Michigan's coaches were pacing, unsure if forward Zach Hyman would be able to play in the Wolverines' first-ever Big Ten Tournament game (in 2013-14). U-M needed Hyman, a testament to how far the now-senior winger had come during his career.

After 19 games this season, Hyman leads the Maize and Blue in goal scoring, with 11 markers, assists (15), and points (26), and he is second among Wolverines and first among forwards with a plus/minus of plus-12. Hyman also ranks fifth nationally in points and points per game (1.37 per contest).

"I don't want to take all the credit because my linemates have been phenomenal, but right now, I feel like I'm playing the best hockey of my career," Hyman told TheWolverine.com.

The 6-1, 205-pounder is a case study in perseverance. He was once the Canadian Junior A Player of the Year, recording 42 goals and 60 assists in 43 games during the 2010-11 season. A year earlier, he had 35 goals and 40 assists playing for the Hamilton Red Wings of the Ontario Junior Hockey League.

The Florida Panthers were so impressed with Hyman's junior exploits they selected him with their fifth-round pick in the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.

But as it can so often occur, Hyman was not an instant success at Michigan. He played in 41 games, but mostly on the third or fourth lines, scoring just two goals with seven assists. He wasn't much more productive as a sophomore either, with four goals and four helpers in 38 contests. Still, he wasn't deterred.

"I was frustrated and really disappointed in how things were going my freshman and sophomore year, but I always remember what my dad told me - 'It's not a sprint, it's a marathon' - and that stuck in the back of my head. 'Hard work pays off, be a team player, support the team no matter.'

"Those are things I thought about a lot those first two years, and I just tried to take in as much as possible and learn as much as I could, and be ready for when I got the opportunity.

"I always believed in myself, always believed I could do what I am doing now. But it's all about earning that opportunity. It's hard to get a little bit of a sniff and then all of a sudden you're on a shorter leash and you're not sure why, but I knew that someday if I kept working hard and doing what my coaches asked of me that I would get that extended opportunity, and I wasn't going to waste that chance."

To say that Hyman's play this season is a complete surprise would not be correct - he began to hit his stride in the second half of his junior year (more on that in a minute) - but to be putting up such gaudy numbers probably didn't seem realistic to anyone outside the program forecasting Hyman's senior year.

"Through his first 114 games, his first three years, he had 13 goals, and now he has 11 goals through 19 games," said radio analyst and former Wolverine Bill Trainor, seemingly shaking his head in amazement.

"He had seven goals last year, but remember, [five] of them came in the last [15] games or so. Halfway through his junior year, you could really see him taking that step, and I think it was confidence in accepting and understanding his role, and then flourishing in that role, but I don't know if any of us saw this type of production coming."

Head coach Red Berenson was impressed that even when Hyman wasn't scoring goals, and didn't have a big offensive role on the team, he was still putting in the work.

"Everything didn't fall into place for him here his first year, and he had to learn how to play without the puck, and how to play with intensity, and yet he always worked hard," Berenson said. "He brought a work ethic that was solid."

Hyman was making some strides in his junior season, but he was still resigned to the third and fourth lines, contributing two goals and two assists in his first 20 games, including 12- and seven-game goal droughts.

Then, on Jan. 23 he moved from wing to center, receiving a shot in the arm - he would tally a goal and two assists in his next four games - and then another move, back to right wing, alongside center Andrew Copp and left wing Tyler Motte really jumpstarted Hyman.

"It was almost around this time last year where Coach moved me from right wing to center, and maybe that little switch triggered something," Hyman said. "It was like, 'Ok, I'm just going to be the third-line center and play this role to the best of my ability' and then things just started happening offensively.

"Some of the bounces I wasn't getting my freshman and sophomore year were suddenly going in. And then the light bulb went on for me. I took off from there. That really propelled me into my senior year."

In nine games together last season, the trio of Hyman, Copp and Motte (and Alex Kile for one game as a sub for an injured Motte) combined for seven goals and 13 assists, Hyman responsible for two of the goals and five helpers.

Hyman was playing so well that the prospect of him missing the conference tournament against Penn State left the coaches anxious.

"We were going into the tournament and he was sick or injured, and our coaches were really concerned because we didn't think we had much of a chance without Zach - that's how critical he had become to our team," Berenson said. "He ended up playing the game, and it went into overtime, and he was a force for us.

"And he's just taken that momentum from last year and he's been that same player right from the get-go this year."

Berenson has experienced far more than his share of early exits from Michigan - 18 alone since 2000, including three that left U-M not for an NHL opportunity but simply because of frustration early in their college careers - and it would not have been a surprise to those outside the program if Hyman joined that list.

He says he never considered leaving, though, and his patience and perseverance are now paying off.

"Zach has been a great example of what college hockey can do for a player," said Trainor, who appeared in 132 games for the Wolverines from 1998-2001. "Zach was a very highly-recruited player. He had a bazillion points in juniors. His class was replacing the Carl Hagelin class, and you were losing a lot of firepower with Matt Rust, Louie Caporusso and Carl Hagelin, and I think Zach, rightly or wrongly, was maybe expected to come in and score right away, and that didn't happen for him.

"Fairly or unfairly, he probably put a lot of expectations on himself and for whatever reason, he didn't pan out offensively at first, but he figured out that if he was going to contribute to the team he needed to find and embrace a role, and he did that.

"He was really a [senior fourth-line centerman] Travis Lynch-type player his freshman and sophomore year, and every year he seemed to gain more confidence, more strength, more speed, and this year he is reaping the fruits of the first three years of hard work."

In 2008, Kevin Porter won the Hobey Baker Award because he ranked second nationally in points (63), points per game (1.47) and goals (33), but probably more so because he captained a team with 12 freshmen and five sophomores to a 28-4-4 regular-season record, CCHA regular-season and tournament titles, an NCAA East Regional victory, and a spot in the Frozen Four.

Since Porter's departure, Michigan has had, arguably, only one player - Hagelin in 2011 (U-M would play in the national championship game that season) - that had the ability to raise the play of those around him. This season, especially over the past six weeks, Hyman has done just that.

"What Michigan has missed the last two or three years is that one, or maybe two go-to players that you knew you could put on the ice and he'd be dangerous his entire shift to score a goal or at least threaten offensively," said Trainor.

"Friday night, Michigan goes down by a goal after Minnesota scores two power-play goals, and the last two years, you might have written off a Michigan team. You just didn't have that guy that really stepped up, but you saw No. 11 go on the ice on that next shift, and he skated with a confidence that he was going to propel his team back into it.

"And whether he's thinking about that consciously or not, he seems to be that guy that when this team needs inspiration, it's going to be Zach. For me, it was motivational to see someone play that hard. It was contagious, and I think this team is starting to figure out how to win games, and Zach has been the instrumental to that."

If Michigan, which now ranks No. 19 nationally following a four-game winning streak, ends up winning the Big Ten and earning an NCAA Tournament bid, we may look back on last Friday's 4-3 overtime win over then-No. 9 Minnesota, and the shift Hyman played immediately after the Gophers took a 3-2 lead at 10:35 of the period, as the most important of the year.

Just 11 seconds after Minnesota's five-minute power play concluded, Hyman beat a defenseman to the front of the net, and shifted the puck across the crease to junior Justin Selman for the game-tying goal. U-M would go on to win in the extra session and then bested Minnesota 7-5 on Saturday night.

"He's a man amongst boys," Trainor said. "He really feels he can beat any defenseman wide. Even if the defenseman is shoulder to shoulder with him, Zach can outmuscle him. Eight times out of 10, he can do that, and it doesn't hurt to play with a guy like [freshman] Dylan Larkin."

The phenom and 2014 first-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings, Larkin had three goals in his first 17 games, but paired with Hyman over the weekend, he registered three goals and an assist in two contests, flying around the ice.

"We put him with Dylan Larkin and it wasn't so much to help Zach Hyman but to give Dylan Larkin a role model, and remind him how we need him to play because Dylan could learn to become a team player like Zach," Berenson said.

Michigan will play about 40 games this season, and Hyman knows he won't come close to equaling the 102 points he tallied in his final season of junior hockey, but he's playing at a far higher level these days than he did when named his home country's top performer.

"I'm playing more complete than I did when I was in juniors," he said. "The year I was named CJHL Player of the Year, I felt like I could score at will, but right now, in college, things are going well for me because of how well I'm playing in all three zones."

Hyman probably wasn't a legitimate NHL prospect a year ago at this time. But 12 months later, he is, thanks to a patient approach and a willingness to heed his coaches' and father's advice.

"Some hockey players don't think they need to stay in college for four years, but you look at Zach Hyman and see the player he is now, and here we are halfway through his senior year, and he's becoming a dominant player," Berenson said. "And that's the way it should be.

"That's the way it for us for my first 15 years here, and then guys started to leave after three years, and then some guys after two years, and we've even lost kids after just one year. But when Zach leaves here, he will be ready for the next level.

"He's playing the game the right way. He's always tried to do that, but he brought some style and habits with him that weren't going to work here. He's had to do it the hard way. He's had a lot of expectations and has probably had to answer a lot of people wondering why he wasn't scoring more earlier in his career, but he is doing it now, and good for him."

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