On March 27, 2009, the Michigan hockey team took the ice in its NCAA regional game against Air Force, with coach Frank Serratore standing behind the Falcons bench.

A year after the first-round loss, the Wolverines will take the ice in their NCAA regional game against a team also coached by Serratore.

Welcome to the Twilight Zone.

There are some obvious differences. This time, Serratore’s first name is Tom (Frank’s brother), the team is Bemidji State and Michigan will don the road blues, since they are the lower seed.

But the teams do have their similarities. The Beavers have a top line that contributes most of their offense, just like Air Force’s line led by Jacques Lamoureux. They also have an under-the-radar goalie, in the form of Dan Bakala, similar to the Falcons’ Andrew Volkening.

“Bemidji has a line that has as many goals as any of our lines and Air Force did too,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “I think they’re similar. I think they’ve got more experience. They’ve been in the tournament more. They’ve beaten some really good teams.”

Last year’s Wolverine team was riding high headed into their tournament, after winning 10 out of the last 12 games and were riding an unlikely goalie into the playoffs.

None of that mattered a year ago, when Michigan launched everything on net and dominated in every way except the scoreboard, getting shut out 2-0. Despite being a No. 1 seed, the Wolverines returned to Ann Arbor the same way they left it, without any hardware.

“Some people say just to forget about it, but I think that’s a great learning process,” junior Louie Caporusso said. “Number one, don’t underestimate our opponent, even though I think we did outplay them. Number two, we need a collective effort from every single person on the team.

"It’s the NCAA Tournament, everyone’s got to show up. You can’t have a handful of guys and say these are the guys that showed up, these are the guys that didn’t. You’re not going to go far like that.”

As Michigan’s 2009-10 campaign got started, the stink from the Air Force game that ended last season seemed to stay with it. It didn’t get any puck luck against the Falcons despite outshooting them 43-13. Then-sophomore Matt Rust hit the post. Former Wolverine forward Brandon Naurato whiffed on a wide open net. By the time the buzzer sounded, Volkening had shut out the nation’s fifth-ranked scoring offense.

Seven months later, the Wolverines were looking at a 4-7 record to start this season and the goals still weren't going in. They had outshot their opponents by more than 60 shots in the first 11 games but still endured a five-game losing streak, their longest in 21 years.

But luck has seemed to turn around in the postseason. Both of freshman Kevin Lynch’s goals over Miami (Ohio) on Friday resulted from passes by junior Carl Hagelin — that were intended for Rust.

“There are times when the puck goes in for you, but most of the time you have to pay a price to score,” Berenson said. “On the flip side, the puck doesn’t always go in. This is the time of year you want to make your chances count but if they’re not going in, you better be playing your absolute best without the puck.”

Saturday will mark 365 days since Michigan lost to Air Force and the loss still lingers over the heads of the Wolverines. The only way to remove it would be a win by the same team that finished seventh in the conference and barely scraped its way into the NCAA tournament.

Can Michigan really keep the run going? In the Twilight Zone, weirder things have happened.