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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 8, 2015Dave HakstolNick MattsonZane McIntyreStephane PattynBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS THE MODERATOR: We will begin with some opening thoughts from Coach Hakstol. COACH HAKSTOL: I just want to give a shout‑out to the Boston Police Department. With the guys next to me, they've got a smile and they're chuckling a little bit, and with all the important things, the things they could be doing with their time, especially in particular in the city of Boston. I'll tell you what, we had five guys today that got us to the rink with a police escort that was absolutely phenomenal. Those guys taking their day, spending the day, taking care of us. The bus was actually hooting and hollering. It was a real deal. Just a little shout‑out to those guys for taking care of us when I know there's other important things they could be doing. It's good to be in Boston for the Frozen Four. You know, it's getting close to game day here, so as you get closer and closer to game day, the focus tends to narrow a little bit. But our group is coming out of a good 35, 40‑minute skate. I thought we were loose, pretty sharp, and a good day leading into game day tomorrow. Q. Nick, Frozen Four, thoughts? How are things going? NICK MATTSON: It's exciting to be back here. I think the biggest thing that I've noticed is there's a lot of outside things that are easy to distract a team, and it's a good experience to go through that last year. I think we're not as wide‑eyed about the whole experience this year and we're much more focused. The whole city has done a good job of putting it on, but I think the team has a more focused feel this year for sure. Q. Zane, have you been to Boston much? ZANE McINTYRE: Yeah, here and there in the summertime. It's been good. Like Matt said, it's a real narrow focus here that we're coming for business, so it's been fun so far, and we're looking forward to the rest of the weekend. STEPHANE PATTYN: Yeah, it's been a good year. We've had a long year. We've had success, up and downs and stuff, so to be back at the Frozen Four obviously has been our goal all year, and I really like the way our team has come into this weekend focused and just ready for business. Q. Dave, I wonder if you might talk about Zane's technical presence on the ice, what he does best. And, Zane, you must have looked around the Bruins' locker room a little bit and thought about what it might be like to be there in a couple years. COACH HAKSTOL: I think it's a mistake asking me to analyze a goaltender. Zane stops a lot of pucks. I don't mean to make light of it. If you want to discuss the technical aspect, probably leave that to Karl Goehring and our goaltender coach and Zane himself. But I always look in key positions for presence in players, and that I can speak to. I think Zane, whether it's off the ice, away from a game day, or a game day on the ice, I think Zane brings that presence of a No.1 goaltender, and I know our guys in the locker room, we talk a lot about trust, trusting one another, and our team has a lot of trust in Zane as a person and as a teammate. ZANE McINTYRE: Yeah, it's hard not to notice the big B in the middle of the floor and stuff. I mean, they covered it up and carpeted it up, but it's pretty cool, obviously. But I think obviously as Matt said, the focus is narrow and stuff, and all my energy and all my effort is for this weekend here. Everything on the ice will take care of itself. I think that's kind of been a mentality that I learned at a young age from Tim Bergland, our high school coach, and just tried to put that towards my hockey and towards life, really. Q. This is for Zane. Obviously a lot of Bruin fans are going to be following you this weekend, but when they drafted you, you had a different name. Could you kind of give us the background on that? ZANE McINTYRE: Yeah, I could talk about this for days, I guess, really. It's just a personal choice. A really close‑to‑home choice that I wanted to do for myself, for my family, and to honor my grandma, Susan McIntyre. Growing up as a kid my mom would work a couple jobs at a time just to support my sister and I, and my grandma would be the one who would drive us everywhere on the weekends, whether it was five hours on a weekend or 12 or 15 hours. She'd always be willing to drive us and stuff. With that, it's kind of special. In hockey you get to build a bond with like players and teammates, but also the people who you travel with, and I think that kind of hit home a lot, too, when she passed away in 2011. Just an honor for her and what she did for myself and our family. I took her last name, and now I'm Zane McIntyre. Q. For people who aren't familiar with the style of hockey that you guys play, how would you describe it? STEPHANE PATTYN: I'll take that one. I think that's something we really pride ourselves on, especially in our locker room, just kind of everyone committing to one goal, everyone committing to one kind of process. I think that's really instilled by our coaching staff starting with Coach Hakstol. It's just going out and doing whatever it takes to win and kind of playing with a whole lot of pride. I think that's a word we use a lot is pride and kind of passion in our game. That starts with guys who have come through the program and guys who have gave back to the program and the tradition of playing at North Dakota. I think the main thing is probably just very proud and a lot of passion. Q. Nick, style of hockey? NICK MATTSON: Yeah, I think specifically for our team, it's probably depth. If you look at our roster up and down, there's not a lot of high scorers, but there's not a lot of teams that can match us lines 1 through 4 and I think that's where we've been able to find some success, not necessarily overpowering teams with one or two guys, it's rolling out four lines throughout a 60‑minute game that can really wear an opponent down. I think especially this year, I think everybody has had that realization they have to take ownership and contribute because if one guy is not pulling the rope we're not going to have much success, and any time we've had success this year, it's because everybody is going in the same direction, so it's fun. I think that's when you get the tightest teams, when everyone feels like they have a really large piece to contribute, so it's been a really fun ride all year. Q. Coach, care to chime in? COACH HAKSTOL: No, it's their team. I think the guys spoke to it well. Q. You blocked a lot of shots last weekend. Was that a conscious recommitment or has it been like that all season for you? STEPHANE PATTYN: I think, again, it's kind of just a buying‑in thing. Everyone is ready to do whatever it takes to win, and I think that says a lot about our team.  Blocking shots is a big part of the game. I think especially when you're playing a team with very good defense, and we know BU has very agile, skilled defensemen, we're ready to do what it takes. And I think it shows with the amount of blocked shots that we have that everyone is buying in and everyone is committed. Q. For anybody who wants to answer it, what were the lessons that you guys learned from last year's Frozen Four, how it ended and how it's fueled you this year to get to this point and what you can do to kind of get over that and play for a national championship? NICK MATTSON: You know, as far as how things ended last year, I think we kind of put that behind us. But, again, I think this weekend is pretty unique from others, and it's really easy to kind of lose touch of the fact that it's still the same game. There's so many things surrounding this event, and I think last year just going through that, it was probably a little overwhelming at times, and I think we handled it well, but especially this year I think there's just a lot more confidence and just a lot‑‑ a much bigger sense of calm in the locker room just knowing that we're here to play hockey and not here to be a part of all this events and media scrums or whatever. It's been fun, and we're going to try to enjoy it, but the focus is a lot more narrow I think this time around just from that experience. Q. For any of you guys, you spoke to it a little bit earlier, Nick and Steph, about the depth of your team and you've had guys step up when other guys have gone down. How important is that? STEPHANE PATTYN: Yeah, I can take that. I think probably one of the biggest things we've seen, especially with Mark going down I guess a month ago now, has been guys stepping up. You've got Wade Murphy stepping up and playing really, really well. He's playing hard. He's playing the way he has to play, and that just shows the depth and just that everyone is ready. Like it's been a long year, we've been working every day and stuff, and I think guys have just been prepared for those opportunities and ready. Again, like Nick said earlier, depth in our lineup doesn't just go through four lines, it goes with the guys who are working their butts off on days off to try and get in the lineup, and when they get that chance they're ready. You saw Andrew Panarella step up last weekend and do that exact same thing. It's those guys that are putting in the hours away from the rink on days off and things like that that are coming in and ready to make a difference. Q. Coach, maybe you can comment on two of the nation's most storied programs meeting in the national semifinal and how good that is for college hockey fans, just the excitement surrounding the tournament. COACH HAKSTOL: Yeah, on different levels. Nick spoke to the level that our team is focused on, the job at hand, playing the game itself. But on the larger stage in terms of college hockey, it's a great match‑up in the national semifinal. Obviously in Boston University's hometown, not too far from their campus, it brings a great spotlight, a great stage to college hockey with the history and tradition of both programs. And then you have that inner layer that is simply the game itself. That's what you hear our players speaking to over the last few minutes. I'm sure the same from Boston University's players. It shapes up to be a great game. The intensity that will be involved in this game will be tremendous. The pace will be excellent, and it should be an outstanding college hockey game. Q. This is for Zane. I was just wondering, I know you had focused on the whole team as opposed to individual guys, but what have you seen on film from the Eichel line and some of the other guys on BU's team that you guys can use as tools? ZANE McINTYRE: Yeah, I think any hockey team there's a level of pre‑scouting and stuff, looking at other players' tendencies and stuff like that. We obviously know BU as a whole is a fast, quick hockey team. They have a lot of speed. They get up the ice really well. More notably on like the Eichel line, too, they're big players who use power moves and stuff. They've got a lot of skill on that line. It'll be a fun match‑up, I think as a whole. Collectively as a team we're looking forward to that, and you know what, it's going to be fun. Q. Coach, question about running the gauntlet of the NCHC this year, what that was like, and if any of the players want to comment on being battle tested coming through the regular season and the tournament and your league. COACH HAKSTOL: Yeah, we felt like every single weekend we were running into another good team. There were some highs along the way, some good weekends. There were some tough weekends, and in some respects there were some humbling weekends. When you fall off a weekend where you're not going all that well but you're playing another good team and you're trying to prepare for another group of top‑level players, those are all good things as you go through the stress of a regular season. You know, we ran a little bit low on energy. We got a little bit away from our game a couple weeks ago. You know, there's some added reasons for that. But I think maybe some of the experiences that we went through, both the ups and the downs through the regular season, continued to help us have a short memory and just get back to work. Some good lessons learned as you come through a tough conference schedule. Q. Nick, battle tested? NICK MATTSON: Yeah, we certainly feel that way. I mean, I think there's probably not too many programs around the country that the players are under as much scrutiny or have as high of expectations as that surrounds ours. That's a big reason we all came to North Dakota. We wanted to play the best and be in those pressure situations. It was a blast going through that tough schedule, and every game was meaningful. It can be hard at times, but I think we came out a really strong team, and we're just really excited now to have our biggest challenge of the year. We've been facing these challenges all year, and I think obviously through those experiences you gain confidence, and you know you can rely on one another because you've been in those situations before. Q. Steph, what was the atmosphere like at the Regional last week? STEPHANE PATTYN: Yeah, Fargo was quite an unbelievable atmosphere. Small rink, a lot of fans, a lot of North Dakota fans. A few times you couldn't hear the whistle or talk to your teammates, but I think that kind of added to it. Skating out onto the ice gave us a bit of a jump, gave us a bit of an energy which we really enjoyed. All in all, it was just a great experience, a very good Regional, and we're just happy to be here. Q. Just to follow up on that, I know you guys pride yourselves or really your fans' ability to make any game a home game for you. You're going to need that going up against Boston in Boston. Just talk about the dedication and the passion of your fans. I know you've got a big charter coming. I'm sure there's more than that, as well. ZANE McINTYRE: Yeah, growing up in the area, just an hour out of Grand Forks, it was pretty crazy just to live in that environment and stuff where everyone is bleeding green, like it's just UND through and through. I think if you look back, road trips that we have this year, Denver, Omaha, Colorado College, there's been hundreds of thousands of fans that come out for that. It's been pretty cool to meet some of the individuals. I know there's a special individual that drives up and flies out from Texas every weekend, whether we're in Alaska or whether we're in Omaha or whether we're at home. It's pretty cool to be a part of that and be part of a program with that much pride and tradition and stuff. I think you'll see that this weekend here in Boston, as well. Granted, it's in BU's backyard and stuff, but it's going to be fun to see how many UND fans will be showing and repping their colors this weekend. Q. For Zane, can you talk about your relationship with Matt Grzelcyk a little bit? You guys are both Bruins' prospects. Have you exchanged in the texts or anything like that recently? ZANE McINTYRE: Yeah, Grz and I went to camp I think the past couple years. I think it was his third camp this summer, my fifth. It feels like a long time, I guess. Yeah, we've had a good relationship, obviously, at those camps. It's kind of a little cliquey I guess with college guys hanging out together and OHL and the major junior guys. We got to know Grz pretty well over the past couple summers, and it's been pretty cool to see him grow and develop here at BU. Yeah, there's been texts here and there throughout the summers that we've met. I think there's maybe been an Instagram selfie or something thrown in there, too. Yeah, it's been good so far, and it's been pretty cool to have hockey do that and bring so many connections and stuff like that. It's pretty cool and pretty special. Q. Coach, you got any Instagram selfies? COACH HAKSTOL: I'm working on it. Maybe you can help me with that technology a little later on. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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