Maybe all the No. 4 Michigan hockey team needed was a little speech by one of the most revered Division I college hockey coaches to light a fire under the Wolverines.

Following the team’s 2-2 tie with a shootout loss at Ferris State on Friday — in which the Bulldogs outplayed Michigan for a solid two periods — Michigan coach Red Berenson addressed his players early Saturday morning before the second game of the home-and-home series.

“It made us all look at ourselves and see what we were doing individually,” junior co-captain Luke Glendening said of Berenson’s speech, adding that he thought most of the guys took the message to heart. “It’s easy to point fingers when things aren’t going well. Sometimes, you have to look in the mirror and ask yourself, ‘What can I do better?’ ”

The Wolverines have played increasingly better the last two weekends in both series' second games but are still nowhere near reaching their full potential this season in many fans' eyes, with their top three scorers returning in Hagelin along with senior forwards Matt Rust and Louie Caporusso.

Michigan (3-0-1-0 CCHA, 4-1-3 overall) has shown the same pattern the last two weekends against Nebraska-Omaha and Ferris State: a less-than-prepared performance on Friday night followed by a rejuvenated team that plays at a higher compete-level on Saturday.

Senior co-captain Carl Hagelin and junior forward David Wohlberg both cited the team’s preparation as one of the main factors in this past weekend’s conference split with the Bulldogs.

Following the first game of the weekend in Big Rapids, Hagelin added that he felt the Wolverines “showed too much respect” toward Ferris State (1-2-1-1, 4-3-1) during the first two periods, with the Bulldogs dictating the tempo and controlling the game’s momentum.

“It felt like we were almost scared to play against them,” Hagelin said after Friday’s game. “We’re thinking too much about how they play. We didn’t want to play our own game.”

Saturday’s performance was a little different as Michigan started playing a more puck-possession game and headed into the locker room with a 2-0 advantage, which Glendening said “set the tempo for all three periods” after the win. The team competed harder, won loose puck battles all over the ice and played with a stronger will to win than Ferris State did.

“We were mad at how the game played out (Friday) night even though we came from behind and tied the game and still lost in the shootout,” Berenson said. “This team has a lot of pride, and they think they can be better than that.”

Despite the need for consistently crisper passing, more shots on goal on the power play and better sustained offensive pressure, the root of the issue doesn’t necessarily lie with the team’s game strategy. The Wolverines “can’t wait until Saturday” to finally play hard as Hagelin said after the win. He continued by saying that playing differently on both nights isn’t going to bode well for the Wolverines' future in conference play and that they “have to start winning on Friday.”

Berenson added: “It’s really not the Xs and Os, and for the most part, it’s not even the lines. It’s how hard our team is competing and just doing the right thing.”