By Bob Miller –
ANN ARBOR – Jon Merrill returned to the No. 16 Wolverines’ line-up last night, just in time to help them extend their winning streak to three straight games.
Merrill played his first game of the season for Michigan after a 22-game suspension and chipped in a pair of assist and a +3 plus/minus rating performance. Michigan’s top line of David Wohlberg, Chris Brown and Alex Guptill accounted for three of the Wolverine’s four goals.
“It gives a little spark,” said Wohlberg of Merrill. “He’s kind of that missing puzzle piece that we haven’t had. And Jon is a great kid, he’s gone through some tough times and now he’s coming back and he’s great. He showed it tonight, he picked up a couple of points, and he’s just picked up right where he left off.”
Adam Janecyk stepped in for Shawn Hunwick, sidelined with an undisclosed injury or illness, in the third period and stopped seven out of eight shots.
The convergence of those three positive factors enabled Michigan to hold off Lake Superior Friday night at Yost Arena in Ann Arbor for a 4-2 win, pulling the Wolverines to within one point of the Lakers in the CCHA standings. In the tight CCHA race, Lake Superior entered the game in fourth place with the Wolverines for spots behind in eighth.
Lake Superior battled back from a pair of two-goal deficits on goals by Nick McParland and Ben Power to pressure the Wolverines deep into the third period. Brown’s second goal of the contest into an empty Laker net with just seconds remaining in the third period finally iced the game for Michigan.
“Their big line did real well,” said Lake Superior head coach Jim Roque. “We just had no answer for them. We had a couple good chances early and didn’t score. We have a hard time coming back. We got two goals down twice and that’s tough for us. I thought our guys worked really, really hard and gave ourselves a chance at the end. I was happy with our effort and I hope we can bounce back tomorrow night.
Wohlberg added a goal of his own and assists on both of Brown’s goals to supplement the Michigan offense.
“It is something that is welcomed,” said Michigan head coach Red Berenson of Wohlberg’s offensive performance. “Wohlberg is our leading returning goal scorer, but it didn’t look that way for the first half of the year and it wasn’t happening for him. I think he had one against Alaska and one against Michigan State, but it looked like a little glimpse of it. He could lead our team in goals, and as a senior maybe he should. Not that he will, but you never know, but I’m not surprised.”
Michigan rallied around Janecyk in goal in the final period playing tighter team defense and tenaciously killing off two penalties.
“We had to,” Berenson noted on the support for Janecyk. “That is one of the things when you come to the rink when you haven’t played in a long time are you really ready to play. I think (Adam) Janecyk gave us a good period and he had no idea he was going to play in this game. That is his job to be ready, and he was ready and I thought the team responded well for him.”
Lake Superior and Michigan match up again on Saturday night for the finale of their two-game set.