They were desperate.
Desperate for a win, desperate to break out of a scoring slump, desperate for just about any sort of sign that hope was on the way.
Saturday's non-conference test with Wisconsin was Michigan's biggest battle of the season so far, made important by the extremes to which three home losses can dampen a young squad's confidence.
On a team that's grown accustomed to winning, and in a building that's grown so supportive of its team, losing is something taken seriously by coach Red Berenson's squad and something almost unexpected by the fans at Yost Arena.
So it's not difficult to imagine what three home losses can do to a team that hadn't lost that many consecutive games at home since before the fall of the Berlin Wall. Eleven seasons, nine NCAA Tournament berths and two national championships after
 |
| KIMITSU YOGACHI/Daily Jed Ortmeyer and the Wolverines had their backs to the wall this weekend, but they responded with an emotion-packed victory against Wisconsin. |
That stumble included a sweep by conference foe Lake Superior State before being steamrolled 6-1 by Minnesota to open the 1999 College Hockey Showcase. All of this at home, a place where the Wolverines lost only four games all year last season, a place where the 1996-97 Wolverines never lost.
Michigan was desperate.
"We had to battle and they had to come out and show their parents and the fans and everyone else that they're a better team," Berenson said.
And that challenge showed on the faces of players like captain Sean Peach, who led his team from its pre-game huddle in the Michigan net knowing it was a game his team simply had to win.
Forget records and conference standings, statistic totals and playoff points. Michigan's game Saturday night against Wisconsin was about restoring a team's confidence and setting a tone for the rest of the season.
And Michigan understood that.
"There's a lot of desperation coming in on a three-game slide," freshman Mark Mink said. "We were focused and we knew what we had to do."
That desperate need to win was evident in the way Michigan clawed its way back from behind early in the game to dismantle a Wisconsin offense with an inspiring defensive effort that held the Badgers to just two shots in the third period.
"All year we've been a good third period team," Peach said. "So maybe that's our secret to success, to be able to win the third period. We definitely did suck it up as a team to do the little things that we had to."
And that's what made the difference for Michigan on Saturday.
Desperate times pushed this Michigan squad to sometimes use desperate measures-none more desperate than those of Peach in the second period. Peach's acrobatic effort to save a Wisconsin goal with sheer will and the blade of his skate exemplified just what Saturday's game meant to the captain and his Wolverine teammates. Already trailing in the game, Peach threw his body in front of a Michigan net left unguarded as netminder L.J. Scarpace was racing to return to his post.
"That's desperation right there," Peach said. "It came at a time when they were already up 1-0 and if that puck goes in suddenly it's 2-0. I just happened to get in front of it. I dove in front of the net and it hit off my skate. I was lucky."
And as Peach leads his team to Bowling Green this weekend to face the Falcons, maybe the Wolverines will see that the real luck was in going through an educational losing streak.
"We regrouped and we came out with more determination," Scarpace said of his team's 4-1 win over Wisconsin.
In bonding together when times seemed tough, maybe the young Michigan squad learned more about itself in losing than they could have in winning. It's still unknown if desperation has made Michigan a more focused squad.
What the Wolverines proved with certainty was that when the outlook seemed bleak and forecast looked treacherous, Michigan could deliver its best.
11-30-99
| Previous Article | Next Article |
should be sent to: daily.letters@umich.edu | should be sent to: online.daily@umich.edu |