DU won’t Tech Huskies for granted
cincinnati » Michigan Tech hockey coach Mel Pearson was an assistant under Red Berenson at the University of Michigan when the Wolverines won the NCAA championship here in 1996, defeating Colorado College 3-2 on Brendan Morrison’s overtime goal. Twenty-one years later, Pearson reminisced while eyeing what would be another grand moment inside U.S. Bank Arena.
“That was my first national championship at the collegiate level as an assistant coach and it was a great experience. I’m trying to relay some of that on to our team,” said Pearson, whose Michigan Tech Huskies meet the top-ranked Denver Pioneers in Saturday’s Midwest Regional opener inside the 42-year-old building. “I know it’s not a national championship game, but it’s still special anytime you get to this situation. I’ve had a number of players on that team reach out to me and wish us luck and also reminisce a little bit about that championship. Anytime you get here, it’s special and that’s what I like about this format. It’s a single game. We have as good a chance as anyone because of that single game. We don’t have to beat anybody two out of three times or anything like that. It’s one game and a lot of things can happen.”
DU is the big favorite Saturday but also cognizant that, indeed, anything can happen. After an hour-long practice Friday, the topseeded Pioneers (29-7-4) vowed to not overlook the Huskies (2411-2), who wouldn’t have qualified for the NCAA Tournament without getting an automatic bid as Western Collegiate Hockey Association playoff champions. Among the 60 Division I teams, DU is No. 1 in the PairWise Rankings and Michigan Tech is No. 27.
““They’re an excellent team,” DU coach Jim Montgomery said of the Huskies. “They don’t give up odd-man rushes. They have great structure and are really well coached by Mel Pearson.”
DU needs to go 2-0 in Cincinnati to make a return trip to the NCAA Frozen Four, which is April 6-8 at the United Center in Chicago. If the Pioneers get past Michigan Tech, they will face regional No. 2 seed Union (25-9-3) or No. 3 Penn State (24-11-2) on Sunday in the regional title game.
Montgomery noted that Michigan Tech will undoubtedly try to defend by having more bodies closer to freshman goalie Angus Redmond. Blocking shots and keeping the game low scoring is the Huskies’ best chance to pull off an upset.
DU, meanwhile, wants to keep the tempo high.
“We want to play the game at our pace and play to our strengths,” Montgomery said. “If we do that, it doesn’t matter who we’re playing, we’re going to have success by having a lot of puckpossession time and spending a lot of time in their end.”
DU’s top three scorers are freshman Henrik Borgstrom (21 goals, 38 points) and sophomores Dylan Gambrell (26 assists, 37 points) and Troy Terry (19 goals, 36 points). The trio didn’t play well in last week’s 1-0 loss to North Dakota at the National Collegiate Hockey Conference semifinals in Minneapolis. But Montgomery is confident in his three young forwards.
“We’re talking about guys who have played in big-time tournaments, and the sophomores were part of what we did last year — Terry and Gambrell were incredible at regionals,” Montgomery said. “And I think the experience from last weekend against North Dakota, for our entire team but also our top-end forwards, it was a slap in the face and it was like, ‘OK, life is not going to be easy all the time.’ I continue to believe that loss was good for us.”