Union defenseman Mike Schreiber, a senior from Sherwood Park, Alberta, has been part of numerous milestones in his four years as a Dutchman. He is the program’s all-time scoring leader among defensemen with 78 career points, and 29 of those have come this year, establishing a single-season scoring record for a Union defenseman.

It’s not all about offense with Schreiber, a First Team All-ECAC Hockey selection on defense who leads the team with a plus-25 rating and was also a finalist for the league’s Best Defensive Defenseman Award.

Mike Schreiber

Last weekend, Schreiber was a part of two games of historical importance. The first game of Union’s quarterfinal game against Quinnipiac went five overtimes and is the longest game every played in college hockey. Sunday’s victory sent Union to the league’s championship weekend for the first time in program history.

Joe Gladziszewski: Let’s start by talking about the growth of this program over the last four years.

Mike Schreiber: From where we started off freshman year, we had a last-place finish, to where we are now, it’s leaps and bounds. That just shows how much this program, how much this team has grown. It’s positive, it’s going in the right direction. Without the coaches and the rest of my teammates I don’t think we’d be able to do it,

INCH: Let’s go back to those early days where a lot of young guys were playing a lot of important games in a lot of important situations. Do you think that’s helping now?

MS: Absolutely, if you look at our D corps now, how young they are, it means a lot for them to get this kind of exposure in big games. It definitely helps you out, it gets you in the right mindset, it lets you know what to expect and how you need to prepare.

INCH: What do you think the strengths of your defense group are?

MS: We move the puck pretty well. We’re not the biggest D corps but we have pretty active sticks and when there is a chance to knock a guy off the puck I think we’re pretty good about it. We have pretty good footspeed too, so that helps.

INCH: When you look around this league, it seems that every team has a really, really good top line, especially this year. What’s it like playing against those other teams’ top guys?

MS: It makes you prepare that much more, mentally and physically for games. That’s why it’s big for our freshman too with so many young d-men for them to get exposure against those top guys. I remember when I was younger I was getting that chance, that opportunity when I was an underclassman. You took it day by day, but you had a lot of pride. It made your job more meaningful and you knew you had to make that extra effort and you had to grow as a player and as a person.

INCH: How about your forwards, you play against them in practice and there are some dynamic forwards and depth up front too.

MS: They make you look silly sometimes but that’s where you’ve got to just keep it simple and that’s where it’s up to us upperclassmen to lead by example and show them the ropes.

INCH: I used to come to games here and be able to sit in the bleachers wherever I wanted, and that’s not the case anymore. Do you think that parallels how your program has grown?

MS: People always see teams that are winning. They don’t want to see a team when they’re down, and I think that just kind of shows. We’re a little more exciting to watch than we were a couple years ago, a little more offensive and we’re winning more so that helps.

INCH: Your team is advancing to the league’s championship weekend for the first time ever. What kind of meaning does that have for you?

MS: From freshman year to now, I guess I haven’t really thought about it, but it’s sinking in now. From freshman year when we finished last and lost first round to Quinnipiac, it kind of comes full circle for us seniors. To know how much it means, not only to our team, to my teammates, to our coaches, but also to our fans and our student body. They’re behind us 110 percent. Without that extra driving force behind us we probably wouldn’t be here.