You've probably heard by now that Michigan's hockey team is going to the Frozen Four next week in Saint Paul, Minn.
What you might not know, is how it got there.
2016-17 was legendary coach Red Berenson's final year as Michigan's head coach — and it was a disappointing one. The team finished with a record of 13-19-3, was eliminated in its first game of the Big Ten Tournament and was nowhere close to making the NCAA Tournament.
In the spring, the program hired Mel Pearson away from Michigan Tech, the team he had coached for the last six years.
Pearson had been an assistant at Michigan under Berenson before leaving in 2011, so he was already familiar with the team and its history.
The Wolverines kicked off 2017-18 with one of the youngest teams in the country and no expectations. Big Ten coaches picked Michigan to finish sixth out of seven teams in the conference, ahead of only Michigan State.
Inconsistency plagued the team throughout the entire first half of the season — after the Great Lakes Invitational, Michigan was 8-8-2, and while it seemed to be making strides, nobody could have guessed what would follow.
Many people think the season turnaround was really brought on by sweeping then No. 1 Notre Dame in the final Big Ten weekend of the season, but it really began back in January, when Michigan was swept by the Fighting Irish.
Notre Dame was No. 2 at the time, and beat U-M 2-1 in both contests.
It sent a message to the Wolverines — they could play with anyone.
Michigan went on a four-game winning streak after that, beating then No. 9 Minnesota on the road and No. 12 Penn State.
After a brief rough patch, Michigan would go 9-1 in the 10 games leading up to the Frozen Four — including a sweep of Notre Dame that vaulted the team into good position to make the NCAA Tournament. The strong finish to the season helped the Wolverines earn the No. 2 seed in the Northeast Regional, where they beat No. 3 Northeastern and No. 4 Boston University as essentially a road team.
The change in one year by Pearson and his staff is one of the more remarkable turnaround seasons in Michigan sports history. One of the most amazing things about it, is that he deflects all credit to his players, saying after the win over Boston that it's the players who are on the ice doing all the work.
Now, Michigan gets its rematch with No. 1 seed Notre Dame on April 5. The teams split their four game series this season, and they will settle it in the biggest way possible — with a national championship game berth on the line.
The winner will play either Ohio State — the one team that has owned U-M this season (0-5) or Minnesota-Duluth on April 7.
The Team, The Team, The Team
Many of you that are catching on to the team's success may not know a lot about the players specifically that are leading the way. Below, we've listed each of the team's forward lines, defensive pairings and goaltenders.
The third and fourth lines have changed frequently, but will be some combination of the above players. Against Boston, Sanchez was scratched, meaning the other players were active and filled out the lines. Winborg and Raabe play together, as do Nick Pastujov and Becker. The left wing spots rotate.
Hughes, Marody and Calderone are stars and should be the guys you keep an eye on. Hughes will be a top 10 pick in this year's NHL Draft, while Marody and Calderone can put on a show offensively.
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