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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCE

October 26, 2015

Mike Eaves

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: Men's Head Hockey Coach, Mike Eaves is here and he will take questions.

Q. Going up against a new program. How much do you know about them? For teams that are probably eager to get wins, how does this fit?
COACH EAVES: What we know about their team is they will be an older team. They will be a gritty team, they will work their fannies off, from people that we have talked to, so I guess nothing new, more than any other team coming in here. You know, it's another opportunity for us to get our first win of the year.

This past weekend being disappointed as we were on Saturday, we broke down the film and honest to Pete, we had enough chances to score as many goals as we did on Friday night and just didn't find the back of the net, but for people that are looking at our record and seeing that, probably if they're just a casual observer, they're not seeing us on a day-to-day basis and really seeing where we've come. And we as a coaching staff know that. I think the players feel that but until they get their first win under their belt to really solidify the direction we're going -- so that first one would be good but we're doing many, many good things, and can't wait to get on the ice again today and get slugging at it again and keep moving forward.

Q. You've oftentimes used the phrase moments or "moment of truth" and you had several of those in third period and it again kind of showed the resilience of your club this past Saturday night; right?
COACH EAVES: Again, it goes to when you break down a game statistically, you're looking at scoring chances for and against, and the scoring chances in the third period were clearly in our favor and hit the post, and had a rebound that we put over the net, and we did in good things. Even when we pulled our goalie, we had chances to put the puck in the net, so, again, when you're getting those chances, that's what you're looking for in the big picture. Those things will start going in, and we will be getting those "W's" that we're looking for.

Q. What do you make of an Arizona State having a Division I hockey program, and what does it mean for college hockey?
COACH EAVES: It could be a door that could swing open here, with the Big 12, and it's interesting -- one factor that people don't talk a lot about is that the National Hockey League, the teams that are on the west coast, your LAs, your Anaheims, the Vancouvers, all those teams, they've now got their American Hockey League affiliates on the west coast.

So that's going to be an influx of more hockey to that part of the country, which will elevate the interest in the game, and that could be another catalyst for colleges looking at it. People are going to talk about it more because there's more hockey out there. And they're very -- the Big 12 is very similar in its branding to the Big Ten, and it would be a great adjunct. I'm not saying that's going to happen in three years, but I think it's a factor of having those American Hockey League affiliates out there that could be out there and a really thing for college hockey to get its foot in there.

Q. Matt played most of the time out in Boston, but what did you think of his back-to-back starts at Ferris State?
COACH EAVES: We talk about this all the time with young goal tenders. When a forward makes a mistake you got the defensemen to back them up, when a "D" makes a mistake, the goalie is there, and when a goaltender makes a mistake, there is nobody there. And there were a couple of goals -- I think the first one on Friday was one that he had stopped with his pad on a wrap-around and reached down to grab it with his hand, and he pushed it in the net himself. He would like to have that one back, and so there was plays that he would like to have back, but overall, again, for being a freshman, he played outstanding at times, and we need to build on those moments.

Q. Kind of a -- you were talking about the things that you're seeing improving, special teams for sure; would you agree with that? What have you seen that leads you to believe that they can even be better, both power play and penalty kills?
COACH EAVES: If we talk about the penalty killing first, Associate Head Coach Luke has that part of the game for us, and the goals that we have been scoring haven't been plays where they've gone tic-tack-toe, they've actually been broken plays, where they have taken advantage of having an extra man, so I think we are doing some good things there, our percentage should be higher, but we're spending less time in our zone because our forecheck is better. We're exiting the puck when we have the opportunity, which is good because it means we're playing at the level we need to there, so I think we're in good hands there, we're doing good things.

I think from a power play standpoint, again, as an offensive guy you want to make sure you're creating chances, and we did that. I thought our breakouts on Saturday, we had good spacing, we were able to gain the zone with control on a small sheet, which is difficult to do but we did nice things there.

The chances that we had were grade-A chances, and finding the back of the net is something we will continue to work at, but as a coach, what you want to make sure of first and foremost is that are we getting the chances, because if we are then the goals will come.

Q. You mentioned that fans just look at the record and they might not be able to see --
COACH CHRYST: Yeah.

Q. I was wondering if they might be able to see something where you have two games where you've scored, where you've had to pull your goalie, and the team has had that resiliency, that fight-back and not-give-up attitude?
COACH EAVES: It's been fun to be around them, not only ability to pull our goalie and score some goals but being down in the third period and finding a way to get back kind of speaks to the character of this group, and I think a lot of it is they're young kids, and they don't give up, and they come out and fight and claw, and the energy is there. I think for people that haven't seen this team yet, we are a faster team. We have an overall higher level of skill on this team than last year, and that's kind of exciting stuff to work with.

THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? Thanks, Mike.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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