DETROIT - Dinner was outstanding for the Michigan hockey team last night.
The food wasn't bad, either.
The evening began and ended with Wolverines on stage at the CCHA Awards Banquet last night at the Crowne Plaza Ponchartrain Hotel in downtown Detroit. Michigan brought home a wealth of hardware from the banquet, including trophies for the regular season championship, Player of the Year Brendan Morrison and Goaltender of the Year Marty Turco.
After dinner was served, Red Berenson and the three captains - Morrison, Jason Botterill and Blake Sloan - accepted the trophy for the CCHA regular-season championship. Berenson gave a short acceptance speech, in which he gave most of the credit to his nine-man senior class. In particular, he commended Morrison and Botterill for returning to Michigan for their senior seasons despite the lure of the NHL.
Botterill returned to the stage moments later as part of the CCHA All-Academic team. An economics major, it was the senior's second straight year on the team.
Morrison didn't have much downtime, either - after a short presentation naming Miami (Ohio) coach Mark Mazzoleni Coach of the Year, Morrison was called back up to the stage to be honored as the CCHA scoring leader. He totaled 18 goals and 31 assists in 27 league games.
Western Michigan defenseman Daryl Andrews was named Rookie of the Year. Andrews is the third Bronco in five years to win the award.
Turco was voted Goaltender of the Year, but after the ceremony, he said this weekend's tournament is what he's really looking forward to.
"This is what we've been waiting for," he said. "It's an exciting time - the playoffs always are. We're just ready to go out as a team and hopefully win a couple of games."
Michigan's John Madden was presented with the award for the best defensive forward by Notre Dame coach and former NHL Selke Award winner Dave Poulin. Madden's 23 career shorthanded goals - 8 of which have come this year - are an NCAA record.
"I'm happy for John Madden," Berenson said. "When you have so many great players on one team, somebody's always getting overlooked. He's been coming to this banquet for three years, and he's had to sit and watch everyone else get the awards. And he's a great, great hockey player - so he's finally getting his due."
Andy Roach, a senior from Ferris State, was voted the league's top offensive defenseman. Roach was runner-up in the category for each of the past two years. The other blue line award went to Michigan State captain Tyler Harlton, who was named the conference's best defensive defenseman. The Spartans have the best overall penalty-kill percentage in the nation.
For the second consecutive season, the night's final award went to Morrison, as CCHA Player of the Year.
"It's a very nice honor," Morrison said after the ceremony. "I've been lucky to be surrounded by so many great players here at Michigan, and this is something that never could have happened if it weren't for my teammates."
At the end of the evening, Berenson was reflective about what this team has done.
"It's good that there's a lot of recognition for this group, they deserve it," he said. "I remember coming here when there weren't any Michigan players at all winning awards.
"And it's nice to see the league acknowledge these guys - it's not as if I'm standing up there talking about them. The other coaches did all the voting for them, so it's nice to get that kind of recognition."