{"id":4510,"date":"2026-02-15T22:49:23","date_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/15\/michigan-overwhelms-penn-state-early-on-secures-win-6-3\/"},"modified":"2026-02-15T22:49:33","modified_gmt":"2026-02-15T22:49:33","slug":"michigan-overwhelms-penn-state-early-on-secures-win-6-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/2026\/02\/15\/michigan-overwhelms-penn-state-early-on-secures-win-6-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan overwhelms Penn State early on, secures win, 6-3"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>The No. 2 Michigan hockey team rarely finds itself forced into an underdog position so early on into a contest. However, for three straight games, the Wolverines have seen the scales tipped out of their favor. Tonight that trend came to a close, launching Michigan back into a position it\u2019s more familiar with.<\/p>\n<p>In the teams\u2019 final meeting of the regular season, the Wolverines (24-5-1) defeated No. 6 Penn State (18-9-1), 6-3, on the backs of their success found early on in the matchup. Michigan\u2019s tie the night before sparked a quick fuse that burned just long enough for the Wolverines to achieve another win this season over the Nittany Lions.<\/p>\n<p>Seven minutes into the game, freshman forward Cole McKinney stepped up to take the face off in Penn State\u2019s end. Despite losing the draw, freshman forward Aidan Park quickly picked up the puck in the left corner, then sent it back to senior defenseman Luca Fantilli. When given a look at net, Fantilli sent a shot on frame where McKinney was ready to tip the puck past the Nittany Lions\u2019 goaltender and put his team out front, 1-0.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>And just four minutes later, junior defenseman Ben Robertson would aid Michigan\u2019s hopes at extending the lead. After his individual effort fell short, he was saved by junior forward Nick Moldenhauer\u2019s ability to snag the rebound and add another goal to the Wolverines\u2019 tally.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-1    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>\u201cWe want to dictate the game,\u201d freshman forward Adam Valentini said. \u201cWe don\u2019t want to sit back and let them take it to us. So, I think it\u2019s pretty big of us coming out in the first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Now leading 2-0, a small cushion provided a thin safety net for Michigan \u2014 one that would rip a minute later.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Penn State forward Matt DiMarsico entered the Wolverines\u2019 zone heavily outnumbered. Falling to his knees, it seemed the Nittany Lions\u2019 try would end as quickly as it started. However, DiMarsico managed to commence a string of passes that ended once the puck rested behind freshman goaltender Jack Ivankovic.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The first period concluded with Michigan up, 2-1, clutching tight to its four minutes of success when preparing for the remaining periods of play. Penn State\u2019s shot count wasn\u2019t slowing down any time soon, much to the Wolverines\u2019 dismay. And this lead would be more vital than ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The second period was relatively stable. Both groups remained strong in their defensive identities, killing any offensive berths before they became a threat. The period\u2019s lone moment of excitement came from a Michigan power-play goal scored by junior forward Jayden Perron, simply building off that early success the Wolverines cemented 20 minutes prior, to lead 3-1.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-2    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\n<p>Michigan had the advantage going into the third period, but whether or not it could maintain that lead was the greater question at hand. The game looked as though the next goal would either give the Nittany Lions hope or carve a clear path to victory for the Wolverines.<\/p>\n<p>Then the goal horn sounded.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Michigan celebrated around sophomore forward Will Horcoff as he notched his 21st goal of the season on the power play, opening the floodgates for a series of goals in the Wolverines\u2019 favor. A 4-1 lead quickly expanded to 5-1 within three minutes, in spite of Penn State\u2019s notably greater shot tally. While the Nittany Lions were able to squeeze two more past Ivankovic, a 5-3 score did little in energizing Penn State enough to win, especially once Moldenhauer scored an empty netter with a minute to play.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s part of our dominance,\u201d senior forward Josh Eernisse said. \u201cWhen we\u2019re playing our game and playing our strategy. That\u2019s what we wanted to get back to tonight, having a good Saturday night where we get back to our identity in Michigan hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Michigan broke the Nittany Lions early Saturday, something they had failed to do in recent games that played into its struggles. However, the Wolverines\u2019 ability to revert to old habits boded well for their final regular season matchup against a Big Ten opponent.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"scaip scaip-3    \">\n\t\t<\/aside>\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>The No. 2 Michigan hockey team rarely finds itself forced into an underdog position so early on into a contest. However, for three straight games, the Wolverines have seen the scales tipped out of their favor. Tonight that trend came to a close, launching Michigan back into a position it\u2019s more familiar with. In the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4511,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2351,222,4097,607,894,361,248],"class_list":["post-4510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-early","tag-michigan","tag-overwhelms","tag-penn","tag-secures","tag-state","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4510","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=4510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4512,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4510\/revisions\/4512"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tmbglobal.news\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}