The Michigan hockey team had shut down opponents’ power plays 29 times in a row, and the 30th seemed like a given.

The Wolverines led 5-1 late in Friday’s game against Lake Superior State, a team that has converted just 13.6 percent of its power-play chances this season. Yet the Lakers managed to finally crack Michigan’s stringent penalty-killing unit in the third period. The goal ended the Wolverines' season-best shutdown streak, 60 minutes and 50 seconds, which stretched back to Jan. 16.

But judging the Wolverines’ penalty kill on one shot would be unfair. After all, the unit was dominant once again this past weekend, stopping 9-of-10 chances just a week after shutting down Notre Dame, the conference’s best power-play team.

While shorthanded with six seconds remaining in Friday's first period, sophomore forward Matt Rust intercepted a pass along the blue line and took the puck all the way to the other end to tie up the contest, stealing all the momentum from Lake Superior State.

“That was huge, huge,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “That kind of helped our team and maybe helped slow their team down a bit.”

After struggling early in the year, the penalty-kill unit is leading the conference with a 92-percent success rate on the season and has turned into a group of game-changing skaters.

“I think that (Rust’s goal) really turned things around,” sophomore forward Louie Caporusso said. “Rust and (sophomore forward) Carl Hagelin were doing an unbelievable job on the penalty kill. I think we had more shots on our penalty kill than Lake Superior did on their power play, so anytime you have guys fluttering around like that, it really gets the momentum going.”

Hobey candidates step up: Caporusso, a Hobey Baker nominee for the best player in college hockey, is just one goal behind the nation’s leading scorer. But he has posted just two goals since since the Great Lakes Invitational in late December. Both came against Lake Superior State.

The Ontario native notched his ninth power-play goal of the year Friday in the second period. He added another lamp-lighter midway through the third period after sneaking behind the Laker defense as he left the penalty box. Sophomore forward Ben Winnett hit him on a breakaway pass, and Caporusso took care of the rest.

“I had a feeling in the box I was going to get a breakaway,” Caporusso said. “I saw that there was a faceoff (in Michigan’s zone), and... I kept it at the back of my head, 'It probably won’t happen,’ but it ended up happening and I grabbed it and just put it in.”

Sophomore forward Aaron Palushaj and sophomore goalie Bryan Hogan, the Wolverines’ other two Hobey nominees, also posted solid weekends. Palushaj assisted both of Michigan’s goals in Saturday's 2-1 win. Between the pipes, Hogan stopped more than 93 percent of the shots he faced and has the CCHA's best winning percentage (85.7 percent) of any netminder in the conference this season.

Postseason focus: With just three weekends remaining in the regular season, more and more eyes are turning to the national rankings and the PairWise comparison ratings.

Michigan remained at fourth this week in the national rankings, behind the same three teams as the last poll: Boston University, Notre Dame and Northeastern. No. 7 Miami (Ohio) and No. 16 Ohio State are the other two ranked teams in the CCHA besides the Wolverines and Fighting Irish.

The PairWise, though, is much more relevant since it mimics the formula that directly determines which teams make the NCAA tournament and how they are seeded. The complex system currently puts Michigan tied for third with Notre Dame, behind Boston University and Vermont.

The PairWise compares four categories: record against common opponents, head-to-head competition, record against other top 25 teams (if the team has faced at least 10 top 25 opponents) and a ratings percentage index.