The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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OCTOBER 2021 THE WOLVERINE 41 BY CLAYTON SAYFIE F ifth-year head coach Mel Pearson, a former U-M as- sistant from 1988-2011, is entering his 27th year on the Wolverines' staff and 40th year as a college coach, but he's never been more excited for a season than he is for this upcoming one. It's certainly hard to blame Pearson for being this eager for the season to start, for a number of reasons. The Maize and Blue finished fourth in the Big Ten last season with a 11-9 conference showing and 15-10-1 overall record. They bring back a trio of tal- ented sophomores — defenseman Owen Power (No. 1 to the Buffalo Sabres), and forwards Matty Beniers (No. 2 to the Seattle Kraken) and Kent Johnson (No. 5 to the Columbus Blue Jackets) — who were picked in the top five of this summer's NHL Draft but chose to return to Ann Arbor for at least one more season, which says quite a bit about the program. "It's a testament not only to Michigan and the players and staff that we have here, but college hockey in general to get them all back," Pearson said. "Even the NHL teams were very supportive in having them return to Michigan, and I think that speaks to where the program is at." Heading into NHL training camps, which began Sept. 22, the Wolverines could claim 20 former players in the league, not to mention more than 15 others who currently reside on minor- league rosters. "The development model that we have here at Michigan, that obviously speaks for itself with the number of guys we've had go on to have success at the pro level," Pearson noted. There's also a sense surrounding the U-M program that it controls its own destiny heading into the campaign, af- ter seeing the last two seasons get cut short, which is one of the reasons why the aforementioned trio chose to stay in college rather than jump to the pros. "They were in constant contact, and I think they all wanted to see, 'Hey, what are you doing? What's he doing?'" Pear- son said. "Getting them all back is prob- ably because they all were hoping the other guys are coming back. So there's no question that that played into it, too. "There's some unfinished business with the way that things ended last year, leaving a sour taste in all of our mouths. Now hopefully, we all have a little chip on our shoulder, get to come back and have another shot at it. That's also an- other reason why they're here." In 2019-20, the season abruptly con- c l u d e d d u e to the COVID-19 p a n d e m i c . Just over a year later, the Wolver- ines were informed on the day of their NCAA Tournament opener against Minnesota Duluth that they were removed from the event due to positive COVID-19 test results within the team's Tier I testing group. In Pearson's first season on the job, the Maize and Blue earned a Frozen Four berth (2017-18), before not making an NCAA Tournament appearance in his second year. At the very least, he hopes the Wolverines will have the chance to determine their own fate, saying he feels they had a chance to make a push at the national title each of the last two seasons but will always wonder what could've been. Plus, they can't wait to play in front of fans. "Looking forward to Yost [Ice Arena] — it's the greatest venue in college hockey," Pearson said. "It's not the most expensive building, it's not the new- est building, but you can't beat it on a game night. It's just electric. I've been to pretty much every building in college hockey, and you can't beat it. "I'm so looking forward to our play- ers [playing in that atmosphere] — es- pecially the young freshmen and our sophomores who have not experi- enced the 'Children of Yost,' the student section, the band, the fans in general." Because of the talent on the roster and the tradition of the program, the Wol- verines will get each opponent's best game, noted Pearson, who was an assis- tant on U-M's 1996 and 1998 national title teams — but they wouldn't want it any other way. It's not "national cham- pionship or bust," but U-M isn't shying away from aiming high and making the title their goal. "I was with the 1997 team here as an assistant coach — probably the best team we've ever had since I've been at Michigan, maybe including this team, time will tell — but we didn't win it," he explained. "When you get into single- game elimination [tournaments], so many things can happen, especially in the sport of hockey where you can run into a hot goalie or whatever it might be. "I wouldn't say it's a failure [if we don't win it all]. Maybe it's a disap- pointment, but I don't think it's a fail- ure. We're in the game to win cham- pionships here at Michigan. I think any year you don't do it, you're disap- pointed, and this year would be no dif- ferent. "When you have high-caliber players and high-character people, they're go- ing to have high expectations on them- selves and place that on themselves, and they do. We do as coaches. That's what drives us. We want to make sure we do everything we can to give this team a RUNNING IT BACK After COVID Prematurely Ended The Last Two Seasons, U-M Has High Hopes And Plenty Of NHL Talent MICHIGAN HOCKEY PREVIEW