Michigan coach Red Berenson dubbed it “scoring by committee,” but senior forward Scooter Vaughan simply tagged it as “awesome.” Call it whatever you want, but any way you look at it, it's simple.

Couple the fact that the Wolverine defensemen have 20 goals so far this season with the fact that three of Michigan’s four lines have been clicking recently, and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see the connection between the Wolverines' timely secondary scoring and their recent victories.

In its back-to-back weekend sweeps, No. 6 Michigan received offensive production from all over the ice — with nine players tallying at least one point in this weekend's sweep.

In the Wolverines’ 2-0 Friday night shutout over the Nanooks, sophomore defenseman Lee Moffie and freshman defenseman Jon Merrill scored the only goals for the Wolverines.

Moffie’s goal was his fourth of the season and third in two weekends — he earned CCHA defensemen of the week honors for his two-goal series against Ferris State last weekend — while Merrill carried over his success into Saturday night’s contest.

Merrill scored just 1:15 into the first period to get Michigan (14-4-1-0 CCHA, 17-6-4 overall) out to the early lead. Merrill’s two-goal weekend performance against Alaska marked his first two lamplighters since he scored two in The Big Chill at the Big House on Dec. 11.

“It’s awesome (to see the defensemen score),” Vaughan said. “Merrill, Pateryn, Burlon — I think they’re all above 10 points, which is phenomenal for a defenseman. They’re all playing well. It’s good when you can throw the puck back to the (defense) off a cycle and you know they’re going to get it through, it’s not going to get blocked. We have a lot of confidence in our (defense) and they are showing it on the ice.”

While the defensemen have chipped in 20 goals and 52 assists this season, the Wolverine offense has also been aided recently by different contributors from each of its four lines.

Senior forward Carl Hagelin leads the team offense with 13 goals and 22 assists — a role that many expected him to be in at the start of this season. Hagelin has been a consistent offensive threat this campaign and is a big reason why Michigan’s offense is ranked tenth in the nation. The Wolverine captain is currently on a nine-game point streak and earned an assist on five of Michigan’s six weekend goals.

But aside from Hagelin, the Wolverines have recently benefitted from a variety of players' offensive production.

En route to Michigan’s 4-3 victory over the Nanooks, senior alternate captain Matt Rust got the monkey off his back, scoring with five minutes remaining in the first period to give the Wolverines their second lead of the game.

Rust plays on a line with Hagelin and sophomore forward Chris Brown. While Hagelin has been the scorer as of late, both Brown and Rust picked up goals this weekend. Rust hadn’t scored a goal since mid-November, despite playing strong during that drought.

“(Rust) has a huge impact on the top line, mostly defensively but also offensively,” Berenson said after Friday’s game. “They were on the ice for both of the goals that we scored. He’s a part of that. He was screening the goalie on Jonny Merrill’s shot. Rust is doing a lot of things — faceoffs, penalty killing. I mean, he’s a team player on our team and he’s playing like it.”

The senior finished the weekend with a 1-1-2 line and a plus-2 rating each night.

Also adding to the offense this weekend was Vaughan, who netted his ninth of the season on Saturday. Vaughan’s goal in the middle of the second period proved to be the game-winner.

For Berenson, the offense is still a work-in-progress, but he can’t help but be pleased with the load that some Wolverines have put on their shoulders as of late to help out their slumping teammates.

“I don’t think we’re consistent enough to say that we rely on one line anymore,” Berenson said on Saturday."You’ve seen all year, we’re scoring by committee. Our defense is stepping up and they're providing offense and they did again (on Saturday). We have a lot of guys that think they should be scoring that aren’t, but that still can.”