Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Men’s Notes: Wolverines Wowing with Firepower

Michigan Averaging More Than Five Goals per Game

It’s not unusual to see the University of Michigan atop the NCAA Division I men’s hockey leaderboard for offense. After all, the Wolverines tied for the NCAA lead in goals per game as recently as 2022-23.

What this year’s Michigan squad is doing, however, is trying to accomplish something not previously seen in a quarter of a century.

After racking up 13 goals in last weekend’s sweep of Ohio State, the Wolverines are averaging a nation’s-best 5.2 goals per game, nearly a full goal better than Dartmouth’s 4.3.

For context, the 2022-23 Wolverines averaged a “mere” 4.2 goals per game, and only two teams have topped even 4.5 goals in the last 15 years: Denver in 2023-24 (4.6) and Michigan in 2015-16 (4.8).

If Michigan can keep its scoring rate above five for the entire season, it would be the first Division I men’s team to do so since Quinnipiac in 1999-2000.

Most Goals per Game in the 2000s
5.2, Michigan (2025-26)
5.0, Quinnipiac (1999-000)
4.9, North Dakota (1999-00)
4.8, Michigan (2015-16)
4.6, Denver (2023-24)
4.6, New Hampshire (2001-02)

This year’s Wolverines are led by sophomore F Will Horcoff (Birmingham, Mich.), who has erupted for a nation’s-best 14 goals in 16 games. For comparison’s sake, last year’s Michigan team leader – T.J. Hughes (Sr., Hamilton, Ontario) – had 15 goals over the entire 2024-25 season.

Horcoff has been supported by seven other players who have already scored at least five times, including Hughes and Michael Hage (So., Mississauga, Ontario), who have nine goals each.

The Wolverines have been an equal-opportunity wagon, too, scoring five-plus goals in nine of their 16 games and seven or more in six of them. They’ve already reached double digits in a game twice. Only one other team (St. Thomas) has done that even once this year.

Game state hasn’t mattered to the Wolverines, either; Michigan leads the NCAA in scoring at even-strength, on the power-play and while short-handed.

It has all added up to 83 total goals in 16 games, a whopping 27 more goals than the next-closest team, Bemidji State, which has scored 56 times in the same number of games.

It remains to be seen whether Michigan can maintain such a torrid scoring pace over a full season.

The Wolverines are currently shooting a scorching 14.5 percent as a team – second only to Dartmouth’s 15.2 – and have yet to play half of their regular-season schedule. And just last season, Denver was scoring at an even slightly higher pace of 5.3 goals per game after their first 16 contests. So, some amount of regression is likely inevitable.

In the meantime, Michigan (13-3-0) continues to pile up victories. On Monday, the Wolverines unseated rival Michigan State from the top of the national polls. They’ll face a tremendous holiday matchup with a Thanksgiving series at Harvard (5-1-1), which boasts a four-game winning streak and the sixth-best team save percentage (.934) in the country.

Daily Scoreboard | Weekly Schedule | Scoring Leaders | Goaltending Leaders

Back to Belfast:

College hockey returns to Northern Ireland this weekend when Belfast’s SSE Arena hosts the annual Friendship Four.

This year’s tournament field features four teams that have already won a combined 31 games this season. On Friday, Miami (8-4-0) faces RIT (9-4-0), while Sacred Heart (6-5-1) takes on Union (8-3-2).

The two winners will play for the Belpot Trophy in Saturday’s championship game, while the other two teams will square off in the consolation matchup

Kai Five:

Princeton F Kai Daniells (Jr., Whistler, British Columbia) made school history last Friday when he erupted for five goals in a 7-4 win over St. Lawrence, tying the Tigers’ single-game record previously shared by three others.

Daniells tallied twice in the third period and three more times in the final frame to help Princeton turn a 2-1 deficit into an ECAC Hockey victory. It was the first five-goal game in NCAA Division I men’s hockey since Minnesota Duluth’s Mike Connolly did it in 2011.

Daniells added a goal and an assist in Saturday’s series finale for a seven-point weekend and ECAC Hockey Forward of the Week honors. He has eight goals in seven games this season after scoring twice in 18 games as a sophomore.

Ice Breaker to Connecticut in 2026:

Two of college hockey’s newest venues will be on display at the 30th annual Ice Breaker Tournament.

It was announced this week that Connecticut and Sacred Heart will co-host the tournament in October 2026, bringing the event to UConn’s Toscano Family Ice Forum and SHU’s Martire Family Arena. Both venues opened their doors in January 2023.

Bowling Green and Penn State will also participate in the 2026 Ice Breaker.

Rank and File:

With many teams off for Thanksgiving, this week’s slate features just two matchups between teams ranked in the national polls:

#1 Michigan at #18/NR Harvard (FRI/SAT)
#16/17 Cornell vs. #19/20 Boston University (SAT)

The Cornell-BU tilt takes place at Madison Square Garden in the 10th annual Red Hot Hockey game. It’s also a rematch of the 2025 NCAA Tournament Toledo Regional Final, which BU won 3-2 in overtime.

Click HERE to view the entire schedule for the week.

SID Corner:

Air Force has won six of eight games since Halloween and a big part of the Falcons’ 7-6-1 overall start to the year has been the play of a trio of sophomore forwards.

According to AFA SID Dave Toller, the all-sophomore line of LW Will Dawson (Traverse City, Mich.), C Nick Sajevic (Shoreview, Minn.), and RW Sam Stitz (Perry Hall, Md.) has been on the ice for more than half of the team’s even-strength goals (13 of 25) this season.

The Falcons visit Canisius this weekend for an Atlantic Hockey America series.

Notebook Quotebook:

“That was unbelievable. That’s what we want Miami hockey to be. For the people that showed up tonight, that was electric. Our guys felt it, they built off that. That was incredible. That was as cool of an experience that myself and this hockey group’s had. We’ve talked at length as a group about wanting to restore that and get it back to that and feel that.”

— Miami head coach Anthony Noreen (Wisconsin-Stevens Point ’07) after the RedHawks defeated St. Cloud State 6-5 in overtime on Friday in front of the first sellout crowd at Steve Cady Arena since 2015 (source: Jeff Middleton on Twitter).

NHL Note of the Week:

Colorado Avalanche F Brock Nelson (North Dakota, 2010-12) enters tonight’s game against the San Jose Sharks needing one point to reach 600 for his NHL career. He would become sixth North Dakota alumni to reach that milestone, joining Jonathan Toews (891), Zach Parise (889), Dave Christian (773), T.J. Oshie (695), and James Patrick (639).

The 30th overall pick of the New York Islanders in 2010, Nelson led UND in points and goals as a sophomore in 2011-12 and earned All-WCHA honors.

Fries at the Bottom of the Bag:

Denver hosts Minnesota in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Game on Saturday at Ball Arena … The Adirondack Winter Invitational takes place this weekend at 1980 Rink Herb Brooks Arena in Lake Placid, N.Y. with Alaska, Clarkson, UMass Lowell and St. Lawrence taking part … Lindenwood freshman D Connor Gengle (Grand Rapids, Mich.) was a plus-5 in Friday’s 6-2 win over Robert Morris, tied for the best single-game plus/minus rating in the country this season. He also scored twice in that game, the first two tallies of his NCAA career … Bemidji State’s Connor McClennon (Sr., Wainwright, Alberta) scored four goals in the Beavers’ 7-3 win over Northern Michigan on Friday, becoming the first BSU skater to score four times in a game since Owen Sillinger on Feb. 6, 2021 … BSU’s Oliver Peer (Jr., Burlington, Ontario) scored three times in the series finale the following night, giving the Beavers their first back-to-back hat tricks since Feb. 2-3, 1991 … Holy Cross freshman G Danick Leroux (Candiac, Quebec) earned his first NCAA shutout in Sunday’s 1-0 win over Alaska Anchorage.

Longest Active Team Winning Streaks:

6 games, Dartmouth (began Nov. 1 at Stonehill)
6 games, Holy Cross (began Nov. 7 vs. Niagara)
4 games, 6 teams tied

Longest Active Point Streaks:

8 games, F Sixten Jennersjö (LIU)
- 3-7—10, began Oct. 24
6 games, F Nikita Nikora (Dartmouth)
- 1-6—7, began Nov. 1 at Stonehill
6 games, F Ethan Wyttenbach (Quinnipiac)
- 2-5—8, began Nov. 4 vs. Alaska

Longest Active Goal Streaks:

5 games, F Porter Martone (Michigan State)
- 7-2—9, began Nov. 8 vs. Penn State
4 games, F Casey Severo (Harvard)
- 4-3—7, began Nov. 8 vs. Colgate

Conference Websites

College Hockey Inc. Resources:

Did you know? 93% of NCAA Division I men’s hockey players earn their degree!