Near the end of the first period of the No. 4 Michigan hockey team’s Thursday night matchup against Robert Morris, “What’s Up?” by the 4 Non-Blondes blared out of the public address system at Yost Ice Arena.
The song, which has a chorus that prominently features the rhetorical question “what’s going on?”, was a fitting choice for what might’ve been the Wolverines’ (5-0) state of mind for much of the night, as they bested the Colonials (0-1) 4-2 in an oftentimes confusing, unpredictable game.
In the first period, Michigan found itself wanting for the speed and precision that propelled it to an impressive road sweep over then-No. 7 Providence. For 20 minutes, the Wolverines misplaced passes and sloppily turned over the puck, failing to conjure up a first period goal for the first time all season.
And when Robert Morris drew first blood four minutes into the second period, as forward Michael Felsing sniped a shot from the left faceoff circle, the scoreboard on the monitor at Yost took a few minutes longer than usual to update — almost as if it was in disbelief of what had just happened.
Despite their lack of cohesion, Michigan didn’t necessarily go without opportunities to broach the Colonials’ net. But Robert Morris goaltender Charlie Schenkel slammed the door shut on those opportunities, bunkering down and shutting down three power play opportunities and a barrage of shots from the Wolverines.
And Michigan finally saw its puck luck turn around 13 minutes into the second period, as junior forward Jayden Perron finally got the better of Schenkel and tipped in a shot from senior forward T.J. Hughes. But their sloppy puck-handling got the best of them once again just seconds later, as Colonials forward Luca Primerano went straight the other way to give Robert Morris back the lead.
The rest of the second featured more of the chaos that had come to characterize Michigan’s evening. Cue the Yost faithful roaring with delight, thinking that junior forward Garrett Schifsky had given the Wolverines the lead, only for a replay to confirm he had merely kicked the puck in. Cue freshman forward Adam Valentini evening up the score, only to be sent to the penalty box about three minutes later for tripping.
And when Valentini did finally give Michigan the lead eight minutes into the third, it was a goal befitting the whirlwind of a game which it had turned the tide of — an errant puck off Hughes’ shot bouncing off Valentini’s knee, a goal which almost looked accidental.
But if it was an accident, the Wolverines took it as a happy one. What some expected to be a routine victory for Michigan had turned into a turbulent night that could have had an even more stunning ending. But the Wolverines had survived and snatched a victory from the jaws of defeat.
