COACHES, MEDIA PICK WOLVERINES TO REPEAT
By Jason Paul
September 17, 2002

They lost their top offensive weapon. They lost their top defensive weapon.
They lost their starting goalie of four years. They return a defense
without much depth that's suppose to protect a goalie who just got his
driver's license. But they're still picked the best the Central Collegiate
Hockey Association has to offer.

That's because despite all their losses, they still return a loaded offense
of 15 forwards led by senior captains Jed Ortmeyer and John Shouneyia, and
sophomore first-round draft pick Eric Nystrom. A solid defensive trio in
Andy Burnes, Eric Werner, and Mike Roemensky. A highly touted freshman
class with top prospects Jeff Tambellini, Danny Richmond, and goaltender
Alvaro Montoya. And most importantly of all, they return leadership.

With that, the coaches and media have overwhelmingly selected the reigning
CCHA champion Michigan Wolverines to successfully defend their crown, but
U-M head coach Red Berenson knows the competition for the top spot will be
as tight as ever as he kept changing his mind who to vote for.

"I know I changed four times as to who I picked for first place and I
decided finally to put the pressure on Rick Comley," said Berenson.

Eight of the twelve CCHA coaches tabbed the Wolverines No. 1 in the coaches
preseason poll, followed by Michigan State with two first-place votes, and
Northern Michigan and Ohio State each receiving one. In the media poll, U-M
garnered 39 first place votes, followed once again by the Spartans with 22
votes, Northern Michigan with seven, Ohio State with three, and
Nebraska-Omaha with one.

The usual suspects are back on top in the preseason poll, but as last year
showed us, anything can happen.

"As we all know, last year's first-place battle and literally last-place
battle goes right down to the final weekend," Berenson recalls. "Then when
we had a showdown between the first-place team and the last-place team, the
last-place team won in the first game of the playoffs. That is how close
the teams are matched in this league."

On top of that, with the CCHA forming a "supercluster" with Michigan,
Michigan State, Northern Michigan, and Lake Superior (playing the part of
the whipping boy), it's possible that one of those top three teams from
last year won't fair as well against the other two, thus knocking them down
the standings, polls, and PairWise rankings.

But as always, it's not the preseason poll that counts, it's the final one.

You can see the results of the Coaches and Media Polls at:
http://michiganhockey.net/news/topstory.html

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That's all for now...

Go Blue!

Jason
Michigan Hockey Net
http://MichiganHockey.net/