{"id":4204,"date":"2026-01-04T17:49:05","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:49:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/01\/04\/stephen-peck-shows-his-skill-in-exhibition-game-victory\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T17:49:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T17:49:09","slug":"stephen-peck-shows-his-skill-in-exhibition-game-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/01\/04\/stephen-peck-shows-his-skill-in-exhibition-game-victory\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen Peck shows his skill in exhibition game victory"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>After three years of waiting, freshman goaltender Stephen Peck finally took the ice in a Wolverines uniform.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Peck has been committed to the No. 1 Michigan hockey team since 2023, but it\u2019s taken until 2026 for him to finally play a game. In an exhibition game <a href=\"https:\/\/www.michigandaily.com\/sports\/ice-hockey\/michigan-weathers-missing-starters-to-top-usntdp-7-5\/\">victory<\/a> against the U.S. National Talent Development Program, Peck showcased the talent that led Michigan to sign him years ago.<\/p>\n<p>Peck\u2019s situation is a difficult one. With the departure of former Wolverines goaltender Cameron Korpi to Union in the offseason, it looked like there might be an opportunity for Peck to take the net, particularly after winning the Clark Cup with the USHL\u2019s Muskegon Lumberjacks last May. Ultimately, though, Michigan brought in freshman goaltender Jack Ivankovic, who has played every game this season, and Peck serves as the primary backup.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cStephen Peck\u2019s a good goalie,\u201d Michigan coach Brandon Naurato said. \u201cHe plays behind a great goalie.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>On Saturday, Peck finally got his chance in the net in Michigan\u2019s annual exhibition game against the USNTDP. The Wolverines often schedule this game to coincide with when many of their players are playing internationally at the World Junior Championship, meaning that they are often shorthanded. This gives players who don\u2019t typically see the ice a chance to put on the Michigan sweater and play for their school \u2014 even if it is only an exhibition game, meaning that the stats do not count for their season totals. For Peck, it was exhilarating to finally play for the school he\u2019s been committed to for so long.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a lot of fun,\u201d Peck said. \u201cJust grateful the guys went to war with me. Just had a lot of fun out there, regardless of the score, and just glad we got it done today and just put it behind us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t the cleanest victory. Peck allowed five goals on 28 shots, ending the day with a .828 save percentage. But as senior forward Josh Eernisse acknowledged, several of the goals were the result of poor defense from Michigan\u2019s skaters that put the freshman goaltender in difficult positions. NTDP forward Sammy Nelson\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/USAHockeyNTDP\/status\/2007621237787504992?s=20\">second<\/a> goal was the result of a 2-on-0 breakaway \u2014 nearly impossible to stop. Ultimately, Peck looked poised and calm in the crease, flashing the leather on a few occasions to stop flying pucks\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere were times where we might have not helped him out, but he really bailed us out, and he\u2019s a big part of the reason that we were able to win tonight,\u201d Eernisse said. \u201cHe just played really well. And we\u2019ve seen that all year in practice, and he\u2019s a guy that can step in for us, and I think make a difference.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Eernisse said he and Peck spend a lot of time together as Peck often stays late to tend the net for Eernisse to practice more. The two create competitions out of tipping drills, with Eernisse winning if he scores twice and Peck winning if he makes eight saves.\u00a0<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s a great guy,\u201d Eernisse said. \u201cHe\u2019s always competing, playing hard \u2026 we\u2019ll finish up and he\u2019ll do a couple of more guys and then he\u2019s in the other end doing breakaways. He\u2019s just a competitor. I think that that speaks a lot about who he is, and I think he can make a big difference for us down the stretch here, especially when he needs to step into games for us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite not getting much time in the spotlight, Peck made the most of it on Saturday, demonstrating why he is a very reliable backup option for Michigan this season.\u00a0<\/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>After three years of waiting, freshman goaltender Stephen Peck finally took the ice in a Wolverines uniform.\u00a0 Peck has been committed to the No. 1 Michigan hockey team since 2023, but it\u2019s taken until 2026 for him to finally play a game. In an exhibition game victory against the U.S. National Talent Development Program, Peck [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4205,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[578,1036,4049,172,4050,2924,911],"class_list":{"0":"post-4204","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-exhibition","9":"tag-game","10":"tag-peck","11":"tag-shows","12":"tag-skill","13":"tag-stephen","14":"tag-victory"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204","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=4204"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4206,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4204\/revisions\/4206"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}