In his 137-game Michigan career, matching up against some of the towering power forwards of college hockey hasn’t been a problem for senior defender Chad Langlais.

While the forwards may win the size advantage, at 5-foot-9-inches, Langlais usually wins the puck.

Langlais has anchored the Wolverines’ top defensive line all season, playing alongside freshman defender Jon Merrill. Described as a “workhorse” for No. 6 Michigan, the senior has seen a ton of ice-time, playing on both the power play and penalty kill, in addition to his even-strength spot.

“I like playing a lot,” Langlais said. “I feel like I get into the game a lot more if I’m playing a lot more. Conditioning level, I feel like I’m fine right now. Me and Jonny are logging a lot of minutes, but I feel like we’re playing better and better each game.”

In the Wolverines’ weekend matchup against Ferris State, Langlais flashed the offensive side to his game as well. Langlais picked up two assists on the weekend, on freshman forward Jacob Fallon’s lamplighter on Friday and sophomore left winger Kevin Lynch’s power play goal on Saturday.

Langlais’s performance Saturday night earned him the first star of the game, but the Spokane, Wash. native has been a leader for the entire season. With three true freshman defenders in Merrill, Mac Bennett and Kevin Clare, the veteran Langlais is a role model Michigan coach Red Berenson expects the rookies to turn to consistently.

“(Langlais) is an experienced player who really shows his experience,” Berenson said. “He doesn’t show you he’s a senior because he looks old or because he’s that much bigger than anybody. He shows you he’s a senior by the way he plays the game.

“The way he competes, the way he battles, the way he plays in situations, how he’s got the coaches trust. He goes out there with the ultimate confidence that ‘I can do this job.’ That’s the kind of things that rubs off on these players.”

FALLON’S FIRST SPARKS TEAM: In Friday night’s road contest at Ferris State — a game in which the Wolverines (3-0-1-0 CCHA, 4-1-3 overall) were outplayed from the start — Fallon’s third-period goal proved to be just the spark that Michigan was searching for through the first two periods. The freshman’s first career goal put the Wolverines on the board, and cut the Bulldog lead to one.

The goal was quirky — Fallon admitted that he was trying to pass the puck back to sophomore center A.J Treais when the goal went in. But according to junior co-captain Luke Glendening, it didn't matter.

“That was a huge goal for us,” Glendening said. “It wasn’t pretty, but they don’t ask how, they ask how many. It did the job and really got us going.”

The team saved the puck for Fallon, who received a flood of text messages and congratulatory phone calls after netting his first goal as a Wolverine. But Fallon won’t dwell on that moment, knowing that he still has a ladder to climb to be successful at this level.

After playing in just four games this season, Fallon is aware that he — like the other freshmen on the team — need to find a way to match the size and strength of the opponents Michigan faces each weekend.

“You have to think a lot quicker,” Fallon said. “But the game is a lot more physical too, bigger bodies out there. You can’t dominate the game the way I used to when I was 15, 16. I just take weightlifting very serious and try to get bigger and better every day.”

NOTES: Looking ahead to the Wolverines’ upcoming series at Alaska-Fairbanks, Berenson said after Monday’s practice that senior Shawn Hunwick will get the nod in goal on Friday, with senior Bryan Hogan starting Saturday. … In practice on Monday, the top offensive lines remained as they were on Saturday against Ferris State, with seniors Carl Hagelin, Louie Caporusso and Lynch playing together, and senior Matt Rust, junior David Wohlberg, and sophomore Chris Brown on the second line.