The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com
Tuesday, September 4, 2012 - 7E
HOCKEY
The midnight gesture of
goalie Shawn Hunwick
FILE PHOTO/Daily
The Big House transforms into an outside ice rink for the Big Chill on Dec. 11, 2010.
NHL rents Big House for
$3M for Winter Classic
By ZACH HELFAND
Daily SportsEditor
MARCH 24, 2012 - GREEN
BAY, Wisc. - The crease is
empty now.
The custodians in the Resch
Center stands are picking up
trash, and with plastic gloves
they shove Skittles wrappers
and used napkins and programs
that show a picture of a 5-foot-6
goaltender that used to play for
the Michigan hockey team into
a large 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 lay there for a
moment then rolled over. He
picked himself up, and for a
fleeting 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,
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 Cornell 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, Hun-
wick skated off past that empty
crease.
Thirty seconds later, and one
time zone away, clocks at Yost
Ice Arena blinked to midnight.
Somehow, Cinderella stayed
at the ball for three mesmeriz-
ing years.
The kid who was too small
to get a chance in goal, got
a chance in goal. The goalie
who wasn't good enough to
start, started. The starter who
wouldn't possibly win, won.
He led Michigan on its mir-
acle run to clinch an NCAA
Tournament berth in 2010, and
then willed it into the National
Championship game the fol-
lowing year.
He was the team's best play-
er all season,but he was more
than that.
"What can you say to Hun-
wick?" said senior forward
Luke Glendening. "He's been
the rock of this team for three
years now. Words can't describe
what you say to him."
Three years' worth of mem-
ories came tumbling toward
Hunwick eight minutes 'into
the overtime period against
Cornell on Friday. Three years
of chance injuries and breaks,
three years of saves, three
years of improbable wins, burst
past Derek DeBlois and Kevin
Lynch.
A lifetime of those who told
him he would never-make a save
for Michigan stared Hunwick
in the face and dared him to
save a Greg Miller wrister.
And, with an outstretched
pad save, he did.
If this really were Cinderel-
la, if this were a fairy tale, that
would be that.
Michigan would ride the
momentum of that great save to
a season-saving overtime win.
But this isn't a fairy tale and
there are no happily ever afters,
even for Shawn Hunwick. This
is college hockey, and this is
single-elimination, and the
players? Humans.
So that wasn't that, Michigan
didn't go down and score, and
Hunwick didn't get the ring.
"Shawn Hunwick here has
had a Cinderella year," said
Michigan coach Red Berenson.
"I wish he could've had a better
ending."
And the ending? All-too-
human: Hunwick couldn't con-
trol the rebound, Rodger Craig
put the puck into the open net,
and at 10:56 on a rainy night
in Green Bay, Wisc., the career
of the most improbable goalie
in Michigan hockey history
ended.
Losing. the battle against
tears, Shawn Hunwick passes
Cornell coach Mike Schafer at
12:23 a.m.
Schafer was walking to the
podium to speak to the media.
Hunwick was walking out.
"One of the classiest things
I've seen in 25 years of coach-
ing," Schafer would say of Hun-
wick's gesture to Cornell after
the game.
Outside, in a concrete hall-
way, a man whose Cornell tie
matches Hunwick's eyes taps
the former Michigan goalie on
the shoulder and shakes his
hand.
Hunwick turns to his right
toward his locker room. He
stops, then turns back and calls
out:
"Good luck tomorrow."
You too, Shawn.
By PAIGE PEARCY and
MATT SLOVIN
Daily News Editor and Daily Sports
Ediror
FEB. 9, 2012 - In the midst
of college football's bowl season
and winter break, a professional
hockey game at the Big House
will bring life to the University's
campus on Jan. 1, 2013.
During a rare Wednesday
morning meeting, the Univer-
sity's Board of Regents met in
a special session to discuss and
approve the National Hockey
League's lease of Michigan Sta-
dium for its Winter Classic - the
league's annual outdoor hockey
game.
The NHL will pay the Uni-
versity $3 million to rent the Big
House and will use the stadium
from Dec. 1, 2012 to mid-January,
according to a communication to
the regents from Athletic Direc-
tor Dave Brandon and Timothy
Slottow, the University's execu-
tive vice president and chief
financial officer. The Winter
Classic game will take place on
Jan. 1, 2013 and has an alternate
date of Jan. 2, 2013.
During the meeting, Bran-
don said the NHL is expected to
donate a "significant" amount to
student scholarships at the Uni-
versity from its charitable foun-
dation.
According to Brandon, the
NHL approached the University
last November, and since then,
discussions about the event have
been underway. Brandon said in
an interview after the meeting
that he expects the contract to be
finalized soon.
Brandon emphasized that the
event is not University spon-
sored, which means no student
tickets will be made available.
"We're not in the business of
marketing this event, we're not
in charge of the sponsors. This is
all going to be the NHL," Bran-
don said. "The NHL is really tak-
ing over the stadium for that day,
and they're marketing the spaces
in whatever manner they feel
appropriate."
The University will use one
of its 12 available one-day-only
liquorlicenses on the event. Beer
typically isn't sold at Michigan
Stadium during Michigan foot-
ball games. According to the
communication, the usual con-
cessionaire for foolball games,
Sodexo, Inc., is expected to pro-
vide concessions and staff at the
game.
This will be the second time
in the last three years for the Big
House to hold a hockey game.
Michigan and Michigan State
played in the Big Chill at the
Big House in 2010, breaking the
world record for attendance to a
hockey game. Brandon said the
NHL is "hell-bent" on break-
ing the record set during the Big
Chill of 104,173 attendees.
Brandon said he expects the
event to draw in excess of $14
million in economic activity to
Ann Arbor. Newman added that
the .economic boost is one of the
key reasons the regents approved
the lease.
"One of the factors that we
discussed when considering this
was the economic value to the
city of Ann Arbor and the sur-
rounding community and the
goodness this would do for res-
taurants and hotels and shops
and other activity in the area,"
Newman said. "I think that at a
time of year where it's otherwise
quiet, doing something like this
makes a lot of sense."
Speaking at the start of the
meeting, University President
Mary Sue Coleman said it was
important to discuss the lease
with the board before making
made a final decision.
"Since this is an unusual and
highly visible use of the facil-
ity, we thought it prudent for the
board to discuss the proposed
arrangement and ... vote on
authorization to proceed," Cole-
man said during the opening of
the session.
- Six of the eight regents -
Denise Ilitch (D-Bingham
Farms), Katherine White (D-Ann
Arbor), Andrea Fischer Newman
(R-Ann Arbor), Andrew Richner
(R-Grosse Point), S. Martin Tay-
lor (D-Grosse Point Farms) and
Laurence Deitch (D-Bingham
Farms) - participated in the
meeting via phone. Five of the
six approved the plan as Ilitch
recused herself from the vote
because of her affiliation with the
Red Wings - she is the daughter
of Mike Ilitch, the owner of the
Red Wings, Detroit-Tigers and
Comerica Park.
"While I have no direct inter-
est in the National Hockey
League, it is well known that
my family has an interest in the
Detroit Red Wings Hockey Club
and Comerica Park," Ilitch said.
"It is important to me to avoid
any appearance of conflict in this
matter."
The Detroit Red Wings and
the Toronto Maple Leafs are the
two teams expected to play in
the contest.
Of insurence
0 Is Accepted
And Out of Slate Persriptions!