This weekend's CCHA Championship at Joe Louis Arena will be a battleground for top goaltenders.

One of them was named CCHA Player of the Year — Alaska's Chad Johnson.

Another was a finalist for the award — Notre Dame's Jordan Pearce.

The third nearly single-handedly brought his team from last place in the CCHA to the conference tournament semifinals — Northern Michigan's Brian Stewart.

And then there’s Michigan sophomore Bryan Hogan.

Although Hogan certainly isn’t a slouch among this group of all-star goalies, he's the most overlooked of the four. The Wolverines' CCHA-best 140 goals on the season overshadow Hogan's .917 save percentage.

The fourth-ranked Wolverines (20-8-0 CCHA, 28-10-0 overall) will face Alaska, led by Johnson and his conference-leading .939 save percentage, in the CCHA semifinals tonight.

“I’m not on all the media pipelines, so I can’t tell you who’s talking about who,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “But I like Hogie. If I had a choice of the goalies, I’d take him. Obviously Chad Johnson’s had a terrific year and has been an important player from Alaska, but not the only reason.”

Last weekend, in the Wolverines' CCHA Tournament quarterfinals sweep against Western Michigan, there were times it seemed like Hogan could fall asleep in the net. Hogan didn’t face any shots in the first period of Saturday's game and stopped just 32 in the entire series. On the other hand, Bronco goaltender Riley Gill faced 103 total shots from the Wolverines on the weekend.

But Hogan said he’d rather face a higher number of shots.

“Every once in a while, you’d love to steal a game, but with us, it’s a tough game to play,” Hogan said. “Billy (Sauer) and I talk about it — how we only get 15 to 18 shots a game now in the playoffs. And of course, the other goalie looks like he’s having a really hard time down there. But I think we get overlooked by the fact that we’re in a tough position because we’re trying to stay in the game and have to make one or two big stops to keep our team in it.”

Once again Hogan probably won't face too many shots tonight. Alaska (13-10-5-3, 17-14-6) is 11th of the 12 CCHA teams in goals per game. But in both of the Nanooks' wins against Ohio State last weekend, the defense led the way, shutting down the Buckeyes in 4-0 and 1-0 wins.

There’s no question Michigan has the offense to advance far into the NCAA playoffs, but the question remains if Hogan is up to the task of stealing a game if the Wolverines need it down the stretch.

“He’s going to do the best he can to keep the puck out of our own net,” junior co-captain Chris Summers said. “Whether we’re scoring up front or not, his main focus is defense first. Obviously he has to rely on us to put the pucks in but he’s just got to do his job and keep pucks out.”