2008 NCAA Frozen Four
Pepsi Center ? Denver, Colo.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
North Dakota Press Conference
Dave Hakstol, Head Coach
Q: Opening comments
A: First of all, I'd like to congratulate Boston College. They came out and played a very good hockey game. They made some plays early on and certainly full-value for the win. These two guys next to me (Rylan Kaip, Ryan Duncan), and the team, are a pretty special group of guys. Tonight was not the way we had envisioned to end the year, but that doesn't take anything away from the character and class of this group of guys on this hockey team and they're going to be a special group to us as a staff for a long time to come.
Q: Was Boston College's short-handed goal the turning point in the game?
A: That would've been the second goal of the game. I thought we were fine after that. I liked the energy we played with through that period of time. We had drawn a penalty and did some good things on the power play. I thought the turning point was more-so the third and fourth goals. We didn't get out of that period after the fourth goal. That was a pretty tough hill to climb. We came out in the second period believing that we could do it, but that was too steep a hill to climb tonight.
Q: Did you have any plans to shut down [Nathan] Gerbe?
A: He played well. We had some match-ups in mind and tonight Nate Gerbe did a great job. He did some high-impact plays and was certainly the difference in the hockey game.
Q: What has Boston College, over the past 2-3 games in the Frozen Four, brought that you have struggled with?
A: I'm not looking into the past, every game has been different. Tonight, they brought the lead that we couldn't come back on. They did a very good job of holding that lead. They had two high-impact quick strike plays tonight and that's what put them into that lead. Once they got that four-goal lead, we just couldn't get back into the game after we dug that big of a hole.
Rylan Kaip, Sr., Forward
Q: During the first period you guys had good chances to score, did you think that if you scored you could turn the game around?
A: It was kind of the feeling all game that if we broke the goose egg that maybe we could get some momentum going our way, but their goalie played a heck of a game and we just weren't able to get the loose puck sometimes.
Ryan Duncan, Sr., Forward
Q: Was there any point that you guys started to think back to the last couple of games against Boston College?
A: I don't think so. Obviously they are an explosive team and they put a couple goals on us very quickly. There's no doubt in my mind that we never gave up. Even when we were down 4-0 in the first period, we just said to ourselves that stranger things have happened in hockey. We just had to put two third periods like we had in Wisconsin together and go out there and never give up. It didn't end up the way we wanted but we battled to the final buzzer.
Jean-Philippe Lamoureux, Sr., Goaltender
Q: General reaction:
A: It hurts pretty bad. The guys deserved a better fate. You have to take your hat off to BC. They played a great game and had a lot of really nice goals tonight, capitalized on a lot of turnovers on our part. But I couldn't be prouder to have spent my four years here at UND.
Q: On the goals:
A: The one that I'd like to have back is that second one. I felt like I came out and challenged; he just beat me with a really nice shot. I felt like they got a lot of good bounces ... I wasn't as sharp as I should have been today. BC had a lot of nice shots to portions of the net.
Q: What did coach say at the end of the first period?
A: We just needed to regroup and we needed to focus on winning a period. Unfortunately we weren't able to do that in the second, but that's a tribute to how well BC played. They executed their game plan well and were very opportunistic on our turnovers.
Q: On postgame handshake:
A: They handed our lunch to us today. I just wanted to show respect to a team that played real well tonight ... I'm not one to pout or feel sorry for myself after a game regardless of the score.
Q: On so many losses to BC:
A: That's just the way it is, it's something that's really out of our control. Hopefully in years to come we can figure out how to beat those guys. I think it's a tribute to Coach York and the program that he runs. He always has his teams ready to play.
Kyle Radke, Sr., Forward
Q: What was the difference?
A: You don't want to say you didn't want it. Boston College, they're a well-coached team, very well-trained, they just executed. All the credit to them. They did what they had to do and they got it done. I really think that we weren't underprepared at all.
Q: How demoralizing was the fourth goal?
A: It obviously didn't help our situation, but we've got to try to keep our spirits high in the locker room. You've got to do what you can. Obviously it stung but you've got to try to block that out and not let that affect your game.
Q: On ?JP':
A: I wouldn't say it wasn't necessarily his night. More credit to Boston College, they just executed. Phil carried us on our shoulders here. Everyone contributes, but Phil was obviously a big factor in that. I wouldn't say he had an off-night, I would just say Boston College executed better.
Q: On Nathan Gerbe
A: The kid's a great hockey player. The league's designed for him, it's made for little guys who can wheel with the puck and score like that. He's executing on damn near every one of his scoring opportunities. I really hadn't watched him much throughout the year, there was a lot of talk about Porter for the Hobey, but the kid [Gerbe] plays well. All the power to him.
T.J. Oshie, Jr., Forward
Q: On game plan:
A: My game plan was to play fast, really skate and play on the offense. I don't think we did any of those three things. They came out and they were pushing us back, which is the opposite of we want to do.
Q: Was it their speed, their finishing ability?
A: It was a combination of a lot of different things. A little too many turnovers, and they capitalized on a lot of plays that they had. It's tough to come back when the other team just keeps scoring ... This team built an identity and I think that identity is going to carry on into next year. That's hard work, that's Fighting Sioux hockey, which is never giving up. I think this loss is going to sit with us all summer and make us that much more hungry next year.
Jake Marto, Fr., defenseman
Q: On his goal:
A: Just trying to play for pride at that point. You're playing for the crest on the jersey and all the fans that came out. I was just trying to play hard and it ended up in the back of the net.
Q: On what positives to take out of the season:
A: I think there's a lot of good out of it. We made it here again, the Frozen Four. Making it this far out of all the college teams, that's a positive. Try to take it into next season with all the depth that we've got and see what happens.
Boston College Press Conference
Coach Jerry York
Opening Statement:
A: I think this is certainly an anomaly, this type of game, because the score is not indicative of the game itself. I've got unbelievable respect for Dave Hasktol and with what he's done with the Sioux, and it's just a matter of time before Dave brings that title back to Grand Forks. We really feel that there's a great deal of respect on our end for North Dakota. It's going to happen once in a lifetime that our teams will be separated by this many goals. Having said that, we're extremely proud of our club. We did a lot of just basic meat and potato hockey tonight- finishing checks, moving pucks- we're certainly not trying to reinvent the wheel here at BC. We're a solid, fundamental team, there's no trickery to our club. Tonight we stayed right with our game plan, and we've got some really unbelievable players in our club. Nathan Gerbe tonight was- it's too bad, because I've seen Ryan Jones and Kevin Porter play, that they couldn't have all three Hobey Baker finalists receive the award because they're all, in their own way, worthy of it, but it just happens to be that there are three players like that are up for the award. I thought Nathan played really well tonight. Not just his goals, but just his character in between periods. He certainly fits into the line of really good Boston College players we've had here. Mike Brennan is the leader of club, and tonight he was very physical, very strong, and he's one of our great players.
Q: The last couple of years, they've stopped some of the physical stuff. Have you changed the way that you recruit?
A: I was talking with Paul Kelly right after the game. He's connected with the NHL Players Association, and he said the game is changing so dramatically the last couple of years. The college game I think is more conducive now to creative players, to quick players, and we ought to be aware of that, but you still need to balance your team with Nick Petrecki, Mike Brennan type guys. I think the smaller, quicker player, it's a better game for him to play now.
Q: Coach this will be the third straight year that you've been to the national title game. How different is it from the previous two years?
A: Each year is different, each team is different, each path is different. There's not a lot of similarity between this team and the last two years. It's just different makeup. Players leave and players come and you change a little bit of your group dynamics, but certainly we feel very proud of the fact that we're now playing in the last game of the season. It's really a difficult process to get to. You go through regions, semifinals. You have to win a lot of big games to get here, that's the good news; the bad news is that you have to play another real good club. The last couple of years we've played Michigan State and Wisconsin, two Big Ten teams, very good hockey teams and we were just short. But then you have to say that maybe the other team is just a touch better than you are, and you keep trying to get better and better. And I don't know who we are playing tomorrow night, but either one will be a real good challenge for our club. It just feels different for some reason.
Q: Coach, I want to ask you how important Nathan's play was to your team and the way he lifted his team.
A: I think he's really come on hard. I understand that you need some real marquee players to make it to the national championship game and to win championships, and he's certainly one of ours. He's had a fabulous three years at BC, and right now he's perhaps playing his best hockey right now.
Q: Everyone talks about the number of little guys you've got, and you have the six goals at just about the half point of the second period. At that point it seems like you initiated a whole bunch of hits, you really came out hitting. I wondered whether that was by design. It looked like you had the goals and you wanted to show them that you could win that part of the game too.
A: We want to be like that every shift of the game. Sometimes your playmaking ability is a result of good physical hits. But we've got some real physical players. Nick Petrecki and Tim Filangeiri are pretty physical. Even some of our smaller players can hit you pretty hard and like contact. I think getting the 6-0 lead was part of our good physical play, whether it's the forecheck or a faceoff.
Q: Nathan scored three goals, one power play, one even-strength, and one shorthanded. Could you comment on how he can be so explosive in any situation?
A: He's just so quick and dynamic that he's dangerous whenever he has the puck, whatever the situation. That power play goal, he kind of went around the net and put it up top, a pretty spectacular goal.
Q: In the first period North Dakota had eight shots on two power plays, and in the second period they had zero shots on three (power plays), did you make adjustments on the penalty kill between the periods?
A: Not necessarily. I thought Johnny Muse was really something during the first flurry that North Dakota had. We always talk about goaltenders being so important. Some of those shots weren't big saves but were shots on net.
Mike Brennan, Senior Defensemen
Q: Coach Hakstol was up here before you guys came in and said his team felt fine as to why he didn't call a timeout or make a goalie change in the first period. How did you guys feel? Was your momentum building?
A: The biggest thing for great teams is being consistent and doing those little things over and over again, no matter what the score is, and that's what this team has been trying to do. Coach says to keep it simple, nothing flashy gets the job done. Our forwards have been doing a great job just chipping pucks keeping it simple, and the goals come. Even when it's two-nothing or three-nothing, if they call a time-out, we stick to our game plan, and I think that separates good teams from great teams. And I think that's why we've had such a successful stride here in the last playoff run.
Q: Guys you said you were looking forward to finishing that October game. Is this the way you wanted to do it?
A: Absolutely, I couldn't have asked for a better finish to that game. You don't usually get that many goals especially against a goaltender of Lamoureux's ability. We were just doing the things that we've been doing all season and that paint area is big for us, getting to that net hard. I know a big thing before this game was the physical aspect. They're bigger than us, they're stronger than us, but guys don't read into that at all. It doesn't matter how big you are, it's how hungry you want to be and our forwards show that every single game. That's the staple of our team right now, is hard work, gritty team, and I think that's been working for us.
Nathan Gerbe, Junior Forward
Q: What was it like out there for you tonight to play that well?
A: I think the biggest thing was going out there and having the mindset of having fun. The last two years our team sat back a little too nervous, but this time we have to enjoy it. A former player, Bobby Allen, was talking to our team before we left, and he said just enjoy the time we have out here. We don't get out here every year, and you never know when you might be here again.
Q: Where does this game rank for you of all the great games you've had and to be able to do it on this stage?
A: It's definitely up there at the top. Definitely to be able to advance to the National Championship, it's always great to be able to represent Boston College on this stage. I thought tonight was another great game from our club and it's showing how good we can be at times. We just have to keep that going.
Ben Smith, Fr., forward
Q: You couldn't have expected to be up 4-0 after one period:
A: Bertram's goal with under 30 [seconds] left that was huge for us. A 3-0 lead you're not really sure about, but coming into the second period up 4-0, that was pretty huge.
Q: What did coach say after the first period?
A: Just tried to keep us focused and play like it was a 0-0 game. Guys weren't joking around, guys were pretty focused, pretty serious. We just wanted to win the second period and that's what we wanted to do. ... Nathan Gerbe, that's what he's been doing all year, three goals and an assist. On that two-on-one he is always going to pass, every time. Nice pass. Some of the saves he made in the third, the blocker save, unbelievable. Let's hope he can do it again on Saturday.
Andrew Orpik, Jr., forward
Q: On first goal:
A: I didn't even see it go in. I knew it went in when I heard the horn sound, it was pretty exciting. It's unbelievable.
Q: On how much BC thinks about last year's title game loss to Michigan State:
A: It's there. We've been there twice. We lost to Wisconsin, we lost to Michigan State, but it's a whole different team this year. Our freshmen have been such big contributors thus year that you really feel that it?s a whole new team.
Q: On Gerbe:
A: I'm sure the award has already been picked, but all three finalists are incredible players in their own. But I get to watch Nate play every day, he's one of my roommates, and he is to to me the most exceptional player in college hockey. He puts you on the edge of your seat every time he gets the puck. To watch him play is something special, I think everyone understand that. He doesn't care about the Hobey Baker. It's not about individuals to him. He's a good team guy.
