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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCENovember 16, 2015Mark JohnsonMadison, Wisconsin THE MODERATOR: Head Women's Hockey Coach, Mark Johnson is here. We will have an opening comment, then take questions. COACH JOHNSON: Thanks, Brian. Certainly pleased with the overall effort Friday and Saturday afternoon up in Duluth. I thought the team came out after having a weekend off came out and had good energy and established a pace that we talked about prior to the games up in Duluth, so it was a good way to come out Friday, and I thought Jenny Ryan played probably her best game of her career, number one star Friday afternoon, and had a hand in all three of the goals, and certainly, you know, had a big impact on our victory. And Courtney Burke, same type of effort, and was able to establish herself, scored some big goals over the weekend. Saturday's game our power play was effective, we ended up scoring three power play goals. Again, pleased with the effort. Now we get a chance to step out of the league and play a couple of weekend of nonconference games and actually play six straight home games prior to heading up to Grand Forks before Christmas break, so eight games before we get ready for finals, and certainly the team is in good position right now and the object as a coaching staff and collectively as a group is how do we get better, keep pushing ourselves to try to improve. Q. Was the there shock when you guys finally gave up a goal and did the team remember what that feeling was like? How did they handle it? COACH JOHNSON: Probably two different ways. One, a little bit stunned that the puck went in from the angle where the young lady from Duluth shot it from, and if Ann-Renée had it back, she would probably like to have that shot over again because 99 times out of 100, she would probably stop it, but over the course of the last couple of weekends, there were a few bounces and things that have happened that have kept the puck out, so those tend to even themselves out over the course of a winter, but I think after the game it was probably a little bit of a relief, that I think, as an athlete, and certainly whether you're our goaltender Ann-Renée, and some of the other players, I think the big thing was nobody wanted to be on that ice when that goal happened. Now it's happened, it's over with and we move forward on how we improve. So it's an impressive compliment to our team, and certainly to the goaltender for, you know, keeping a zero up there for so long. It's tough to do in our business, and you never go into a season or get into a streak like this and start thinking about, yeah, we're going to get a shut-out or do this in the next three or four games, we're not going to give up any goals, because it's probably not realistic for those type of things to happen. Those type of records just happen; you don't emphasize those things. You don't talk about it, you don't want to jinx it. It's over with. The big thing is we came out with a real solid win Saturday afternoon. Q. Before the season one of your concerns was where the goals would come from this year, other than maybe Annie Pankowski. That hasn't been a problem. Are there people in particular who have stepped up for you that pleased you beyond maybe what you expected? COACH JOHNSON: As I look over the last couple of weekends, Erika Sowchuk jumps out. She played strong in her two games up in Mankato with us missing a couple of players, scored each night in her afternoon games up in Duluth. Rachel Jones I think has six goals right now, so as we sat in here in early September, you looked at some of the kids that we were hopeful were going to make a contribution, especially early on in the season, because if they were able to do that, it would build their confidence. I particularly like where Erika and Rachel have taken their games. They've obviously got more responsibility, they're getting more minutes than they have in previous years, and they're taking advantage of it. Q. You mentioned Jenny Ryan. She is a heck of a defenseman. Would you consider her a solid two-way defenseman? COACH JOHNSON: I think so. Early in Saturday's game, Melissa Channell went down and missed a bunch of minutes, and so Maddie Rolfes didn't make the trip up to Duluth so we were down a couple of defensemen, so when that happens usually your top two, three defensemen get more minutes, so for Jenny both Friday and Saturday she ate up a lot of minutes. She controls one of our power plays. I think the one thing she has done the last probably three or four weekends is we seem to get a lot of pucks back to our defensemen. One of the objectives is to try to get pucks to net or look for people for tip-ins, and she has done a real good job. Erika Sowchuk's goal Friday afternoon was Jenny keeping her head up, seeing Erika come through a scene there in the middle of the ice and a great deflection. Those things you work on, and now you're seeing them being executed on the ice, and certainly, as I said earlier, she was a big part of our win Friday and certainly a big part over the whole weekend. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? Thanks, Mark. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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