You are right about Racine- except for the 2nd goal rebound, he had a good night. The first goal was clearly not clear.... But even with the 2nd goal, he still had more rebound problems- Northern had a few chances to tie the game thanks to rebounds. But, like us, their player wasn't *quite* in the right spots.
As much as I fault the D and the possession play- it is kind of interesting to note that the crappy play didn't really result in great chances from Northern- those came from other mistakes....
As for Merrill... he played well, but he certainly wasn't without his mistakes- just like the entire blue line corps, he had some pretty bad turnovers that could have lead to chances. Thankfully, he made that up in other ways. And not from the fluky first goal he scored... I do hope he gets with the other D to have them all fix their game.
One thing that really bugs me about our team- they seem oblivious to obvious plays: 1) if we win our zone faceoff, winger must JET to the opposite boards. The D always, always, always will dump it that way- and if you don't get it, at least you are covering the opposing D that will, 2) shoot high, and makes sure you are turning around- so very many times, a very good shot ends up in an odd man rush because of the bounce off the walls- it happens all the time, 3) blind dumping the puck in your zone rarely works.
They know all of that- and have shown that in many previous instances, as they have recently in complete games. But it keeps coming up.