Michigan men鈥檚 hockey defeats Penn State 6-2
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The No. 19-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions men鈥檚 hockey team took on the No. 2-ranked Michigan Wolverines for the second time in two days.
Michigan won the first game by a score of 5-1 which was led by center Matty Berniers鈥� two goals.
The Wolverines lineup features top NHL prospects who have already been drafted in: Owen Power (Sabres), Matty Berniers (Kraken), Kent Johnson (Blue Jackets), Luke Hughes (Devils), Mackie Samoskevich (Panthers), Brendan Brisson (Golden Knights), Dylan Duke (Lightning), Ethan Edwards (Devils), Johnny Beecher (Bruins), Erik Portillo (Sabres), and Thomas Bordeleau (Sharks).
The Nittany Lions have NHL prospect defenseman Clayton Phillips (Penguins) in their lineup.
Portillo would start in net for the Wolverines and sophomore Liam Souliere would start for the Nittany Lions.
Michigan would get off to a sloppy start with an icing and an offsides call within the first five minutes while Penn State would not be able to capitalize.
The Wolverines and Nittany Lions then went on to trade offensive chances before the physical play began when Beecher had a hard hit on Christian Berger of Penn State.
Penn State drew the first power play of the game when Michigan goaltender Erik Portillo slashed a Penn State player after he got hung up behind the net.
Aside from a Bordeleau shorthanded chance the Nittany Lion power play was dominant in terms of zone time.
Xander Lamppa got the physical play going for Penn State as he was constantly making hard hits throughout the first period.
Brendan Brisson would then break the ice seven minutes into the game with his eighth goal of the season to give Michigan a 1-0 lead. Hughes also made a name for himself as he was flying all over the ice and set up the play that led to the goal.
Then Michigan鈥檚 Keaton Pehrson would hit Phillips in the head and Penn State captain Paul DeNaples was the first one to step in.
Pehrson received a game misconduct while the Nittany Lions received a five-minute power play.
The Nittany Lions had a very sloppy power play which allowed for the score to remain at 1-0 Wolverines at the end of one.
The second period opened with Connor McMenamin scoring his second of the year to even up the score within the first minute of the second period.
Roughly two minutes later Hughes sniped the top right corner of the net to score his fifth of the season and give Michigan a 2-1 lead.
Souliere spent most of his time in net scrambling to make saves in net as the Wolverines continued to pile on with scoring chances.
Then on a Michigan power play Matty Berniers scored to make it 3-1 and the physicality would pick up again after that.
Phillips and Nick Granowicz would get into a scrum in front of the Nittany Lions net and each received matching minor penalties.
The physicality continued the four-on-four as Connor MacEachern kept pushing around Berniers in the corner.
Bordeleau would finally cash in for Michigan and it would be a 4-1 game at the end of two.
Top pick in the 2021 NHL Entry Draft Owen Power would start off the third by netting his third of the year to make it 5-1 Wolverines.
Penn State would then go on the power play and with eight minutes left Ben Copeland would score his third of the season to make it a 5-2 game.
Michigan would then answer seconds later as Hughes would net his second of the game to make it 6-2.
That would be the last goal of the game as the Michigan Wolverines would go on to win 6-2.
The Nittany Lions were severely outmatched in terms of talent in this game and it showed as Michigan鈥檚 pure talent took over the game.
Penn State鈥檚 head coach Guy Gadowsky said after the game, 鈥淚 thought our team handled our start pretty well. I think we were playing well and obviously a bad break to go down 1-0.鈥�
Gadowsky also said that the team remained positive throughout the game which was a positive although he did say they need to get better.
Hughes earned the star of the game honors for Michigan.
