The first two years of Louie Caporusso's Michigan hockey career understandably led to preseason accolades.

Caporusso's name was on the All-College Hockey News first team list and had a home among the list of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association's top players.

Until recently, though, Caporusso's numbers this season didn’t live up to the hype.

Caporusso, who led the Wolverines with 24 goals last year as a sophomore, struggled to score. The more Caporusso, a 5-foot-10 forward, tried to get his offensive game on track, the worse things got.

Making matters worse, Michigan struggled as well, losing five consecutive games while fighting to keep from sinking into the CCHA basement. All along, Caporusso tried to remain patient.

"You get into slumps and you start chasing the game," Caporusso said after Michigan's 4-1 win over No. 18 Notre Dame on Friday night. "You don't let (the game) come to you and you resort to skill instead of hard work."

Over time, Caporusso re-established himself, scoring a game-winning goal against Wisconsin in November that seemed to put him back on track.

Friday night, Caporusso scored a goal and had two assists as Michigan (9-8-0 overall, 5-6-0 in the CCHA) won for the fifth time in six games and won its first home CCHA game of the year. For the first time, Caporusso looks like the Louie of old and now has five goals and nine assists this season.

"This was one of Louie's best games," Michigan coach Red Berenson said. "I thought he competed hard, he battled hard and he was rewarded. That's what happens when you're working hard. Sometimes, you're unlucky, but sometimes, things start going your way.

"I think things are starting to go Louie's way."

As Caporusso struggled early on, Berenson encouraged him to allow his work ethic to drive his progress. Caporusso spent daily workouts honing fundamental skills, resisting the temptation to try and fix everything at once. He also tried to remain positive, knowing the harder he worked, the faster the results would come.

After his slapshot just inside the blue line found the upper corner of the net early in the third period Friday against the Irish, Caporusso joked he had been studying YouTube clips of Washington Capitals star Alex Ovechkin, hoping to find inspiration from the clips of one of his hockey heroes.

"Obviously, I didn't look like him," Caporusso said. "But obviously, you've got to shoot the puck."

Style points aside, Caporusso's return to the scoring column is proving that his patience is paying dividends. And as Michigan continues to strive to turn its season around, Caporusso understands he'll have to be part of the process.

"You feel guilty in a way when your team's not winning and you feel like you're not producing enough and that's one of the reasons why we're not winning," he said. "There's going to be expectations and there's going to be pressure, but you have to ignore those things and just work hard."

Note: Michigan hockey's annual teddy bear toss Friday night netted 1,383 stuffed animals for Mott Children's Hospital and other local charities.

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.