	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCE

February 8, 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: First, I have to apologize, last week I told everybody, you know, bring your skates out and make sure they're sharp because that outdoor ice is harder than normally what we see indoor, but yesterday you didn't need your skates sharpened, we were slushy over there at Violets, but had a good turnout, happy with the players and how they worked with the groups of families that came out yesterday morning and had a wonderful day.

The weather was nice, it was warm, but we needed about another 10 or 15 degrees cooler to make the ice a little bit better but with that said, you know, I was impressed with our effort this weekend.

I thought defensively, you know, in a small rink where things are going to happen quickly, pucks are going to turn over fast we did a good job of not only winning two games but did a good job of protecting areas Friday night's game. They had two extended 5-on-3s; we did a good job of killing penalties, so the take-way is, in building as we move forward, a lot of positive things happened. The most important part is we found a way to win a couple of hockey games, and certainly put us in position this weekend with senior weekend and finishing our home series, hopefully off on a real positive note.

Q. With it being the end of the regular season, do you foresee a lot of tight, low-scoring games the rest of the way here?
COACH JOHNSON: That tends to be what happened the last month with all the games you've seen, a team at the top of our league is playing a team at the bottom, they seem to be real tight, checking, obviously this time of year, special teams is an important factor, so if your power play is working and you end up getting two or three opportunities in the course of the game, you capitalize on one or two of those situations, you give yourself a better chance to win, so it's the race to try to get to two or three, and some nights you can do that quickly and other nights you may not be able to do it, but to answer your question, it seems everybody is defending well, the goaltenders are playing well, and that leads to low-scoring games.

Q. Mark, with John Harrington coming in here this weekend as Mankato's coach, you go back to 1980, and you're the only two guys that went on to coach in college from that '80 team. Does that surprise you? I'm curious about your thoughts about facing a friend like that in a circumstance like this.
COACH JOHNSON: I think it's -- it adds a little bit of flavor to the weekend, you know, it's a long season, a two-semester sport, and you're always looking for things to maybe perk yourself up, so I know when we played up there I was getting e-mails from my former Olympic teammates to make sure we took it easy on the Mavericks when we played up there.

And you know the one thing about John, he's been around, he's coached at a lot of different levels, was very successful at the Division III level, understands the game and now has had time within our league, been around the league, seen different coaching styles, has, you know, been able to coach now the women for a period of time, where he's certainly more comfortable, I'm sure, than he was at the beginning of the season.

So it's fun, it's enjoyable, but as he'll tell you, when the puck drops Saturday afternoon, they're playing to win, as we are; so it becomes competitive. They'll look at video, we'll look at video, and we'll try to bash ideas in regards to how we can make our teams successful, both Saturday and Sunday, but it adds a flavor. It's fun. You know, of all the different teammates that I had on that team, you know, over the course of probably the last eight or ten years, I've probably conversed with him more than any of the other guys just because we're in the business together.

He was scouting the last couple of years prior to him taking the job at Mankato with the Avalanche, and our paths crossed probably more than any of the other players on the team. So I hope he does well, which I think he will do well, because he understands the game and certainly is a very good coach and just needs time now, needs a couple of recruiting classes to move his program forward.

Q. I don't know if you can characterize a class, but as you look at your senior group what would you say about them and their contributions over their time here to the program?
COACH JOHNSON: I would characterize them as persistent, consistent, and from top to bottom, I think, made a big contribution certainly on the ice, but probably equal as important off the ice and the contributions they've made within the community and some of the things that we were able to do to touch our fans and to touch areas that are helpful in creating excitement around our program, creating people coming and watching them.

I think that group has done a job probably equal or better than some of the other classes we've had, so hats off to them.

Q. Coach, I wanted to ask you about one senior in particular, Rachel Jones seems to have been one of the most improved players. What has it been like for you to watch her development, and in her senior year what has allowed her to do so well and take some big strides?
COACH JOHNSON: I think she has great work habits, grew up on the farm, used to leave Sunday afternoon at the Cap Ice Center, playing -- actually played with my daughters, my son's coached her for a number of years. Unlike other high schoolers, she would drive back up into the Fond Du Lac area and have to milk cows from 8 at night till 1 in the morning, get up the next day and drive to high school, and I think the way she was brought up, she's got good work habits, and maybe early on in her career here she wasn't getting the ice time, but continued to work. So if we were going to be successful this year, there was a group of players that we needed to make a contribution and she has certainly been able to do that, so I'm happy for her.

Q. Is there any concern about your team relaxing this week and this weekend, noting, I believe, that you have had a postseason home game announced and knowing who you're playing and Minnesota next week, is there any concern in your mind?
COACH JOHNSON: There are certainly more distractions with it being the last weekend for our seniors. A lot of their parents will be in town; there will be some introductions Sunday before the game, so it's an emotional weekend for that group.

But as I will talk to them shortly, you know, we've been together for, you know, since early September. We've played 30 games, we put ourselves in good position. Now is not the time to let your guard down. You have to continue to do things on a daily basis, when we practice you've got to be focused in and the big thing is to come out Saturday and embrace the weekend, enjoy it, especially from our seniors, it's going to be the last weekend they get a chance to play regular games in LaBahn, so I know we will have big crowds so embrace it, enjoy it, and go out and play free.

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

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297