Michigan Hockey got rivalry week started a bit early by welcoming in Ohio State for a pair of games at Yost before the two football teams square off on Saturday.
Game 1
Michigan had lost its most recent game to Penn State, so the Wolverines were looking to get back into the win column right away on Friday night. However, it was Ohio State that got the scoring started in the middle of the first period. After Garrett Schifsky was assessed a roughing penalty, Felix Caro scored a power play goal to put the Buckeyes
up 1-0. Michigan would even things up though late in the period, as Malcolm Spence would score to make it 1-1 at the break.
The Buckeyes stayed on the attack in the second period, resulting in a Jake Dunlap goal to put Ohio State up 2-1. Continuing the back-and-forth trend, Michigan’s Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen would find the back of the net to tie the game at 2-2.
Michigan had already been getting plenty of pressure on Ohio State, with 28 shots Kristoffer Eberly through the first two periods, but didn’t really break through until the third. Midway through the frame, T.J. Hughes would score to give Michigan a 3-2 lead, while Josh Eernisse added an insurance goal just a few minutes later. Luca Fantilli buried an empty-netter in the final seconds to give Michigan the 5-2 victory.
Game 2
Michigan got right back to business Saturday night, with Josh Eernisse scoring his second goal of the weekend to put the Wolverines up 1-0 early in the first. Kienan Draper and Aidan Park both scored in the final minutes of the frame to give Michigan an early 3-0 lead.
The Wolverines wouldn’t slow down in the second period either, with Michael Hage scoring about 3.5 minutes into the frame to make it a 4-0 game. Will Horcoff also got in on the fun with a goal of his own to make it 5-0. Barring a late miracle, the Wolverines could set it to cruise control for the third period.
That was not the mindset, though, with Michigan tacking on three more goals in the third to go up by a score of 8-0. It wasn’t until the final minute of the game when Ohio State finally broke through with a goal to make it 8-1.
With the sweep, Michigan advanced to 13-3 overall and 6-2 in Big Ten play. To make things a bit more interesting, No. 1 Michigan State was swept this weekend by Wisconsin, giving Michigan a chance to be the new No. 1 team in the country next week. The Wolverines will have a chance to perhaps defend their top rank next weekend when they head to Cambridge for games against Harvard on Friday and Saturday.
