|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEJanuary 20, 2014Mark JohnsonTHE MODERATOR: The women's hockey team, currently ranked No. 2 in the country, returns for a series with Minnesota Duluth on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is a 2:00 p.m. start while Sunday's game at LaBahn Arena begins at 3:00 p.m. Head Coach Mark Johnson will make comments and then take questions. COACH JOHNSON: A couple of things from the weekend. Obviously, the big one is getting Alex back in the net Saturday afternoon. She's been chomping at the bit a little bit. Gave her an opportunity. She looked comfortable, played well. Gave us an opportunity to win. So she'd been practicing hard for eight to ten days. It's tough to duplicate game situations, but it was nice to get her in, and certainly with the victory, she reached a milestone. Very happy with certainly her performance Saturday afternoon. But happy with the way she was patient, worked with our trainer, Denny, for a long period of time and got herself back in position to play. It's a unique position. If you've never had a chance to put goalie equipment on, I would suggest getting the opportunity one day to go try it. It's tough to put on and then actually go on the ice and perform. I was happy for Alex, and her family was up there and watched the victory. So it was a big moment for her. Q. Mark, did you think that record would go down when Jessie won three National Championships, won the Patty Kaz, the whole deal? Did you see that record as vulnerable at all? COACH JOHNSON: No, to be honest, I didn't know if anybody would get that much playing time and the team get that many victories over a long period of time. But Jessie played boys high school, Alex played AAA midget boys high school in the Milwaukee area. And she got an opportunity her freshman year to come in and obviously play at a good team, but more importantly gain the experience I think any freshman wants to gain and have success. You put the two together, you know, she came in her sophomore year and outperformed herself from her stats in her freshman year. So she's done it a long time. She's been consistent. And when players have good habits and are able to do things for a long period of time, these are the things that fall into place. So didn't think anybody was going to touch Jessie just because of the record that she had and the way she performed over a long period of time, but hats off to Alex for getting an opportunity, preparing herself, and making the most of it. Q. How do you manage now, with Alex back, the goaltending? Do you give it to her twice a week starting now, or do you kind of ease her back in? I've got to imagine it's kind of tough with the way Ann‑Renee has played. COACH JOHNSON: I was waiting for that question, who you going to play. But it's a good problem to have. Obviously, Ann performed very well with the game she's played, and now we've got a situation where it's good from a coaching standpoint. You progress how the week goes in practice and take one game at a time, knowing that you have two goaltenders that are capable of going in there and giving yourself a chance to win. The two games, as Brian mentioned, Saturday at 2:00 and then Sunday at 3:00, and then we have a weekend off, and then we finish up with four games on the road and two games at home. So it's a situation where, again, as a coach, you're managing your players, you're managing their energy level, you're managing a lot of different things. As we get closer to Saturday, you can start to make some decisions in regards to Saturday's game. Q. Mark, I know you're not a huge stat person, but when you look and see that the top two goaltenders in the country in goals against and save percentage are playing on the same team right down the‑‑ your team, does it‑‑ the level of confidence that this team has in both of them, is it the same? Sometimes it deviates from goaltender to goaltender. I'm curious, with the way your team is playing defense right now, if the level is right there for both of them? COACH JOHNSON: I think it is. The more Ann played, I think the more the players in front of her got comfortable. Some of the saves she made over that playing time, the way she handled herself, maybe against North Dakota in the first game where we ended up losing 4‑1 and she responded and came back the next day and played very strong, made some real nice saves in that game. I think as players watch those things transpire, they get more comfortable. So to answer your question, I think the team's comfortable with either goaltender. Prior to Alex getting hurt up in Duluth, probably for the previous three or four games that she played in, she was what you call in that zone. She was focused, and she was seeing the puck very well. That's her objective right now, is to try to find that place again. Having her play Saturday, looking comfortable, playing well, that's just a matter of giving her more playing time. But I think the team's very comfortable with either goaltender at this point. Q. Alex has made no secret of the fact that not being on the Olympic team has been a motivation for her, that it still kind of sticks in her craw that that decision was made. To what degree has that also played into Courtney Burke's play this year? COACH JOHNSON: I think for any athlete, if they feel that they should be at a certain spot or on a certain team and they don't get that opportunity, you come to a crossroads: Do I become this and go on about business, or do I look on the other side of it and say I'm going to go out and not only prove to myself but, more importantly, maybe prove to some other people that maybe they made a wrong decision. So when the next opportunity comes around, I'm going to put myself in a position to make sure that I'm going to be on that certain team. You look at both Courtney or Alex, you know, they've been able to do that. We were talking to Alex a couple weeks after she got released. Again, she was over it pretty quick. Does it sting? Does it hurt? Absolutely. So her motivation was to come into this season and prove to everybody not only within our league but around the country that she wasn't going to let that affect her play. In fact, she was going to come out and play stronger than she ever has before. Easy to talk about, but hard to do, and certainly Courtney and Alex have been two players that played a big part in us having success this season up to this point. Q. What kind of a spark has Brittany been after missing time last year, being back on the ice this year? COACH JOHNSON: Well, she's leading us in scoring. I'm happy for two reasons. One, with some of the athletes, coaches have to be part of is making sure that they're healthy and they get up and they can lead a productive life. Certainly a year ago there was a lot of unanswered questions whether she was going to be able to do that, but over the course of time‑‑ she spent a lot of quality time in the spring last year to condition herself, to get herself back to the point where she could get back on the ice, and then over the course of the summer continued to do that. The big thing from, I think, our coaching staff standpoint was hopefully she'd get off to a good start. And she was able to do that. And that built the confidence, I think, that she needed to have in herself that she could go out and play at a high level and be successful. We're very happy, one, that she's healthy and she can lead a productive life, but obviously the second factor that she's going on the ice and playing at a high level. Certainly like Courtney and like several other players on the team, she's a cog that has given us an opportunity to win hockey games. She scored some big goals Saturday afternoon, got a shorthanded goal to make it 2‑0. So she's led by example, and I give her a lot of credit because I'm not sure a lot of athletes would have put the time and energy and committed themselves to getting themselves back on the ice, but she has. It's nice to see her get rewarded because of her efforts. Q. You've only played three games since that Saturday loss to North Dakota, but have you seen any positive differences in the group, kind of a refocus maybe, since that loss? COACH JOHNSON: I think the challenge was how we were going to respond Sunday afternoon after North Dakota beat us 4‑1. That was a challenge to the team, and I thought, other than maybe the first four or five minutes of Sunday's game, it was a very positive response. You know, talked to some of the fans that were at that game, and they certainly saw a different team than maybe they saw Saturday. But, as every game you play, it's a learning opportunity. And certainly the success this team had for a long period of time‑‑ I don't want to say you take some things for granted, but sometimes maybe you do take winning for granted. All of a sudden you get beaten‑‑ and North Dakota played well Saturday afternoon in that game, and you give them credit. But, more importantly, how are you going to respond? I like the way we responded. Certainly our Friday game up in Bemidji was a build‑off of what we did Sunday against North Dakota. So the response was good. Hopefully they keep that in the back of their heads and as they prepare for the next game they make sure they do the little things and the things necessary to win hockey games and do it for 60 minutes because of the game we ended up losing against North Dakota. You do it for 45 or 50 minutes, but when you play a good opponent‑‑ North Dakota is one of the top five teams‑‑ you're not going to get away with things if you don't do it the entire game. Again, it's a learning opportunity for not only the coaching staff but certainly the players. THE MODERATOR: Anything else for Coach? Thanks, Mark. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|