The Wolverine: Covering University of Michigan Football and Sports
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MICHIGAN HOCKEY "I've learned through the years that I can't take any teams lightly. You have to bring your 'A' game to every game," he said. "[Goalies coach] Steve Shields has been great for that as well, every day preparing like it's the most important game of the year. "As a goalie, you hope that you're the guy, but I have to take it one day at a time. The most important thing for me today is the practice we have coming up, to prepare as best as I can for this weekend." While going 5‑0‑1 over the last six contests, Racine allowed 3.29 goals per game and had a .900 save percentage. "We're focusing on my strengths and playing to those," he said. "I'm playing a lot deeper in the net than I did in previous years. It's making everything easier and allowing me to focus on my athleticism, my reactions and my hands a lot more than I did in the past, and it helps me keep more in position." MICHIGAN EMPLOYING SEVEN DEFENSEMEN After surviving the Great Lakes Invitational Dec. 29‑30 with only five defensemen — sophomore Zach We‑ renski was skating for Team USA in the World Junior Championships and junior Michael Downing was serving a two‑game suspension — Michigan employed seven defenders in three of its past four games, doing so in both contests against Michigan State Jan. 8‑9 and at Ohio State Jan. 15. The Wolverines have dressed sophomore Sam Piazza in addition to their normal starting six of juniors Nolan De Jong and Downing, sopho‑ mores Werenski and Cutler Martin, and freshmen Joseph Cecconi and Nick Boka. "It was a bit of an insurance policy because with Zach coming back from World Juniors having been away for some time, there was a desire to man‑ age his minutes if we needed to," Be‑ renson said. "But he did really well. "Then Michael Downing hadn't played in a month because he was suspended by the Big Ten for the GLI. That was another issue — his conditioning and timing — and an‑ other issue was if you do get into a penalty‑filled game, which can hap‑ pen with Michigan State, and you get defensemen in the box, can you survive? "And then Sam, he had a good GLI and has shown us he is more ready to play minutes and play a better role on this team than he got the chance to in the first half of the season. "Do the defensemen like it? They'd like to play more. We played five de‑ fensemen at the GLI and they loved it. "On the forward side, are we better with 11 forwards and double shift‑ ing? I don't think the question is an‑ swered yet." U‑M dropped the seventh defender from the lineup in the final game of the home‑and‑home series with the Buckeyes, however, and Berenson was non‑committal about its future. However, for at least one game, Pi‑ azza will be back in the lineup when Michigan visits Penn State Jan. 28