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Michigan’s Offense Comes Alive in 6-0 Win Over Minnesota
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Leave a CommentDuring Michigan’s five-game losing streak that came to an end last weekend, the Wolverines only scored 6 total goals. Tonight at Yost against Minnesota, Michigan’s offense caught fire and scored just as many in a 6-0 win over the Golden Gophers.
Early on it looked like this team was again going to have trouble finding the back of the net after not scoring on quite a few great chances, but David Wohlberg put it past Minnesota’s goalie on a nice backhand late in the first period to get the scoring started. It continued in the second period when Brandon Burlon and Louie Caporusso scored a couple power-play goals to put Michigan up 3-0. Carl Hagelin added another goal in the second period on a beautiful breakaway where he was tripped but still managed to score, and then he did the same thing (minus the trip) in the third period when Michigan was shorthanded. Ben Winnett added goal No. 6 for Michigan around five minutes later, and there was almost a goal No. 7 with about 10 seconds left to play. Minnesota’s goalie managed to keep it out of the net, but by then this game was more than over.
Defensively, Michigan kept Minnesota’s offense contained for most of the night, but Bryan Hogan did play quite well in net. He stopped all 24 shots he faced and made some great saves along the way to record his first shutout of the season. Michigan still turned it over in front of Hogan a few times more than I would have liked to see, but the defensemen did a nice job of recovering and making plays to prevent the turnovers from turning into any scoring for Minnesota.
Michigan really needed a game like this to start to get things going in the right direction, so hopefully this will be a confidence builder that is the turning point of the season. We will get an idea if this was just a fluke or if the team truly is improving when Wisconsin comes to Yost tomorrow night. The Badgers will be coming in fresh off of a 7-3 win at Michigan State, so this will be a tough matchup for Michigan. The puck drops at 7:35 p.m. and the game can be seen on Comcast 900.
