Michigan hockey recap: Wolverines sweep Harvard on the road

After a big sweep over rival Ohio State last weekend, Michigan Hockey shipped up to Boston for a pair of games against Harvard on Friday and Saturday night. Donning its new No. 1 ranking, Michigan was poised to put on a show this weekend.

Things got off to a quick start Friday, as Josh Eernisse found the back of the net just 11 minutes into the game to give Michigan a quick 1-0 lead. It wouldn’t take too much longer for the Wolverines to pad that lead, with Will Horcoff burying a backhand shot in front of the net just two minutes later to put Michigan up 2-0.

Coming out of the first intermission, Michigan was still looking to do damage and got the chance to do so as Harvard’s Aidan Lane was assessed a holding penalty to give the Wolverines a power play. Just 11 seconds in, Cole McKinney scored to put Michigan up 3-0.

The Crimson would fend off Michigan’s attack for the remainder of the period, but were still going to need a minor miracle to come back. Instead, Horcoff would score his second goal of the game to start the third period, once again assisted by Nick Moldenhauer, to give the Wolverines a commanding 4-0 lead. Harvard would score just a minute later to cut it to 4-1, but it was too little too late. Michigan added an insurance goal from Malcolm Spence to go up 5-1, which was the final score.

Things didn’t get off to the quickest of starts, as the teams would go scoreless through the first period. However, Michigan would get on the board eight minutes into the second period, as Horcoff scored his third goal of the weekend to put Michigan up 1-0. Michael Hage and Aidan Park tacked on goals of their own before the end of the period, giving the Wolverines a 3-0 lead heading into the final break.

Harvard cut into its deficit with Salvatore Guzzo finding the back of the net to make it 3-1. Despite his offensive dominance over the weekend, Horcoff took a slashing penalty to award the Crimson a power play just a few minutes later. Harvard would capitalize with a power play goal to draw within one in the game’s final minutes.

There was a bit of deja vu in crunch time, as Horcoff was assessed yet another penalty, and Harvard’s Ryan Healy scored another power play goal to make it a 3-3 game late. Despite some additional late chances for the Crimson, the score would hold there and we’d have to head to overtime.

In the overtime period, Horcoff would avenge his late-game penalties with the game-winner — his fourth goal of the weekend — to give Michigan a 4-3 win in the sweep.

With the win, Michigan moved to 15-3 on the year and has now won four games in a row. The Wolverines will return back to the state for next weekend’s series, the final of the first half with home-and-home matchups against Michigan State.