The defending Stanley Cup champions made an appearance at Yost
Ice Arena this weekend — sort of — in the form of Lake
Superior State University.

“I compare them to the New Jersey Devils,” Michigan
coach Red Berenson said. “They’re a tough team to play
against, and not just for us, but for everyone. They play a good
system, they’re well-coached, they’re disciplined,
they’re looking for turnovers and they don’t give you
much.”

The Lakers’ trapping style of defense made quality scoring
chances hard to come by early Friday night — the Wolverines
registered just eight shots in the first period. But it
didn’t take long to figure out how to break out of the trap.
Michigan managed to fire 78 shots on the Lakers’ goaltenders
during the weekend and tallied seven goals as the Wolverines swept
its third consecutive CCHA opponent and moved its winning streak to
seven games. The Wolverines (13-4-1 CCHA, 18-7-1 overall) are still
just one point behind league-leading Miami with two games in
hand.

Forward Brandon Kaleniecki kept his goal-scoring streak going,
as well. The sophomore has lit the lamp seven times in his last
five games. Since his move onto a line with freshman T.J. Hensick
and junior Milan Gajic — two of Michigan’s best puck
handlers — Kaleniecki’s offense has exploded.

Midway through the second period on Saturday night, Lake
Superior State forward Steve McJannet roughed up goaltender Al
Montoya and handed Michigan its second powerplay of the game.
Hensick collected the puck in the Lakers’ zone, and took his
time to set up the play. He circled around all four Lakers on the
ice before seeing Kaleniecki battling for position in front of the
net. By the time the Lakers grew tired of watching Hensick skate
around, he had fired a laser pass to a forgotten Kaleniecki, who
tapped it in for the goal.

“I’m very happy playing with those two,”
Kaleniecki said. “They make some great plays. Those two are
great playmakers, so it’s fun playing with them.”

On Friday, Kaleniecki opened the scoring in the second period
with a blistering slap shot off of a faceoff win by Hensick. Gajic
did most of the work, as he screened Lake Superior State goaltender
Matt Violin. Gajic also helped on Kaleniecki’s second goal,
digging the puck out of the corner, then moving it to sophomore
Andrew Ebbett and back to Kaleniecki in front of the net again,
scoring what was possibly his easiest goal of the season.

“We have it set up where T.J. usually draws it right back
to me and Gajic just kind of tries to pick that guy and it’s
been working out; the goalie can’t really see it,”
Kaleniecki said. ”If it’s on net, it’s got a good
chance.”

While Kaleniecki continued his scoring streak, junior David Moss
broke out of a scoreless slump. Both players, who hail from
Livonia, had two goals in Friday’s win. Scoring just once in
his last 11 games, Moss had bounded around between different lines
and battled injuries earlier in the season. After tallying 14 goals
last season, he found the scoring touch from last year, scoring
twice on Friday night. Paired with fellow big man Jason Ryznar, the
6-foot-3 forward appeared to return to form.

“He is a different player than he was, even before he got
hurt, and I can’t tell you whether it was a change to the
wing or just confidence that he’s getting by scoring, but
he’s starting to play his best hockey,” Berenson
said.

In addition to Moss starting to play his best hockey, the
Michigan defense might have had its best series of the season as
well. In the six periods of action this weekend, the Lakers top
shot total in one period was just eight. The Wolverines held them
to under five in two periods. The defense blocked almost as many
shots on Saturday (nine) as the number of total shots on Montoya
(13).

“I thought our defense did a great job of finding the
forwards or finding each other and carrying the puck and making
good decisions with the puck,” Berenson said. “Lake
State challenged us with the trap and I think it was good for our
defense, they had to learn to play through that.”

Lake Superior State (4-11-3, 6-13-5) was frustrated all series,
as Lakers head coach Frank Anzalone felt the way to pull out a
victory was to limit Michigan’s offense and get lucky on a
few of its scoring chances. But Michigan’s defense closed the
door on any chance of the Lakers pulling out a victory.