Michigan knocks off UNH in overtime, 3-2

Amid all the great football today, I decided to pay the $10 on the UNH website to watch the game online. After taking a 1-1 tie last night, the Wolverines once again went to overtime tonight; this time, Tyler Motte, who scored Michigan's lone goal yesterday, gave Michigan the 3-2 win in overtime.

Alex Guptill notched Michigan's first goal--assisted by Nieves and PDG--in the first period on the power play. In the second, Guptill was initially credited with another power play goal, but it looks like it was eventually credited to Luke Moffatt (assisted by PDG and Nieves).

The pace picked up down the stretch in the third period, and both Zach Nagelvoort and Michigan's blue line were equal to the challenge. UNH had several opportunities to put the game away in regulation, but Nagelvoort stood tall.

It's probably a little early (and slightly unfair) to call for Nagelvoort to assume injured Steve Racine's starting role, but he was pretty impressive tonight from what I was able to catch, even though he didn't really get that much work, especially early on. Additionally, he didn't concede a goal last night after coming in for Racine in the third period. Tonight, Nagelvoort tallied 22 saves, including eight in the third period.

Either way, this was a tremendous pair of results for this young team, on the road against the No. 13 team in the country. With Wisconsin taking another rough loss tonight against BU and MSU again losing to UMass, the Wolverines come out of this weekend looking pretty good.

Michigan returns to Ann Arbor next weekend, where they'll face BU on Friday and a struggling Lowell squad on Saturday.

Michigan hockey jumps to No. 5, joins Minnesota, Wisconsin in top 5

Given the nature of college hockey, the rankings are fairly fluid and don't seem to mean a whole lot on a game by game basis. With that said, after an impressive 2-0 start for the Wolverines, Michigan jumped up to No. 5 in the polls.

Forward Alex Guptill returned from a suspension that saw him miss the opener against Boston College, notching two first period helpers against RIT in the 7-4 victory.

Joining Michigan in the top 5 are Notre Dame (No. 4), Minnesota (No. 3), Wisconsin (No. 2) and Miami (No. 1). So far so good for the Big Ten hockey conference. Ohio State and Michigan State are in the receiving votes category, with three and one, respectively.

Michigan returns to the ice this Friday, once again on the road, when the Wolverines will take on the 1-1-0 New Hampshire Wildcats. New Hampshire was up on Minnesota, 2-1, about halfway through the game on Saturday, but two Gopher goals later in the second period saddled the Wildcats with the 3-2 loss. That's not much to go off of, but it does prove that they are dangerous (they're currently No. 13 in the country). A split on the road this coming weekend would be a solid accomplishment.