Two late period third period goals by Union allowed them to deliver Michigan a loss in their season opener at Yost Ice Arena, 4-3.
Friday, another regular season began at the historic Yost Ice Arena. Michigan entered the game after a heartbreaking loss in the NCAA Regional Final to the North Dakota Red Hawks, 5-2, last year.
The Wolverines lost many of their top players – TJ Compher, Tyler Motte, Kyle Conner, Zach Werenski and Michael Downing as well as their senior leaders in Boo Nieves, Justin Selman and Steve Racine. Michigan came into the game with 11 freshman.
Union (N.Y) took the early momentum by having a pair of scoring opportunities early in the first period on Michigan’s senior goaltender Zach Nagelvoort. Union would give the Wolverines an early man advantage at 8:46 of the first when Anthony Rinaldi was called for hooking.
The Michigan power play unit didn’t waste any time getting on the board when junior defensemen Sam Piazza scored with from between the dots and beat Union goaltender Alex Sakellaropoulos to take the early 1-0 lead.
After two critical penalties by the Michigan’s Tony Calderone and Joseph Cecconi, the Wolverines saw themselves with a crucial 5-on-3 to kill.
The Wolverines went up 2-0 on a shorthanded goal by Calderone as he would take the Max Shuart long pass to go one-on-one with Sakellaropoulos. Calderone would make a nice deke to beat him and would give the Wolverines an early start over Union.
Later in the first, the Wolverines would find themselves in the penalty box as Evan Allen took a seat for hooking. Union would capitalize on their power play opportunity when Spencer Foo would score his first goal of the game with a wrist shot to beat Nagelvoort and pull Union within one of the Wolverines’ 2-1 lead.
With just less than two minutes remaining in the first period, Foo and Union tied the game on his second goal. Michigan and Union would head into the locker room tied 2-2 at the end of the first period. Union outshot the Wolverines 13-8.
Entering the second, the Michigan offense came out with passion and excitement to get the go-ahead goal. Freshman Will Lockwood took a wrister from the top right faceoff dot to beat Sakellaropoulos for a 3-2 lead.
This was the only goal scored in the second period.
Both Michigan and Union had scoring opportunities but each of their goaltenders would stand. Union would once again outshoot the Wolverines 12-8 in the second period but the momentum to seemed to be on the side of the Wolverines.
In the final period, both offenses tried to give their teams some momentum.
Both goaltenders once again would make amazing saves to keep the game 3-2 until the very end.
At the 14:17 mark of the third, Cutler Martin would head to the box for high sticking. This would be a penalty that would prove costly for the Wolverines.
Union capitalized on the late period penalty when Mike Vecchione scored through a crowd of players in front of Nagelvoort to tie the game, 3-3.
“We took an unnecessary penalty and that was costly,” Coach Berenson said about the Martin penalty late in the third period. “That power play goal was the turning point for their team and maybe our team too.”
Momentum seemed to turn in favor of Union as defensemen Jeff Taylor scored the game winning goal from just inside the right faceoff circle with a wrist shot to beat Nagelvoort with 2:09 remaining to make it 4-3.
The young Wolverines offense tried to mount some momentum by pulling Nagelvoort for the extra attacker but the Dutchmen held on strong to prevent the Wolverine from tying their regular season home opener.
Union outshot the Wolverines 15-7 in the third period. Sakellaropoullos would stopped 20-of-23 shots to earn his first win of the season, and Nagelvoort stopped 36-of-40 shots for his first loss of the season.
Michigan will try to redeem Friday’s loss Saturday against Union for Game 2 of the opening series. Puck drop is at 5PM EST.
