Two storied rivals collided inside of Yost Ice Arena as the Michigan Wolverines took on arch rival Ohio State Buckeyes for the weekend series finale. Both teams came in off a 5-5 tie on Friday night in game 1 of the series but the Buckeyes get an extra point, winning the nine round overtime shootout.
The story of the season has been the Wolverines having to come from behind to win games. On Friday night in Columbus, they came back after being down 3-0 to the Buckeyes. We saw that again tonight as the Wolverines were down 5-3 entering the third period and scored two power play goals 50 seconds apart.
Junior Tyler Motte earned his first collegiate hat trick on a goal in the third period that gave Michigan a 6-5 lead. The Wolverines scored 5 goals in the third period and the top line of Compher, Motte and Connor accounted for 6-of-8 goals in the game.
The first period began like any other first period would in any rivalry, each team was fired up and ready to play. At 1:45 Brendan Warren netted his 5th goal of the season when he let a one timer go from inside the left faceoff circle to put Michigan on top 1-0.
The Buckeyes came back to tie the game at 1 when Dakota Joshua scored his first collegiate goal with a wraparound that beat Michigan goalie Steve Racine. Just 36 seconds later Tyler Motte added his first goal of the night off a rebound that he put into the net to give the Wolverines a 2-1 lead.
Ohio State wasn’t done yet, Tyler Lundey added his name to the list of goal scorers when he added his first goal of the season to tie the game at 2. Michigan outshot the Buckeyes 15-13.
Momentum seemed to follow the Buckeyes into the second period. The second period began with a Justin Selman high sticking penalty which gave the Buckeyes their first power play of the night and at 1:17 Junior David Gust gave the Buckeyes their first lead of the night 3-2. Just 2:13 after Freshmen Sasha Larocque gave the Ohio State an early two goal lead in the period. But in normal Michigan fashion this season they fought right back. At 7:02 of the second, Michigan freshman phenom Kyle Connor brought the Wolverines within one with a beautiful goal setup by his line mate Tyler Motte.
Unfortunately for the Wolverines, a boarding penalty by JT Compher gave the Buckeyes a late second period power play and at 18:46 Mason Jobst drives the puck home past Racine and the Wolverines are down 2 goals with less than two minutes remaining in the second period.
With just 38.1 seconds remaining in the period Ohio State’s Freshman Brendon Kearney draws a hooking penalty and gives the Wolverines their first power play of the game. As the period ends, Josh Healey gets called for roughing giving the Wolverines a two man advantage entering the third period.
At the end of the second period the Wolverines would trail the Buckeyes 5-3. Michigan allowed 27 shots on net in the second period while OSU only allowed 16. Both goaltenders were playing well despite the score.
Entering the third period would we see the potent Michigan offense or would the fire power falter against their rivals? 52 seconds into the third period, Kyle Connor would score his second goal of the night and nation tying 18th goal of the season when he knocks home a beautiful one timer from Motte and Compher to bring the Wolverines within 1 goal. With the extra attacker, Michigan’s Tyler Motte tied the game by being in the right place at the right time knocking in the rebound and tying the game at 5. The Wolverines scored two power play goals in 50 seconds to start the third period.
Michigan’s Tyler Motte would score his first collegiate hat trick at 3:35 when he took a shot that was deflected in the air and behind Tomkins to give the Wolverines a 6-5 lead. The goal would be put under a lengthy review as they tried to decide if Compher knocked the puck in with a high stick but after review it was determined that Compher did not touch the puck.
The game had that hated rivalry feel to it through out the game but it was very apparent during the third where you could tell that these rivals were going to give their all to earn that win.
Michigan’s fourth line came through to add the eventual game winner when Dexter Dancs knocked home a rebound and extended the lead to 2 with 10:26 remaining in the game.
Ohio State pulled Tomkins towards the end of the third to give them an extra attacker but the Captain JT Compher would make them pay scoring an empty netter at 16:54 to put the game out of reach for the Buckeyes. At 19:41 Sophomore Kevin Miller would add a late goal past Racine.
After the game tensions would rise when the two schools got into a good old hockey fight. There would be 16 penalties after the fight assessed to both teams including four players from both sides receiving disqualification penalties which are a minimum of a 1 game suspension. Michigan’s Cutler Martin and Dexter Dancs along with Ohio State’s Dakota Joshua and Brendon Kearney received disqualification penalties.
Michigan’s Steve Racine would earn the W for the game as he stopped 43 of 49 shots and Ohio States Matt Tomkins would earn the loss defending 39 of 47 shots faced.
The Wolverines next game will be on Thursday when they host the National Development Team at Yost Ice Arena. Puck drops at 7:35 PM EST.
