The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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the back-check and finding that open skater charging the net. It's a lot of the same things we've talked about the past few years. "And then with the goalies, some- times I look over at my radio partner, Al Randall, and say, 'How did he make that save?' But then there are all the fluky, soft goals our goalies seem to let in too consistently, and those are game-changing goals." MORE OF THE SAME DEFENSIVELY, IN NET It would make sense if Michigan fans feel like they're living the same bad dream over and over again. The Wolverines have been one of the worst defensive teams in the country over the past four years, ranking 51st nationally in allowing 3.25 goals per game in 2012-13, 18th with a 2.54 goals-against average in 2013-14 and 38th with a 2.89 goals- against average in 2014-15. Senior goalie Steve Racine had put up pedestrian numbers during his career — a 2.65 goals-against average in 2012-13, 2.91 in 2013-14 and 2.94 in 2014-15 — but finished his junior year on a hot streak, and the coach- ing staff had confidence he would compete in his senior season with the maturity of a high-level netminder. The early returns were alarming: Racine allowed nine goals in his first two starts, posting a .857 save per- centage. He has since solidified, post- ing a .935 save percentage in his last six games leading up to Michigan's Dec. 11-12 series against Minnesota. However, one never knows when the bad spell will come. Junior Zach Nagelvoort, mean- while, had allowed three goals or more in four of his first six starts this year, surrendering eight goals on 44 shots (.818 save percentage) against the Badgers before being pulled from the second game. "You want a goalie that can steal you a game, and we've seen both of these guys really turn it on for stretches, especially Steve in the playoffs, where they have been the best players on the ice," Trainor started. "But we've also seen them almost single-handedly lose games on their own with some of the poor goals they've allowed. "It's that inconsistency that we didn't expect this year because of their experience. These guys have started [60 and 46 games for Ra- cine and Nagelvoort, respectively], but the same issues we were talk- ing about a year ago, two years ago, we're still talking about, and I'm sure that's frustrating for the coaches, for the players and for the goalies themselves." U-M's defensemen and forwards are not without blame. "When you give up 10 goals in a weekend, you can't point the finger at the goalies," Werenski said. "There are a lot of things as defensemen — and our forwards, too — we are not doing right. "The weekend before, we allowed one goal total [in a 7-0 win and 1-1 tie with Dartmouth Nov. 27-28] where we were doing a lot of the little things well, and you just can't put it into words when you go from that weekend to the Wisconsin weekend.