While most athletes agree that competition among teammates is good, sophomore forwards Chris Brown and A.J. Treais take their friendly rivalry pretty seriously.

As linemates on the Michigan ice hockey team and roommates, their close friendship adds fuel to their competitive edges. To keep pushing each other to get better, Brown and Treais regularly make predictions about who will score before each game.

The incentive? They give each other rewards when they’re right. And according to Treais, Brown is leading the way.

“Sometimes we just try to predict who is going to score,” Treais said after practice Wednesday. “And then if he scores, I give him something and if I score, vice versa. It’s to keep it fun. I think he’s winning because I didn’t get my first goal until last weekend, so good for him.”

Treais and Brown are used to playing together — they spent the last half of last season on the same line and played together for two years in the Ann Arbor-based U.S. National Team Development Program.

They started this season on different lines, but for the past two weekends, Brown and Treais have played on a line with freshman left winger Luke Moffatt.

There is something to be said for familiarity. Over the four-game span, the trio has provided a consistent offensive spark for the Wolverines (5-2-1-0 CCHA, 6-3-3 overall), tallying a combined three goals and 11 assists.

Treais has netted his only two goals of the season in the past two series, and Brown and Moffatt each have had three-assist games during that time. Prior to playing together, Brown had just one goal and one assist while Moffatt and Treais hadn’t recorded a point.

While Treais acknowledged that at least two of the goals from his line have been a direct product of “puck luck,” as Michigan coach Red Berenson calls it, the sophomore knows the important role that work ethic plays in having success on the ice.

“We’ve got a lot of confidence (on the line),” Treais said. “I mean, we’ve been working hard and that’s been translating into goals and assists. We’ve been a little lucky, too. I got one off the head, Luke got one off the skate. But we’re working hard, and we’re reading off each other really well, so that’s good too.”

Moffatt, Brown and Treais haven’t just been scoring goals and notching assists, though. The line has clicked at the right time for the Wolverines, scoring at crucial moments in each of their last two Saturday matchups.

After being shut out two Fridays ago against Alaska, Michigan rebounded to grab game two thanks in large part to the production of Brown, Moffatt and Treais. The Wolverines took an early lead with senior forward Louie Caporusso’s goal at 1:25 in the first, but the Nanooks scored just 23 seconds into the second period to tie the game at one.

Moffatt’s first career goal came two minutes later to give Michigan the one-goal advantage. And after the Nanooks tied the game at two, Treais responded with his first goal of the season to cement the win.

“Confidence is definitely huge, especially getting the first goal,” Treais said. “My first goal of the season, for a while I didn’t think it was ever going to come. When your confidence is high, everything is better.”

The line responded in a similar way this past Saturday against Notre Dame. When the Fighting Irish scored first, the crowd at Yost Ice Arena fell silent. But after a five-minute span, Treais found his way to the net for his second goal of the season to tie the game at one.

While the game went back and forth two more times before the Wolverines could pull away, Treais’s score put Michigan back in the game, coming off its third consecutive Friday night loss.

“A little more confidence, little more spark, a little enthusiasm … they’re giving our team a life right now,” Berenson said. “(Brown), for example, was struggling until we put him on that line and now he’s excited and he’s getting a little confidence. And he hasn’t even started to score yet. Wait until he starts to score. He’s playing physical, he’s working hard and he’s really taken charge of that line.”

Berenson constantly emphasizes the fact that line changes can be expected to occur frequently, especially to help jump-start certain players who aren’t having production in games.