48 - March 12, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom
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ICE HOCKEY
Seniors relish
final game at Yost
ERIN KIRKLAND,
Michigan junior forward Chris Brown scored the game-winning goal on Friday, snapping a wrist shot into the net early in the second overtime period.
Deep in the heart of overtime, Chris
Brown emerges as Michigan's hero
By ZACH HELFAND
Daily Sports Editor
About three and a half hours
after Friday's marathon game
began, the hero sat in a cold tub.
At least that's how senior cap-
tain Luke Glendening put it after
he emerged from a victorious
Michigan locker room.
And the hero, junior forward
Chris Brown, could barely pick
himself off the ice and into the ice
bath after his game-winning goal
in double overtime.
"I jumped," said Brown,
describing his celebration. "And
then Jeff (Rohrkemper) just bur-
ied me, and Ijust lay on the ice. (I)
let the other guys come pick me
up."
Regular-season overtime lasts
just five minutes before the game
goes to a shootout, but in the play-
offs, overtime continues until
someone scores. As Friday's game
entered the second extra frame,
both No. 4 Michigan and No. 17
Notre Dame neared utter exhaus-
tion. At one timeout, Brown stood
by the bench, hands on the dasher,
head down, hunched over from
fatigue.
Earlier, in the first overtime,
Brown raced down the entire
length of the ice, beat both Notre
Dame defenders along the boards
and made a cross to freshman
forward Alex Guptill, who nearly
converted for the win.
He didn't have much time to
recover. In the second overtime
period, the fourth forward line
fought alongthe boards for a loose
puck in the Notre Dame zone.
That gave freshman forward Zach
Hyman enough time to skate to
the bench for a line change.
Brown snuck on, unnoticed
by the Notre Dame defense. The
loose puck bounced to sophomore
defenseman Mac Bennett, who
moved it to an open Brown.
The Texan buried a wrister
from the slot to give Michigan an
emotional 2-1 victory deep in the
heart of overtime.
"(I was) really tired coming off
the bench going out for our next
shift," Brown said. "Mac totally
sold it, the guy thought that he
was going to shoot, he slid it right
over to me, and I just tried to put
it on net."
Brown's goal came three min-
utes into the second overtime
period, but it was months in
the making. Before the season,
Michigan coach Red Berenson
put the team through grueling
workouts up and down the steps
of Michigan Stadium. As part of a
Berenson tradition, generations of
teams have raced up all 95 rows of
the Big House in all ways imagin-
able. Running, bounding, hopping
- with two legs and with one -
even carrying teammates.
Those workouts, Brown said,
decided the game.
"Our team has worked as hard
as anyteam in the spring, summer
and fall off the ice," Berenson said.
"And that's when it shows up, ina
weekend like this."
Added Brown: "It's that sta-
dium run that always gets to us.
We always remember that going
into overtimes. No other team
does the stadium like we do, so if
we can get through that, we can
pretty much get through every-
thing."
And so far, Michigan has. The
Wolverines improved to 5-0 in
games decided in overtime.
That fifth victory didn't come
easy on Friday. After Glenden-
ing scored one minute into the
contest, Michigan suffered an
82-minute scoring drought.
Notre Dame evened the score in
the third and dominated the rest
of the period.
Both fifth-year senior goal-
ie Shawn Hunwick and Notre
Dame goalie Steven Summerhays
bailed out their team on several
occasions in a frenetic overtime
period, what Berenson called
"heart-attack hockey."
Brown's goal put an end to
Michigan's longest CCHA playoff
game since 1989, when Bowling
Green defeated the Wolverines in
three overtimes. That season was
the last time Michigan failed to
reach the CCHA semifinals, and
the Wolverines have now made
them 23 straight years with their
series-clinching win on Saturday
night.
None of that was on Brown's
mind on Friday night.
What was?
"(Making) sure we could end
the game and I could just go to
bed," Brown said.
By EVERETT COOK
Daily Sports Editor
The Michigan hockey team
was tiptoeing a fine line on Sat-
urday night with two minutes
remain-
ing against NOTEBOOK
Notre Dame.
The Wolverines were up 3-1,
but sophomore defenseman Jon
Merrill was whistled for high-
sticking just seconds after the
Fighting Irish pulled their goal-
tender, Steven Summerhays. No.
4 Michigan was going to be down
two men for the last two minutes
of the game, trying to hold on for
a CCHA quarterfinal sweep of
Notre Dame.
This came after the teams
played more than 83 minutes
of hockey in a double-overtime
thriller the night before - both
squads were breathing a little
heavier than usual. Then in a
perfect microcosm of this senior
class - and really the last three
months - Michigan killed it.
There were Wolverines flying all
over the ice, diving and sprinting
to the very end.
"(Goaltender Shawn) Hun-
wick had to be a penalty killer,
(defenseman Greg) Pateryn had
to block shots like a goalie, (for-
ward) Luke Glendening did," said
Michigan coach Red Berenson. "I
thought our seniors really, really
stepped up this weekend."
Senior forward David Wohl-
berg was the difference on
offense, scoring a goal in both the
first and second periods on Sat-
urday. But the lynchpin, as usual,
was Hunwick. He had 37 saves on
Friday and 25 on Saturday, cap-
ping his brilliant career at Yost.
"I was hoping I could get a
sixth year, maybe a gray year,"
Hunwick joked. "It's sad. ... I
thought I was going to play one
minute of one game, hopefully on
senior night, when I came here.
"To play this many games at
Yost, I can't be too upset about
the career I've had here."
Hunwick, the former walk-
on, picked slap shots out of the
air and threw back one-on-noune
situations with ease both nights.
"He's a warrior," said Beren'
son. "He's done everything he
can for this team and this pro-
gram."
Both Hunwick and Wohlberg
mentioned how loud the crowd
was in the last period - prob-
ably the rowdiest the fans and
the student section, the Children
of Yost, have been all season.
In their last game at Yost, the
seniors got reflective.
"The fans here are great and
they helped us out alot tonight,"
Wohlberg said. "It's one of those
things that you don't forget about
when you look back and see
which games you won."
FIVE OR SIX, OR MAYBE FIVE:
During Friday's 2-1 victory,
Michigan went with five defen-
seman instead of the usual six
for most of both overtime peri-
ods, leaving freshman Brennan
Serville next to Berenson on the
bench.- Notre Dame's only goal
came on a playwhere Serville got
caught out of position and basi-
cally screened Hunwick in front
of the net. What the goalie can't
see, the goalie probably can't
save. That sixth defenseman spot
has been in flux ever since the
return of Merrill in January from
a suspension. Serville manned it
this weekend, but freshman Mike
Chiasson has also been starting
in that spot.
As the. games continue to
become more crucial, it might
not matter who is playing the
sixth defenseman spot. Berensono
might stick with five veterans, at
risk of fatigue, rather than plug-
ging in a freshman with no play-
off experience on the ice.
ST. PATTY'S AT THE JOE: The
last seed in the CCHA Tourna-
ment, Bowling Green, played the
spoiler role this weekend, send-
ing No. 1 seed Ferris State home
early. That means Michigan is
the highest-remaining seed in the
Tournament, and will play Bowl-
ing Green on Friday.
Western Michigan and red-
hot Miami (Ohio) will play in the
other semifinal game.
The winner of Friday's games
will play in the COCHA final un
Saturday.
Michigan embraces 'Burn the Boats' mentality vs. ND
ByMATT SLOVIN
DailySportsEditor
The No. 4 Michigan hockey
team emerged from its locker
room before Saturday's game
against Notre Dame wearing
shirts with the team motto, "Burn
the Boats," prominently displayed.
"(Sophomore forward Luke)
Moffatt brought it up this year,"
said sophomore forward Derek
DeBlois last month. "It has to
do with the Vikings. When they
would go to fight, they would burn
their boats. No retreat, you just
kind of lay all your chips on the
table and fight until you win."
If any unit took those words
especially to heart during the
sweep of the Fighting Irish, it
was the Wolverine penalty killers
and fifth-year senior netminder
Shawn Hunwick.
Beginning with Michigan's
January split in South Bend, the
Wolverines successfully killed all
15 of Notre Dame's power plays
they faced this season.
"It just shows how good our
coaching staff is and how bad
people want to work on the ice
for us," said senior forward David
Wohlberg. "The penalty killers out
there were getting in front of shots
and doing everything they can to
help out the team - that's what
makes teams go far."
And the Fighting Irish man
advantage is no slouch - Notre
Dame takes few penalties and
usually capitalizes on those of
its opponents, but its power play
became frustrated this weekend.
Instead of paying for any of Michi-
gao's five penalties, the Wolver-
ine penalty kill made a statement
on each, throwing bodies in front
of pucks and forcing the Fighting
Irish out of the attacking third.
"It's not surprising that they
had a good power play," said
Michigan coach Red Berenson.
"You look at their personnel and
there is a team with two of the five
or six top scorers in the league."
Hunwick led the penalty kill's
dominating performance. Beren-
son consistently stresses that as
Hunwick goes, so goes the rest
of the penalty-kill unit. Despite
a death in the family last week
that caused him to miss a day of
practice, Hunwick's focus never
wavered as he snatched pucks out
of the air, allowing just two goals
on the entire weekend.
He admitted it was a "tough
week" for him and his family, but
he kept his emotions in check,
thwarting several Notre Dame
breakaway attempts. And Hun-
wick rose to the occasion when
his team needed him most - when
the Fighting Irish had the person-
nel advantage.
But Hunwick was hardly the
only Wolverine that caused Notre
Dame's power play to leave empty
handed. Michigan racked up the
blocked shots, sending puck after
puck out of its defensive zone -
much to Hunwick's delight, as
he received much needed rests.
Saturday, Michigan's leader in
blocked shots came as a bit of a
surprise - senior forward Luke
crowd rose to its feet to applaud
the penalty kill's efforts as Notre
Dame was forced into a late time-
out to regroup.
"It was still anyone's game,"
Berenson said. "We did that,
whether it was blocking shots or
winning faceoffs or getting the
puck out."
When the clock reached triple
zeros, Michigan had blocked a
total of 16 shots en route to earn-
ing its 23rd-consecutive appear-
ance at Joe Louis Arena for the
CCHA semifinals.
Though Berenson hopes the
Wolverines will be conscien-
tious of the penalties they take
there, if they are forced to play a
man down, all that's left to do is
burn the boats - no surrender, no
retreat.
0
ERIN KIRKLAND/Daily
Senior forward David Wohlberg battles for the puck after a faceoff in the offensive zone against Notre Dame on Saturday.
Glendening. Usually, senior defen-
seman Greg Pateryn glides into
the most flying pucks. This time,
however, it was a total team effort.
That didn't stop Berenson from
saying Pateryn "blocked shots like
a goalie."
"Coming into the weekend,
they were one of the better power
plays in our league and our (pen-
alty kill) did a great job," Berenson
said. "I thought our seniors really
stepped up."
The four members of the senior
class, playing their last game at
Yost Ice Arena, were instrumen- Refinanc lowerour interest rate by 2 A
tal in the penalty kill's defining
moments of the weekend. Cling-
ing to a two-goal lead late in the
game, the Wolverines took a cou--
ple of potentially disastrous penal-
ties, including a rare one assessed
to sophomore defenseman Jon
Merrill. It was just his second of
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Instead of folding, Michigan
looked invincible, and the Yost