The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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He Uses His Size To His Advantage Berenson doesn't ask his goalies to make spectacular saves, putting an onus on his defensemen and forwards to limit the point-blank chances from opponents. He asks them to make the routine saves, knowing most scoring opportunities fall into that category, and a consistent goalie gives U-M the best chance to be successful. Nagelvoort achieves that consistency with old-school fundamentals, relying on his size and positioning to stop pucks. "He doesn't overplay shots," Berenson said. "Some goalies overplay every shot and then they're out of position for rebounds. He's pretty good at not giving those up, and he has a calmness and confidence that has really helped him. He's not overreacting to anything." "Bigger goalies don't have to scramble as much because they can just use their size, if they are in good position, to cut off shooting angles," Blackburn added. "He can challenge you, but he also plays a little deeper in the crease so he can keep everything in front of him, and that gives him another split-second to react to the puck." While Nagelvoort has the desirable physical attributes for a goalie, his mental approach to the game is, perhaps, his key asset. "When I get scored on, I immediately push past it," he said. "I have a mentality where I never get too high or too low because I know that even after a good save, there is going to be another chance, and even after a goal there is going to be another shot I need to save. "Goalies give up goals. Every goalie understands that, and you have to get used to that really early in your career because no one is ever going to be perfect playing that position. My plan is always to give my best, and if I do that I feel I've given my team a chance to win." Demanding A Role When Nagelvoort first stepped in for Racine, the plan was temporary. Once Racine was healthy, the sophomore would return to the starting job he vacated and Nagelvoort would go back to No. 2. But with each win, and solid performance, the rookie proved to his coaches he deserves to play a more important role this season. "I don't have a plan, but we're not going to forget about Zach," Berenson said. "We could be splitting the weekends or we could go one way rather than the other. We'll see what happens." Berenson was always a one-goalie coach, but that changed in 2006 when he was forced to split starts between Noah Ruden (2003-06) and Billy Sauer (2006-09), again in 2009 with Sauer and Bryan Hogan (2008‑11), and in 2011 with Hogan and Hunwick. In each case, a single netminder would emerge — Ruden, Hogan and then Hunwick — demanding the job in the second half of the season and into the playoffs. "We've never really had two No. 1