As his Michigan hockey teammates prepared to board a bus for Notre Dame on Friday afternoon, Bryan Hogan remained in street clothes preparing to spend the weekend at home in Ann Arbor.

As expected, the junior goalie, who has started 41 games in net for the Wolverines, will not start Saturday night's regular-season finale against the Irish. Team doctors confirmed what Michigan coach Red Berenson feared Thursday night - that Hogan sustained a groin injury that will force him out of the lineup.

How long, though, remains in question.

"I will tell you, it will be week to week rather than day to day," Berenson said Friday after the Wolverines finished practice at Yost Ice Arena. "If he can't skate Monday or Tuesday, he won't be able to play the next weekend.

"So we'll just have to give him a few days and wait until it settles down and we'll see where we are a week from now."

Junior Shawn Hunwick will make his first collegiate start Saturday against Notre Dame (7:05 p.m., Big Ten Network). Hunwick had played all of 18 minutes before entering Thursday's 4-0 shutout of the Irish in the first period.

Hunwick, whose older brother Matt, was a captain at Michigan, made 14 saves in his first career win and understands the magnitude of Saturday night's game. A Wolverines victory coupled with one Northern Michigan loss this weekend against Lake Superior State would earn Michigan a first-round bye in the upcoming CCHA Tournament.

"It's just another game," Hunwick said Friday. "Each game could be your last game, but you just try and treat it like it's the first game of the year. Three points is three points, whether it's September or February."

The change at goalie doesn't change Berenson's feelings about when Michigan begins the conference tournament. The Wolverines will host their first playoff game, which could come as early as next week should Michigan fail to finish in the top four spots in the standings.

If Michigan does earn a first-round bye, the Wolverines (19-16-1, 14-12-1 CCHA) will host a quarterfinal game the weekend of March 12.

"We can't control things like this," Berenson said. "If we have a strong finish, you'd like to keep going and right now, we have a chance of having a good finish. If Hunwick's our goalie, so be it. He could go on and win every game.

"We have to play well in front of him, we have to give him a chance. If we had four defensemen that were all hurt and we were really thin, then I guess the bye would be important. But I'm not going to worry about that right now."

Jeff Arnold covers Michigan hockey for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at jeffarnold@annarbor.com or 734-623-2554. Follow him at Twitter @jeffreyparnold.