Montreal Canadiens prospect Michael Hage and his Michigan Wolverines won their quarter-final matchup on Wednesday night and will take on Gavin McKenna and Penn State on Saturday.
While there’s been no confirmation that the Montreal Canadiens will officially offer a contract to highly touted prospect Michael Hage when he wraps up his sophomore season with the Michigan Wolverines, the way GM Kent Hughes sang his praises in recent interviews leaves little doubt that they will.
On Wednesday night, while the Canadiens were taking on the Ottawa Senators in the nation's capital, Hage and his Wolverines were taking on the Notre-Dame Fighting Irish in the Big 10 Quarterfinal. The latter was no match for the 19-year-old right-shot center’s team. Michigan won 6-1, and Hage was the offense’s dynamo, racking up four assists, including three primary ones.
They therefore booked their ticket for a semi-final meeting with Penn State Nittany Lions and top-ranked prospect Gavin McKenna, who beat the Minnesota Gophers 6-2. The Wolverines will host the Nittany Lions at 5:00 PM on Saturday afternoon, with a trip to the Big 10 final on March 21 on the line.
Win or lose, however, this doesn’t mean Hage's season could end there, since the Wolverines aspire to play in the National Championship and the Frozen Four, for which the bracket will be announced on Sunday, March 22. The Wolverines finished second in the Big 10 standings, two points behind conference leaders Michigan State.
The four Regional competitions are scheduled to take place from March 26 to March 29. Four teams will compete at each site, and the winners of the four Regionals will advance to the Frozen Four in Las Vegas from April 9 to 11. In other words, should things go according to plan for Hage and the Wolverines, their season would end on April 11, which means that there would only be two road games remaining in the Canadiens’ regular season: against the New York Islanders on April 12 and the Philadelphia Flyers on April 14.
Needless to say, it would take a quick turnaround for Hage to play on the 12, which makes the 14 a more realistic possibility. Hage put up 49 points in 35 games with the Wolverines this season, second only to McKenna, who leads the way with 50 points in 33 games. Hage also had a great showing at the World Junior Championship, winning the scoring race with 15 points in seven games.
The Canadiens may not have gotten any outside help at the trade deadline, but they could still get some thanks to their prospect pool, as they did yesterday when Jacob Fowler was called up and went to perform admirably in last night’s win.
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