DETROIT — After the No. 5 Michigan hockey team’s lackluster third-place finish in the CCHA Tournament this past weekend, an NCAA Tournament regional draw in St. Louis is just the M.O. this team needs.

“You always want to win, but maybe we needed that loss (on Friday),” senior forward Carl Hagelin said. “We were on a great winning streak there, but it’s tough to keep that going for very long. Maybe we needed that loss to regroup and come out flying this weekend.”

On Sunday, the Wolverines were assigned the second seed in the Western bracket, along with first-seed Boston College, third-seed Nebraska-Omaha and fourth-seed Colorado College. Michigan has already faced Nebraska-Omaha and Colorado College this season, splitting a two-game series with the Mavericks in October and defeating the Tigers to win the Great Lakes Invitational in December.

The Wolverines are set to take on the Nebraska-Omaha at 5:30 p.m. ET at the Scottrade Center this upcoming Friday.

“I have a little bit of history (in St. Louis) as a pro, but really college hockey isn’t as prominent in St. Louis,” Michigan coach Red Berenson said. “We’ve got to go there and play well against Nebraska. Nebraska is a tough team, we saw that earlier in the year. It will be good hockey.

“And if you’re good enough, you get to play the winner of the next game. Boston College is the number one seed in that bracket, someone is going to have to knock them off. It’s like Michigan basketball, we’re in the Duke bracket.”

D-MEN IN DETROIT: With junior defenseman Brandon Burlon out of the CCHA Tournament games due to illness, Berenson had to alter the look of his usual defensive template.

Burlon missed both games at Joe Louis Arena, staying in Ann Arbor over the weekend. He was even too ill to watch the NCAA Tournament selection show with the team at Yost Ice Arena on Sunday morning.

The junior played in every game this season for the Wolverines prior to this weekend, scoring five goals and tallying 13 assists along the way.

To fill the gap, Berenson put freshman Kevin Clare with junior Greg Pateryn, while sophomore Lee Moffie and freshman Mac Bennett made up the last defensive pair.

Moffie — whose seventh goal of the season was Michigan’s first tally on Friday against the Broncos — and Bennett have not played together this season, as Moffie and Burlon have spent much of the season as a pair. But after ending the weekend with two points, Berenson liked the look of the new combination.

Both are offensive-minded defensemen but played well down low to help protect senior netminder Shawn Hunwick.

“Moffie and Bennett have never played together until this weekend, but I like the way they recovered defensively,” Berenson said. “Mac carried the puck well, Moffie’s got a good shot. They’re doing well in their own zone. We played three freshmen 'D' (in Jon Merrill, Clare, and Bennett) all weekend, and for the most part, we played pretty well.”

ROHRKEMPER GETS READY: Already depleted at forward, as junior forward David Wohlberg suffered a season-ending collarbone injury two weekends ago against Bowling Green, the Wolverines have been trying different combinations on the bottom two lines to find an offensive spark.

Freshman forward Derek DeBlois got the start on Friday night against Western Michigan, while sophomore forward Jeff Rohrkemper recieved the nod on Saturday against Bowling Green.

Rohrkemper, who has played in just nine games this season, scored his second goal of the season on Saturday in the third period to put Michigan up 3-1 on the Fighting Irish. The sophomore’s first goal of the season also came at Joe Louis Arena, in the Wolverines’ 4-2 win over Michigan Tech during the Great Lakes Invitational.

“You don’t know someone’s going to score a goal (when you put them in the lineup),” Berenson said. “Jeff Rohrkemper has only played in (a few) all year but he’s played okay when he’s played. (I) thought we needed to make a change and I needed a left-handed shot and so on, the way we put our lines together. He played a big role in the game tonight with Kevin Lynch and Scooter Vaughan. They had a good game. They had maybe a lucky goal, but an important goal.”