Michigan
22-11-3
Wisconsin
13-23-0
Fantilli's Four-Point Night Leads No. 4 U-M to B1G Series Win Over Wisconsin
3/4/2023 11:10:00 PM | Ice Hockey
» Adam Fantilli notched his second hat trick along with an assist for his fourth four-point game.
» Captain Nolan Moyle scored his third goal of the year to retake the lead late in the contest.
» In total, 12 Wolverines found the scoresheet, including four with multi-point performances.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- The nation's leading scorer, Adam Fantilli, authored a four-point performance including a hat trick on Saturday night (March 4) to lead the second-seeded University of Michigan ice hockey team past the seventh-seeded Wisconsin Badgers by a 7-4 score in the second game of a best-of-three Big Ten quarterfinal series. With the victory, U-M ended the Badgers' season and advanced to next week's single-elimination semifinal at Yost Ice Arena.
Junior goaltender Erik Portillo started once again for the Wolverines, and the Swede turned aside 36 of the 40 shots that he faced from a desperate Wisconsin squad to earn the win.
Michigan (22-11-3, 12-10-2) opened the scoring for the second-straight night when Rutger McGroarty swooped in on the right wing to bury a one-timer from the bottom of the right circle at 8:05 off of a beautiful cross-ice feed from Mackie Samoskevich. Fantilli earned a secondary assist on the play for a crafty mid-air touch in transition to play middle-man between blue liner Steven Holtz and his intended target, Samoskevich, on the left wing.
Wisconsin (13-23-0, 6-18-0) tied the game on the power play at 10:49 when a U-M penalty killer's clearing attempt was caught at the blue line and the UW forward trio were able to convert on the odd-man effort.
The home team's power-play unit was activated for the first time with 6:24 left in the opening period. Seven seconds later, the Wolverines celebrated a go-ahead goal after Fantilli notched his team-leading ninth power-play tally of the season from the right circle. After Gavin Brindley won the faceoff, Fantilli tapped it back to Luke Hughes at the point. The blue liner walked toward the middle before returning a pass to Fantilli's wheelhouse. The freshman put a shot on goal that was redirected off of a Badger's stick and across the goal line to give Michigan the 2-1 lead at 13:43, with Brindley and Hughes collecting the assists.
The younger Fantilli showed off his strength in the midst of a netfront scrum to notch his second goal of the night with 1:02 left in the first period after Holtz threw a clever shot into the crowded area surrounding the blue paint. With his teammates' sticks tied up, Luca Fantilli overpowered multiple defenders to force the puck through a nest of sticks and equipment and give Michigan a 3-1 lead.
After one frame, Michigan held a two-goal lead powered by a 10-9 lead in shots on goal. In a twist from Friday's contest, U-M also owned an 11-9 edge in the faceoff dot.Â
Fresh out of the locker room, Fantilli finished off the hat trick with a long goal from the right point just 29 seconds into the second stanza. McGroarty and Keaton Pehrson assisted on Fantilli's team-leading 25th tally of the season by cycling the puck through the offensive zone before Fantilli's rocket gave U-M a 4-1 lead with just under 40 minutes to play.
The Wolverines embarked on their second power play of the night at 10:58 when the Badgers were whistled for slashing at Portillo's glove following a UW netfront drive. The netminder came up big to turn aside a shorthanded chance for Wisconsin, which allowed U-M to create multiple dangerous chances at the other end of the ice. Two minutes later, the advantage expired and dropped Michigan's power-play unit to 1-for-2 on the night.
Back at even-strength, the Badgers scored at 13:49 to make it a 4-2 game when the puck trickled across the goal line.
Following a pair of successful penalty kills for the Wolverines, UW scored at even-strength with 1:03 left in the second period after U-M was unable to clear the defensive zone. Wisconsin finished off the play from the top of the crease to make it 4-3 after cycling the puck behind and around Portillo's net.
After two periods of play, Michigan clung to a 4-3 lead despite trailing in shots on goal (29-24) following a 20-shot middle frame for Wisconsin.
Wisconsin banged home a fourth, game-tying goal just 3:09 into the third period.
As the period wore on, with the score still deadlocked at four, the Wolverines continued to test the UW goaltender from all angles but had yet to earn a fifth goal to take a critical one-goal lead.
With the team holding court in the Wisconsin zone, it was the captain Nolan Moyle who deposited a backhand shot from the slot into the back of the net to unleash an arena full of excitement with 2:20 left in regulation. Frank Nazar III and Dylan Duke assisted on the fifth-year captain's game-winning goal.
Less than a minute later, T.J. Hughes broke in for an abbreviated breakaway chance. The freshman stayed calm, cool and collected before tucking a backhand shot upstairs to give Michigan a 6-4 lead with 1:27 remaining. Luke Hughes earned the lone assist on the 13th goal of Hughes' freshman campaign. The resulting roar of approval from the crowd was even louder than that of the team's fifth goal, as the reality of a playoff series win settled into the minds of Michigan's fans.
Wisconsin pulled its netminder with time ticking down on a two-goal deficit, but Samoskevich quickly dunked a long, unassisted feed into the back of the yawning cage from the neutral zone before the Badgers' backstop was able to exit the ice and officially make it an empty-net goal. With 54 seconds left in UW's season, U-M took a three-goal lead and held on for good.
After 60 minutes of hard-fought play, Michigan celebrated a 7-4 win over the Badgers off of a 42-40 lead in shots on goal and a 38-36 edge in the faceoff dot. Both sides ended the evening 1-for-4 on the power play.
Next week, the Wolverines will be back in action at Yost when they host a single-elimination Big Ten Conference semifinal match-up against a lower-seeded team emerging from tomorrow's (March 5) quarterfinal contests in Columbus and South Bend. The one-game semifinal will take place on Saturday (March 11) at 6:30 p.m. ET, and the contest will be broadcast live on Big Ten Network. Tickets will go on sale on Monday morning at 9 a.m.
