The Wolverine defense was lacking at times during the season and, though it was by no means the worst in the country, or even the Big Ten, the team had trouble keeping the puck out of the net.

The defense did a serviceable job in insulating their netminder, allowing less than 30 shots per game, but a lackluster penalty kill negated much of the advantage that the team received from their power play.

[3] Once the Wolverines returned to action, the same pattern from the first half persisted and the team was barely able to win two conference games in a row.

Even though they were only able to earn weekend splits against the likes of Michigan State and Minnesota, the wins provided a bigger bonus that the penalty they suffered from losing.

sweeps of Ohio State and Notre Dame gave the Wolverines just enough room to maneuver and keep their hopes of a tournament bid alive.

Michigan used their #1 power play to score twice on the major in the early part of the third to regain the lead and then completely stifled the Irish for the remainder of the match.

[4] The rematch followed a similar pattern with Notre Dame twice gaining a 1-goal advantage but both time they were unable to silence the Wolverines' attack.

Despite facing regular season champion Michigan State, the Wolvers showed now fear and came out firing, getting the opening goal in the first minute of play.

Less than a minute into the third, Michigan caught a lucky break when a shot from Dylan Duke was muffled and the puck skittered in on the Hawks' cage.

However, with nothing left to lose, North Dakota went on the attack in the last part of the game and managed to cut the lead down to 1 with more than 5 minutes to play.

Michigan and Barczewski had to stave off a desperate comeback attempt but the Wolverines were equal to the task and they moved on to the regional final.

The Wolverines put themselves in a bad position when a minor from Gavin Brindley turned into a power play goal for MSU just six minutes into the game.

However, in spite of the failure of the power play to score, the time on the man advantage disrupted the Spartans' offense and helped to prevent them from adding to their tally.

Rather than sit on their lead, Michigan attacked on the power play and Duke deflected in a point shot for his fourth goal of the weekend and essentially ended the match.

The BC defense proved to be much tougher than their previous two opponents and even with three power plays in the first two periods, Michigan was only able to get 15 shots on goal.

Michigan tried desperately to solve the Boston College defense and though they were able to more than double their shot total in the final frame, they could not dent the twine.