Michigan Men’s hockey came away with a much-needed victory over the Buckeyes of Ohio State 4-2 at the Red Berenson Rink Yost Ice Arena. In a game that the Wolverines needed to position themselves for home ice for the Big Ten Tournament, the first period did not start well for Michigan. Both teams had chances and Michigan could only get 5 shots on Buckeye goalie Sean Romeo while Michigan goalie Straus Mann held the high scoring Buckeyes silent.
Mason Jobst opened the scoring in the game at the 4.56 of the second period with help from Gordi Myer and Miguel Fidler to give OSU the lead. With Michigan having a late second-period two-man advantage Quinn Hughes tied the game with two seconds left in the period to wake the packed crowd at Yost. With both teams tied into the third period, Tanner Laczynski slipped a shot past Mann at the 5;44 of the third period to put Ohio State back into the lead.
Michigan’s line of Van Wyhe, Raabe and Moyle then took over with Nolan Moyle collecting two goals to tie the game and produce the game-winner. Moyle first scored on a rebound to beat Romeo and then the second goal was a nice pass from center Garrett Van Wyhe. In the last three games, Moyle has produced 4 goals with two tonight and two against Michigan State. With the game coming down to the end and OSU putting pressure on, Michigan defenseman Nicholas Boka slid a pass to Jimmy Lambert with 1;10 left in the game to give Michigan a 4th goal to produce the 4-2 victory.
Michigan played a tough 3rd period and after Mel Pearson’s time out to encourage the Wolverines at what was at stake they were able to outplay the Buckeyes even with Ohio State outshooting the Wolverines 31-25. The Wolverines were also able to shut down the Buckeye power play 0-4 for the night and will look to continue to perform this trick for tonight’s game with a rematch. The Michigan victory places them in a tie for third in the Big Ten standings with 33 points with Minnesota who lost 3-2 to Notre Dame and also stopped the Buckeyes from winning the Big Ten championship regular season on Wolverine ice. Tonight’s game is 6 pm Est and will be on BTN.