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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCE

January 4, 2016

Mark Johnson

Madison, Wisconsin

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

COACH JOHNSON: Thanks, Brian. Happy New Year to everybody. I guess my opening comments just sorta reflect maybe on the first half of the season. A lot of good things came out of it. A lot of things that, you know, maybe we didn't anticipate, but I think that the nice thing is I think as you find out every year it's nice to get a little bit of a break. It's nice for the players to go home, get a chance to relax, spend some time with their families, enjoy the holidays, then I think as they come back, especially in our sport here, where it's a two-semester sport, we get to spend about two and a half to three weeks focusing on hockey, not having to worry about school, and it's a good time to take that next step as far as our growth within our team.

You can see the energy level as the kids come back, last week. We've had 4 or 5 practices now as we prepare for Duluth Friday afternoon. It's like the beginning of the season. There is that little bit of step in their skating, smiles on their faces. They're excited to come back and certainly excited to start really our second half. The first three weekends, against Duluth, then going up to Bemidge and then coming back here against North Dakota will get us right up to speed real quickly.

Q. Mark, what didn't you anticipate about the first half?
COACH JOHNSON: Probably the shut-out streak that our goaltenders went through. You know, you never think about being in that position. Then, say, eight or nine games into it, it moves on, and answering questions and having our players dealing with it, you know, that's something that, you know, my crystal ball didn't have in it.

Q. With how well you guys did play in the first half, are there any negatives to having a month break, in essence?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, it depends what you do. It gives you time to heal up and, as I mentioned, the positive side of it, especially for our younger players, our freshmen, going through finals, getting a chance to go home and spending time with their families, that's usually the best part of it.

Then as they come back, it's knocking the rust off and trying to get up to speed as quick as you can. It takes, you know, four or five good quality days on the ice and in the weight room. It's like riding a bike, it doesn't take long to get back to where I need to get back to, and now it's our ability to do it against an opponent, and we will find on that out Friday afternoon.

Q. Mark, what was the emotional carryover from your last series, the one ending the first half. You had the unbeaten streak, and it ends, and you're on the road against a tough opponent. Was that something that stuck in your players' craws a little bit? Was it a good thing? How would you evaluate that experience?
COACH JOHNSON: Probably both. It was something that, you know, leaves a bad taste in your mouth, especially the first game and having it be our first loss of the season. The learning points and the teaching points that you take away from, okay, why did it happen? So as that game unfolded and as you talk to the team the next morning, you know here are some things that we need to learn from it. Nobody liked to lose the game, but the reasons, why did we lose, you can point out two or three things and see how the team responds, and that's what -- and our coaching staff looked at it from how are we going to respond to our first loss and come back the next night?

We played very well, had 45 plus shots, a lot of quality scoring opportunities, their goaltender was equal to the task. We actually could have lost the game. They got a power play with a minute and a half to go in the game and had a couple of chances, and in a game that we played very well, we could have lost that second game 1-0, but we were fortunate enough to win in the shoot-out, get that extra point, and that's something you can take away from a positive experience that might help us down the road.

You know, it lingers, because you don't get to play the next weekend. We had to wait four weeks before we play another game, so it sits in there, and you look at it for a period of time, but I think from a player's stand point and certainly things that we address with our group is how can we learn from it. That's the most important part of it, and I think we can take some lessons away from it as we go down the stretch here.

Q. Mark, this is in regards to Annie Pankowski. There seems to be a little bit of her predecessors in her game. You clearly see Hilary Knight, a little bit of Meghan Duggan in her. Are those comparisons fair? Do you see the same things or are these eyes bad?
COACH JOHNSON: Well, you don't have your glasses on so they probably are bad right now? (Chuckles.) No, I mean, those are fair points. As you look at her and the more you watch her, what makes her special, why she is able to score, why is she able to do some of the things. I think one of the common denominators, amongst the players that you mentioned is that inner drive. She has big goals. She has things that she wants to plush here at Wisconsin and certainly with the national team and trying to make the next Olympic team, so I think in the back of her mind those are things that pushes her on a daily basis. If you look at some of the elite players and the players that have excelled out of our program at the national level with the different Olympic teams, they had big goals.

They went about their business on a daily regimen and over the course of time, a lot of them got a chance to fulfill those goals, and I see a lot of those things that you mentioned in Annie, wanting to push herself. She just got back from camp late Sunday night and, again, the learning opportunity. Last year got a chance to play in the Worlds. You talk to our players early on in the year, September camp, they all noticed a difference in her, wow, she looks good, she looks really good.

So she is having another fine season and hopefully she will finish strong, get a chance to play in the Worlds again this spring and continue to grow.

Q. What did you learn from Duluth and the new coaching staff the first experience that you had with them a couple months back?
COACH JOHNSON: I think as the season started to unfold and you look at their competition, their games, footage, they started to get more comfortable within what their new system was going to be. Shannon left her some skilled players. Back on the blue line, she left a good goaltender; they brought in the a young goaltender that's played very well for them, so their staff has had some ingredients to work with, and I think they've done a real nice job. I don't think their head coach is going to be here this weekend. She is part of the Under-18 World team that's competing up in St. Catharines, so again, as time goes on and they practice more and play more games their players are going to get more comfortable with their coaching staff, but I was yes -- I was very impressed when I was up there early on, and they're coming off a couple of games before Christmas down at Ohio State. They came away with two victories, and if you've ever been down there and played in their barn, it's a tough place to win. It's a small rink and it requires some things prior to going in there to prepare yourself for, but they came away with two wins, so I'm sure they felt good going into Christmas break and an opportunity to come down here and get their second half started.

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

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