After two periods of the NCAA hockey championship at the 2011 Frozen Four, the Michigan hockey team is tied at two goals with Minnesota Duluth. The Wolverines led 1-0 after the first 20 minutes of play, and they had to battle back to tie things up at 2-2 after the 40th minute of action came to an end.
Minnesota Duluth opened the second period by sustaining pressure in Michigan's zone. Shawn Hunwick made a huge save less than a minute in, but at the 1:39 mark Minnesota Duluth's Travis Oleksuk tapped a bouncing puck in for a goal. It was the first time someone had scored on Hunwick in more than 85 minutes of action, and the goal tied this game up at 1-1.
Over the course of the next eight or so minutes the two teams traded penalties. Kevin Clare took a bad hitting after the whistle penalty 4:10 into the period, but Carl Hagelin was tripped with 29 seconds left on the penalty kill. This evened things up and neither team was able to score.
Michigan almost broke the tie with 11:30 to go in the second when Matt Rust had a shot barely miss. It deflected into the air and was cleared away from the net, keeping things even.
Following a turnover in their own zone, the Wolverines took a penalty. Minnesota Duluth made Michigan pay when Max Tardy scored thanks to a timely deflection. He tried to center the puck, but it came back to him after a Michigan defender got a stick on it. Hunwick was moving to the other side to get in position for the pass, leaving the net open for Tardy, who made it 2-1 in favor of the Bulldogs.
Michigan survived a bad penalty by Chris Brown and another bad one by Kevin Clare just as Brown got out of the box. The Wolverines also survived a shot that bounced off Hunwick and onto the top of the net. Following the play Hunwick got into it with a Minnesota Duluth player, and they got matching minors. The Bulldogs were still on a power play, but nothing came of it, just as nothing came of Michigan's power play that began with 4:42 to go in the second.
Shortly after the teams returned to full strength, Michigan's Greg Pateryn fired a shot on net that was blocked. A scrum of players went after the puck and couldn't seem to find it until Jeff Rohrkemper of Michigan backhanded it into the net. This was only his third goal of the season, but like Winnett's big-time play at the Frozen Four, it was very timely for Michigan, as it tied things up at two goals apiece.
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