Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.
Michigan versus Western Michigan. A second (or less) to go. A Wolverine makes an improbable, game-winning play.
No, we’re not talking about a certain, deeply controversial football game from last month. We’re talking about Friday night, when the Michigan hockey team faced the Broncos in a top-five bout at Yost Ice Arena, and eked out a 3-2 win thanks to a stunner from forward Will Horcoff at the death. But before we get to the moment of triumph, let’s run back through the events of the game itself.
The first period was about as uneventful as it gets. Both the Wolverines and Western Michigan traded penalties, each of which were promptly killed. The second began in a similar fashion for Michigan when Dakoda Rheaume-Mullen was penalized for tripping, but the Wolverines were able to neutralize the threat.
But a little over a minute after the kill, the Broncos drew first blood, when forward Zaccharya Wisdom bundled in a rebound following a tip by Michigan goaltender Jack Ivankovic. That would remain the state of affairs for the rest of the second period, as a chippy contest continued with three more penalties, two on Western Michigan and one on the Wolverines, all of which were killed.
It took less than a minute into the third for Michigan to punch back, though. Forward Jayden Perron continued his blistering start to the season when he ripped a puck loose in the neutral zone and took it down for the house call himself to make it 1-1. 21 seconds later, Rheaume-Mullen pounced on a rebounded shot from forward Nick Moldenhauer to give the Wolverines a lead. In less than 30 seconds, the game had turned on its head.
But Michigan’s hard-won lead only lasted seven minutes. WIth about eleven minutes to go, a familiar face in former Wolverine William Whitelaw ripped a goal shorthand on a Broncos penalty kill. As possession bounced back and forth, it looked as though the two in-state rivals were bound for overtime.
Until there was .01 seconds remaining, and Horcoff, who had the puck in the clear just outside of the faceoff circles, decided to let it rip. The puck clattered into the back of Western Michigan goaltender Quentin Miller’s net, and Horcoff wheeled away to the boards, rattling his gloved fist, as his teammates joined him.
In September, it was Bryce Underwood’s Hail Mary to J.J. Buchanan with a second to play. In October, it was Will Horcoff’s dagger from deep with even less time on the board. Talk about deja vu.