BIG RAPIDS — It wasn’t the return senior captain Mark Mitera envisioned.

But Michigan hockey team’s captain ended up getting exactly what he wanted, a win.

Michigan beat Ferris State 6-1 in Mitera’s first game since he went down to injury the first game of the regular season against St. Lawrence in October.

The senior gave up a goal on one of his first shifts of the game, giving up a turnover behind goaltender Bryan Hogan which was then buried past the Wolverine netminder on a pass and wrist shot from the slot.

But after that it was smooth sailing for No. 3 Michigan.

The Wolverines opened the scoring 55 seconds into the game on a tip in by senior Tim Miller standing to the right of Ferris State goalie Pat Nagle. Miller received a pass from sophomore Louie Caporusso and quickly buried it into an empty net past the goalie.

After the Bulldogs tied it up at one, Caporusso answered three minutes later to give the Wolverines a lead they would keep. After receiving a pass from junior Steve Kampfer from the blue line, Caporusso buried a one-timer past Nagle’s stick side on the power play.

And the goals kept piling on from there.

With three minutes remaining in the opening stanza, sophomore Carl Haglin scored an unassisted goal to extend the Michigan lead to 3-1.

Hagelin stole the puck from behind the Ferris State goal, looped around to the left circle and fired a wrist shot past Nagle’s stick side.

The Wolverines fired on all cylinders all night, both Hagelin and senior Travis Turnbull had clear breakaways, and though neither scored, it was clear the Ferris State defense was overmatched all night.

In the second period Matt Rust tapped in his easiest goal of the season. Rust parked in front of the goal and tapped in a pass, which could have been a shot by Hagelin from the slot that probably would have gone in the net anyway.

And later in the second, junior Brian Lebler added his seventh goal of the season, deflecting a shot by Kampfer from the point.

The goal gave Michigan a 5-1 lead midway through the second period, a lead the wouldn’t give up.

After playing a scrappy third period, Lebler added the final tally, bringing his total to eight, giving Michigan the 6-1 victory.

Mitera looked like a player that hadn’t played for five months and that was expected. He was slower compared to the rest of the players on the ice and looked indecisive with the puck,. He either turning it over on a few occasions or simply tapping it back to his defensive linemate.

But the senior wouldn’t be captain if he didn’t have skill. Mitera made a few good plays on the penalty kill to deflect pucks out of the defensive zone and didn’t make any costly mistakes beyond the one he made three minutes into the game.

As the game wore on Mitera got used to the speed of the play and appeared to be more confident on the ice, which bodes well for tomorrow’s game against the Bulldog’s and for Michigan’s upcoming CCHA playoff matchup.

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For more coverage, read the Daily's live blog from the game.