annual College Hockey Showcase ranked third and after an easy win against Wisconsin the Wolverines looked a bit flat against #5 Minnesota, dropping the game 2–3. Three days later Michigan faced off against arch-rival Michigan State and though the Spartans were unranked at the time they were still a force to contend with. MSU handed the Wolverines their second consecutive loss and, with #8 Bowling Green up next, Michigan was in jeopardy of dropping from the polls. An offensive outburst of 5 goals in the first period helped arrest Michigan's slide and the 8–1 win gave the voters enough confidence in the Maize and Blue to keep them at the #4 spot. One side story with the game was Jason Botterill, a first round pick of the Dallas Stars, had already been suspended twice for fighting and was piling up unneeded penalty minutes. In the Bowling Green Game he was finally able to keep his nose clean while retaining his physical game, performing exactly how coach Red Berenson hoped he would. Michigan Would end the first half of its season with an oddly scheduled weekend where they won at home against Lake Superior State then lost in their worst offensive performance of the season at #10 Western Michigan. The loss to the Broncos was even worse considering that Michigan had finally claimed the top spot in the CCHA from WMU the day before but now with the season series permanently in favor of their conference rivals Michigan was dropped back to third place. Great Lakes Invitational At the 31st Great Lakes Invitational, Michigan was looking to continue its run of championships. After trouncing Northern Michigan in the semifinal, the crowd of 18,000 at the Joe Louis Arena watched the Wolverines defeat #10 Michigan State for their 8th consecutive GLI title. Brendan Morrison was named as the tournament MVP for the third consecutive year after contributing on 6 of Michigan's 9 goals. Michigan did not rest on its tournament win, completely dominating both opponents the following weekend by a combined score of 23–3. Morrison was again the star, earning 11 points in the two games and climbing up into the scoring race. Both weekends were missed by Botterill who was busy playing at the 1996 World Junior Championships, becoming the first player to win three gold medals at the event. The Wolverines continued to dominate the opposition for another two weeks