NCAA Hockey: What's Wrong with the University of Michigan Wolverines?

Last season, the University of Michigan was an overtime goal away from its 10th national hockey championship. This fall, the Wolverines started off with four consecutive wins, including a 10-3 pasting of visiting St. Lawrence, and by Halloween were ranked third in the nation.

Now?

Fast-forward four weeks and not only is Michigan barely ranked in the top 20 of NCAA Division-I, but has lost four straight games and is a pedestrian 7-7-2 overall.

The Wolverines suffered their first setback of the season with a 5-3 loss at Northern Michigan on Oct. 21, but rebounded the next weekend to sweep Central Collegiate Hockey Association front-runner Ferris State.

Then the bottom fell out for the Maize and Blue.

Following a split with Western Michigan in early November, the Wolverines have gone winless in six straight games, including a current streak of four consecutive losses. They haven't won since Nov. 5 and even suffered an ignominious home sweep to Ohio State in a pair of one-goal games at Yost Arena this month.

This past weekend, Michigan suffered back-to-back home losses to a pair of Eastern squads from Northeastern (4-1) and Union (6-3); and this weekend, the Wolverines will trek almost 3,700 miles one-way to the 49th State, to face off with CCHA foe Alaska Fairbanks for two key conference games."I think we need to play, I would say grittier. We need to play better defensively and we need to play better offensively,” said Michigan head coach Red Berenson to MGoBlue.com after the Northeastern loss.

It's hard to put the blame on any one or few individuals for the Wolverines' slide.

It's not fair to single out senior goaltender Shawn Hunwick, who still sports a 2.48 goals-against average and .916 save percentage despite his 7-6-2 record. Sophomore defenseman Jon Merrill has been suspended since the start of the season for violating team rules; but Michigan was winning without him when the campaign first began.

Michigan is also one of the top teams in the nation in averaging nearly four goals per game offensively so far this year.

If there's a finger to point collectively, though, it could very well be at U-M's special teams units. The power play has converted just 12 of 66 opportunities (18.2 percent), putting it 29th in the nation. The penalty killing has been even worse, stopping just 61 of 76 attempts (80.3 percent) to rank 35th in Division-I. 

It won't get any easier after Alaska, as Michigan will face off with archrival Michigan State in a home-and-home series on Dec. 9-10. It will then take a short break before meeting perennial Eastern powerhouse Boston College in the first round of the Great Lakes Invitational on Dec. 29 in Detroit.

It's too early to say that the Wolverines' streak of 21 consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances is in jeopardy at this point, but they might want to start winning again—and soon.