UNH Spoils Michigan Home-Opener 5-1

UNH Senior Grayson Downing
Scores Game-Winner vs Michigan

The UNH Wildcats have never beaten Michigan at famed Yost Ice Arena on the campus of the University of Michigan - until tonight. After hanging tough with the highly skilled, energized Wolverine squad for most of the first period, UNH completely changed the character of the game beginning with a power play goal late in the period.

It was a game of firsts for UNH. Senior Alternate Captain Grayson Downing scored his first goal of the 2014-15 season with less than 2 minutes left in the first period. On a blue collar type goal, UNH got the puck to the net, created traffic in the crease, and poked away until the puck went in. UNH 1, Michigan 0



The momentum shifted to UNH following Downing's goal. UNH came out strong in the second period. Then came another first - Shane Eiserman scored his first NCAA goal as a member of the Wildcats. Playing left wing on UNH's fourth line, Eiserman snapped a wrister from a severe angle and buried it. Collin MacDonald set him up with a pretty cross slot pass. UNH 2, Michigan 0



With Trevor van Riemsdyk moving on to play in the NHL, junior defenseman Brett Pesce was poised to step his offensive game up a notch. Midway through the second period, Pesce looked like a power forward on a 3-on-2 break into the Michigan zone. Tyler Kelleher slipped the puck to Pesce as he crossed the blueline to the left of the Michigan goalie. Freshman Warren Foegele was streaking down the slot to Pesce's left. Pesce looked toward Foegele but took the puck to the net himself and lifted the puck under the cross bar. UNH 3, Michigan 0



With time running out in the second period, another first - junior Dan Correale's first goal of the season. Sophomore defenseman Dylan Maller, who played a strong two-way game, sent the puck around the boards behind the Michigan net. Correale corralled the puck to the left of the crease and poked into the open net. UNH 4, Michigan 0.



Freshman Andrew Poturalski, who scored 27 goals for the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders last season in the USHL, nabbed another UNH first at the 8:38 mark of the final stanza. Pesce fired a wrist shot from the top of the faceoff circle, Warren Foegele deflected the puck behind the Michigan net, and Poturalski buried the rebound off the backboards into the net. It was Poturalski's first NCAA goal. UNH 5, Michigan 0.



Freshman goalie Adam Clark came very close to registering a shutout against 10th-ranked Michigan. He faced 26 shots and made 25 saves. Here's one of his first saves of the game:





UNH will face Michigan again Saturday night at 7:30 in Ann Arbor. The Wildcats are now 1-1-0 on the season.