Michigan Captures CCHA Title, Earns Automatic NCAA Bid

I think University of Michigan fans need to take a step back and think about what just happened over this weekend. With all that has gone incredibly wrong over the past few years with both the football and basketball programs we can't let this massive opportunity to gloat be overlooked. With convincing wins over Miami of Ohio and Northern Michigan this weekend the Michigan Wolverines have stunned the college hockey world and won the CCHA Championship. The victory secures a NCAA tournament spot and the Wolverines have been penciled in to play Bemidji State in the first round of the 16 team tournament. Bemidji is no slouch but is a lot better than playing the likes of a Wisconson or Boston College in round 1.

After being predicted to win the CCHA in the preseason, the Wolverines have had a really disappointing 17 loss season and finished near the bottom of the standings. To make things worse they were going into the CCHA tournament without their starting goaltender Brian Hogan and without their best defenseman Summers. Backup goalie Sean Hunwick, who many thought only made the team because he is the younger brother of former All-American Matt Hunwick, was getting his first real action of the year because he had only played 18 minutes all season. The struggling Wolverines were on absolutely nobodies radar and were a long shot at best to do any damage in the CCHA tournament. But with Hunwick knocking out a goals against average less than 2.0 and a save percentage over .9 the Wolverines were able to get by some real good teams and slip into the tournament. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good and I think this is one of those times. If Michigan can keep riding this wave of prosperity we might be seeing some more powerhouses getting knocked in the mouth before this is all said and done. Lets Go Blue!

First Round Matchups

*Miami (27-7-7)
Ala.-Huntsville (12-17-3)

Bemidji St. (23-9-4)
Michigan (25-17-1)

North Dakota (25-12-5)
Yale (20-9-3)

Alaska-Fair. (18-11-9)
*Boston Coll. (25-10-3)

*Wisconsin (25-10-4)
Vermont (17-14-7)

St. Cloud St. (23-13-5)
N. Michigan (20-12-8)

Cornell (21-8-4)
N. Hampshire (17-13-7)

RIT (26-11-1)
*Denver (27-9-4)

*#1 seed

PS - My boy Mallard is selling his 1996 Michigan Wolverines - NCAA Champions autographed shirt. It's really fuckin dope and is in this nice frame and all, but it's on Ebay and has zero bids with like a day left. I'm thinking he might need to drop that $900 starting bid to get the ball rolling and let the other bids drive the price up. That's basically Ebay 101.