Saturday scores from the BIG TEN and the CCHA
by Anna Miller November 23, 2024
STATE COLLEGE — In a game of tic-tac-toe, each team switches off, taking turns making their mark on the paper. With an odd number of spaces, either the ‘X’s’ or the ‘O’s’ must come out on top to declare a winner.
Saturday’s matchup between the No. 5 Michigan hockey team (9-2-1 overall, 4-0 Big Ten) and Penn State (8-3-1, 3-1) was truly a game of tic-tac-toe — until the Nittany Lions got too physical to fight back. With a total of 16 goals and 16 penalties across the opponents, the Wolverines and the Nittany Lions made sure to make a high-scoring, physical game. But by producing in the face of Penn State’s physicality, Michigan ran away with a 10-6 win.
In the opening minutes, Penn State forward Dane Dowiak notched two net-front goals, soon followed by a power-play goal for Nittany Lions forward Reese Laubach. Quickly putting Michigan in a three-goal deficit, the Wolverines decided it was time to crash the party.
After getting checked into the boards, senior forward Mark Estapa broke away and skated back toward the point, shooting the puck wide left. Sophomore forward William Whitelaw then snatched the puck on the goal line and snuck it past Penn State goaltender Noah Grannan to make it 3-1.
Nittany Lions’ forward Aiden Fink didn’t let the Wolverines celebrate long, scoring off of a Michigan turnover at the blue line. With a fourth notch on Penn State’s goal tally, the Wolverines pulled Korpi, playing graduate netminder Logan Stein between the pipes for the remainder of the game.
To add to the scoring frenzy, senior defenseman Jacob Truscott and sophomore forward Evan Werner each lit the lamp on Wolverines power plays. Nearly identical to Friday, Truscott shot from distance, and the puck was in the net before Grannan could notice. And on its second power play, junior forward T.J. Hughes passed the puck from the right faceoff dot to Werner, who sunk the net-front shot to bring Michigan within one goal.
Despite combining for seven goals in the first period, it took ten minutes of the second for another puck to reach the goal. With Whitelaw pressed to the boards, freshman forward Christian Humphreys picked up the puck from underneath them and passed it to junior defenseman Tyler Duke, who drove up the ice through two Penn State skaters and fired a wrister from the slot that tied the game at four.
And once that first puck went in, the scoring started right back up again.
Hughes quickly followed suit on a Michigan power play, re-directing Werner’s shot by driving his stick into the crease and the puck into the goal. Providing the Wolverines with their first lead all game at 5-4, Hughes also aided Michigan in going 4-for-4 on the power play.
But then, in true tic-tac-toe fashion, Nittany Lions forward JJ Weibusch and senior forward Philippe Lapointe each put a goal on the board within 33 seconds, keeping the Wolverines’ lead to only one goal going into the third period.
Once Penn State got too physical without production to back it up, the Wolverines were able to take advantage. It was no longer a game of tic-tac-toe but a chance for Michigan to run away with the win.
Fink tallied a goal in the third period, but it didn’t matter. Hughes scored his second, soon followed by a five-minute-major penalty on the Nittany Lions and three more goals for the Wolverines — two from Hughes.
Instead of playing dirty, Michigan turned that energy into production. By taking advantage of power plays and not getting too physical themselves, the Wolverines won the game of tic-tac-toe.