| Goalies Of The Berenson Era |
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Since Red Berenson took over as coach of the Michigan hockey team in 1984-1985 he has had
a habit of playing goalies for four straight years, bringing them in as freshmen, putting
them between the pipes, and winning or losing as they played. During that time there have
been a series of outstanding goalies at Michigan.
Many of the Michigan players from the last fifteen years were missing from the official NCAA record books. They have been added as of the 2006 record book (at least that's the first one I've seen them listed in). You can check out all of the college hockey records by going to the NCAA site. The record books are a little hard to find; the easiest way to find them that I have found is to go to the linked sites main page. You should find a search option on that page. Enter records into the search field and go from there. Starting with the 1987-1988 season (the first season I can get reasonable verification of the goalies) the goalies and their years between the pipes have been:
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| Shawn Hunwick: 2007-2008 (0-0-0), 2008-2009 (0-0-0), 2009-2010 (8-3-0), 2010-2011 (22-9-4), 2011-2012 (24-12-3) overall (54-24-7) | ||
| 2009-2010 Season | ||
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Just as Hogan made the list of goalies the first time when he took over for Billy Sauer
in the middle of the season, Hunwick makes the list for his storybook run as he led the
Wolverines into the playoffs, nearly making the Frozen Four.
Hogan was injured early in the Wolverines second to last regular season game, opening a door through which Hunwick stepped. Hunwick saw some action during the GLI, spelling Hogan who had one of his bad games, but Hogan was back between the pipes in the next game. Even though he did not play with the type of consistency Michigan needed Hogan retained the starting job until he went down with that injury. Hunwick went on to win the game in which he replaced Hogan, a shut out win over Notre Dame. He was very shaky in his first road game, dropping a decision to the Irish. With the next games on the schedule being playoff games, it seemed that Michigan's season was going to end much earlier than most Wolverine fans were used to. Instead the team responded and Hunwick's play got stronger with each win. Michigan ended up sweeping their way through the CCHA playoffs, not losing a single game, as they won the CCHA tournament, making the NCAA tournament for the twentieth straight year (winning the CCHA tournament was Michigan's only way into the NCAA tournament). Michigan won their opening game of the NCAA Regional, only to lose to Miami in a controversial finish to a game that Michigan could have and maybe should have won. In the end Michigan salvaged their season, may have at least found a goalie that can push Hogan enough to refocus him for his Senior season, and certainly ended on a high note with the fans with the feel good story of the goalie who took full advantage of an opportunity when it was presented, nearly leading his team to the Frozen Four. It's unknown whether Shawn Hunwick will see much ice time next year, but for the remainder of this off season we will all remember the great playoff run led by Shawn Hunwick. |
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| 2010-2011 Season | ||
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The 2010-2011 season was another strange one for Hunwick as it saw him splitting weekends with
Hogan at the start of the season. Neither goalie had really laid claim to the starters role prior
to the season so the coaches played them on alternating nights, waiting for one to take hold of
the job for good. Both goalies had very similar numbers through the first half of the season, but
the one number that lept off the page was the W/L record. For whatever reason the team was winning
with Hogan in net and while they won games with Hunwick between the pipes the majority of the
wins were falling Hogans way.
Going into the Big Chill weekend Hogan was given the nod to be the starter and apparently take over the starting role for the remainder of the year. That's what everyone thought was going to happen and that's when things got strange. During the pre-game warm ups Hogan injured his groin, forcing Hunwick to step into the starters role less than an hour before face off. He led the Wolverines to a shut out victory over rival Michigan State, then led the Wolverines through the second half and into the playoffs. While Michigan would lose in the finals of the CCHA tournament to Miami, they made it to the Frozen Four and to the final game in no small part because of the play of Hunwick. In fact during the final game of the year for the National Championship, when the Wolverines were having another one of their scoring droughts, it was Hunwick who came up with stop after stop to keep Michigan in the game. The Wolverines would eventually lose that game, 3-2 in overtime, but it was the play of Hunwick who got them there and kept them in that game, giving them a chance to win what would have been their tenth National Championship. With Hogan gone and no goalie's coming in for the 2011-2012 season (Michigan was expecting one of the best goalies in the country to join the team for the 2011-2012 season, but he left the Wolverines high and dry just a month before school started when he opted to join the OHL) Hunwick will be the starter from day one. The Wolverines will have a number of questions to answer going into the 2011-2012 season, but who will be playing between the pipes isn't one of them. |
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| 2011-2012 Season | ||
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The 2011-2012 season was the second season in a row that a "best of his class" goalie was supposed to arrive at
Michigan and contend for the starting job. However, like Jack Campbell the year before, John Gibson did an about
face and ended up in the OHL. That once again putting Hunwick in the starting position, this time right from the start
of the season.
With a large freshmen class the man between the pipes was going to be a determining factor as to whether the Wolverines accomplished the things they set out to accomplish or if this would finally be the season that a number of tournament streaks would come to an end. The first month of the season went about as well as could be expected, with the Wolverines compiling a 6-1-1 record with the only loss coming in the teams first road game of the season, with their only tie coming in road game number two (both at Northern Michigan for those keeping track). The second month of the season, November of 2011, will probably go down as one of the worst months in Michigan hockey history. The Wolverines compiled a 1-6-1 record for the month of November. While there were certainly some goals Hunwick would have liked to get back, this stretch of badness couldn't be planted solely at his feet. There were many factors that went into this stretch for the Wolverines, but a couple of key things led to this decline. First, the schedule and second, youth. In the first month of the season Michigan didn't exactly play a lot of power teams. There were a lot of teams from some of the weaker conferences, all added to the schedule not just to fill spots, but to ease the large freshmen class into the grind of college hockey. While it did that, it didn't do much to challenge the team and as they rolled into November and CCHA play began, the increased level of competition caused some serious growing pains with a young team. In a conference that ended up being one of the strongest in the country, from top to bottom, there was little margin for error and unfortunately for the month of November errors were found in plenty. Hunwick did what he could between the pipes, but to many defensive lapses, led to far to many point blank shots and odd man rushes, which in turn led to goals against and losses. Youth combined with a higher level of competition led to a very long and painful month of November. After adding one more game to the loss column to start the month of December, the Wolverines put things together losing just four more games from that point through the end of the regular season. There were some close games, all of which turned on Hunwick between the pipes, and more times than not he stood tall, leading the Wolverines to win after win. Even with the bad month of November Michigan and Hunwick finished at or near the top in many statistical categories. After proving time after time that he was more than just an after thought as a goalie, it seemed that Hunwick would finally get some recognition, not just from his team, but from his conference as well. Sadly that proved to be an assumption that was quickly proved wrong. Hunwick finished the season with a 2.00 goals against average, second only to Connor Knapp at Miami who had a 1.69 goals against average. Knapp finished the season with a .933 save percentage to Hunwicks .932 save percentage. Hunwick finished second in winning percentage (.654 with 24 wins) behind Ferris States Taylor Nelson who had a winning percentage of .726 with 21 wins. Though he was at the top of every measurable category in the CCHA among goaltenders, Hunwick, for the second year in a row, was snubbed by the conference when it came time to hand out post season honors. No first team, no second team, no honorable mentions; no nothing. One of the best goaltenders in the country for this season, a top ten finisher for the Hobey Baker award, and he received exactly zero post season honors by his own conference. That might lead you to bring up the fact that he didn't win any of those statistical battles. While that's true, you also have to look at this fact. Connor Knapp, who finished slightly better than Hunwick in two of those categories, played 1,052 fewer minutes of hockey during the season than did Hunwick (that's seventeen and half games). Taylor Nelson finished fourth in both of those categories. Taylor Nelson who finished ahead of Hunwick in the third category played 510 fewer minutes of hockey for the season than did Hunwick and Nelson still had three fewer wins (that's an eight and half game difference). When you take the disparity in minutes played into account it seems pretty clear that Hunwick was the best goaltender in the conference during his final season and that includes a month when Michigan played some terrible hockey. While people such as myself were fairly well outraged by the snub handed to Hunwick by the CCHA he always took things in stride, if he was ever bothered by the lack of recognition he certainly never showed it, at least not in public. His overall record may not be up there with the Shield's and Turco's of the world, but for a player who was the starting goalie for a single entire season and a part time starter in a second, a goalie that was never really expected to even see ice time while at Michigan, he has to be one of the nicest and classiest players to ever wear the Maize and Blue and when he was between the pipes, more often than not, the Wolverines had a chance to win the game. When it comes to goaltenders that's probably the one thing every coach asks you to do, give your team a chance. He did that night after night, week after week, and will be remembered as one of the all time greats at Michigan. |
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| Bryan Hogan: 2007-2008 (3-2-1), 2008-2009 (24-6-0), 2009-2010 (18-15-1), 2010-2011 (7-2-0), overall (52-25-2) | ||
| 2007-2008 Season | ||
| Hogan came into the program with the large freshman class of 2007-2008 and was expected to provide the type of competition that would push both him and incumbant goalie Bilie Sauer to better performances. While Hogan was expected to push for playing time in his first year, he was diagnosed with a case of mono just prior to the start of the season and spent most of the first half recovering from that illness. While he was on the sidelines Sauer established himself as the number one goalie, having what would prove to be his finest year between the pipes for Michigan. | ||
| 2008-2009 Season | ||
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Hogans second year is when things started to get interesting. Billy Sauer was a Senior
and was coming off his best year as a Wolverine, however, his year ended on a sour (no pun intended) note
when he played his worst game of the year in the Frozen Four semi-final game against
Notre Dame, a game that Michigan eventually lost. That game opened the door for Hogan
to compete for playing time in the 2008-2009 season.
At the start of the year neither goalie had established himself as the clear number one so the coaches began the season by playing both goalies, usually Sauer on Friday night and Hogan on Saturday night. A pattern quickly emerged that would eventually see Hogan take over as the number one goalie. While Sauer played well, in fact his numbers were as good, if not better than Hogan's, for some reason the team as a whole seemed to play better when Hogan was in goal. Team scoring was all but non-existent on the nights when Sauer was in net, plentiful when Hogan was in net. The losses began to mount for Sauer and the wins started to pile up for Hogan. Finally, near the end of the first half the coaches made the move out of sheer necessity. Hogan took over as the number one goalie, starting most games from that point forward. |
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| 2009-2010 Season | ||
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As the 2009-2010 season approaches the job is clearly Hogan's. With the graduation of
Sauer and Michigan bringing in no new goalies, anticipating the arrival of highly touted
Jack Campbell for the 2010-2011 season, the Wolverines will carry just two goalies, Hogan
and Shawn Hunwick. While anything could happen Hunwick is not expected to improve sufficiently
to unseat Hogan as the goto goalie. The expectations for the team as a whole are, as usual,
high. This will be Hogan's chance to make his case as the number one goalie, not just for
this season, but for next season as well when he could face the prospect of being replaced
by a younger goalie, just as he replaced his predecessor.
This was a strange year not just for Hogan, but for Michigan. In a word Hogan's play during the season was disappointing. A decided lack of consistency saw Hogan finish the year with a record that was barely over .500. Not exactly the kind of season he was expected to have after replacing Sauer in the second half of last year. With his poor play, coupled with the sudden and unexpected change of direction by Jack Campbell (he turned away from college and joined the OHL) the situation in goal for Michigan is murky at best. Campbell was expected to challenge for the staring position and many expected him to become the next four year starter for the Wolverines. Because he continued to tell Michigan he would be attending right up until the last day of the signing period, Michigan had no way of replacing him in next years class, leaving them in the situation they are in now; lacking a clear cut number one goalie and nobody scheduled to come in an push for the job. To be fair the season as a whole and the play of the entire team was certainly less than expected. The regular season ended with the Wolverines having their worst season in twenty years, with no chance of making the NCAA tournament except to win the CCHA tournament, a feat that, at the time, seemed extremely unlikely. To add to Michigans woes Hogan went down with an injury early in the second to last game of the regular season, leaving the Wolverines without their starting goalie (regardless of his play) as they entered the playoffs. The injury opened the door for Shawn Hunwick, a career backup who was never expected to play in anything more than mop up duty. He led the Wolverines to a shut out win in his first game, was very shaky in his second game (his first on the road), then led Michigan on a charge through the playoffs that saw them miss the Frozen Four by a single goal. An otherwise disappointing season redeemed with a magnificent playoff run, led by an unlikely hero. The one good thing is that Hunwick may now be a viable alternative to Hogan and should at least push him going into next season. |
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| 2010-2011 Season | ||
| In his final year as a Wolverine Hogan started the season splitting weekends with Hunwick as the coaches looked for one of the goalies to step up and claim the job. Both goalies played fairly well through this stretch, but for whatever reason it often seemed that the team just didn't score (read win) when Hunwick was in the game. The weekend of the Big Chill Hogan was given the nod as the starter in that game and it seemed the goalie situation was going to be settled with Hogan taking over the starters job permanently. Imagine everyone's surprise when Hunwick took the ice when the teams came out to start the game. Hogan had suffered a groin injury in pre-game warm ups and was out, putting Hunwick into the starters roll. Michigan had their starter for the rest of the year, it just wasn't Hogan. Hogan was finally available for play in late February, but he only saw the ice in limited mop up duty for the remainder of his Senior season. | ||
| Billy Sauer: 2005-2006 (11-6-4), 2006-2007 (25-14-1), 2007-2008 (30-4-3), 2008-2009 (5-6-0), overall (71-30-8) | ||
| 2005-2006 Season | ||
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With the early departure of Al Montoya the goalie spot was wide open with no goalies really
scheduled to come in until the following year. The coaches went to work, contacting Billy Sauer
about accelerating his high school class work and entering Michigan to compete for the starting
goalie spot. Billy finished off his high school career a year early and entered Michigan in the
Fall of 2005, becoming Michigans second straight 17 year old goal tender.
The first year of the Billy Sauer era started out well, but didn't exactly go according to plan for him or the team. Billy finished the 2005-2006 hockey season with an 11-6-4 record after splitting time with Senior goal tender Noah Ruden. Billy started out fairly well, playing an outstanding game against visiting Boston College early in the season and continued to play solid through the first couple months of the season. Things started to go bad during the College Hockey Showcase as the Wolverines dropped both contests for the third or fourth year in a row. From that point forward the coaching staff would either start Billy or Noah, usually going weekend to weekend, depending on who seemed to play better in practice that week. As the year wound down Ruden took over the starting job and started the last few weeks of the season, including the playoffs. Billy had trouble staying focused on the game, often giving up one or two soft goals per game. At the same time he would show flashes of his athletic ability, making seemingly impossible stops. With a very young team in front of him, it was perhaps to much pressure to put on the shoulders of a seventeen year old. |
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| 2006-2007 Season | ||
| His 2006-2007 campaign was certainly better than his previous year. He established himself as the number one goalie, starting all but one game. He had his ups and downs over the course of the season, but he finished strong as he seemed to gain confidence and hit his stride through the second half of the year. Another new goalie is scheduled in next year, but the job should be Billies to lose. Much will depend on his maturity and confidence, but if he can get his head on straight he could become the type of game changing goal tender Michigan has lacked for the last couple of years. | ||
| 2007-2008 Season | ||
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The season started with an expected competition between Sauer and incoming
goalie, Bryan Hogan. However, things didn't go as planned, with Hogan coming down with
mononucleosis just prior to the season. The third goalie on the team, Shawn Hunwick, also was ill for the first
couple of weeks of the season. That left Sauer as Michigans only real option in
goal to start the season. In the end this turned out just fine as Michigan started the
season 18-2-0 with Sauer having a record of 16-2-0 after the GLI tournament. Hogan had
the other two wins, getting a couple of starts late in the first half to get him
some ice time, also allowing the coaches to see what they had in a backup.
Sauers solid play in goal continued through the season and into the playoffs. The Wolverines reached the Frozen Four for the first time in four years in no small part because of the play of Sauer. Things went terribly wrong in Michigan's semi-final game against Notre Dame when Sauer simply melted down, giving up three goals in quick succession in the first period to put Michigan down early. While they fought back to force overtime, the early hole and confidence it gave the Irish was simply to much to overcome. Michigan failed to reach the finals in a tournament that they seemed poised to win for the first time since 1998. To be fair the entire team played poorly in that opening period so the problems of that single game cannot be entirely laid at Sauers feet, but he's the goalie and like a quarterback in a football game he tends to get to much credit when the team wins and to much blame when the team loses. There is no doubt that this was a break out season for Sauer. This seems to be a combination of two things. First he reached the ripe old age of 20 early in the second half of the season and from all accounts he is a much more mature person than he was when he entered Michigan at the age of 17 (not an unexpected thing). The second thing that happened is that Josh Blackburn returned to Ann Arbor in the summer leading up to this season and took over as the Wolverines goalie coach. He not only helped Billy with his technical game, but since he was here during the week he was in a much better position to help Billy with the mental aspects of the game as well, including how to prepare for and handle the big games. Depending on who you talk to Billy's career year was either due to his natural maturation or it was due to the influence of Blackburn. I tend to believe it was a combination of the two. We will see how things go in his final year. There will certainly be competition going into the year since Hogan should be healthy going in (hopefully no more mono). Hogan looks to be a capable net minder, who if given the opportunity, could take over the job, especially if he is there competing right from the start. On the other hand if Billy can put that last game out of his mind, putting together a final year like the one just past, he should finish his career as the starter and get close to 100 wins for his career. That would put him someplace in the NCAA top ten. |
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| 2008-2009 Season | ||
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Billy's Senior season should have been his best as a Wolverine.
Instead it turned into a nightmare that would see him eventually replaced as the
number one goalie. At the start of the season neither Sauer nor Hogan had established
themselves as the go to guy in goal. With this in mind the coaches started the season
rotating the goalies, with Sauer usually starting on Friday night and Hogan starting on
Saturday night. While they hoped one of the goalies would establish himself in game
situations as the number one goalie, something else happened, something that would
eventually put Sauer on the bench.
While both goalies played well, with statistical numbers almost identical (Sauer's may have been slightly better), one of those strange team chemistry issues was taking shape. For whatever reason, a reason that nobody could ever really put a finger on, the team simply played better when Hogan was in net. Michigan's offense would all but disappear on nights when Sauer was in net then reappear when Hogan took the ice. Of course this lopsided offensive production led to the inevitable, Sauer started to pile up losses, while Hogan started to accumulate wins. Sauer wasn't playing bad, but when the team in front of you either doesn't score or manages just a single goal when your in net, the margin for error is so small that losses just started to accumulate. Eventually the coaches were forced to put Hogan in net as the number one, making the move just before the end of the seasons first half. From that point forward Hogan was the go to goalie and Michigan's fortunes started to rise as the team wins started to pile up. This was probably one of the stranger things I've seen happen to a goalie on a Michigan team, the difference between how the rest of the team played in front of Sauer as compared to how they played in front of Hogan was obvious. What wasn't so obvious was why. The coaches didn't have an answer and the players, at least publicly had no explanation. Billy could see the writing on the wall as the losses mounted. As these events took place and the season moved into it's final months Sauer gave some candid interviews where he admitted to feeling a certain degree of anger that he was getting so little support from the team when in a game. It should be said that this anger was not public, this was something that he has said he dealt with privately and after a week or so he just had to let it go and accept the situation for what it was since there was nothing he could do to change it. How this season turned out had to be very disappointing for him, not to mention frustrating in general for the team. I believe they realized that they were letting him down, but there was just no reason why things had unfolded the way they had, it was just one of those things that happens in sports. Billy handled a bad situation very well. There were never any public outbursts about the hand he had been dealt, he only talked about the team and doing what was best for the team. I also don't believe there was any real bitterness behind the scenes either, that sort of discontent within a team would have eventually shown up on the ice and it never did. Not the way Billy wanted his career to end, but hats off to him for handling a bad situation with class. |
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| Noah Ruden: 2002-2003 (0-0-0), 2003-2004 (0-0-0), 2004-2005 (1-1-0), 2005-2006 (10-9-1), overall (11-10-1) | ||
| Career Summary | ||
| Ruden was the Senior backup to Billy Sauer during the 2005-2006 hockey season (Sauer's first, Noah's last). Noah only makes this page because of the difficulties that Sauer encountered in that season. Noah ended up splitting time in goal with Sauer, with the goalies splitting the games almost evenly. By the end of the season Ruden had become the regular starter, finishing off the season and the playoffs between the pipes for Michigan. While his overall record wasn't really any better than Sauer's he tended to be more consistent in goal. | ||
| Al Montoya: 2002-2003 (30-10-3), 2003-2004 (26-12-2), 2004-2005 (30-7-3), overall (86-29-8) | ||
| Career Summary | ||
| The current man between the pipes, at least when I started this page, is Al Montoya, a goalie that came in with much fanfare as the next "great" Michigan goalie. He was seventeen when he started school at Michigan (having accelerated through High School) and remained seventeen through about two thirds of his first hockey season. For his age he was poised, mature, and living up to the hype as that next great goalie. Montoya was the first goalie in the Berenson era to leave school early for the NHL, signing with the New York Rangers, foregoing his Senior season at Michigan. If Montoya had stayed and managed another thirty win season he would have reached 116 career wins, not enough to beat Turco, but enough to move into second place. We'll never know if he might have moved to the top of the NCAA record list for most wins by a goal-tender, but his 86 wins will put him in the top 10 among all time goal tenders once the NCAA record books are updated. | ||
| Josh Blackburn: 1998-1999 (25-10-6), 1999-2000 (14-4-4), 2000-2001 (26-13-5), 2001-2002 (27-11-5), overall (92-38-20) | ||
| Career Summary - Fourth in NCAA history for total wins at 92 | ||
| It fell to Josh Blackburn to follow Marty Turco as the new Michigan net minder. The shadow, however, was a bit larger than just Marty's. Not only was he following the current record holder for career wins, but Marty was the second straight record setter to play at Michigan. The comparisons were inevitable; is Blackburn as good as Turco or Shields? Will he set a new record? Blackburn did not set a new record, but was, by pretty much any measure, except perhaps a Michigan hockey fans measure, a very good goal tender. His career record was a solid mark that would have had him starting for pretty much any Division 1 team. He probably would have gone over the 100 win mark if his second year hadn't been cut in half by a mysterious incident that supposedly involved a Buckeye nut and a refrigerator. The injury, no matter how it happened, left him with an injured foot for half the season. If not for Shields and Turco his win totals, even with the shortened second year, would have broken the pre-Shields record for most wins in a career. Not a bad career for a goalie that a lot of Michigan fans didn't think very highly of. | ||
| Marty Turco: 1994-1995 (27-7-1), 1995-1996 (34-7-1), 1996-1997 (33-4-4), 1997-1998 (33-10-1), overall (127-28-7) | ||
| Career Summary - NCAA record holder for most wins 127, 1997 All-American, National Championships in 1996 and 1998 | ||
| Following up Shields was Marty Turco, the man between the pipes from the 1994-1995 season until the end of the 1997-1998 campaign. Turco had to follow up a record setting career by his predecessor, something that is never easy to do, but he rose to the challenge in convincing fashion. His career record would set a new NCAA record for career wins, just four years after a seemingly unbeatable record had been set. All that's left to see is how long it takes someone to break Turco's record of 127 wins. | ||
| Steve Shields: 1990-1991 (26-6-3), 1991-1992 (27-70-2), 1992-1993 (30-6-2), 1993-1994 (28-6-1), overall (111-25-8) | ||
| Career Summary - Number two in NCAA history for total wins at 111 | ||
| After Sharples came Steve Sheilds, who guarded the Michigan net from the 1990-1991 season, through four years, with his final season 1993-1994. His 111 wins, set an all time NCAA Division 1A record for most career wins, shattering the previous record of 88 (Gary Kruzich, Bowling Green, 1984-1987). Since the gap was so large between the previous and now new NCAA wins record, it was thought that this record would stand for a very long time. It lasted four years; see Marty Turco above. | ||
| Warren Sharples: 1986-1987 (na), 1987-1988 (na), 1988-1989 (na), 1989-1990 (20-10-6), overall (20-10-6) | ||
| Career Summary | ||
| I could find just one year of actual statistics for Warren so I don't have his career won/loss record. His final year as Michigan's net minder was the 1989-1990 season. His record in his final campaign was 20-10-6. | ||