Following practice Thursday, coach Red Berenson announced senior Bryan Hogan would start in net for the Wolverines in The Big Chill. But 30 minutes before the game, Hogan suffered a groin injury, thrusting classmate Shawn Hunwick into the spotlight. The senior responded with a 34-save shutout …

"To be honest, I was a little scared," said Hunwick. "I wasn't really prepared to play. You try to do your best to get ready, but you're not mentally as sharp as you would've been if you knew you were going to play.

"But after Hogan went down - I saw about halfway through warm-ups that he might be injured - I tried to take as many shots as I could and then you head back to the locker room doing whatever you need to do to get ready."

It's not like Hunwick is a novice, making his first career start. The senior out of Sterling Heights, Mich., has rotated in net all year, starting nine games previously. He was also last year's playoff hero, leading U-M to seven consecutive postseason victories, ironically, when Hogan suffered a groin injury during the final regular-season series of the year.

Still, Hunwick woke up Saturday knowing he would only play in case of an emergency - that Hogan, who was 7-2-0 compared to Hunwick's 2-3-4 this season - had earned the right to start in front of 113,411. That the emergency came and Hunwick was ready is a testament to what the walk-on goalie has achieved in his recent career.

"It wasn't a slam-dunk decision that Hogan would play," Berenson said. "We've been alternating them all year and Hunwick's done a lot of good things but if you look a year ago at this time, he had never started a game and now look where he is. He has to feel pretty good."

"I still feel like I'm lucky to be here," said Hunwick, who played in two career games, both in relief, before stepping in for U-M late last year. "It's amazing to be playing for the University of Michigan, for Coach Berenson.

"Once Hogan went down last year, that was a tremendous run and a lot of fun, but even after that I never thought I'd get a shutout in The Big Chill. It's been pretty special."

It helped tremendously that the Wolverines reverted back to the suffocating team defense they played in front of Hunwick during last year's playoffs. The Spartans fired off 34 shots but few quality scoring chances. In fact, Hunwick's biggest saves may have come in the final few minutes as he was trying to preserve Michigan's first shutout of the season.

"The same thing happened last year [Hunwick replacing Hogan in an emergency] and then we started showing up with great defense and the same thing today," senior captain Carl Hagelin said. "Guys were blocking shots, and coming back on the backcheck and Hunwick made the saves he should have made and a few great ones as well."

Senior center Matt Rust came into his final year expecting to play the best hockey of his career. In 18 games, though, he hadn't, recording just three goals and seven assists with a plus/minus of minus-2 - an unthinkable statistic for arguably U-M's top two-way forward.

On Saturday, however, Rust finally broke out of his season-long slump, registering three assists, including nifty passes to Jon Merrill and Carl Hagelin for U-M's first and fourth goals, respectively.

"It definitely wasn't the first half to the season I wanted," Rust said. "I've been fighting it in a lot of different ways. But I think [how we play as a team] starts with your seniors and I think it's going to be good for me and Carl and Louie [Caporusso] to try and get things going again and lead this team.

"Like what Carl said earlier, something usually sparks our team and hopefully it was The Big Chill."

- The Wolverines joked all week if they would do special celebrations after scoring but only one U-M skater dared doing so when junior David Wohlberg pretended to kick a field goal after netting Michigan's fifth marker.

"It was a pretty funny celebration," Hagelin said. "Coach was sort of laughing at first but then wasn't happy because the referee came up to us and said no more of that. That was our warning and the one more we'd get a penalty."

Hunwick was hoping one of his teammates emulated someone used to celebrating inside Michigan Stadium.

"I told the guys that one of them had to do the Denard [Robinson] and go down on one knee but I didn't see it so I'm disappointed," Hunwick said.

- There were plenty of factors that had to be perfect for Saturday's game, including the weather, but Berenson was satisfied. So much so that he hinted at perhaps seeing another outdoor game at The Big House.

"It couldn't have been better," he said. "I don't think you could put this whole event on and get a better result.

"It was the first time for The Big House to put something like this on and will it be the last time? That's not my decision. But I know [Athletic Director] David Brandon had to be pretty impressed with the conclusion."

"Michigan put on a great show. It was everything it was built up to be with the atmosphere. To put on something of that magnitude and be that good, Michigan should be congratulated." - MSU coach Rick Comley.