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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCE

November 23, 2015

Mark Johnson

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: Women's Hockey Head Coach, Mark Johnson, is here. We will have opening comments and take questions.

COACH JOHNSON: Thanks, Brian. Yesterday it felt a little like my playing days! Took a puck off the head at the end of the second period, made my way to the training room, and although in our days we got stitched up. Yesterday they had the staple gun out, and put a few staples in my head. And I knew I had a hard head but it was -- going back in time.

But the games Friday and Sunday were good. I mean, I was concerned Friday at 2:00, usually when the kids are coming from class, and you have a game at 2:00 in the afternoon, you want to make sure they're focused, they have energy, and you know, we knew if we could play at some pace and speed and move the puck, we were capable of, we would create some scoring opportunities. I thought Friday we were able to do that. The kids came to the rink, they were prepared, and the most important part of it is they were focused, they came out, and I think we had 27 or '8 shots on Friday afternoon so that indicated to me that they were ready to play. That carried over into yesterday's game, and I'm very happy with the six periods this past weekend, and as Brian mentioned, we stay in our nonconference schedule.

We haven't played Dartmouth in a few years, but they're certainly a very strong opponent, and it will be an important weekend for us.

Q. 14-0 it's hard to imagine being better, but is this team better than you thought it might have been, and if so in what areas is it outperforming what you might have anticipated?
COACH JOHNSON: I think, as I mentioned last week, I was asked about maybe some kids that have surprised us up to this point, but the goal production is probably a little bit higher than we as a staff anticipated and, you know, if you're able to -- you know, 3, 4, 5 goals a game, your chances, especially if you get past 3, are pretty good of winning a hockey game. So a combination of some kids stepping up, as I mentioned last week, you look at Rachel Jones and Erika Sowchuk, yesterday's game, you know, Sophia Shaver played well, Sarah Nurse got herself back on the scorer's sheet, so it seems like when we need a goal, somebody usually steps up, and that builds confidence in those individual players and at the same time, it gives you an opportunity to win.

So the combination of some kids stepping up and producing some points has been, you know, I don't want to say a surprise, but it's one of the reasons we're undefeated at this point.

Q. You're undefeated, you're ranked first in the country, but is there still the feeling that -- I don't know it's not for a couple of weeks, but is there still the feeling of you've gotta beat Minnesota?
COACH JOHNSON: Do we gotta beat Minnesota? I thought we were playing Dartmouth Friday? If you come into coaches' shoes, yeah, you look at the schedule and you find games that you might circle, or the players circle that are important, and certainly our four games this year against Minnesota are going to be important, but you can't look ahead.

The big thing about nonconference games is that if you're successful in it, when you get to the end and the NCAA starts putting, you know, the power rankings and information together, you know, head-to-head competition within your schedule, and also within your opponent's schedule, so if you're successful against Lindenwood, who plays in the CHA, you compare against Mercyhurst and some of the teams in their league, you know, now we're 2-0 against that conference, which is helpful.

Same thing this weekend against Dartmouth. If you're successful, then you start going head-to-head matches and conference matches and opponent's opponents matches against Harvard and Clarkson and teams that they play against, so that's what you look at.

You know, when Minnesota gets on our schedule in a couple of weeks, you know, we'll start to focus in on them, but you can't look ahead of yourself, all that does is get you in trouble.

Q. Is it hard to keep 18 to 21 years old from looking ahead?
COACH JOHNSON: I think the athletes in college with their cell phones and social media, having probably friends on the opposition, either have played against them over the course of their high school careers or maybe have seen them on national teams or Under-18 teams, that stuff you can't stay away, but we as coaches on our approach, on a daily basis, have to stay focused in on the task at hand, and I think if you're around us or you're around our locker room, we're thinking about what we need to do to get ourselves better.

I think if you can do that in small increments and get yourselves ready, for us, Friday night's game 7:00 against Dartmouth, and then as I look at each game and each weekend, what did we do well, show the players some of the things we did well, and what do we need to improve on, and show some things and areas that we can get better, that's the objective.

Sounds simple, it may be cliche, cliche to it, but that's how you have to approach it.

Q. Courtney Burke has joined a select group of defensemen at Wisconsin, but she is more than a point getter, isn't she?
COACH JOHNSON: If you watch us play, our ability to puck possess has been pretty good up to this point, and when you have skilled players and you have the puck, that's really a good thing in our game. Courtney has a very high skill level. She worked extremely hard this summer to upgrade her conditioning level, and I think it's showed at this point. Plus the fact that both her and Jenny had to play some big minutes this past weekend, couple of our defensemen haven't played in the last three or four games, so their minutes went up, and having a break Saturday in between our games I think helped them.

She's playing well, and hopefully she will continue to have the success she has had the first part of the season.

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

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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