If the Michigan Wolverines had their wish, they would play every game in the great outdoors.<\/p>\n
No. 15-ranked Michigan improved to 2-1-1 in program history in outdoor games with its dominating 4-1 victory over the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Frozen Diamond Faceoff at Progressive Field Sunday evening.<\/p>\n
“It was a great spectacle,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “Our team knows what it takes to play in a game like this. We’re coming off a good game on Friday, but this was not only an important hockey game, it is an outdoor game where you could easily be distracted.”<\/p>\n
Michigan won its previous outdoor game 5-0 on Dec. 11, 2010 when it blanked Michigan State in the Big Chill at the Big House played at Michigan Stadium.<\/p>\n
After Ohio State swept Michigan in November in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines completed the weekend sweep of the Buckeyes outscoring Ohio State 8-1 for the weekend.<\/p>\n
“Let’s give credit where credit is due – Michigan is good,” Ohio State coach Mark Osiecki said. “They played very well. They certainly were the better club tonight. I think their transition, goaltender, defensemen – their defensemen do a tremendous job.”<\/p>\n
The Wolverines are 7-0-2 in their last nine games after a rough start to the season. Ohio State is on a four-game winless streak.<\/p>\n
“Our penalty killing has been better, our [defensive]-zone coverage is better, our defense are playing stronger,” Berenson said. “Offensively, we are clicking.”<\/p>\n
After a hot start to the season, the Buckeyes’ offense has dried up as Ohio State has only scored twice in its last three games.<\/p>\n
“I think our kids competed, but not as a group of five on the ice,” Osiecki said. “I also think we have to go through a situation like this. Our [12 freshmen] have never been through it. The year that we’re having and up to this point, not really any adversity, we need go through that. We need to be on a stage like this for our program to go.”<\/p>\n
Michigan had a 2-0 first intermission lead as the Wolverines really took it to the Buckeyes with first-period goals from Chris Brown and Alex Guptill.<\/p>\n
Brown scored 7:31 into the first as he collected a loose puck that was blocked from a Kevin Clare shot and fired the puck through the five-hole of OSU goalie Cal Heeter.<\/p>\n
Michigan took a 2-0 lead 13:33 into the first when Brown’s back-pass from behind the net of Heeter found Guptill waiting at the left circle. Guptill fired the one-timer past the glove of Heeter.<\/p>\n
Ohio State opened the second period on a 51-second power play. With one second remaining on the man-advantage, Chris Crane scored his team-leading 13th goal of the season after taking a rebound from a Danny Dries shot and firing it past UM goalie Shawn Hunwick’s glove. The 2-1 ledger was as close as OSU would get.<\/p>\n
Ohio State fell to pieces after getting on the board early in the second.<\/p>\n
Derek Deblois scored 9:47 into the second after OSU failed to clear the zone and David Wohlberg picked off a pass and found Deblois wide open in the slot to give UM the 3-1 lead. The Wolverines took a three-goal advantage 28 seconds later when a puck fell off Wohlberg’s stick and between Heeter’s legs.<\/p>\n
“I think they are a good team,” Wohlberg said about Ohio State. “We just kept bringing the pressure every single line. It wasn’t them, it was our stronger play.”<\/p>\n
“We went down 2-0 quickly and that is something we have to learn from,” Crane said. “Hockey is a competitive sport and if you don’t come out ready to play, that is what is going to happen. I think we
\nneed to take that and learn from that.”<\/p>\n
Wohlberg’s goal chased Heeter and brought on Brady Hjelle.<\/p>\n
Heeter allowed four goals on 20 shots against. Hjelle was perfect with 18 saves.<\/p>\n
Hunwick stopped all but one of the 20 shots he faced.<\/p>\n
Ohio State was without top defenseman Curtis Gedig due to an injury and forward Ryan Dzingel due to a violation of team rules.<\/p>\n
Wohlberg and Michigan defenseman Jon Merill were both plus-4 for the contest. Merill was playing in just his fourth game since being suspended for the first half of the season.<\/p>\n
“Having Jon Merill back in the lineup – in my opinion, I coached the kid in the World Juniors – is the best defenseman in the country,” Osiecki said.<\/p>\n
Ohio State returns to Columbus to host Ferris State next weekend. Michigan visits South Bend to take on Notre Dame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
If the Michigan Wolverines had their wish, they would play every game in the great outdoors. No. 15-ranked Michigan improved to 2-1-1 in program history in outdoor games with its dominating 4-1 victory over the No. 2 Ohio State Buckeyes in the Frozen Diamond Faceoff at Progressive Field Sunday evening. “It was a great spectacle,” […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":22374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14409"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14409"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14409\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14416,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14409\/revisions\/14416"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14409"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp-admin.uscho.com\/recaps\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=14409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}