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Posted on Tue, Mar 9, 2010 : 2:38 p.m.

Michigan hockey team needs strong start to upend Michigan State on road

By Jeff Arnold

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Louie Caporusso, who has scored nine goals in his past nine games, hopes to keep his offensive surge going in this weekend's CCHA playoff series against Michigan State. (AnnArbor.com file photo)

If the Michigan hockey team hopes to advance to the CCHA Tournament's Final Four later this month, how it starts this weekend against rival Michigan State will be critical.

Especially given what's at stake. The Wolverines need to win the tournament championship to earn a 20th straight NCAA berth via the CCHA's automatic bid.

Michigan dropped three of its four regular-season meetings with the No. 2-seeded Spartans, avoiding a sweep with a dramatic 5-4 victory at Joe Louis in late January.

While Michigan has been a traditional strong first-period team throughout the season, the Wolverines haven't always exhibited strong starts against their biggest rival.

Establishing early momentum will be important in this weekend's best-of-3 series at Munn Ice Arena in East Lansing, where the Spartans have only lost twice this season in back-to-back setbacks against Minnesota and Wisconsin.

In order to do that, Michigan must minimize mistakes while limiting odd-man rushes. The Wolverines allowed the Spartans three 2-on-1 scoring chances in a 4-3 loss at Munn in January - something Red Berenson said can't happen if Michigan is to extend its season.

"We have to get off to a good start Friday if we want to put some pressure on them," Berenson said Tuesday. "I think there's always more pressure on the home team, but if we could go in there and take the first game, the pressure will just multiply. If we could go in there and take away that home ice advantage, that would be huge."

Spreading the wealth

After Louie Caporusso and Carl Hagelin scored five of Michigan's six goals in Saturday's shutout win over Lake Superior State.

Caporusso has come on strong lately, scoring nine goals in his last nine games and teaming  with Hagelin to produce 10 points in the two-game sweep of Lake Superior State.

"I had one intention, that was to work hard and get shots on the net, put things on the net because you never know what can happen," Caporusso said after recording a hat trick Saturday.

Berenson knows in tight series like this weekend's, top players often cancel each other out, making Michigan's secondary lines even more important against Michigan State.

Outside of its top two scorers, Michigan got goals from A.J. Treais, David Wohlberg, Matt Rust, Brian Lebler, Chris Summers and Jeff Rohrkemper against Lake Superior State last weekend.

"I know it didn't look like it, but we had pretty balanced scoring," Berenson said Tuesday. "This weekend the compete level is going to be high for both teams and we're going to need some of our secondary scorers to play well for us."

Caporusso and Hagelin are tied for the team-high in goals, each having scored 16 this season. Michigan State's offense is led by Corey Tropp (20 goals) and Andrew Rowe (15), who have combined to score six goals in four games against the Wolverines this season.

New kid on the block

Freshman forward Chris Brown was named to the CCHA All-Rookie team Monday after finishing second in scoring among the league's rookies. Brown has scored 10 goals and registered 11 assists in 28 CCHA games this season and his seven power-play goals tie him for the league lead among freshmen.

Overall, Brown has scored 12 goals, which ranks him third on the Wolverines. His 26 points put him fourth among his teammates in that category. The Texas native has twice earned CCHA weekly awards, picking up rookie of the week honors in November before being named Player of the Week in December.

More honors Hagelin was Michigan's representative on the CCHA All-Scholar team. Nominees must have a cumulative GPA of 3.25 through the fall term of the selection year to be eligible for CCHA Scholar-Athlete of the Year award, which is selected by the 12 faculty representatives. Hagelin, whose popularity includes the regular presence of a large Swedish flag at Yost Ice Arena, is a junior sport management major.

Details, Details

Tickets are still available for this weekend's games in East Lansing. Each game will begin at 7:05 p.m. and will be broadcast on TV on Comcast (Channel 900) and on the radio on WTKA (1050 AM).

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.