The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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michigan hockey was awarded honorable mention distinction, was snubbed for more deserving hardware. Nieves ranked second among CCHA rookies in scoring with 22 points and was third among freshmen with eight goals in conference contests. Overall this year, Nieves has 29 points, including 21 assists. • Forward Brendan Morrison was named to the CCHA All-Time Team. Celebrating its 42nd and final season, the CCHA has been recognizing its very best players, announcing all-de- cade teams throughout the year and culminating with the All-Time Team. Morrison was the lone Wolverine to make the cut among 10 skaters and two goalies named. Bowling Green had four total players and Michigan State had three. Morrison played in 155 games, scoring 102 goals with 182 assists for a U-M career-record 284 points. He was the 1997 Hobey Baker Award winner as the nation's top player, and led Michigan to a national title in 1996. Great Game Performances Dwight Helminen Leads U-M To 2004 Playoff Series Victory Though Michigan won the CCHA regular-season title in 2004, with a 18-8-2 mark, the Wolverines limped into the postseason after going winless (0-3-1) in their final four games. U-M welcomed Nebraska-Omaha to Yost Ice Arena for a best-of-three, first-round playoff series, and took care of business on opening night, winning 2-0. Junior Dwight Helminen provided the breathing room with a marker at 15:38 of the second, pushing a loose puck across the goal line. "Whenever we play these guys, the ones that go in aren't pretty," said Helminen, who scored 17 goals that year. "They collapse to the front of the net so well so you won't see many tic-tac-toe plays." The Maize and Blue faithful expected UNO to go away quietly, but on the second night, the Mavericks battled, played tough defense and scored the timely goals, knocking off Michigan 3-1 and setting up a rare dramatic game three — U-M hasn't needed a third game in eight seasons since, sweeping each of its past nine CCHA playoff series. The Wolverines trailed 2-1 entering the third period of that Sunday affair, and were in danger of becoming the first No. 1 seed in league history to lose a firstround playoff series, but they stormed back in the final 20 minutes, netting four goals to earn a 5-2 victory. "We told our team [after the second] to leave it out on the ice," U-M head