DETROIT — A wake-up call.

It’s a clichéd phrase that’s used all the time by collegiate and professional athletes, but it’s one that hadn’t been used by any members of the Michigan hockey team this season — at least not publicly.

But following the Wolverines’ 2-1 loss to Michigan State on Saturday, senior Louie Caporusso described Michigan’s defeat as just that. It might be surprising to some, considering the Wolverines are one measly point behind Notre Dame for first place in the CCHA — they even have two games in hand to pick up some ground on the Fighting Irish.

Maybe the conference standings and Michigan’s recent five-game win streak don’t tell the entire story of a team winning a few games it has no right being in. Not to mention, maybe the toughest part of its schedule is still yet to come in the waning month of the season.

“It’s gut check time I think,” Caporusso said after Saturday’s loss. “I think we were almost, a little, not being true to ourselves. We won games that maybe we shouldn’t have won, and maybe we had this confidence that maybe we shouldn’t have had. That can hurt you.”

Two weeks ago, the Wolverines came back from a two-goal deficit at Yost Ice Arena against Ferris State. Last weekend, they secured a sweep of Alaska in which senior netminder Shawn Hunwick earned a star-studded performance, stopping 73-of-76 shots in two home contests. Michigan coach Red Berenson said both games could have easily gone to the Nanooks, but his team found a way to win.

But as the final buzzer sounded at the Joe on Saturday, Michigan’s alarm clock finally went off as well. It lost a game it should have lost and needed to lose.

Let me repeat that: the Wolverines needed to lose.

While some can view the 2-1 score as a minor weekend blunder against an in-state rival — one who played tough-nosed hockey against one of the conference’s best teams — the defeat has larger implications for the Michigan hockey program.

This upcoming weekend, the Wolverines travel to Oxford, Ohio to face one of the conference’s most talented squads in Miami and two of the nation’s best players in Andy Miele and Carter Camper. The duo leads the country with 49 and 46 points, respectively.

To compound the Wolverines’ matters, the hottest team in the CCHA — Western Michigan — comes to Ann Arbor in three weeks. The Broncos haven’t lost in 11 games and have climbed to fourth in the conference. Led by freshman forward Chase Balisy, who leads the team with 26 points, and a defense that has surrendered more than two goals only once in the past 11 games, and Western Michigan finds itself in an unfamiliar position — the Broncos finished dead last this past season in the CCHA.

Clearly, the road to a potential regular-season conference title for Michigan doesn’t get any easier from here on out, and in a way, the Wolverines should be thanking the Spartans. The loss brought Michigan back to reality and made it realize that it cannot continue winning games playing the way it’s been over the past few weekends.

I won’t get into X’s and O’s because, frankly, the issue isn't strategic. Sure, the Wolverines could clean up the defensive end and play a little more sound defensively. They could even capitalize on a few more chances.

The point of contention centers around the team’s ability to go out and compete. Earlier in the season, Berenson acknowledged that the team is more of a “blue-collar, lunch-bucket hockey team” than in years past. It doesn’t have the likes of Brendan Morrison, Jack Johnson or Kevin Porter — some of the most heralded and flashy Wolverines in recent memory.

In mid-November, following a weekend split with Nebraska-Omaha, Berenson said, “We've got to kick 'em in, deflect 'em in, bounce 'em in.”

The team can take some advice from the tenured coach and play a more old-school brand of hockey. At times on Saturday and throughout the past few weekends, the Wolverines have started slowly only to have to claw back into the game (i.e. the 4-3 overtime loss to Michigan State on Jan. 7).

But for now, the alarm clock’s still ringing — and has been for quite some time.

Who’s going to finally turn it off for Michigan?

— Burns can be reached at burnmark@umich.edu and wants you to look for Quick Hits with Scooter Vaughan later this week.