Will Horcoff repeated one phrase after the No. 2 Michigan hockey team’s 5-2 victory over Notre Dame on Halloween night.
“Just stick to the plan,” Horcoff said.
For the sophomore forward, “the plan” has always been to score goals. He’s done a great job executing so far this season. No Wolverines’ skater has found the back of the net more often than Horcoff.
And against the Fighting Irish, he continued to follow “the plan”, scoring twice to spearhead a win in Michigan’s Big Ten opener.
“He scores, and he scores in the most important area of the ice,” Wolverines coach Brandon Naurato said. “And it’s not by accident. He’s put a lot of time in the past one to two years of working on scoring, and happy for him that he’s putting it back in.”
The first of Horcoff’s two goals was a perfect example of what he meant by “sticking to the plan”.
On the power play, he positioned himself on the fringe of the right faceoff circle. Freshman defenseman Henry Mews, from the point, dinked the puck over to senior forward T.J. Hughes, who held onto the puck looking for an opening as Horcoff dropped himself a little deeper into the circle. Hughes found sophomore forward Michael Hage, who immediately spotted Horcoff and slid him the puck — and Horcoff only needed a touch to slot home for Michigan’s opening goal.
By carefully positioning himself and dropping back in when he saw an opening, Horcoff followed “the plan” to a tee. He gave his teammates the space to build an attack, and delivered when called upon for the finish.
“He’s scored a lot of goals so far this season from that spot, and he’s dangerous from there,” Mews said. “He’s got a very accurate shot. He gets it off quick. And we definitely look for him all the time. Teams are gonna start pre-scouting that too. He’s dynamite from that spot.”
Much like dynamite, Horcoff’s second goal, also on the power play, was an explosion of power. A far cry from the well-worked team move that culminated in his first, Horcoff simply let it rip for a thundering strike after receiving a pass from Hughes, doubling the Wolverines’ lead.
The execution may have been a little bit more stylish this time around. But “the plan”, which was keeping things simple and putting the puck in the back of the net, was very much the same.
“Our power play, we have so many different options, different looks,” Mews said. “And he’s a big part down there. He’s a big frame in front of the net.”
For a hockey player, the idea of “the plan” changes from shift to shift. Sometimes, it’s waiting in the slot for a puck to bounce your way. Other times, it’s picking up a loose puck on a breakaway and taking matters into your own hands.
And tonight, Horcoff, called upon both to finish a team move and produce a magic moment of his own, experienced that. But in both cases, he did what was asked of him, stuck to “the plan”, and found the back of the net — ensuring that on Halloween night, the only ghost haunting Notre Dame was the sight of Horcoff wheeling away to the boards in celebration, twice.
