The Michigan Daily michigandaily.com March 26, 2012
FROZEN IN THE TUNDRA
Michigan 2
By EVERETT COOK
Daily Sports Editor
GREEN BAY, Wisc. - At
some point during the postsea-
son, overtime became the norm
for the Michigan hockey team.
In two of its four CCHA playoff
games, the Wolverines needed
an extra frame to decide things,
and it won both of those playoff
games.
But the first round of the
NCAA Tournament on Friday
night was different. Michigan
played Cornell to a 2-2 tie in
regulation, then lost a little less
than four minutes into over-
time.
A shot rebounded off the
front pad of fifth-year senior
goaltender Shawn Hunwick,
and he had no chance to recov-
er. He was caught out of posi-
tion, and Cornell's Rodger Craig
shoveled the puck past him - it
was the last shot Hunwick will
ever see in a Michigan uniform.
The Wolverines were
exhausted after a long weekend
in Detroit for the CCHA Cham-
pionship a week ago, which
included a double-overtime vic-
tory against Bowling Green in
the semifinal and a loss to West-
ern Michigan in the final.
Less than a week later, they
initially looked like they had
rested for a couple weeks.
Senior captain Luke Glen-
dening gave No. 2 Michigan its
best start of the season when he
recovered a rebound's rebound
a little over a minute into the
first period and sent it home.
Cornell goaltender Andy Iles
blocked the first and second
shots, but couldn't recover in
time to stop the third.
A little less than 30 seconds
later, junior forward Kevin
Lynch thought he had given the
Wolverines their quickest two
goals of the year. No. 14 Cornell
was going to have to deal with
a two-goal deficit less than two
minutes into the game, a fright-
ening prospect for a team in a
win-or-go-home playoff game.
But the officials ruled that
sophomore forward Luke Mof-
fatt had interfered with Iles,
and the goal was taken off the
board after Cornell took a time-
out. With the wind taken out
of its sails, Michigan didn't get
another puck in the net until
late in the third period.
"I'm not questioning the offi-
cials, but typically, you either
you blow the whistle or you
don't," said Michigan coach
Red Berenson. "If he's out of the
crease, you probably let itgo. It's
not a penalty."
Cornell tied it up halfway
through the first period, and the
shootout was supposedly on.
The tables seemed to be set
that way for Michigan in the
second period, when the Big
Red were called for a whopping
six penalties. One of those pen-
alties was a five-minute major
contact-to-the-head penalty on
Armand de Swardt, who was
given a game misconduct.
But the momentum of that
power play was promptly killed
when junior defenseman Lee
Moffie took a penalty of his own
just 10 seconds after De Swardt
left the ice.
The Big Red spent more than
half of the period in the box, but
See CORNELL, Page 3B
9 r
-71i
ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily
(Left) Junior Chris Brown stands for the national anthem. (Top) Freshman
Alex Guptill battles a Big Red forward for the puck. (Bottom) Fifth-year senior
Shawn Hunwick sprawls out after Cornell's last goal.
The midnight gesture of
Shawn Hunwick
ICE HOCKEY
Overturned goal haunts'M'
GREEN BAY, Wisc. -
he crease is empty now.
The custodians in the
Resch Center stands are
picking up trash, and with plastic
gloves they shove Skittles wrap-
pers and used
napkins and
programs that
show a picture
of a 5-foot-6 06..
goaltender
that used to
play for the
Michigan
hockey team ZACH
into a large HELFAND
plastic trash
bag.
It is a quarter till midnight.
Below them, on the ice, the
crease is empty.
Forty-nine minutes ago, at
10:56 p.m., it wasn't. Forty-nine
minutes ago, there was a goal-
tender named Shawn Hunwick
lying on his right side across that
crease, and a puck was there, just
past the crown of his helmet.
Hunwick laid there for a
moment then rolled over. He
picked himself up, and for a fleet-
ing second he stood there in that
crease with his arms on the cross
bar, looking up at something in
the ceiling.
There he was again, three
By MATT SLOVIN
Daily Sports Editor
GREEN BAY, Wisc. - Two
minutes into the Michigan
hockey team's first-round game
in the NCAA Tournament,
there didn't appear to be much
of a game. ,
Cornell coach Mike Scha-
fer had barely settled into his
spot on the bench. He blinked
- Wolverine captain Luke
Glendening hammered home a
rebound and Michigan led, 1-0.
Schafer blinked again -
Michigan junior forward Kevin
Lynch's shot found the back of
the net.
Barely two minutes into
the Midwest regional semi-
final, Michigan looked ready
to cruise into the next round
against Ferris State. The game,
and Cornell's season, seemed
all but over. Or was it?
Schafer called the earliest
timeout he can remember call-
ing in his coaching career -
just 93 seconds into the game.
And it changed everything.
So did the replay review that
followed by the referees. They
ruled that sophomore forward
Luke Moffatt had interfered
with Big Red netminder Andy
Iles. The goal was disallowed,
and Cornell had a second life.
"It was illegal contact with
the goaltender in the crease,
which did not allow him to play
his position," the referees said
in an official statement.
Michigan coach Red Beren-
son was less confident. In fact,
the disallowed goal weighed
so heavily on his mind after his
team's crushing 3-2 overtime
loss that he began his open-
ing statement in the postgame
See OVERTURNED, Page 3B
ADAM GLANZMAN/Daily
Fifth-year senior goalie Shawn Hunwick finished his storied Michigan career.
years in a row with the same
result. For three years, the final
puck of the season was in his
goal and not in his glove, and the
only difference was that this time
there was no next year.
So he crouched down and
grabbed that puck and put it in
his glove. For once, he would
skate off with it.
He made toward the benches,
toward his teammates, toward
his friends.
They said little.
As they patted him on the back,
he skated on until he arrived not
as his bench, but at the bench
next to it, where he found a Cor-
nell assistant coach.
For the last time, Hunwick
took the puck out of his glove, and
he handed it to the coach whose
team had just defeated him. It
was their goal, not his, and he
wanted them to have it.
Behind him, workers took the
goal off its moorings and moved it
through the tunnel.
After shaking hands, Hunwick
skated off past that empty crease.
Thirty seconds later and one
time zone away, clocks at Yost Ice
Arena blinked to midnight.
See HUNWICK, Page 3B
SOFTBALL
Wolverines sweep Big Ten opener
By DANIEL FELDMAN Wagner concluded the series enga, who singled in sopho-
Daily Sports Writer by pitching her 13th complete more right fielder Lyndsay
game of the year, with the sup- Doyle from third base. Doyle
To many, 13 is seen as an port of a season-high 13 hits. began the inning for Michigan
unlucky number. Don't tell that The 6-0 victory marked the with a single after working the
to the No. 20 Michigan softball 13th-consecutive victory for at-bat to a full count.After scor-
team, the Wolverines over Penn State ing another run in the fourth
which PENN STATE 2 (0-3 Big Ten, 7-18 overall). inning to make the score 2-0,
opened MICHIGAN 11 Michigan (3-0, 21-9) won the Wolverines tallied a pair
up Big PENN STATE 4 its 11th- and 12th-consecutive of runs in the fifth inning via a
Ten MICHIGAN 12 games against the Nittany two-run double by sophomore
play this Lions after winning both ends left fielder Nicole Sappingfield.
weekend PENN STATE 0 of Saturday's doubleheader, 11-2 Sappingfield finished 3-for-4.
with a MICHIGAN 6 and 12-4. The scoring for the Michigan concluded the
three- Wolverines started in the bot- scoring for the day in the sixth
game sweep of Penn State. tom of the third by freshman inning when junior shortshop
Freshman pitcher Haylie designated-hitter Sar' Dries- See SWEEP, Page 3B
BIG TEN BEATDOWN
Michigan had no problem dispatching
the Nittany Lions in the first week of Big
Ten play, thanks to its pitching. Page 4B
THE LAST CHAPTER
After three unparalleled seasons,
where does Shawn Hunwick go
from here? Page 2B
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