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 w - "~" , . . :: "ro. 1