Door to the CCHA title still wide open

By Jon Schwartz

Daily Sports Writer

Suiting up for Michigan can't be easy.

There are obviously a boatload of reasons for this. The media spotlight is as big as any in the country, the tradition is nearly unparalleled and the expectations are through the roof.

The last item is one that hounds the hockey team these days. Sitting in second place, four points behind Michigan State - the country's No. 1 team - people can't stop talking about opportunities missed.

"It would be easy right now for people to pick on us and say we're underachieving, because we are, and I wouldn't blame them," Michigan assistant coach Billy Powers said.

Perennial CCHA bottom-dwellers Notre Dame and Alaska-Fairbanks should be so lucky as to underachieve the way that Michigan does.

But it's naive and ignorant to assume that Michigan is competing the way that it should this season, and the Wolverines are hanging very uneasily on the ledge between greatness and mediocrity. There are impressive weekends such as the College Hockey Showcase, when Michigan beat two high-quality WCHA teams - Wisconsin and Minnesota - 3-2 and 4-1, respectively.

Of course, such wins are overshadowed by losses to Ferris State, Alaska-Fairbanks, Michigan Tech and most recently, Ohio State this past Friday night.

"That's one of the troubling things - why our team turns it on and off a little bit too much," Powers said.

Some of his players are frustrated, too.

"A lot of people are just as puzzled as we are," junior forward Craig Murray said. "Some nights we'll come out and not have it and the next night we'll come out and look like a team that's one of the tops in the country. We know we have a good team in here, it's just whether or not we put the effort in."

A 16-6-3 record to date is certainly impressive, but as one of the nation's top programs year-in-year-out, that much and more is expected.

If Michigan's inconsistency persists and it misses the NCAA tournament this year, the Wolverines will know where to look for answers.

"If we finish second, we'll look back," Murray said. "We talk about how we have to win the games we should win. We came out and we lost a few games that we really should have won. Those games will hopefully not cost us. But if we finish second, we'll definitely look back and say those are games we should have had."

On top of that, Wolverines' fans will forever be haunted by what-ifs.

What if last year's scoring-leader Mike Comrie had chosen to stay at Michigan rather than follow the money?

What if the Wolverines hadn't lost to teams in the bottom half of the CCHA?

And what if Michigan had accepted the CCHA gods' scheduling gift?

The upcoming schedule will determine which team takes home the CCHA crown. Michigan is tied with Western Michigan and will face the Broncos in a home-and-home series this weekend.

The Wolverines also have three games left against the top-ranked Spartans, after losing 1-0 in the first meeting.

Truly, the upcoming weeks should be seen as a chance to atone for the team's mistakes all season. At the same time, Michigan must prove that its eyes are finally open by beating the good teams as well as the less-than-intimidating ones - the two upcoming games against Notre Dame being a fine example.

"Unless we turn it around real quickly, we could be just a team that people say, 'They had enough talent that they could have been a real contender but they didn't show up every night.,'" Powers said. "There have been enough inconsistencies on this team that I can't sit here right now and say how they're going to compete this weekend. I like to think I know, but it's up to the guys now.

"The message is loud and clear. We'll find out what this team is made of really quickly."