On Oct. 12, 1990, the Michigan hockey team opened its season on the road against Miami Ohio down in Oxford, Ohio. That day, the Wolverines pumped the Redskins, now the RedHawks, for 11 goals, conceding just one. Six different players scored, including three freshmen, who combined for five goals. It was Michigan’s largest win in a season opener.
This year’s freshmen didn’t have five goals, but three of them did score Friday night as the twelfth-ranked Wolverines (1-0) defeated a hapless Mercyhurst (0-1), 11-1, to match their record in a season opener. It was a thoroughly dominant offensive performance involving all four lines and classes.
Michigan came out guns blazing in the first period. Just two minutes into the game, freshman forward Cole McKinney received a pass from freshman forward Adam Valentini and skated up the left side. McKinney was visibly looking for the pass, but when none materialized, he opted to shoot it, opening the scoring with a top-right corner snipe.
Three minutes later, senior defenseman Luca Fantilli scored while falling down to bring the lead to two goals and record his second point of the night as he had the secondary assist on McKinney’s goal. McKinney recorded his second point of the night as the lone assist for Fantilli.
“Somebody texted me, ‘I didn’t know Luca was Cale Makar,’ ” Michigan coach Brandon Naurato said jokingly. “Good for him, he deserves it.”
The third line’s dominance wasn’t done. Just 80 seconds later, junior forward Garrett Schifsky caught a cross-crease pass from sophomore defenseman Dakoda Rhéaume-Mullen and potted it on a low angle pop-up into the top left corner. McKinney also recorded his third point of the night as the secondary assist — all in under half a period.
“I think those lines scored even more than (senior forward TJ Hughes’) line did five-on-five,” Naurato said. “Good for Cole to get that early. Valentini, 17 years old, I thought he was pretty good. … And then I think (Schifsky) led the charge for those guys. Even his talk on the bench and that junior leadership — it was really good.”
Junior forward Nick Moldenhauer rounded out the scoring for the Wolverines in the first, notching one shorthanded. Junior defenseman Ben Robertson, who was on the top pair for most of the night, intercepted an attempted deep rim from Mercyhurst and sent a long pass up to Moldenhauer, who pulled left and then wrapped it back around the goalie’s outstretched left pad to make it 4-0 Michigan.
The Wolverines didn’t escape the period unscathed. Freshman goalie Jack Ivankovic was screened on his fifth shot of the night and gave up a goal just a minute before the end of the period. Ivankovic didn’t have many opportunities to show his skills, but performed well throughout the game even with the conceded goal.
The offense slowed down in the second period, but didn’t vanish, particularly not with multiple players looking to pot a goal. Chief among those was sophomore forward Michael Hage, who was one of the most aggressive throughout the night but couldn’t seal the deal with Mercyhurst aggressively defending him. Just under eight minutes into the second period, though, he got his chance off a feed from freshman forward Malcolm Spence, who slid it to Hage dead center in front of the net for him to get his long awaited goal.
Hage tacked on an assist seven minutes later as sophomore forward Will Horcoff notched his first of the season, shooting a faceoff win from Hage from the top of the right circle and into the back of the net to put Michigan up 6-1 by the end of the second period.
It was the start of two periods of dominance from Horcoff and Hage. Horcoff recorded his second goal just 26 seconds into the third period with a slapshot from above the left circle. He sealed the hat trick eight minutes later on the power play — making it three goals in just four shots —- with Hage providing the primary assist. Hage scored his second of the night just over a minute later, also on the power play. Freshman defender Henry Mews had assists on both goals, giving him three points in his Wolverines debut.
Freshman Aidan Park added a third powerplay goal with five minutes to go in the game, meaning that every line had scored at least one goal as he spent most of the night on the fourth line.
“Parkie, he’s a really good player now, he’s going to be a special player down the road,” Naurato said.”
Freshman forward Malcolm Spence scored the final goal of the game off a cross-crease feed from Hage for his first as a Wolverine.
While Michigan dominated offensively, the most impressive part of its performance was how each line was involved in the scoring. The third line kicked it off, but the top two lines piled on later in the game and even the fourth line found ways to contribute. Scoring was distributed across the classes as well.
The Wolverines’ chemistry seemed solid throughout the game even with the early-season line shuffling. It was an encouraging opening game — hard to argue when they tied the program record for most goals ever scored in a season opener.
