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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 5, 2015Mark JohnsonCOACH JOHNSON: Well, it's nice to be back, have the players back on campus and practicing again. Certainly looking forward to the month of January. We open up with Minnesota Saturday and Sunday in Minneapolis, then come back against Bemidji, who had a very good first half to the season. Then another home series against Clarkson, defending NCAA 2A champions. First six coming out of break here are going to be good for a lot of different reasons, but most importantly at the end of the weekend against Clarkson, we'll have six good games under our belt and certainly be a stronger team because of the competition. So players had a nice break. They always come back smiling. They're excited to be back. For about two and a half or three weeks with school not in session, you can get a lot done. It's a good time to get ourselves prepared and certainly go up to Minneapolis this weekend. Q. Minnesota has found ways to win against you guys recently. How do you turn that tide in your direction? COACH JOHNSON: I think certainly maybe our last three or four games against them, they found ways to beat us. If we're going to be successful and have a chance to win, we just have to do a lot of the little things better. So it starts with special teams. Certainly it starts with our goaltender. If somebody gets you and they get you a second time or a third time, then as you prepare for them the next time, you just have to do a lot of the little things a little bit better than you did in those previous matches. They're all learning experiences. Certainly looking forward to the games. The one on Saturday is going to be a little different because you're dealing with TV timeouts which we normally don't have to deal with. Coming out of break, it will force us to get up to speed right away. Q. You've played in a lot of interesting rivalries. Where does this rivalry rank in terms of intensity? I don't know if 'dislike' is a word you would put in there. Where does this one fit? COACH JOHNSON: I think it's really healthy. The one thing, you know, with our athletes today, probably a little bit more so on the women's side than the men's side, is a lot of them grow up either playing against each other quite a bit or playing with each other quite a bit. So when we go up to Minneapolis, or they're coming back here, a lot of the players know each other from high school games, playing on the same teams in high school, the different under‑18 teams, some of the national practices, camps that USA puts on. That might take a little bit of the lust out of it. I think when the puck drops, these athletes are very competitive. Nobody wants to leave the building losing a hockey game. So I think it's a healthy rivalry and certainly a good one. I think, as I've said before, the people that really benefit are the fans. Having our game Saturday afternoon on the Big Ten Network is going to be great exposure for women's hockey. Q. If you look at the win column or the standings, these games are worth the same. In other ways, is this bigger than some of the other ones you play? COACH JOHNSON: I don't think it's bigger, I just think it's more enjoyable. As we prepare today for practice, as a coach, I know our players are going to be excited to play this weekend. Their preparation will be good. They'll be focused all week. At the end of the day, you know, when you play against a high‑powered offensive team like Minnesota, you have to be sharp, you have to be ready, you have to be focused. It ends up making you and your team better because of it. That's how we look at it. We're going to get ourselves prepared for Saturday. At the end of the game Saturday, get ourselves prepared for Sunday, get ourselves moving forward as we start our second half of the season. Q. Has there been any further discussion about more games being televised by BTN? COACH JOHNSON: I think if you talk to the head coaches, the people that are running the women's program, yeah, we're always in conversation. I know every spring at our annual meetings down in Florida, that's usually the number one topic, how can we get our NCAA tournament games on television, how can we get more of our regular‑season games on television. This is a step forward, getting us against Minnesota on the Big Ten Network. One of our games up in North Dakota was on television. Anytime you can expose our sport outside of the region, outside of campus, it helps. People will be flicking through the television networks on Saturday, they come across women's hockey, they may not have seen a game, they'll see a good, high‑octane game, and hopefully it will steer them into maybe coming to one of our games or else taking in a game in their area. Exposure's good. A lot of talk, certainly a step in the right direction with this game Saturday being on television. Q. With such a long break, oftentimes there's a little rust that develops with players. You've had a few that have been playing for their respective national teams. Do you think that helps? COACH JOHNSON: It will definitely help for the three kids that went up to USA camp right after Christmas. They were tested, off‑ice conditioning, exercises, had three or four games through their camp. That helps them get up to speed. Anne‑Renee, Sarah Nurse, they'll get back from Germany Wednesday night. Again, competition, opportunity to play games will help those players. The rest of us have been going at it since Wednesday. Usually it's the first period, but obviously playing against Minnesota, the focus will be there probably a little bit more than if we were playing somebody else. So it won't take long for our players to get up at speed just because of the magnitude of the series. Q.  Minnesota won't have any type of a pace advantage, having played two games this week. COACH JOHNSON: They played St.Lawrence, they played the night before down in Mankato, they take today off and play again tomorrow against St.Lawrence. The schedule is what it is. As a coach, it's our job to create practice and create the atmosphere within practice that simulates a game. Are you ever going to get there? Probably not, but you're going to be pretty close. Again, I don't mind coming out of the chute playing Minnesota because I know our players will be ready, they'll be focused. It will be a fun series to be part of. Q. What concerns, if any, do you have about your power‑play? Seems to have hit a lull. COACH JOHNSON: Well, I haven't thought about it a lot up to this point. As we start getting into the middle part of the week, start practicing, do you have all your personnel back? Are you able to practice in practice at a high enough level so when it gets in a game it's going to be effective? Power‑plays, percentages, sometimes we can look into them a little bit more than what it shows. What I mean by that, you might have two or three power‑plays within a game, and it doesn't go very well. Then all of a sudden the score is 2‑2 in the third period, you score a great power‑play goal, you're one for four, 25%. Sometimes we think about the three that got away from us. But more importantly, when the game's on the line, you really need some energy created, maybe some scoring opportunities, your power‑play comes through, and it's effective for you. You might have a power‑play with 20 seconds to go in a game and you're up 4‑1. So I think the power‑play, is it creating energy within that two minutes? Are you creating scoring opportunities? If you can say yes to those, then your power‑play is doing pretty well. The toughest part of it is trying to get the puck in the net and score. If you're not getting energy out of it, creating scoring opportunities, you have to go back, do a little bit more video, probably have to make some adjustments. Q. This series is arguably the biggest one you have in the second half of the year. Do you like starting off the second half with a big series like this one? COACH JOHNSON: I don't mind it just because as we get on the bus Sunday night and come back, we'll be up to speed, we'll be playing at a real high level. That's the most important part. Obviously we're going up there to try to win a couple hockey games. In years past, we've started our season, I remember one year we had an opening series against Duluth. It gets you going. So I don't mind it at all. It comes down to our preparation. Our players, they did take care of themselves quite well over break. We've had four or five days of practice last week. We have a good week to prep here. It should be a good atmosphere. I'm excited for the challenge. Q. A couple themes going into this series. Special teams. Your penalty kill, best in the country. Their power‑play, best in the country. Aside from goaltending, what things are going to dictate the winner in that particular matchup? COACH JOHNSON: Well, it's our ability to play with good discipline. As you mentioned, history tells us their power‑play generally has been pretty good over the last six or seven years. This year's no different. It's our job to stay out of the penalty box. You might be able to get by with two or three penalties. You start getting into that four‑to‑six range, you're asking for trouble. It's got to be good discipline, and that will give us a better chance to win. If we do get some good power‑play opportunities, it's our ability to capitalize on those. Usually when we play Minnesota, it comes down to who wins those special teams. If our penalty kill is good, our power‑play is good, that gives us a real good chance to win the games. Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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