ANN ARBOR, Mich. — If you’re the Wolverines and you’re looking for that go-ahead goal, you’re probably hoping that the puck somehow lands on Tyler Motte’s stick.
At 3:22 of the third period, Motte’s eighth goal of the season became his team-leading third game-winning goal of the year, putting Michigan up 5-4 on Wisconsin in a game that the Wolverines won 6-4.
“Tyler’s a gamer,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson. “Who’s going to block a big shot from the point? Tyler Motte. Who’s going to get the puck out when he knows it has to get out? Tyler Motte. He’s going to do whatever it takes to help this team and he knows what it takes to win.”
With the score tied 4-4, Motte skated in alone on Wisconsin goaltender Matt Jurusik and fired between the freshman netminder’s legs.
“Someone forced a turnover there in the neutral zone,” said Motte. “I think [Zach] Werenski flipped the puck back in, trying to put it deep. Their defenseman kind of fumbled it. I just picked it up, trying to get a quick shot on net.”
That Motte had an opportunity to score a go-ahead goal was itself a bit surprising.
By 6:21 in the second, the Badgers led 3-0 and looked to be en route to an upset, their first win over Michigan in eight games.
Luke Kunin’s fifth goal of the season, a power-play shot from the left side of the slot through traffic at 6:28 in the first, put Wisconsin ahead 1-0 after the first.
Tim Davison scored his fourth of the season at 2:39 in the second to make it 2-0, a rocket from 20 feet out that got past a lot of people to hit the back of the net clean.
Will Johnson gave Wisconsin that 3-0 lead at 6:21 when he and Ryan Wagner flew in on Michigan goaltender Zach Nagelvoort two-on-one, and there was much celebrating on the Wisconsin bench.
But that’s when things got interesting.
Just 26 seconds later, Dexter Dancs scored his first of the season to put Michigan on the board.
At 8:03, Davison was called for hooking and Michigan’s Brendan Warren took a penalty shot that went wide of Jurusik, but at 8:31, Warren redeemed himself by picking up Tony Calderone’s rebound to make it a 3-2 game.
“He’s a good kid,” said Berenson of Warren. “He’s got a lot of support on this team, everyone likes him, and he shows up and he had a good game regardless of the penalty shot.”
Wisconsin went up 4-2 at 10:04 when Matt Ustaski scored his first of the season, but the Wolverines scored two goals within three minutes late in the third to tie it.
First, J.T. Compher scored from in front of the crease after stripping a Badger of the puck at 13:42 and then Justin Selman tipped in Cutler Martin’s shot at 16:37.
Kyle Connor capped the scoring for Michigan with 0.3 seconds left in regulation with an empty-net goal, his sixth marker of the season.
“College hockey is a game of momentum,” said Berenson. “It’s amazing how one team will get a bounce and get the momentum and they’ll start taking over and then you’ve got to be ready to get that momentum back yourself, and we got that momentum back.”
“You leave the front door open and that team will take advantage of you, and that’s what happened,” added Wisconsin coach Mike Eaves. “That’s the third time it’s happened to us this year, when we had a three-goal lead. We called a timeout after the second goal just to day, ‘Hey, guys, we’ve been here before,’ and it kind of settled us down a little bit, but it’s still a hump we have to get over. It’s a page or a chapter in our book that we’ve got to fix.”
