The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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whether it was our injuries, our pen‑ alty killing wasn't very good [76.0 per‑ cent through seven games] and that really showed up in a pair of losses at Michigan Tech [Oct. 31‑Nov. 1], and our power play was inconsistent. We were a team still searching for our game." The top defensive pairing of Downing and senior Brennan Ser‑ ville was relied upon heavily to provide solid de‑ fense and consis‑ tent puck move‑ ment. "As a defense, in general, I think we're young and we started the year kind of slow," Downing said. "We were giving up too many goals, too many chances every game." "We do have a young defensive corps," Serville added. "At the begin‑ ning of the year, we made errors that always seemed to lead to goals." Berenson agreed with his blue liners' analysis. "Serville started the season slower than we thought he would," he said. "[Senior] Mike Chiasson has only played about half our games. We have no junior defensemen. Then, you're down to your sophomores who only have one year under their belt really. "We've relied on Lohan and Down‑ ing to be huge on our defense. [Fresh‑ man] Cutler Martin ends up winning a job on our defense and Werenski is a 17‑year‑old. So, did we have leader‑ ship on defense? Probably not as much as we needed." "It definitely started slow," junior captain Andrew Copp said. "Our team defense was not good enough, not just our defensemen. Our forwards and goaltending play a big part in the defensive effort, too. It's an area that we've definitely concentrated on." Over the first seven games, Michi‑ gan allowed an average of 32.3 shots per game, while U‑M's goalie tan‑ dem of junior Steve Racine and sophomore Zach Nagelvoort was registering a save percentage of only .893. The latter would've ranked the Maize and Blue netminders 75th nationally if that poor pace were to have continued through 19 games. After the slow start, Michigan came home to the familiar ice of Yost Arena and put together a string of six wins during a run of seven straight home contests from Nov. 14‑Dec. 5, and started to show some signs of im‑ proved defensive play. U‑M allowed only 13 goals in the seven home games, with 26.6 shots surrendered per game and a save percentage of .935 (a figure that would rank U‑M seventh in the country through Jan. 15). "After the Michigan Tech series, we came home to play seven in a row and we won six of them; we started to get a little more confidence," Berenson said. "Our young players started to feel a little better about themselves. Our lines started to kick in. Head coach Red Berenson after U-M's defensive effort at the Great Lakes Invitational "We've got some confidence now. We know what we have to do."