free section...

Tempo-Free

From the official box score, your tempo-free breakdown:

Robert Morris
Robert Morris		Detroit
Faceoff Wins	14	Faceoff Wins	16
Clearing	16-24	Clearing	18-22
Possessions	42	Possessions	46
Goals	14	Goals	13
Offensive Efficiency	.333	Offensive Efficiency	.283

Actually, that wasn't truly painful at all. Where the Titans have been getting owned on possession all year long, they managed to have the advantage both at the faceoff X and in the clear/ride game. The only place they lacked was efficiency, but in a 1-goal game, the small-ish sample size is going to make the stats look much more skewed than they actually are. Had the Titans gotten the goal in overtime, they would have had an efficiency advantage.

In such an evenly-matched game, nothing is going to jump out from the raw efficiency numbers (aside from from the fact that Detroit didn't get destroyed in a few of the metrics), but the pace of the game was pretty quick, especially since both teams had pretty good success on the clear.

Notes

Scott Harris and Shayne Adams (predictably) led the team in scoring, along with Tim Lehto. All had 4 points, with Adams and Lehto doing it on 3 goals, whereas Harris had 3 assists. A much more well-rounded offensive production than we've seen in the past couple weeks. 7 other Titans had a single goal each.

Defensively, Jordan Houtby caused the most turnovers for UDM, which we're accustomed to seeing by this point. He caused 4 Colonial turnovers, and scooped up an outstanding 10 GBs. Harris was the only other Detroit player to cause multiple turnovers, with a career-high 3.

AJ Levell went the distance between the pipes, making 11 saves and allowing 14 goals in 62:25 for the overtime loss.

The Titans should continue riding Brandon Davenport on faceoffs, as he was a pretty good (for the low expectations, at least) 16/29. He's going to keep struggling when he faces top competition, but there probably won't be too much of that from here on out.

Elsewhere

Official site recap. Box score. Robert Morris site recap.

Up Next

The path becomes much easier for Detroit from here on out, as they enter MAAC play. They'll take on VMI on Saturday at home to kick off conference play.