10 year anniversary: Michigan Hockey upsets #1 North Dakota in the Frozen Four
Hard to believe its been so long already but time flies.
Michigan had been pretty good that season, entering the tournament at 26-10-4 and as the 2 seed in the west. The first game was against UNO and was the somewhat infamous OT win where things actually went well for us in OT for a change as video review from across the rink showed that indeed the puck had snuck under the UNO goalie and had gone over the line. 4 seed Colorado College kindly took out 1 seed Boston College in the other game. In the regional final, Michigan jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and then held on for a 2-1 victory.
That set up the regional final against #1 North Dakota who had steamrolled through their regional with a 6-0 win over RPI and a 6-1 win over 2 seed Denver. Absolutely no one was giving us a chance against the mighty Sioux and I can't say I blame them. I think the most common score prediction I saw was something like 5-0 or 6-0 North Dakota and I still remember the North Dakota jabronis on USCHO were beyond confident that the Sioux were going to walk right over us en route to another national title. The fact that the Frozen Four was in St Paul meant the arena was almost entirely cocky Sioux fans waiting for their team to cruise to a satisfying win.
One thing North Dakota didn't account for was Shawn Hunwick. The 5'7" netminder was absolutely dominant all game. Ben Winnett put in a 1st period goal and then Michigan somehow kept the North Dakota puck out of the net whilst being absolutely shelled by North Dakota the rest of the way. We were outshot 40-20 in the game and only registered 3 shots on goal in the 2nd, and 7 in the 3rd, but Hunwick prevailed in one of the greatest individual games I've seen a Michigan athlete put on. Truly one of my favorite games ever and one of my favorite MGoPosts ever "Life as a Vole". Yost Built had a great write up too. How satisfying it was to finally be on the other end of one of these games for once. My profile picture is Scooter after burying the empty netter and right before the famous middle finger dude showed up. Enjoy the memories
Whoops. Forgot to set the video start time. Go to 2:15 for the good stuff
A micro-bet I would place if possible: If middle-finger guy was alive in 2020 he got in at least one shouting match about refusing to wear a mask when entering a Dollar General in Minot.
I already know you've lost because you don't have to wear a mask ANYWHERE in NoDak, let alone a Dollar General. I have a friend there who said she gets a lot of shit for wearing her mask in public and said pretty much no one does it anywhere (indoors or out).
The requirements seem to have come and gone, but this is from just last month:
https://www.minotnd.org/DocumentCenter/View/5705/Mayoral-Mask-Mandate
To date the most stressful hockey game I've ever watched live.
Especially those last two periods when UND just turned it up, I was so certain they were going to open the avalanche up
Such a shame we couldn't finish things against Minnesota Duluth
The OT win over UNO was not the first time things went well for Michigan in OT in an NCAA tournament game. Though it is rare for Michigan to get a positive outcome in the extra frame in tournament play, things did turn out well for Michigan in the 1998 NCAA Championship Game against Boston College. They won that game 3-2 in OT with a beautiful put back goal by the great Brendan Morrison.
(Edit: Doh, Morrison scored the OT winner in the national championship game against Colorado College in 1996. I conflated the two games in my head for some reason.)
Morrison wasn’t on the 1998 team. He had graduated in 97. Josh Langfeld (sp?) scored the OT winner in 98 along the ice between the post and the goalies skate. Josh and his dad sat next to me for the 2011 Frozen Four.
Thanks for the correction. I was remembering the overtime ending to the 1996 National Championship game. That's cool that you sat next to the Langfelds in 2011.
I was at the '96 title game. What a treat to be present when M wins a national title.
I was at the regional in East Lansing. Wish I could have been at the final.
The Legg goal game against Minnesota. Really helped spark the team in that game.
I saw that goal live, but I was at the far end of the arena and had no idea how the puck had ended up in the net. Munn didn't have video score boards, so it wasn't until after the game that I realized that I had just witnessed a moment of hockey history that would be remembered for a long time.
What a treat it would be for Michigan to win any national title in any sport whether I am there live or not. The hockey final, the basketball finals, the baseball final...nothing but Ls.
As a young kid in the 90s just starting to fall in love with sports, I had no idea all my teams were blowing all their championship loads right then and there (Wings, M Hockey, M Football). Basically '96-'04 was nothing but success in some form and then the lone '08 Wings Cup is all we've had since (and shit even that was 13 years ago now).
Not to mention the 1989 NCAA Basketball Championship, and the Pistons back to back NBA titles in the early nineties and their '04 title. The Tigers were putting together contenders consistently in the aughts, right up until about eight years ago.
I was there too on the other end of the rink where Morrison scored.
I'd never paid much attention to hockey, but that was my first year of grad school and my roommate was a huge fan so I got invested in the team. After that game and the following one I realized I simply could not handle the tension and have followed the team without actually watching important games.
Hard to believe Red's first title was 25 years ago last week.
Damn, Hunwick was special.
Can’t believe that was 10 years ago. I still remember being terrified for what felt like the entire game. And middle finger guy, who could forget him
This is one of my favorite Michigan Hockey games ever. Just wish we had won it all.
Glorious memories! National championship game was great but wasn't meant to be with the Minnesota Duluth luck about to begin...
One of the great games in the last 20 years. For as wonderful a job as Red did at Michigan, it’s hard to believe that this win got us to the national championship game for only the 3rd time in his tenure. Ironically, we lost 3-2 in OT after winning the previous two times we appeared (in 1996 and 1998), also both 3-2 and also both in OT.
What a game! Shawn Hunwick became a UM legend that night, and it's too bad we couldn't make the ultimate storybook ending come true when he started in goal on his birthday in the title game two nights later.
I was at that final and remember we looked like the better team through most of regulation that night, scored first, generally dictated the pace and just missed on a few other chances, but it was clear when the puck dropped in overtime that it was going to be over fast, and it was...
damn... time flies
Ahhh, Red's last great team. That 2011 squad should have been Red's 3rd NCAA championship. Tiny Jesus was legendary that season.
I was in grad school in Oregon and watched from my apartment. A few hours after the game, I booked a plane ticket for Minneapolis to catch the final.
I ended up buying tickets off some disgruntled NoDak fans. We met at the Mall of America for the exchange. I was about 10 rows off the ice.
The environment for the game was incredibly hostile towards Michigan. Between the NoDak fans who stuck around and the folks supporting the local UMD team, it was intense.
I'm glad I went, but it was certainly a devastating loss.
Yep after that first goal it was like watching a 40+ minute penalty kill, seemed like the whole 2nd and 3rd periods were played in Michigans defensive end.
Crazy that this game was 10 years ago. It seems a lot more recent than the final to me -- maybe because it's a happy memory, lol.
Also interesting as I type this to see Brock Nelson get hurt at the beginning. Still a very good NHLer and still with the Isles.
This one was one of many painful ones for me. After they beat North Dakota who was so heavily favored, I somehow got the feeling that that team was “destined” to win it all. I really thought we we were going to win it all