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Michigan Daily honors the 1998 NCAA champion
ichigan hockey team with this commemorative,
four-page wraparound section.

Monday
April 6, 1998

~ .. °°

Champions!

1

ezvest title
ows that hard
ork pays off
OSTON -Years from now, no one will remem-
ber Michigan losing at Yost Ice Arena for the
first time in 36 games. No one will remember the
irst Great Lakes Invitational loss il a decade, or losing
Michigan State four times in one season, or losing
CCHA regular season and conference playoffs.
But everyone will remember the West Regional victo-
es at Yost. Everyone will remember Saturday's game
nd the outcome.
Everyone will remember the 1998 NCAA champi-
nship.
This season's edition of Michigan hockey really is
nique, worthy of a movie or a book, or at least a
miniseries. The Wolverines are a team everyone can
late to because they're not perfect, they're not unstop-
le. There's no Hobey Baker Award winner here, no
rd-setting win total, no single player carrying the
team on his shoulders night in
and night out. Even Marty Turco
couldn't always bail the
Wolverines out, nor could Bill
Muckalt.
We all can relate. Sometimes in
life, you come up short. You can't
win every award, every tourna-
SHARAT ment or every accolade. But you
AJU can succeed if you work hard,
harat play hard and come through when
in the Dark it counts.
And that's exactly what this
team did. The Wolverines came
hrough at the FleetCenter. They worked hard and
ought back, and can truly be called Champions.
Captain Matt Herr often said early in the season that
his team wasn't going to be the most talented in the
ountry, but they would be the hardest-working one.
hat's something to live by in hockey, in sports and in
. If you work hard, good things happen.
his team workedthe hardest - and the best thing
appened.
In reality, this game should have happened last year.
Aichigan, with the best team in the land, should have
layed in the championship game and should have won
onvincingly. They had the Hobey Baker winner, the
nost victories in the country and were stacked with
layoff-tested veterans.
But forget all of that. That was a different team with
different frame of mind - a team that often defeated
ts opponents before even stepping onto the ice.
,his year's Michigan team was the underdog from
t to finish, basically. Sure, teams like Alaska-
airbanks didn't really stand a chance. But pretty much
very team drooled at the chance to pay Michigan back
or years of humiliation.
Funny how it all worked out for the Wolverines. Funny
ow the best-laid plans of the best teams (read: Michigan
tate, North Dakota, Boston University) went awry.
The Wolverines never did anything the easy way this
eason. It took them three games, including an overtime
ne, to dispatch of Notre Dame in the first round of the
HA playoffs. They had to come back from two goals
>e ind - twice - against defending national champi-
n North Dakota in the West Regional final. They
layed in 21 one-goal games and won 17 of them.
Fittingly, the Wolverines saved the biggest challenge
or the final game.
They had to overcome second-seeded Boston College
n Boston. They had to fight through possibly the loud-
:st opposing crowd ever. And, of course, they had to
york hard and come from behind. Twice. Again.
And when Josh Langfeld found the back of the net in
)vertime on Saturday at the FleetCenter, all the hard
k of the players and coaches manifested into that
ectangular plaque handed to every Wolverine.
But the intangibles of this national title are arguably
nore important than any hardware could be. The friend-
hips developed between this team, the stories and
ardships and triumphs are what the players and coach-
s will remember.
See RAJU, Page III

WARREN ZINN/Daily
Michigan coach Red Berenson took over as head coach of the hockey team in 1984 and returned a fallen program back to national prominence. And on Saturday night at the FleetCenter in Boston,
Berenson led the Wolverines to the national championship - their second in three seasons. This year's underdog team upset home-favorite Boston College, 3-2, in overtime.

Inside

Similarities to 1996 title abound

0

The Michigan seniors
go out on a winning
note in their fourth
final four appearance.
Page I.

By Fred Link
Daily Sports Writer
Coincidence? Hard to say ...
Two years ago, after the Michigan

say after the victory - there was much
else about Michigan's title run that
seemed eerily similar to the
Wolverines' championship run two

to the final four. In the semifinal game,
Michigan defeated Boston University,
4-0, in 1996, and this year the
Wolverines beat New Hampshire 4-0 in


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