{"id":3683,"date":"2025-11-17T03:49:05","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T03:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/17\/michigan-hockey-team-loses-to-penn-state-4-2-splitting-series\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T03:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T03:49:08","slug":"michigan-hockey-team-loses-to-penn-state-4-2-splitting-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2025\/11\/17\/michigan-hockey-team-loses-to-penn-state-4-2-splitting-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan hockey team loses to Penn State, 4-2, splitting series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>STATE COLLEGE \u2014 The No. 2 Michigan hockey team\u2019s first impression of the No. 5 Penn State was its lackluster defense that made scoring goals feel easy <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/ice-hockey\/no-2-michigan-tramples-no-5-penn-state-en-route-in-a-7-1-dominat-showing\/\">Friday<\/a>. However, the Nittany Lions were determined to prove the Wolverines wrong the next day, completely revamping its image as a group.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A key change in net for the Nittany Lions proved crucial for the bounce-back victory, supporting an aggressive offense that became too big an obstacle for the Wolverines to hurdle. After a culmination of these difficulties, Michigan (11-3 overall, 4-2 Big Ten) dropped a 4-2 loss to Penn State (10-4, 3-3), returning to Ann Arbor with yet <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/ice-hockey\/michigan-suffers-6-1-loss-to-wisconsin-due-to-total-team-collapse\/\">another<\/a> split series as it navigates Big Ten play.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The first period produced little excitement on the offensive end. Instead, Penn State rallied around its reignited flame with a solid performance from its goaltender Josh Fleming. Stopping Michigan\u2019s early advances, the Nittany Lions began to test freshman goaltender Jack Ivankovic with a peppering of shots. It was only a matter of time before Penn State broke the ice.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnytime you run into a hot goalie, obviously it\u2019s gonna be a little bit harder to score,\u201d junior defender Ben Robertson said. \u201cThe offense didn\u2019t come at first and then got a little frustrated\u2026 Credit to him. Just got to find ways to get more pucks and create more chaos and make it a little bit harder for him.\u201d<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Halfway through the second period, the Nittany Lions charged up the left side to enter the offensive zone. They connected a series of passes, ultimately taking a shot from the right side of the ice. Catching the rebound, Penn State found a crack in Ivankovic\u2019s wall to strike first against the Wolverines.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And the Nittany Lions weren\u2019t done after getting a taste of success against Michigan. With two minutes left of play in the period, Penn State converted once more, sniping a shot past Ivankovic\u2019s left side to double the lead. This time, it was the Wolverines in a state of panic, and much of the worry came from the lack of solutions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Michigan didn\u2019t play significantly different than most nights. The Wolverines caught up with their opponent to only be outshot 21-20. Plus, they were highly aggressive and had stints of complete control over the puck. But the Nittany Lions\u2019 crucial change in net appeared to be the difference maker.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI thought we played well enough to win,\u201d Michigan coach Brandon Naurato said. \u201cWe had like, four or five posts. Their goalie was really good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After conceding seven goals as a team against the Wolverines yesterday, Penn State opted to give Fleming full reign over the crease over yesterday\u2019s starter, Kevin Reidler. A tough night for Reidler echoed in the Nittany Lions\u2019 play, calling for an elevated performance to shut down Michigan\u2019s offense. And Fleming showed up big when Penn State\u00a0 needed him most.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>The Wolverines\u2019 luck in housing the Big Ten scoring <a href=\"https:\/\/bigten.org\/mhky\/stats\/?stats=leaders_player_skaters&amp;view=leaders\">leader<\/a> proved important their offense\u2019s dignity. Sophomore forward Will Horcoff tipped in a blue-line shot halfway through the third period to show a slight sign of life, but Fleming\u2019s previous efforts provided enough cushion to alleviate any stress. His ability to dim Michigan\u2019s offense allowed the Nittany Lions to make gutsy plays in the offensive end. A balanced structure proved to be the right move for Penn State and its hopes of earning a win this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Wolverines\u2019 may have strengthened its pulse in the third period. However, it was too little too late. An empty netter was all it took to bury any hopes of a Michigan sweep and Fleming\u2019s convincing performance \u2014 a .941 save percentage \u2014 elicited an important win for Penn State. Despite a disappointing loss the night before, the Nittany Lions closed out the weekend proving its claim as a top-five competitor.<\/p>\n<aside>\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p><h3 class=\"jp-relatedposts-headline\"><em>Related articles<\/em><\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>STATE COLLEGE \u2014 The No. 2 Michigan hockey team\u2019s first impression of the No. 5 Penn State was its lackluster defense that made scoring goals feel easy Friday. However, the Nittany Lions were determined to prove the Wolverines wrong the next day, completely revamping its image as a group.\u00a0\u00a0 A key change in net for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3684,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[214,1020,222,607,623,3584,361,312],"class_list":{"0":"post-3683","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-loses","10":"tag-michigan","11":"tag-penn","12":"tag-series","13":"tag-splitting","14":"tag-state","15":"tag-team"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3683"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3685,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3683\/revisions\/3685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}