The best over time

Newest title shows that hard work pays off

But everyone will remember the West Regional victories at Yost. Everyone will remember Saturday's game and the outcome.

Everyone will remember the 1998 NCAA championship.

This season's edition of Michigan hockey really is unique, worthy of a movie or a book, or at least a miniseries. The Wolverines are a team everyone can relate to because they're not perfect, they're not unstoppable. There's no Hobey Baker Award winner here, no record-setting win total, no single player carrying the team on his shoulders night in and night out. Even Marty Turco couldn't always bail the Wolverines out, nor could Bill Muckalt.

Sharat Raju Sharat in the Dark

We all can relate. Sometimes in life, you come up short. You can't win every award, every tournament or every accolade. But you can succeed if you work hard, play hard and come through when it counts.

And that's exactly what this team did. The Wolverines came through at the FleetCenter. They worked hard and fought back, and can truly be called Champions.

Captain Matt Herr often said early in the season that this team wasn't going to be the most talented in the country, but they would be the hardest-working one. That's something to live by in hockey, in sports and in life. If you work hard, good things happen.

MARGARET MYERS/Daily As one of the most improved players on the team, Michigan defenseman Bubba Berenzweig exemplified the hard work displayed by the Wolverines all season long.

This team worked the hardest - and the best thing happened.

In reality, this game should have happened last year. Michigan, with the best team in the land, should have played in the championship game and should have won convincingly. They had the Hobey Baker winner, the most victories in the country and were stacked with playoff-tested veterans.

But forget all of that. That was a different team with a different frame of mind - a team that often defeated its opponents before even stepping onto the ice.

This year's Michigan team was the underdog from start to finish, basically. Sure, teams like Alaska-Fairbanks didn't really stand a chance. But pretty much every team drooled at the chance to pay Michigan back for years of humiliation.

Funny how it all worked out for the Wolverines. Funny how the best-laid plans of the best teams (read: Michigan State, North Dakota, Boston University) went awry.

The Wolverines never did anything the easy way this season. It took them three games, including an overtime one, to dispatch of Notre Dame in the first round of the CCHA playoffs. They had to come back from two goals behind - twice - against defending national champion North Dakota in the West Regional final. They played in 21 one-goal games and won 17 of them.

WARREN ZINN/Daily Michigan coach Red Berenson took over as head coach of the hockey team in 1984 and returned a fallen program back to national prominence. And on Saturday night at the FleetCenter in Boston, Berenson led the Wolverines to the national championship - their second in three seasons. This year's underdog team upset home-favorite Boston College, 3-2, in overtime.

Fittingly, the Wolverines saved the biggest challenge for the final game.

They had to overcome second-seeded Boston College in Boston. They had to fight through possibly the loudest opposing crowd ever. And, of course, they had to work hard and come from behind. Twice. Again.

And when Josh Langfeld found the back of the net in overtime on Saturday at the FleetCenter, all the hard work of the players and coaches manifested into that rectangular plaque handed to every Wolverine.

But the intangibles of this national title are arguably more important than any hardware could be. The friendships developed between this team, the stories and hardships and triumphs are what the players and coaches will remember.

The images, the miracle goals, the saves and the memories of Yost and Boston with friends and strangers alike are what the fans will remember, what we will remember.

And the one lesson I will always remember is that hard work does pay off - contrary to what I've thought before. But now I've seen it. I'm a believer and I'm sure everyone who has borne witness to this season is a believer, too.

Michigan fans are spoiled this season.

First, a football national championship, now a hockey title. Again.

For a school that works so hard to be the best at everything - ranging from the band to academics to athletics - we deserve this, and we can bask in the glory of this season and this school year.

- Sharat Raju can be reached at sraju@umich.edu.

04-06-98