The Michigan Daily I michigandaily.com March 24, 2014

y coach Red Berenson guided his program to 22 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, but the Wolverines have now fallen short twice ina row. Their loss to Penn State on Thursday significantly hurt their positioning for an at-large

By ERIN LENNON
DailySportsWriter
Sitting at the podium
Thursday evening in St. Paul,
Minn., Michigan hockey
coach Red Berenson answered
questions from the media,
his face illuminated by two
spotlights, eyes glassy.
With your resume as it stands
right now, do you think you get

into the NCAA Tournament?
"Some people look at it right
now and they'll say we've fallen
down to wherever we've fallen,"
he said. "I'm not one of those."
Instead, he said, the
Wolverines had been focused
on the one game they could
have controlled, a first-round
loss to Penn State in the Big Ten
Tournament.
But on Selection Sunday,

Berenson didn't have to
speculate about the immediate
future. Michigan finished15th in
the PairWise rankings, missing
out on the NCAA Tournament
for a second straight year and
starting a new streak after
snapping a 22-year-long one.
"There was still a glimmer of
hope, but we didn't deserve it,"
Berenson said Sunday. "I feel
worse this year. Last year was

the end of an era - Michigan
had had a lot of momentum
getting into the tournament
and maybe being a regular in
the tournament was taken for
granted - but last year it wasn't
even close ... This should have
been a bounce-back year."
Saturday, the Wolverines held
their breath - some monitoring
Twitter, the others streaming
the game online - as Western

Michigan took on North Dakota
in the North Central Hockey
Conference consolation game.
They rooted for the Broncos, who
had bested them in the Great
Lakes invitational nearly four
months prior, even if they didn't
check the score until the end.
"Some guys watched the game,
other guys couldn't watch the
game," said senior defenseman
Mac Bennett. "Eventually

everyone looked on (the websit
andrealizedwhatwashappening;
When (North Dakota) wins that.
game, that's it."
The game was one of thre
Michigan needed to end in its
favor in order to secure a spot ik
the NCAA Tournament. When
the buzzer sounded and the
scoreboard read 5-0 in favtjr
of North Dakota, Michigan's
See NCAA HOCKEY, Page 48

Y
b

HOOPS UNIVERSITY
With football and hockey struggling,
calling Michigan a basketball school is
becoming the new, accepted norm.
SportsMonday Column, Page 2B

SOFTBALL SWEEP
The Wolverines began the defense of
their six consecutive Big Ten titles with an
emphatic three-game weekend dismissal
of Indiana. Page 3B