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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 19, 2015Red BerensonZach HymanDylan LarkinDETROIT, MICHIGAN MICHIGAN – 5 MODERATOR: We're joined by Zach Hyman and Dylan Larkin. Questions for the student‑athletes. Q. Zach and Dylan, you guys emphasized getting off to a quick start all week. How important was it to get that first goal and the second and third as well? ZACH HYMAN: It's huge. You always want to start off well. And it's a big emphasis on us the whole year, starting well in the first, and that was good for us. It helped us a lot so... Q. Penalty kill was working well for you guys. What allowed it to be so successful? Seemed to bring momentum to the team, especially in that third period, killing that 5 on 3? DYLAN LARKIN: We were aggressive. Didn't give them much time to set up. Travis Lynch had a breakaway, and there were some chances, and we took away their time and space, which was good. Q. Your line has obviously been critical to the success of this team. How much did you guys kind of want to put the onus on you, Justin, to try to get this team going tonight? ZACH HYMAN: I think that we rely on all our lines. We're not a one‑time line by any means. For us personally we want to have a good game, play well offensively and defensively. Put our chances in. We had a lot of chances over the weekend against Dayton. We didn't get them in. Today we were lucky we got a few in. So it was good. Q. Explosive offense on display again today. What went well defensively, though, do you think today? DYLAN LARKIN: I think it was a team effort defensively. And Steve played well. And that, and it's going to be huge if he can play like that for the rest of the tournament. And I thought it was a team effort on defense. Q. Zach, can you talk about your second goal. Did it hit you? Where did it hit you? ZACH HYMAN: It hit my stick. I was trying to screen the goalie. Tyler had a good shot on that. And I just took my stick. And nobody really knew where it went. I heard it got the back of the net. I didn't know it went in until somebody pointed there. Q. How do you get this performance‑‑ this was a pretty good game for you guys‑‑ how do you get this to carry over to tomorrow, because that's obviously been an issue for you guys is putting back‑to‑back games together? ZACH HYMAN: Yeah, I mean, just I guess the playing state and what happened with us last week, we still have that bitter taste in our mouth. We're going to be ready to play tomorrow. There's no bigger game than that. We're going to get up for that. MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Coach, an opening statement. COACH BERENSON: First of all, I didn't think it was a five‑run game. If you look at the whole game, particularly in the first half of the third period, when it was‑‑ after they got their goal‑‑ and I thought Wisconsin really turned it up and hit some good scoring. They had chances there for a stretch. 6 to 2 in the third. And Racine held up. And our team held up. And we got the opportunistic goals later on. But even if you take the second and third goal for us, the first one, Sinelli's was kind of a fluke. It wasn't even a shot. It was a pass that deflected off Sinelli out near the top of the circle and ended up going in the net. And then the other one, Zach Hyman deflected it on the Cutler Martin shot. It was a good scoring chance. Nobody realized it was in the net. But we were fortunate. I thought we were opportunistic and our goalie played well. Our penalty killers played well. And you'd say it was a good team effort. That's a game that is kind of a trap game. Wisconsin has had a tough season. And you knew they're capable if they got it going to surprise or upset anybody. And so I'm glad we got away with the win. Q. What explanation, if any, did you get on the Steve Racine delay of game call? COACH BERENSON: I don't think he called Racine. What I called Racine for bumping the net off. So apparently Racine moved the net when he lost his glove. But we thought there would be a whistle, but there is not a whistle if you lose your glove as a goalie. Like otherwise a goalie can be throwing his glove down anytime. But I guess he bumped the net off and that was delay of game. Q. And then with Sinelli's goal, he generated that from behind Michigan's net. Just talk a little bit about producing on the rush like that, starting in your own zone and then producing on the other end. COACH BERENSON: When we're playing well, that's what we'll do, we'll move the puck out of our zone well and with some authority and create a rush, whether it's an outnumbered rush or not. And Sinelli joined the rush in that case and was kind of the center drive guy and Boo and the others made the pass to him and it ended up going in the net. But if you made the perfect play you might not even score. It was just one of those plays. But I like the fact that we came out of our own zone clean. Q. With your backs against the wall, like you obviously are right now, did you think your team played with the type of desperation you wanted? And do you see this team playing with it the rest of the weekend? COACH BERENSON: I thought parts of our team played really well and particularly the penalty killing. I thought our centermen, like we had some big faceoffs when we were tired after an icing and we didn't want to take a timeout, and we played tired and we got the puck out. We won the faceoff, got it out of the zone. Did some good subtle things and played with a sense of urgency. And I think we will tomorrow. Q. Could you talk about what Zach Hyman's first goal meant for you guys to get on the board, and also what he meant for you in this game? COACH BERENSON: I think it was huge. And it was nice to see Zach, because Zach hasn't scored in recent games. He's played really well. It's nice to see him get rewarded. He's been a force for us all year, and we needed to get a good start against this team. And he provided that. And he's one of our best players every night. But it was nice to see him capitalize. Q. The penalty kill has been off and on throughout the season. How important is it to have it on tonight and potentially for the rest of the weekend? COACH BERENSON: It's huge. It's a confidence builder. And it starts with your goalie. And then your forward's willingness to get in the shooting lane or sticks in the passing lanes, blocking shots, winning faceoffs, getting the puck out when you get it. There's a lot more to penalty killing than just penalty killing. There's a lot of little things that have to happen. I thought our guys were dialed in tonight and did a good job. In fairness, Wisconsin hasn't had a lot of momentum on their power play. But we still had to kill it because they had good puck control and they had some good looks. So that's an important part of the game. Q. What went behind your decision to start Steve and what did you like about his performance tonight? COACH BERENSON: You know, it's been back and forth all year between Steve Racine and Zach Naglevoort. And I think Naglevoort won a big game for us in East Lansing last week and then we lost the home game. I can't tell you he lost it. But I just felt that Racine had probably the best part of his season was the GLI. And he came in and he gave us a life against Michigan Tech and then against Michigan State in the championship game. So I thought we would start with him. But we're not through the weekend yet. But it's a good start for Steve and a good start for our team. It's only one game. Q. Could you talk about what you anticipate tomorrow from Michigan State, a team you know pretty well, and also if you have any thoughts on where you're going to go in goal tomorrow at this point? COACH BERENSON: I think we're going to get Michigan State's best game. I mean, we know how they play and they play hard and they play well. They don't give you much. They've got a good goalie. They've got good special teams. They're probably at the top of their game right now. And we know that. But I think we're close to being at the top of our game. So you're going to see a classic Michigan/Michigan State game tomorrow. Q. Is there anything that you care to share about goaltending? COACH BERENSON: We'll talk about it. But Racine has a lot of momentum right now. I'd be surprised if we don't start Racine. MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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