Michigan
1-0-0
Mercyhurst
0-1-0
Michigan Repeatedly Lights Lamp in Season Opener vs. Mercyhurst
10/3/2025 10:48:00 PM | Ice Hockey
» Michigan's 11-1 win provided its largest margin of victory in a season opener since 1990-91.
» Will Horcoff tallied his first career hat trick.
» Michael Hage led the offense with five points.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Fifteen Wolverines earned their way onto the scoresheet as the No. 12-ranked University of Michigan ice hockey team opened the 2025-26 season with a dominating 11-1 win over Mercyhurst on Friday night (Oct. 3) at Yost Ice Arena.
Sophomore Will Horcoff tallied his first career hat trick, while the Big Ten Player of the Year Michael Hage had a five-point outing with two goals and three assists. Freshmen Malcolm Spence and Henry Mews each had three-point games.
The 10-goal win is Michigan's largest margin of victory to start a season since 1990-91, when the Wolverines defeated Miami 11-1 in Oxford, Ohio.
Jack Ivankovic made his collegiate debut in goal and made 15 saves, while Michigan's power play was humming, going 3-for-4.
Freshman Cole McKinney scored the first goal of the season less than three minutes into the game when he went five-hole on netminder Michael Chambre. Senior Luca Fantilli collected a loose puck after a stick check from Asher Barnett in the defensive zone and slipped the puck along the wall to Adam Valentini. He nudged it ahead to McKinney, who had an option with Garrett Schifsky on the weak side but elected to take the shot and buried it.
Less than four minutes later, Fantilli's solo effort increased the U-M lead to 2-0. After getting the puck from freshman Drew Schock at the opposite blue line, Fantilli skated up center ice, past three defenders and scored from his knees.
Two minutes later, Schifsky buried a pass in the paint from sophomore Dakoda Rhéaume-Mullen to push the lead to 3-0, with McKinney collecting his second point of the night after a secondary assist.
Junior Nick Moldenhauer tallied his first career short-handed goal at 13:36 on a chip from transfer Ben Robertson, and the Wolverines (1-0) extended their lead to 4-0.
Mercyhurst (0-1) scored its lone goal at 18:58, one second after its power play expired, to send the teams into the intermission with Michigan holding a 4-1 advantage.
The second period saw an all-Ontario goal as Hage scored from Spence and Mews at 7:47 before Horcoff started his natural hat trick on a rip from a Hage faceoff win. Horcoff opened the third with a clapper off a drop pass from T.J. Hughes and finished it off with a power-play goal midway through the period,and Michigan led 8-1 after two periods.
Hage and freshman Aidan Park converted on the power-play before Spence capped the scoring.
On Saturday (Oct. 4), Michigan and Mercyhurst will finish their season-opening series at Yost Ice Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m., and he game will be streamed live on B1G+.
