The Michigan Wolverines have finally broken out of their winter hibernation and took all six points available in the week's series with Michigan State.
Thursday night's game at Joe Louis Arena saw the game winning goal come off the stick of junior forward Phil Di Giuseppe at 17:42 in the third period. You can read a full recap of Thursday's 2-1 win at MGoBlue dot com.
Friday night saw the teams clash at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing, where the Wolverines went on a three-goal tear in the third frame for a much-needed and welcome 5-2 win over the Spartans.
Not until 17:29 of the first period was there a score, and that off a one-timer by Spartan junior forward Tanner Sorenson. The goal came just as the BTN graphics people showed Michigan's 82.1% penalty kill rate, and thirty-three seconds to go in the Spartan power play. Michigan followed up with five seconds to go in the first frame, when JT Compher's first goal of the night was a backhand rocket against MSU goalie Jake Hildebrand.
The Wolverines went up 2-1 at 5:09 in the second period after a Spartan turnover in the neutral zone and Derek DeBlois got the puck bouncing on its edge past Hildebrand's right side.
As if to once again fly in the face of Michigan's penalty kill stat, Michigan State scored off a Michael Ferrentino rebound and bull rush into Michigan goaltender Zach Naglevoort. It would be the last Spartan goal of the period, and the game, as Michigan poured it on to try and remove the bad taste of dropping their five previous games.
Derek DeBlois scored his second goal of the game off a redirected shot by Brennan Serville to put the Wolverines up 3-2 at the 5:23 mark of the third period, and the flood gates were now open as defenseman Mac Bennett scored on a breakaway goal just fifty-one seconds after the DeBlois goal.
At 13:54 of the third, Michigan's JT Compher guaranteed the win on a short-handed 2-on-1 breakaway one-timer (on one knee, no less) assisted by Andrew Copp, putting the Wolverines up 5-2.
Of course, seeing as this was against Michigan State, things got a little chippy at the end. After a rejection by Naglevoort, Michigan's Compher took a shot at the back of the head of MSU's Mackenzie MacEachern, resulting in a bit of a scrum between the two teams. The video below shows the fight and other highlights from Friday's game. Note MSU's Joe Cox doing his best Bane impression and trying to break Zach Hyman's back.
On the ensuing faceoff, State's Jake Chelios went high and hit JT Compher in the chin, followed him down the ice and cross-checked Compher twice before play was stopped. Red Berenson's reaction, which was what you would expect out of an old-school player and coach who has seen a ton of crap in his time...
@ee_lennon @hooverstreet pic.twitter.com/LzSti7IXSn
— terryfoster (@terryfoster) January 25, 2014
Michigan will next face the Wisconsin Badgers (14-7-1, 5-3-0) who split the weekend series with the Ohio State Buckeyes. More to follow on these teams in the B1G roundup.