HOUGHTON, Mich. — For the first time since 1983, Michigan traveled to Houghton for a road series against Michigan Tech and the Huskies proved to be rude hosts on Friday night, jumping all over the Wolverines early before skating away with a 4-1 win to extend their season-opening winning streak to five games.
The Huskies got a goal and an assist from both co-captain Tanner Kero and defenseman Walker Hyland.
“It’s a great feeling, obviously, getting that win,” said Kero. “This was a big test for us as a team and I think we proved we can play with any team right now.”
The Wolverines (2-4-0 overall) fired the first shot on goal when captain Andrew Copp skated in on a two-on-one and fired a shot that goaltender Jamie Phillips stopped easily.
The next good chance for the visitors came three minutes later as assistant captain Zach Hyman fed winger Alex Kile, but Kile’s shot was stopped by Phillips.
“You know one team is going to have the edge in the first few minutes,” said Berenson. “We tried to have that edge and they took it away from us.”
David Johnstone set up the Huskies’ first solid scoring chance when he found Kero with a wide open net to shoot at. Kero fired wide of the yawning goal to Wolverines’ goalie Zach Nagelvoort’s left.
The Huskies (5-0-0 overall) had a similar scoring chance two minutes later when Matt Roy’s shot from the right point rebounded right to Brent Baltus, whose chance sailed wide of the goal.
“I thought we were fortunate,” said Pearson. “We did not score on our best scoring opportunities.”
The Huskies broke through at 12:32 when Reid Sturos crashed the net and one-timed a pass from Johnstone past Nagelvoort. Hyland also assisted on the goal.
Sturos had a great chance to pot his second of the night on the power play with about seven minutes left in the period. However, his one-timer just missed the left side of the net.
Co-captain Blake Pietila had a chance to open a two-goal lead for the Huskies just two and a half minutes into the second when he took a pass from Johnstone, but his shot was stopped by Nagelvoort.
After forcing Nagelvoort to make a good save on a one-timer, Kero put the Huskies up a pair when he took a pass from Cliff Watson and rifled home a wrist shot over Nagelvoort’s left shoulder at 7:23. The goal, which was also assisted by Johnstone, stood as the game-winner.
Less than three minutes later, the Wolverines’ Michael Downing hit Baltus from behind and was assessed a five-minute major and a game misconduct for the hit. The Huskies were unable to take advantage of the lengthy power play, however.
Phillips came up with two good stops on Hyman while the Wolverines were on the power play late in the middle period.
“We did a good job blocking shots and really eliminating scoring opportunities,” said Phillips. “My team let me see a lot of the pucks.”
The Huskies took a three-goal lead 7:36 into the third when Hyland’s shot caromed off the boards behind the Wolverines’ net. The puck kicked back out front and off a defender past Nagelvoort. Kero and defenseman Chris Leibinger assisted on the goal, which came while the teams played four on four.
Phillips saw his shutout bid end on a Dylan Larkin wrister at 10:16 of the third.
Berenson pulled Nagelvoort with 2:42 remaining. The Wolverines had numerous scoring chances, especially once Kero’s stick broke, but it was the Huskies who scored the game’s final tally as Malcolm Gould iced the game with a shot into the empty net with 44.4 seconds remaining.
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