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!