DETROIT - They weren’t saying “Booooo!” they were saying “Kuuuuuuuuhhhnn!”

As in Western Michigan goalie Jerry Kuhn.

The boisterous Western Michigan hockey student cheering section - known as the Lawson Lunatics - made the pilgrimage in droves from Kalamazoo to Joe Louis Arena. The students threw their support behind Kuhn early and often in the CCHA semifinal matchup with the Michigan hockey team.

Kuhn rewarded them with 29 saves in a 5-2 Western victory.

As the clock ticked down on his first victory over Michigan this season - just one month removed from a 5-4 overtime loss to the Wolverines - Kuhn, a senior, looked up and tried to match the Lunatics with his own scream.

Michigan goalie Shawn Hunwick was announced as the CCHA Goaltender of the Year the night before, but he watched from the bench after being replaced by Bryan Hogan in the third period - as Kuhn skated off to a rousing ovation.

“It was definitely a release,” Kuhn said. “Three years of hardship, thrown out the window, this feeling’s unbelievable.”

The Lunatics drowned out their famously rabid Michigan counterparts all night, but, then again, the Broncos gave them more material to work with.

In addition to Kuhn, Western’s power play was the difference with the Broncos converting on three of its six power-play opportunities, including three of its first four.

Michigan had successfully killed 17 straight penalties coming into the game.

“It seemed like we were playing against ourselves a little bit, we weren’t in the lanes and they made a couple good plays and were able to convert,” said Michigan coach Red Berenson.

Michigan didn’t do itself any favors on its first penalty kill situation as Jon Merrill received a delay of game shortly after a Derek DeBlois boarding penalty, giving the Broncos a 5-on-3. Western didn’t take long to reap the benefits of the two-man advantage with Mike Leone deflecting a Danny Keyser slap shot top-shelf over Shawn Hunwick’s blocker-side shoulder at 7 minutes, 54 seconds into the game.

It was more of the same in the second period for the Wolverines as DeBlois again was docked for boarding and Western scored a power-play goal when Dane Walters put a slap shot over Hunwick’s right shoulder to go up 2-0 in the second period.

“We talked about all week how he’s a smaller goalie, and coach talked about it all week how we needed to throw pucks on net and make it work,” said Mike Leone, who had a goal and an assist for the Broncos.

After Western scored another power play goal later in the second period, Michigan cut the deficit back down to two after a power-play goal of its own off a deflection by Lee Moffie 14:21 into the second.

The Michigan faithful couldn’t even get to its “We want more goals” chant out before Western stretched its lead back to three goals 40 seconds later.

“Timing of goals is huge,” Berenson said. “We get another one on that shift, we’re back in the game, instead we give up one on that shift, so we’re right back where we were with a three-goal deficit.”

Western led 5-1 after two and Michigan got a goal from Lindsay Sparks in the third period. Michigan outshot Western 31-27 for the game.

Michigan will play in the third-place game against Notre Dame on Saturday at 3:30, just the second time in 11 years that the Wolverines won’t be in the championship game at Joe Louis Arena.

“It’s disappointing, this is a team that came to Joe Louis to get into that championship game and our seniors in particular,” Berenson said. “Give Western credit. They played like a desperate team, and they were the better team.”

The Lunatics stuck around after the rest of the crowd was long gone to soak up a few extra playings of the fight sing and - let’s be honest - the beverages available at Joe Louis not common to college venues.

Why not? After all, the Broncos will play for its first CCHA title since its lone championship in 1986, before any of the Lunatics were born.

“I think our guys went out there and played pretty close to what we would call our 'A' game,” said Western coach Jeff Blashill. “We’re certainly excited, we’re excited for Broncos everywhere. We had a great showing tonight and I think we’re going to have a great showing tomorrow night.”

Western will play Miami at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday. Miami has never won a CCHA championship.

Box score

Pete Cunningham covers sports for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at petercunningham@annarbor.com or by phone at 734-623-2561. Follow him on Twitter @petcunningham.