ANN ARBOR – Brandon Naurato knows there is no secret formula for success when it comes to winning during the NCAA Tournament.

Michigan players hoist their trophy after defeating Michigan State 4-3 in overtime in the Duel in the D at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on Saturday, Feb. 11, 2023.
 

Michigan’s first-year head coach, who had the interim tag removed by the university on Friday, is set to experience his third Frozen Four this week, with his first two ending in overtime heartbreak.

 
 

He was a junior forward for the Wolverines in 2008, when the team lost to Notre Dame 5-4 in a national semifinal. Overtimes have not produced many favorable outcomes for the program during tournament play since then, including last year’s semifinal against Denver when Naurato was an assistant coach.

 

Michigan, flush with future NHL talent and an NCAA-record seven first-round draft picks, was the favorite heading into the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, but its bid for its first national championship since 1998 ended 14:53 into the first overtime.

 

But the Wolverines have another shot at a title this season after Sunday’s 2-1 overtime victory over Penn State, just their third in the NCAA Tournament in their past eight overtime games. Naurato’s team is the youngest in the country with a 12-member freshman class, but the 38-year-old believes his group is equipped to handle anything when it takes the ice against Quinnipiac, another No. 1 seed, at 8:30 p.m. at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida.

 

“I think it’s just playing your best hockey at the right time,” Naurato said on a Frozen Four conference call last week. “Obviously everyone’s going to be up for the games. One thing I told the guys at the beginning of the year, and I think it rings true, is that it’s not the most talented teams that win at the end.

 

It’s the teams that play together and it’s the teams that are closest, and we’ve got a really tight team. I would say for us, we’ve had this business approach going into the playoffs this year and what we do on the road.”

 

No. 2 Michigan, which was ranked inside the top 10 all season, isn’t lacking talent. It features 12 draft picks on the roster and another two players expected to be early-round selections in 2023. Continuity, however, was not a luxury it had during the first half of the season. Naurato was forced to alter his lineup nearly every week because of injuries or an adenovirus outbreak in the fall that led to multiple players being hospitalized.

 

The team started to get healthier in January and is now close to full strength. Naurato has kept the same lineup for every game during the Big Ten and NCAA tournaments, and the team is 14-3-2 since Jan. 14, with only one of those losses coming in regulation.

 

“It’s pretty impressive,” said freshman forward Gavin Brindley, one of just two players to appear in every game this season. “I think a lot of guys coming back from World Juniors with a lot of confidence and guys decided to get back into it. Everyone’s so excited and realize we have a legit chance at winning.”

 

Part of the Wolverines’ success in the second half can be attributed to the development of the freshmen, who have accounted for more than 50% of the team’s scoring.

 

The class was highly touted and featured five draft picks, including three top-50 selections in forward Frank Nazar (No. 13), forward Rutger McGroarty (No. 14) and defenseman Seamus Casey (No. 46), along with two 2023 projected first-round picks in Brindley and Adam Fantilli, a top-three Hobey Baker Award finalists who leads the country with 65 points in just 35 games.