Michigan Hockey Recap: Wolverines finish regular season strong with win at Ohio State

Michigan took the ice on Friday night and won its final regular season game, a rivalry clash with Ohio State in Columbus:

Michigan took the ice on Friday night for what would be its final regular season game of the 2024-25 campaign. It’s undoubtedly been a roller coaster of a year for the Wolverines, but Friday represented a great chance to finish strong against Ohio State in Columbus.

The Wolverines were able to take advantage by downing the Buckeyes by a final score of 4-3. It was a badly needed win considering they lost the series opener in overtime on Thursday.

Fortunately, Michigan understood the urgency it needed to play with to open up the game. Just four minutes into the contest, Dakod Rheaume-Mullen took control of a loose puck and fired a shot from the point, getting it past the goaltender to put Michigan up 1-0. Shortly thereafter, the Wolverines would have a chance to extend their lead thanks to an Ohio State hooking penalty, but were unsuccessful with their power play chance.

After returning to even strength, the Buckeyes turned up the heat a bit on the offensive attack. They would finally break through at the 13:38 mark of the period courtesy of Brent Johnson to make it a 1-1 game.

Michigan struck first in the second period. The Wolverines controlled an offensive zone face-off, allowing Tyler Duke to bury a shot from the point to make it 2-1. Michigan had the chance to pad its lead just a few minutes later, as an Ohio State slashing penalty put the Wolverines on a power play. T.J. Hughes took advantage to make it a 3-1 game.

The scoring in the second period wasn’t done just yet for the Wolverines. This time it was William Whitelaw, who took a feed from Philippe Lapointe and lofted the puck over the goalie’s shoulder to make it a 4-1 game.

Entering the third period, Ohio State needed to act with some urgency, but Michigan’s defense and goaltender Logan Stein held strong in the early going to protect the lead. Ohio State’s Joe Dunlap would score at the 12:33 mark of the period to cut into the deficit, but there was still a ways to go. Ohio State went into desperation mode late by pulling its goaltender and was able to score with just over a minute to play, making it 4-3. Michigan held strong the remainder of the game to walk out of Columbus with a win.

With the win on Friday, Michigan finished its regular season with a record of 18-13-3. The team will still need to pad its NCAA Tournament resume in its next few games. Michigan will have the chance to do so starting next weekend, as it is currently slated to begin a best-of-three series on Friday against Penn State at Yost in the Big Ten quarterfinals.