Michigan Hockey: Icers Upset Boston College; Travel Saturday To Take On RIT Tigers — Preview

Posted at 10:00am — 10/12/2013

Michigan Hockey: Icers Upset Boston College; Travel Saturday To Take On RIT Tigers — Preview

What: #11 Michigan (1-0-0) Vs. Rochester Institute of Technology (0-1-0)
When: Saturday 10/12/13 7:05 p.m. Blue Cross Arena, Rochester, NY
TV/Radio: No local TV; Time Warner Cable, NY State only. No radio (Michigan Football.) Check with www.mgoblue.com for audio streaming.

Wolverines Stun Eagles:
Boston College ventured into Yost arena with the youngest average age on their roster- albeit very talented- and got dumped by the second youngest roster in college hockey. Michigan’s senior forward Luke Moffatt tallied two power play goals to ignite the Wolverines to a 3-1 win. Alternate Captain (sophomore) Andrew Copp added a goal and two assists and freshman JT Compher earned his first two collegiate points in the victory. Sophomore goaltender Steve Racine turned away 20 shots in securing the win. BC rattled a shot off the post 7:00 into the contest and on the play took a penalty. Moffatt, Copp and Compher combined for a nice passing play culminating in Moffatt’s one timer. Copp added his marker early in the second frame, banking a shot off a defender’s skate past BC netminder Brian Billett. The Eagles pressed hard during stretches of the 2nd stanza and cut the lead in half on a shot from freshman defenseman Ian McCoshen that deflected off of Michigan defender Brennan Serville high over Racine, stick side. Michigan struck early in the third period, as Moffatt scored a near carbon copy of his first goal, again while on the power play.

From there, both teams threatened with good scoring chances but nothing materialized. The Wolverines held on in the last five minutes to secure the win. The win maintains Michigan’s perfect (5-0) record against BC at Yost arena and improves their overall mark to 12-6 against the Eagles. BC moves on to play RPI, while the Wolverines begin a three game road trip the next two weekends, with a single game this Saturday against RIT followed by next weekend’s series against New Hampshire.

RIT Re-doux:
Michigan will renew acquaintances with the RIT Tigers in a single game this weekend. Last season the two teams met for the first time in either of the two program’s history and both walked away with victories. RIT stole a 5-4(OT) win in the season opener (after scoring three times in the third period to tie the game) followed by a 7-2 Wolverine rout the next night.

The Tigers graduated four seniors from last season, including top defender and second leading points man Chris Saracino and leading goal scorer (forward) Jeff Smith. Would be senior goaltender Josh Watson also left the program, making incumbent junior Jordan Ruby the lead goaltending candidate. The leadership mantle falls on six returning seniors including last season’s top scoring forwards winger Michael Colavecchia (12-18-30) and linemate (Alternate Captain) Ben Lynch (10-16-26). Senior defender Chris Noyes pitched in with 9-20-29 from the blue line. Junior Captain Matt Garbowsky (11-22-33) led the Tigers in points a season ago and joins fellow juniors Brad McGowan (9-16-25) and goaltender Ken MacLean (0-1-0 last season.) Eight freshmen dot the roster including back-up netminder Mike Rotolo.

Jordan Ruby posted a7-7-4 record last season with a 3.05 GAA and a .911 save %.
The Tigers are trying to rebound from a subpar 15-18-5 finish in 2012-13 where they allowed 3.3 GPG while scoring at 3.2 GPG. They began their 2013-14 season at home on Thursday night, dropping a 4-1 decision to Colgate after losing their exhibition game to Queens, 2-1. Brad Lynch had the sole tally against Colgate. Ruby started in goal and took the loss. Michigan will join Penn State as the only two Big Ten teams that RIT will challenge this season.

The Michigan game will be played in nearby downtown Rochester at the Blue Cross Center, which has hosted other NCAA tournaments and is sold out.

Wolverine Notes:
Michigan’s line chart on Thursday was:
Kile-Copp- DeBlois
Moffatt-Compher-Motte
DiGiuseppe-Nieves-Allen
Lynch-Z.Hyman-Sinelli
On the blueline:
Bennett- DeJong
Clare- Lohan
Serville- Downing
The scratches were Guptill, Selman, Shuart, Chiasson, S.Hyman, Szuma and Dwyer.
Racine was in net and Nagelvoort and Adam Janecyk were his back-ups.
-Freshman defenseman Michael Downing also earned his first collegiate assist on Copp’s game winning second period goal.
-Michigan was 2-5 on the PP and killed off both BC PP chances.
– If the names of the officials sound familiar… they are. It is not known how many officials from the CCHA were retained, but new B1G Ten Head of Officials Steve Piotrowski has brought over many of the former CCHA’s stripes. Brian Aaron and Stephen McInchak opened the 2013-14 season at Yost and did was perceived to be a fairly clean job.

Michigan TV Schedule:
Maize and Blue fans will be able to enjoy 28 (or more) games on TV this winter, with the games split between The Big Ten Network, Fox Sports Detroit, CBS-SN, NBC-SN, ESPNU, ESPNews, Fox Sports College, and Comcast local. The upgraded schedule and B1G Ten conference affiliation is feeding this exposure. Check MGoBlue for the entire schedule.

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Written by GBMWolverine Staff — Yostmeister

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