Michigan
7-6-3
St. Cloud
8-5-1
Michigan Salvages Tie to Win Weekend at No. 17 St. Cloud State
11/25/2023 11:36:00 PM | Ice Hockey
» Jake Barczewski was tremendous for the second straight night, making 36 saves on 39 shots.
» Both Tyler Duke and Dylan Duke notched goals, with Tyler opening the scoring 1:35 into play.
» U-M continued its strong play in the faceoff dot en route to winning 46 of 85 (54.1%) draws.
Site: St. Cloud, Minn. (Herb Brooks National Hockey Center)
Score: #14 Michigan 3, #17 St. Cloud State 3
Records: U-M (7-6-3), SCSU (8-5-1)
ST. CLOUD, Minn. -- The No. 14-ranked University of Michigan ice hockey team skated to a 3-3 tie with No. 17 St. Cloud State on Saturday evening (Nov. 25) at Herb Brooks National Hockey Center.
U-M scored the game's first three goals before the home team rallied back to tie the game with just nine seconds left in regulation.
Goaltender Jake Barczewski started in the crease for Michigan (7-6-3) after securing his 50th career win in a shutout performance on Friday night (Nov. 24), and the netminder continued his strong play by turning aside 36 of the 39 shots that he faced.
One night after the teams took a scoreless tie into the final frame, the Wolverines worked to ensure their first tally would not take so long to secure. With Philippe Lapointe battling in front of the St. Cloud crease, Tyler Duke released a shot from the middle of ther ice that found twine for his first Wolverine goal. Duke's tally gave Michigan a 1-0 lead just 1:35 into the contest, with assists going to Nick Moldenhauer and Lapointe.
Michigan struck again after a deflected clearing attempt from the slot deflected high off a teammate's shin pad. The puck fluttered over the head of the SCSU netminder and into the net to give the Wolverines a 2-0 lead with 1:35 left. Jacob Truscott was credited with the goal, his second of the season.
After one period of play, Michigan held a 2-0 lead despite trailing in shots on goal 12-5. U-M continued its strong play in the faceoff dot, winning 10 of 16 first period faceoffs.
Coming off a pair of near-misses, Michigan's power-play group began its first attempt of the night with 7:11 left in the period. Twenty-three seconds later, Hughes made a no-look pass from the left corner to Dylan Duke all alone in front of the goaltender. Duke flipped an initial shot before quickly banging his rebound into the net to give Michigan a 3-0 lead at 13:12 of the second. Gavin Brindley recorded the secondary helper on Duke's 35th goal at Michigan.
Just over a minute later, Moldenhauer drew a penalty to put the Wolverines right back on the power play. A goal was scored shortly thereafter, but it was a short-handed tally by SCSU at 15:13 to make it 3-1.
Frank Nazar III was sent off for cross-checking early in the third period and 20 seconds later, St. Cloud earned its second goal when a rebound was batted out of the air by a Husky forward to make it 3-2 with 18:55 left in regulation.
Hughes won a critical faceoff in the defensive zone with 37 seconds remaining and the St. Cloud net empty. A Wolverine sent a missile down the ice, but it missed the open cage by just a few feet to the right for icing. SCSU took its timeout with 30 seconds left to draw up a play.
After Michigan nearly cleared the zone with time ticking down, a Husky went down to one knee to prevent the puck from crossing the blue line. They cycled the puck down low, where a forward shuffled the puck across the crease through bodies to find a teammate's stick. With nine seconds left in regulation, SCSU banged it across the goal line to tie the game at three and force overtime.
The best chance of the extra session came with less than 30 seconds left when Seamus Casey threaded a pass through his man to the slot for Brindley, barreling toward the net down the center lane. Brindley flipped a dangerous shot on goal that deflected past the goaltender and off the left post before bouncing into the corner and away from the St. Cloud net. U-M finished the extra session with three of the four shots in the 3-on-3 portion, but none crossed the goal line and the game was marked down as a tie.
Next week, Michigan will close out the first half with a road trip to South Bend, Ind., for a two-game conference series against Notre Dame on Friday and Saturday (Dec. 1-2). Puck drop on Friday (Dec. 1) is set for 7:30 p.m., while Saturday's contest will begin at 6 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on Peacock.
