For many Michigan fans, it’s been the winter of their discontent. The men’s hockey team was supposed to be the saving grace. Entering this season, the Wolverines had made it to the NCAA tournament a record 19-straight seasons. The streak dates back to 1991, before many of the current players were even born.

The Wolverines started the season ranked fourth in the country and first in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. But they finished out of the national rankings, and seventh in the CCHA, unheard of in Ann Arbor. Since the streak started, they had never finished lower than third in league play.

Long odds, short goalie

As a result, they knocked themselves out of any consideration for an at-large NCAA bid. The only chance they had to keep their streak alive was to win four straight rounds of their conference playoffs—six wins total. Nothing else could save their season. No team in CCHA history had ever come from that far down to win the league playoffs. And the odds got a lot longer right before the playoffs began, when the Wolverines’ starting goalie, Bryan Hogan, pulled his groin against Notre Dame. Coach Red Berenson had no choice but to resort to the shortest goalie in the league, a five-foot-six back up named Shawn Hunwick. In his three seasons at Michigan, Hunwick had not started a single game. It’s not fair to say Hunwick looks like your paperboy—because he looks like your paperboy’s baby brother. When Hunwick’s in his stance, he barely reaches the cross bar, and looks like he has to jump for the high shots. Hunwick isn’t even the best player in his family. His older brother Matt captained the Wolverines in 2006-07, and now plays for the NHL’s Boston Bruins. They grew up in Sterling Heights, where Matt beat Shawn in just about everything, including daily fights. But Shawn was feisty, and always came back for more. When Shawn wanted to play hockey, Matt shoved him in net—like older brothers do—and made him play goalie. But Shawn took to it immediately, and tried to convince his parents—a grocery store manager and a school maintenance man—to buy the expensive equipment needed to play the position. They initially refused, but Shawn persisted until they couldn’t say no. Shawn’s like that. While his brother Matt was recruited to play for the U.S. National Development Team in Ann Arbor, Shawn had to pay his dues in places like Alpena, Michigan, and Petrolia, Ontario, before he became Michigan’s “practice goalie.” These guys pay full tuition—brother Matt paid Shawn’s his first two years—and they don’t even dress for the games. All for the honor of having future pro players rip slapshots at their heads two hours a day. There’s a reason why practice goalies are called “targets.”In almost three years at Michigan, Hunwick played exactly 18 minutes of college hockey. But he never complained, he never skipped, and he never badgered his coaches for playing time. He just kept his mouth shut, and did his job, day in and day out.

Making some decisions

Hunwick was not expected to play any more this season, either. But when Hogan went down, Hunwick stepped in to knock back 14 shots, while letting in none, to preserve a 4-0 Michigan victory. Hunwick started the next game, Michigan’s last before the league playoffs, but it did not go so well. With Michigan holding a 2-0 lead, Hunwick got shelled for four goals in ten minutes, and Michigan lost. Because of their seventh-place finish, the Wolverines not only had to run the table, they had to do it the hard way. They would have to play the first round of the league playoffs, instead of enjoying their usual bye, for the first time in two decades; and if they won, they would have to travel to their opponents’ rink for the next second, instead of playing at home. To say the outlook was bleak would be to understate the case considerably. They all felt the weight, but none more so than their substitute goalie. “I had a decision to make,” Hunwick recalls of the long bus ride back to Ann Arbor. “I could keep my confidence up, or I could pack it in.”

His teammates had some decisions to make, too. They could conclude the odds were just too great, especially with their starting goalie in the stands. Or they could rally around their back-up, re-dedicate themselves to playing relentless team defense, and start playing like they were expected to when the season started. In the first round of the do-or-die playoffs, against Lake Superior State, the Wolverines at least saved face when they gave up only two goals the first night, and none the next, to earn Hunwick his first shut out and the team a pass to the next round. The Wolverines then traveled to East Lansing to meet second-place Michigan State, which had already beaten Michigan three times. But with Hunwick in net, and his teammates diving in front of every shot they could, the Wolverines rediscovered an old maxim: great defense creates great offense. Before the playoffs, Louie Caporusso, last year’s leading scorer, had put in only 12 goals in 37 games—but in the Wolverines’ eight post-season games, he got hot, averaging a goal a game. And that’s how Michigan swept its arch-rival, 5-1 and 5-3. Head coach Red Berenson realized he had pulled out a plum. Next up: the Miami Redhawks, who finished first in the league, and second in the nation. They came out on fire, peppering Michigan’s goal with shot after shot, but they were no match for Shawn Hunwick, who led Michigan to a 5-2 victory. The next night, with Michigan’s 19-year NCAA tournament streak on the line, Hunwick held off Northern Michigan, 2-1. Their season, and their streak, had been saved. When the buzzer sounded, the Wolverines threw their gloves and sticks into the air and raced to hug Hunwick, like they’d won the Stanley Cup. Hunwick’s parents cried. Even Berenson, who’s about as expressive behind the bench as Mt. Rushmore, was caught smiling, on camera—twice. And when they called up his surprising savior to receive the CCHA tournament MVP award, Berenson actually got a little choked up. Back on the team bus, Shawn made his first call to brother Matt, and tried to give him the credit, but Matt wouldn’t hear it. “You made the saves,” he said. And that’s how little brother earned one trophy big brother never did.

A season to savor

In the first round of the NCAA tournament, Michigan beat high-flying Bemidji State, 5-1, before falling in double overtime to Miami, 3-2—despite outshooting the Redhawks 57-35, and having an apparent goal called back in the first overtime. They had good reason to be heartbroken, even bitter. Radio play-by-play man Al Randall joked that the Wolverines are the only team in hockey history to score the first goal in sudden death and still lose.But the mood two days later at the season’s last radio show was upbeat. “You could see Shawn’s confidence grow,” said captain Chris Summers, of his roommate. “You can’t help but love that guy. We really did have the best chemistry of any team since I’ve been here.”Berenson agreed. “Our team came together like no other team I’ve coached.”They remembered their unlikely run, and the relief of keeping the streak alive. Above all, they savored the last few seconds of the league tournament title-clinching game against Northern Michigan—and the unlikely hero who made it all possible. “I’ve been around a long time,” Berenson said, “but I couldn’t have predicted Shawn Hunwick would play the way he did.”Among other records, Michigan hockey can boast the most NCAA Final Four appearances (23) and titles (nine) of any team in the history of college hockey. The 2009-2010 Wolverines did not add to those records, but they did keep their record streak of NCAA tournament appearances alive—and in the process, they gave Michigan fans one of the best stories in the rich history of their hockey program.Taking in their entire season, and the program’s tradition, Berenson said, “They can be proud of this team.”