The Last Game at Yost for the Season or the Thank You Seniors Edition

One of the things that makes college sports so special is that you know every year will bring change as the seniors graduate in spring and freshman join the team in the fall.  Four years may seem like forever, but every year former freshmen, now senior leaders, graduate and move on.

College teams typically celebrate their senior players on "Senior Night", the last home game of the regular season.  And Michigan's hockey team celebrated four of its best this year,  that Saturday night in late February - all captains or alternate captains, all outstanding contributors to its team.  But in my mind, due to the success of the Michigan program over the years, you can count on a couple more home games every year because the CCHA playoff games are played at the higher seeded teams' home ice.  And Michigan typically hosts one round of the CCHA playoffs at Yost.

So while Senior Night was officially in February, tonight was Senior Night in my mind.  The night when, for the last time, the four seniors took the ice as the team defeated the Notre Dame Fighting Irish to move on to the semi-finals of the CCHA playoffs.  Captain Luke Glendenning, and Alternates Greg Pateryn, David Wohlberg, and Shawn Hunwick played their last game at Yost tonight.  The crowd was electric, the band spot-on, and Brady Hoke was in the house.  You couldn't ask for a better atmosphere, and the Wolverines came to play, apparently recovered from the marathon double overtime game the night before, to sweep the series against Notre Dame.

But how bittersweet it was to watch Shawn Hunwick, perhaps the best goalie Michigan has ever had, perhaps the best goalie it ever will have, lead his team onto the ice for the last time.  The last game was  a victory in which he, as he has so many times this season, made spectacular save after spectacular save to give his team the chance to win.   And then to be the last player to walk off the ice after the game was won,  turning around to look backward at the ice one last time.


Thank you, seniors.  But especially, thank you Shawn Hunwick.    And with the grit and the talent of this team, we hope to see you playing in April.  But never again at Yost.  And you will be missed.