Junior Tyler Motte scored the game winning goal in overtime against Notre Dame, sending the Wolverines to the regional finals to face North Dakota for a chance to play in the Froze Four.
Michigan entered the regional semifinals coming in as the second-seed in the tournament after a stellar season behind the Hobey Baker Finalists Tyler Motte, JT Compher and Kyle Connor.
The Wolverines were 24-7-5 for the season and won the Big Ten Championship last weekend for the automatic bid in the tournament.
Friday’s regional semifinals would be another one of those hard fought hockey games between collegiate rivals. Both teams fought hard to earn the victory and, unfortunately, regulation wasn’t enough for these two teams as they would need overtime. Both teams were 0 and 4 during overtime games this season.
Michigan came out flying to start the first period, trying to set the momentum for the entire game with their top line. Both teams were feeling each other out for the first 10 minutes. The Wolverines would score first when Justin Selman would score off the faceoff with a pass from Alex Kile to beat Notre Dame goaltender Cal Petersen to make it 1-0.
Notre Dame would tie the game at 1 when Anders Bjork on a two on one would beat senior goaltender Steve Racine with a wrist shot from the slot. The first period would end tied at 1.
Both teams played a physical first period and pretty even. Notre Dame led the Wolverines in the shots category 13-11.
Notre Dame would carry the momentum from the end of the first period. The Fighting Irish would take a 2-1 lead when Anders Bjork would carry the puck into the Michigan zone and leave the puck for Thomas DiPauli who would beat Racine. Michigan had many scoring opportunities against Petersen but they were unable to capitalize on them. The second period ended with the Fighting Irish on top of the Wolverines 2-1 and outshot them 22-17.
Michigan and Notre Dame would go back at it in the third period as Michigan would battle for the game tying goal. With 12 minutes to play in the third, JT Compher thought that he tied the game for the Wolverines when he was setup with a nice pass from Tyler Motte. The game was stopped so that the officials could look and see if this puck crossed the line. After the review, it was determined that the puck did not cross the line and was deflected off a Fighting Irish player.
Moments later the Wolverines would tie the game at 2 when Zach Werenski with a one timer from the top of the circle when he was setup by Boo Nieves. Momentum seemed to be turning in the favor of Michigan. Both side would be able to score again in regulation and the game would head into overtime. Michigan would outshoot the Notre Dame 28-27 in regulation and both goaltenders played extremely well to keep the game low scoring.
Michigan took the energy and momentum into overtime. Both sides fought hard and each had a scoring opportunity. The CCM line of Compher, Connor and Motte would seal the victory for Wolverines as Tyler Motte would knock home knock the backhanded Compher pass into an empty net.
The stat of the night had to be the fact that the hot Michigan power play never had one opportunity the entire game against the Fighting Irish. The Wolverines were 6 of 9 in the Big Ten tournament last weekend. If they hope to have a chance against the Fighting Hawks of North Dakota they will need them to commit penalties.
Both goaltenders played an excellent game. Michigan’s Steve Racine earned the W stopping 28 of 30 shots on net, while Notre Dame’s Cam Petersen earned the loss while stopping 29 of 32.
Michigan earned its first NCAA Tournament victory since 2011, which was the last time the Wolverines made it to the Frozen Four. They will have to faceoff against the top-seed in the tournament – North Dakota Fighting Hawks – in the Regional Finals on Saturday to make it to their 12th Frozen Four appearance.
The puck will drop at 6PM EST and the game will be shown on ESPN 2.
