Michigan coach Red Berenson said yesterday that taking a lot of penalties disrupts the rhythm of the game and can take players “out of the mix.”

That was certainly the case in tonight’s first period, and it took awhile for the Wolverines to find that right tempo — over 35 minutes, to be more precise.

But after facing an early two-goal deficit on goals scored on the Nebraska-Omaha power play, the Michigan offense finally arrived late in the second period to tie the game up. Eventually, a pair of third-period goals from freshman walk-on forward Luke Glendening gave the Wolverines a 4-2 win tonight at Yost Ice Arena.

Though the Wolverines seemed fired up from the start with an early barrage of shots on Nebraska-Omaha backup goaltender Jerad Kaufmann, they suddenly found themselves scrambling for most of the frame — about nine minutes of Mavericks on the man-advantage or two-man advantage.

Starting with a major penalty called on senior forward Tim Miller for kneeing, Michigan went to its penalty kill with about 14 minutes remaining in the first. After a successful three minutes of swatting shots and clearing, another Wolverine penalty gave Nebraska-Omaha a five-on-three.

The Mavericks found the back of the net twice within 30 seconds during this stretch. The first goal came on a rebound shot that beat senior goalie Billy Sauer glove-side. Nebraska-Omaha lit the lamp again with a laser shot that tipped off Sauer’s glove and ended up in the back of the net.

The Wolverines went on to successfully kill another 5-on-3 later in the period. Still, the Michigan student section was vocal with its displeasure at the penalty calls in the first period, and the entire crowd greeted the referees with a loud chorus of boos after the first intermission.

The second period started much like the first with the Wolverines down a man for the first few minutes thanks to another couple of penalties.

After the two teams finally started playing hockey at even strength, it took awhile for Michigan to find its offensive rhythm. The Wolverines lacked crisp passing and couldn’t seem to find each other on the ice easily.

Late in the second, Michigan started getting better scoring chances.
And then the puck luck arrived.

With just under five minutes remaining in the second and on the power play, senior forward Travis Turnbull received a pass from sophomore center Louie Caporusso, and Turnbull slammed the puck past a sprawling Kaufmann to put the Wolverines on the board.

Less than two minutes later, junior forward Brian Lebler lit the lamp for the third consecutive game with a pretty easy rebound goal from the left circle.

The contest’s final period was pretty uneventful to start. With just a few minutes remaining, the game appeared destined for overtime. Michigan hasn’t played an overtime game at all this season.

But Glendening had other plans.

Caporusso battled for a loose puck by the Nebraska-Omaha blue line, and he fed the puck to Glendening, who was streaking up the right side of the ice. The freshman took it top shelf, and the goal gave the Wolverines the lead with 4:28 left in regulation.

Glendening added an empty-netter with 34.6 seconds left.

Sauer held the lead in the game’s final minutes, and he made 28 total saves in the contest.

Sauer started for the first time since Jan. 17, but he played in both games of this weekend’s series. Sophomore goalie Bryan Hogan left Friday’s contest with less than seven minutes remaining in the third period because, as Berenson said after the game, Hogan was sick and hadn’t been feeling good for most of the week. Sauer finished Friday’s game and played the entire game tonight.