Opinion: In typical fashion, Michigan hockey team continues its improbable run to the NCAA tournament

Posted: Mar 20, 2010 at 9:58 PM [Mar 20, 2010]

DETROIT - Every Michigan hockey player threw his gloves and sticks on the ice and sprinted to goalie Shawn Hunwick, the goalie who had played all of 18 minutes this year before being thrust into the starting role three weeks ago, hugging and dancing and partying like they had never won a CCHA championship.

The Wolverines had, of course, being one of the most dominant teams in the league over the past decade. But this year? This wasn’t supposed to happen a month ago. Or even three weeks ago.

Michigan 2, Northern Michigan 1, and the Wolverines are in the NCAA tournament for the 20th straight year.

There was never a time in recent history where Michigan had been the underdog like this, had been the unexpected victor in a CCHA tournament. Heck, the Wolverines had won four of these the past decade, so to be a No. 7 seed, the first No. 7 seed in the history to win the tournament, is fitting for this team.

This was a Michigan team left for nothing, having just split with a down Notre Dame team entering the CCHA tournament. The season looked close to over, the Wolverines’ starting goalie, Bryan Hogan, out and by the end of the first round, their most experienced defender, Chris Summers, too.

They had lost four of their final six games. The Wolverines were a team that spent the first part of the season ranked in the Top 5 and then skidded to a slumping finish all too familiar around Michigan sports this season.

The football team lost its final five games to finish the season under-.500 and out of a bowl for the second straight year. The men’s basketball team began the season ranked No. 15 in the country and ended up 15-17, the second time in three years the Wolverines had finished under .500.

And the hockey team appeared it’d snap a 19-year NCAA tournament streak.

Yet here Michigan was, 60 minutes from an improbable bid in the NCAA tournament, winners of five straight entering the championship against Northern Michigan and with three straight wins over Michigan State - twice - and Miami (Ohio), the top two teams in the CCHA this year.

For almost two periods, though, Michigan kept waiting for something, anything, to happen.

The tension rose. Michigan was playing well - almost, in some ways, too well. They were killing penalties, including a five-minute major spanning the first and second period.

They kept pressuring Northern Michigan goalie Brian Stewart, peppering him left and right and straight up the middle, too.

Then, it happened. Louie Caporusso, the one-time Hobey Baker candidate who in some ways epitomized Michigan’s season, came through.

Caporusso started the year as the Wolverines’ leading returning scorer and potentially best player. But for much of the year, he struggled. For much of the CCHA tournament, he struggled.

Stepping on the ice in a power play after Matt Rust’s stick broke, Caporusso shed his struggles. With Michigan needing a goal, Caporusso slid into the middle of Northern Michigan’s zone, fired and the puck ended up in the back of the net.

He ran toward the bench he just came from and was mobbed.

Caporusso came back again early in the third period, scoring another goal to give the Wolverines a 2-0 lead.

It doesn’t mean there wasn’t tension at the end. Why would anything in this Michigan season come easy?

Northern Michigan scored with 9:13 left, keeping the Wolverines’ dreams on hold for a bit longer. But for a team that had needed to play like this for the past three weeks, none of this should have been a surprise.

It had to be this way for Michigan to get in the NCAA tournament. With the way the Wolverines’ season had gone, there wasn’t going to be a blowout final.

It was going to be like this. And for the first time all year, a Michigan team could say it worked out.

After all, the Wolverines are heading back to the NCAA tournament. Again.

Michael Rothstein covers University of Michigan sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at (734) 623-2558, by e-mail at michaelrothstein@annarbor.com or follow along on Twitter @mikerothstein.