The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/116680
in his senior year, the mark tied a college hockey record set by Min‑ nesota from 1985-97. Michigan broke the record a year later, and the Maize and Blue have been adding to it ever since. It has not always been easy, though. In 2010, the Wolverines had to win the conference tournament to garner the automatic berth — they weren't in position to qualify as an at-large team — and did so, winning six straight games over league foes, a feat they are on the precipice of matching this year. Michigan also almost failed to earn a bid in 2006, when U-M finished third in the CCHA, in 2001 during Ortmeyer's sophomore year, and in 1999 following a 7-7-4 mark in Janu‑ ary and February. The streak continued to soldier on, though, a winning stretch coming at just the right time to keep it alive; in 1999, the Wolverines won the CCHA Tournament, and then in both 2001 and 2006, they scraped together three much-needed wins in the conference playoffs. "The tradition of Michigan hockey by the time I went to school there was on peaking late in the season and making a playoff run, and so, no matter what had happened during the year, we seemed to always get hot at the right time," Ortmeyer said. "The 1998 team did that and won a national title. Other teams turned it up in February to make sure they made the NCAA Tournament. "There's just this instinct about it. When you learn about the history of