By Jacob Messing

The No. 13-ranked Michigan Wolverines are coming off a weekend sweep of top-ranked Notre Dame and are riding a wave of confidence into their final series of the season.

“This is the way it should be at Michigan, this is the way it should be every weekend:
expect to win against the best teams in the country,” coach Mel Pearson told David Goricki of The Detroit News following the sweep. “Red [Berenson] left a lot of good pieces here and I’m a recipient of that. We’ve never been far off and this program will continue to grow.”

Pearson, an assistant under Berenson for 23 years at Michigan, returned to Ann Arbor to take over after Berenson stepped down in the summer. Pearson was referring to the dominant days of Michigan, which have faded over the past several years largely due to various NHL teams plucking away high-end talent deemed NHL-ready.

In his first season as head coach, Pearson has led the Wolverines to a 16-13-3 record, including three straight wins ahead of this weekend’s matchup with Arizona State.

The series will be streamed live right here on FloHockey, with the games coming at 7:30 PM EST Friday and Saturday.

Linemates Cooper Marody and Tony Calderone, the team’s leading point-getter and leading goal-scorer, respectively, have carried the team in recent weeks with a combined three goals and eight points over Michigan’s three-game win streak.

As the final series of the season is out of conference, the Wolverines are poised for the third- or fourth-place finish in the Big Ten, depending on No. 8 Minnesota’s matchup with No. 18 Penn State this weekend.

The Sun Devils, 8-19-5 overall, have gone 1-3-0 during a six-game road trip and have a 2-8-4 mark as the visiting team on the season. They face a 9-5-1 home squad in Michigan.

Coach Greg Powers has maintained building a team that won’t stop until it’s No. 1 — ASU joined the NCAA as a full-time Division I team in 2016-17. Powers has gotten some big play out of Johnny Walker, who as a freshman looks like a key piece for the next three years.

“I think he has just developed more confidence and it’s really shown the last half of the season,” Powers told Paige Burnell of The State Press. “We are really proud of him, and I think Johnny has his eyes set on much bigger things.”

Walker had four goals and eight points through 18 games in the first semester. Since the turn of the calendar year, he’s added another nine goals and three assists in 12 games. Walker now leads the Devils with 13 goals and his 20 points put him third on the team.

Walker’s breakout year blossomed from the goal and assist he added at the inaugural Ice Vegas Invitational, which the Sun Devils won as the underdog and host.

Even with Walker and Ice Vegas MVP Brinson Pasichnuk — who leads the team with 24 points — the Sun Devils have struggled to play consistently following the tournament title.

Arizona State has won just two of 10 games since Vegas, but will definitely bring their best against Michigan this weekend to close the regular season. Don’t miss the action live right here on FloHockey.

Have a question or a comment for Jacob? You can find him on Twitter @JMessing23.