The most anticipated Michigan hockey season in years kicked off this weekend, as the No. 2 Wolverines took the ice for a home-and-home against Bowling Green. Here’s how a Michigan team with eyes on snapping a 29-year national title drought began the year.
Game 1
It took just five minutes for the Wolverines to open their account on the year, when forward JP Hurlbert received a puck from defenseman Henry Mews and won a one-on-one with Falcons goaltender Jacob Steinman to slot home for his first of his Michigan
career. But Bowling Green needed less than three minutes to punch back, when forward Jeremie Minville scored a power play goal to level the score at 1-1. The rest of the period was surprisingly quiet for the heavily favored Wolverines.
Michigan pulled away in the second period, though. Less than five minutes into the period, forward Cole McKinney pounced on a deflection by the mouth of the goal to make it 2-1 — a moment that also gave prospective first overall pick Landon DuPont an assist for the first point of his Wolverines career.
Michigan’s talisman forward Michael Hage made it 3-1 on the power play just two minutes later, and forward Jayden Perron buried a pearl of a pass from DuPont with around eight minutes left on the board.
The third period was just insurance. Forward and captain Garrett Schifsky got on the edge of a beautiful diagonal pass from defenseman Cameron Reid to make it 5-1, and Hage tipped in a wayward shot from defenseman Drew Schock for his second and Michigan’s sixth. Falcons forward Max Martin pulled one back on the power play, but forward Malcolm Spence scored shorthanded for the Wolverines to bury the dagger.
Final score: Michigan 7, Bowling Green 2
Game 2
The second installment of the head-to-head began with a mighty scare for the Wolverines. An errant long-distance shot from Bowling Green defenseman Breck McKinley ricocheted into the back of goaltender Jack Ivankovic’s net to put Bowling Green up 1-0 a little over a minute in. And three minutes in, Minville gave the Falcons a shocking 2-0 lead. It wasn’t just a fluke either — for an entire period, Bowling Green outplayed and outshot Michigan.
The Wolverines finally woke up in the second period when Perron bundled one in 10 seconds into the second on the power play. Seven minutes later, Hage continued his blistering start to the season as he leveled the score 2-2 with a backhander. And two minutes after that, Schock completed the comeback with a thunderous shot from just behind the faceoff dot.
But the Falcons weren’t down for the count just yet, as 11 minutes into the third, forward Conor Levis leveled things at 3-3 off the power play. But about a minute later, Perron finally called game when he slotted home from a Hage maneuver-and-pass, as Michigan grinded out the 4-3 victory.
It was by no means pretty. It could have been embarrassing. But it was enough to secure the sweep, enough for Wolverines coach Brandon Naurato’s 100th career victory and enough to start the season unbeaten.
So far, so good.
Final score: Michigan 4, Bowling Green 3
