Devereaux Peters and No. 4 Notre Dame were frustrated heading into Tuesday night’s game against Providence. Their exasperation only grew when they got off to a slow start. Eventually, they shook it off in a big way.
Michigan’s hockey team made it to Fort Wayne because of its ace goaltending and opportunistic offense.
It’s staying in Fort Wayne for those reasons.
The Wolverines defeated Bemidji State 5-1 Saturday at the Coliseum, earning a berth in today’s Midwest Regional final against Miami of Ohio, with a berth in the Frozen Four at stake.
Credit, again, goes to goaltender Shawn Hunwick, a 5-foot-7, 163-pound mite who had played only 18 minutes before getting the start Feb. 25 against Notre Dame. Since then, he’s won 8 of 9 games, including the last seven.
Against Bemidji State, which reached the Frozen Four last year, he stopped 25 of 26 shots. His best came midway through the second period, when the Beavers’ Jordan George accepted a pass all alone in front of the net before Hunwick sprawled to stop him.
Bemidji’s goalie, Dan Bakala, stopped 26 of 30 shots, including a sliding save that thwarted Luke Glendening’s shot at the end of a 2-on-1 rush. But the Wolverines (26-17-1), stocked with 11 NHL draftees, are difficult to contain.
Glendening opened the scoring at 6:15 of the first period when his shot from the blue line sailed through a crowd and into the top of the net. Louie Caporusso finished off a brilliant forecheck at 19:22 of the second period to make it 2-0. Teammate Chris Brown had stripped a Bemidji defender of the puck in the left corner, then sent a crossing pass to Caporusso, who wristed the puck into the far side of the net.
“Browny found me on what was kind of a scrambled play,” Caporusso said. “He happened to the see the seam that was open to me and he got it to me. Then, I just thought I’d shoot it as hard as I can.”
Caporusso has 10 goals in the last eight games, which included a 5-2 victory over Miami in the semifinals of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association tournament, which Michigan won to get into the NCAA field.
“Last week’s game against us just motivated (Miami),” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “They’re the team to beat. They’re the No. 1 team here, and we know we’ll have our hands full.”
Getting a Miami-vs.-Michigan final is what Coliseum officials had hoped for in their first time hosting the event, which drew an announced crowd of 4,133.
Bemidji State (23-10-4) had a surge in the third period, when Ian Lowe netted a power-play goal from the left circle to trim the Michigan lead to one. The celebration was short-lived, though, because of back-to-back Carl Hagelin goals and a Brian Lebler empty-netter.
“That’s a great hockey team we played tonight,” Bemidji coach Tom Serratore said. “They have a lot of octane, and every time we had a breakdown, they took advantage of those opportunities. … Michigan’s the hottest team in the country, and it might be the best team in the country right now.”
