Michigan picked up their 31st win of the season last night and in the process advanced to the NCAA Midwest Regional finals.
The Wolverines (31-7-3) defeated a game Wisconsin team, 4-1, and will play Colorado College today at 5 p.m. at Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids. The Tigers beat Colgate, 6-5 in yesterday's other semi-final.
Jeff Tambellini scored twice and added two assists while linemate T.J. Hensick had a goal and two assists for U-M.
"You have to be able to handle the moment; that's the whole thing with the NCAA Tournament," Tambellini said. "Guys can play well in the regular season but these kind of games, there is so much pressure and so much riding on these games that experience is huge. We're lucky to have 15 upperclassmen. We know that we've played tough games and tight games, so we're confident right now."
Brandon Rogers also scored for Michigan and goaltender Al Montoya stopped 17 shots, allowing a late goal by Badgers' captain Adam Burish to ruin the shutout.
"We just wanted to make sure we established a good forecheck against a team like that," Michigan captain Eric Nystrom said. "They're a physical team and so are we. We got the puck behind them and were making sure we were finishing our checks on their defensemen. We created turnovers and got scoring chances. We really had good jump in the first period and that was huge for us. There were points in the game where we got away from chipping it in and chipping it out, getting a little cute at the blue line. Once we established the game plan of chipping it behind their defense and going on the forecheck that's when we had our best success."
Comcast Local will have the game today at 5 p.m. with Eric Frede and ESPN's Darren Pang calling the action.
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