ANN ARBOR – On Thursday, the Wolverines failed to take advantage of a two-goal lead in the third period, eventually losing to RIT in overtime.
Twenty-four hours later, it was a different story.
Michigan dominated the final frame – scoring four goals on the Tigers – to post a convincing 7-2 win.
“It’s a good feeling to play as well in the third period as we did tonight,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. It’s too bad we couldn’t have done that last night – it would have been a better weekend. You can’t feel good about splitting at home, but at least I liked the way we played the whole game tonight.”
Lee Moffie, Travis Lynch, Phil Di Giuseppe, A.J. Treais, Andrew Sinelli, Jacob Trouba, and Lindsay Sparks all had a goal apiece for the Wolverines.
“It’s a not really surprising, and it’s nice to see,” said defenseman Lee Moffie about the spread-out scoring. “We have a really skilled team. There are guys who play on the fourth line here who on other teams would be top-two line guys. You expect that here and that guys with skill will put the puck in the net.”
Freshman Steve Racine, starting in goal for the Wolverines after Jared Rutledge played on Thursday, stopped 21 shots to earn the first win of his college career.
Five of the Wolverines’ goals came at even-strength play, while Lynch scored a shorthanded marker in the first, and Trouba scored on the power play in the third.
In the first game of their series, RIT erased a 3-1 Michigan lead in the third period, and scored 14 seconds into overtime to finish off a surprising comeback at Yost. Wolverines captain A.J. Treais said it didn’t even need to be discussed between the players that a collapse of that nature wouldn’t happen again.
“I think in the locker room everybody knew we were in the same situation; nothing really had to be said,” Treais said. “Obviously it was in the back of everyone’s mind. We were in the same situation, but a different team tonight.”