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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEFebruary 23, 2015Mark JohnsonMARK JOHNSON: Certainly pleased with yesterday's game. Listened to it on the radio going through Janesville, first period intermission, and I was waiting to hear the score across my fingers that we were up a goal or two, and listening to the in between, and listening to the in between, and then finally he announced we were winning 2‑1 and I relaxed a little bit. As I was making my way back into LaBahn here, it jumped up to 4‑0, so I got myself dressed and second period ended and my coaching staff was surprised I was standing in the coaches' room. But certainly a great effort, watched the game yesterday after it was finished, and did a lot of things and probably the most important thing, the difference between Friday's game and Sunday's game, as I call it, we got the fish in the boat, and so we had a nice dinner afterwards. We got some pucks behind their goaltender and certainly some of the players that you want to walk away from that game with a little bit more confidence in scoring, we were able to accomplish that. So Sarah Nurse had a nice goal, Brit Ammerman had a nice goal, Emily Clark scored, and so hopefully that success that they had yesterday will carry over to Friday night's game. Q. What's the challenge of facing the same again now in a postseason setting after you just saw them? MARK JOHNSON: Well, the toughest thing is everybody knows quite a bit about each now after having played them in a short period of time. History tells us as you get into games 3, 4, 5, 6 or 7, it becomes more of a chess game, so I'm sure there will be some adjustments on their end as they practice the next three days as well as what we'll try to do. The big thing is that at this time of year your ability to execute under the pressure of the Playoffs, knowing that if you're not successful, the season may end. Both s will make some adjustments and then it's going to come down to everybody's part and executing and playing at a real high level right now, certainly special s, your power play and your penalty kill becomes more magnified in these type of games. Q. You were here last week saying that you hoped that the got the message from that Saturday game against Ohio State late to play at that level. Did you see that on Friday in the opener, despite the loss? MARK JOHNSON: I think so. We talked about coming out and establishing work habits and playing hard for six periods over the course of the weekend. I thought Friday's game, you look at it afterwards, and you lost 2‑1, and you start looking at little pieces of the game, and for most of it we played pretty well. We just didn't score. You know, you've seen enough hockey, I've seen enough hockey, when the goaltender gets hot and the other  is blocking shots and the game continues to go on at 0‑0 or even when you're down 1‑0, you sense at some point this thing may not go in, and so hats off to them. Their goaltender played very well. Kudos to their defensemen and forwards for blocking a lot of shots that you try to get to the net, and at the end of the day, we did a lot of good things, and that's what we built on, and Dan showed a video Saturday morning of a lot of good things that happened in that Friday game, and I think it helped out as they got ready to go yesterday. The difference between Friday and Sunday was that in the first period yesterday we got two goals. I think when you score and then maybe you score a second one‑‑ I don't want to say it relaxes the players, but it relaxes you a little bit where now we can play a little bit harder in the sense that we have a lead, we're able to score, and it just helps with our confidence. Q. What type of a transition does someone like an Emily Clark have to make from whatever level she was at previously to where she is now, and where is she on your arc of expectations for lack of a better way of putting it? MARK JOHNSON: I think for a lot of incoming freshmen, especially probably the last three to five years, the physical component of the game, the strength part of it, that's probably the biggest adjustment that the players coming into this league or throughout women's college hockey is they find out pretty quick that the other players on other s and other players on our are strong. They handle themselves in situations on the ice that would be different than if they were playing for their U‑19 the previous season. As you look at Emily's season, it's like what you'd normally expect a freshman to have. Starts off pretty hot, pretty confident, and then you have some of these little bit of lulls in regards to practicing every day, traveling, trying to get an understanding of a new league, new environments, playing against other good players, and then whatever part of the season, the middle or maybe two thirds through, you see with the players that are committed, that are working at it, you see a jump up, and I think if you saw the goal that she scored yesterday, it's evident that she's growing as a player. She's getting more confident as a player and more comfortable in a college atmosphere. So I'm very pleased with her progression. I think one of the things that's helped her is her stints with Hockey Canada, getting a chance to play at the Four Nations out in Vancouver earlier in the year, and you look at the game that they played against the USA, and they're up a goal with a minute to go, and their coaching staff, Canada's coaching staff has Emily on the ice. Those are situations for a young player when you're put into them, it should instill some confidence that the coaching stuff has confidence putting you in a crucial situation even at a young age. To answer your question, I think with a lot of freshmen, we see these peaks and valleys, and Emily has been no different. But I think the last third here, she's stepped up and become more comfortable and certainly more confident. Q. You've had her with Annie for the last 20‑some games. Is that by design, that you're looking to have two really good freshmen form some really good chemistry, or what's the thought process going into that? MARK JOHNSON: Well, that's‑‑ you've got young players that if you play them early on, you can find out they complement each other. Different types of players, if you look at both of them, the skill level, Emily with her skating ability, her ability to forecheck and get to pucks quickly, and you describe Annie, she's more of a power forward, understands the game, knows where to get to contract the puck and follow the puck, but maybe not quite as fast as Emily. So you have a left‑handed center, you've got a right‑handed right wing that can do that, so the ability to pass the puck a little bit easier to her right side than it was to her left side, and the first few games that we played together it seemed to look pretty good, and then yesterday we‑‑ we've tried at different times in the year, you put Baylee up there, again, you're dealing with speed, young player, we've played them probably six or eight games together, and they generally do pretty well. I like the left‑handed center with a scoring right winger just to get the puck over there. Q. Did you have fun in Lake Placid? MARK JOHNSON: I wasn't there very long, but it was good. It was good. I felt like John Candy coming home, planes, trains and automobiles, but it was good. I was very impressed with the way the program ran. I was very surprised at the number of people. There was quite a turnaround. It wasn't just people from around Lake Placid or New York. I mean, they were driving in from Florida and California and Texas and New Mexico. There was a lot of excitement in the building. There was a lot of energy. There was a bunch of laughter during the program. There were tears shed at the end. As I think everybody left, whether you were a fan and watching or getting an autograph or you were one of the members of the , it was a real enjoyable night. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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