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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 11, 2015Matt GrzelcykCason HohmannDavid QuinnBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS Providence – 4 MODERATOR: We will begin with some opening thoughts from Coach Quinn. COACH QUINN: Well, first of all, I congratulate Providence College. National champions. They deserve to be. But I've been very lucky in life. I've been coaching for 20 years, and I've never enjoyed coaching a team more than the one we had this year. And there's not much I can say to make our guys feel any better or feel anybody associated with BU hockey feel any better right now, but it's been an incredible year. One team wins the last game of the season. The things we've accomplished, when nobody thought we could do any of it, an incredible testament to the two guys to my left and everybody else associated with our team. Every player, every student manager, every equipment manager, we were a team. We were a true team. And that doesn't happen very often in sports. We get to this point because we won as a team. And we lost the game tonight because we as a team didn't play well enough. Bottom line. Providence played better. They won the hockey game. And I want to congratulate Nate, does a heck of a job. And tough one to swallow, without question. But we'll be back. MODERATOR: Questions for the players. Q. Did you feel that maybe the seeds of what happened at the end of this game were maybe sown in the North Dakota game where you guys were letting the game get away from you and you're able to get away with it that time? Any thoughts on that? CASON HOHMANN: Not really. I don't really think the North Dakota game got away from us that much. I thought we played really well tonight. And they just played better the hard last 10 minutes in the third. So I really don't think it had anything to do with it at all. MATT GRZELCYK: And I have to agree with Cason. Thought we played a pretty solid game. Obviously they were able to capitalize on their chances and we weren't. That's all it comes down to. Q. After Providence ties the game, your coach took a timeout there. What do you say to each other at that point and do you say anything to your goalie at that point about that tying goal? MATT GRZELCYK: I think it's definitely important to skate right over to O'C. He's really been the backbone to our team all year. And I think every guy in the room would agree we wouldn't be anywhere during the championship game without him. And obviously he's handled all the pressure situations this year. So I think Coach calling a timeout was definitely a great play. We definitely needed to settle down, but we obviously weren't able to do that. We just kind of told each other do it for the guy next year, and just missed our assignments at the end. Q. Matt, did you see what happened on that third goal? MATT GRZELCYK: I saw the guy dumped it in. I think I was reaching down to grab some water or something and heard the crowd roaring. That's about it. Q. Matt, Anthony Moccia in the final timeout and also when there was a TV timeout, he never left O'Connor's side once. And then after the game was over he also didn't leave. He hasn't really played in many games for you guys at all, but what has his leadership meant to this team? MATT GRZELCYK: It's been everything. I think we've talked about all year we really came along as a team early on in the summer, and, like I said, Anthony was the one who started it all. He's kind of a smart goalie. Doesn't get to play very often. But he cares about BU hockey more than anyone in the locker room does. For the younger guys to see how much passion he has in the game, just like how he took over our team really in pressure situations and especially handling O'C, roommate at the school, his best friend. Hockey is not going to last forever but the friendships you make along the way will. And Anthony is definitely one of the best friends we all have. Q. There was really kind of a breakneck pace to the offense with record pace for shots through the first two periods. What enabled you guys to really generate offense through the first 40 and to what do you attribute the ability to get so many shots off through those first two periods? CASON HOHMANN: Just very excited to play. Came out the same way we've been playing all season. Got pucks behind the defensemen. Dial down low. Won a lot of faceoffs, a lot of goals off faceoffs tonight. So that was huge for us. They just played a really solid team game the whole entire game, and unfortunately we couldn't win the last 10. MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. What do you say during that timeout and do you focus on your goalie, how do you handle that? COACH QUINN: We called the timeout because we were tired. And just wanted to get Eichel's line back out there and just kind of settle us down a little bit. There was nothing that needed to be said to Matt. Talked to the whole team including Matt, talked about what we needed to do to win the last seven, six minutes, whatever was left.  They make a bang, bang play off the faceoffs. We had our chances after that, a couple of glaring chances after that to tie it, and just a little too late. Q. Same question I had for the players, did you feel that some of the mistakes at the end of the North Dakota game maybe were things that eventually came back to haunt you, whether it was even Matt's confidence or just giving up the goal off the faceoff, that type of thing? COACH QUINN: Well, I don't. I mean, you play in the National Championship and semifinals and I thought we played really well for a long period of time. And we couldn't get a two‑goal lead. I thought we had plenty of chances to get a two goal lead. The one power play we had we weren't able to capitalize on. And playing a pretty good third period, obviously would have liked to spend more time in the offensive zone, but people lost sight in the fact because of all our success‑‑ we're the youngest team in the country. We have four 18‑year‑old defensemen playing the game tonight. We've got eight freshmen in the lineup. Sometimes experience is the best remedy for situations that we're in tonight. And we don't have a lot of it. And to go from the year we had last year to be that close to winning a national title is an incredible accomplishment. And it shouldn't be lost in all of this. And I would love to be sitting here as the national champion. I'd like to have our guys have smiles on their faces instead of tears in their eyes, but sometimes it's a process. And we're close, and I don't think many guys around our team thought we were going to lose tonight. I just love the way we played from the get‑go. And, again, sometimes experience is the best remedy to handle a one‑goal lead in the third period of a National Championship game. We don't have a lot of it. Q. Speaking of your freshmen, one of them, A.J. Greer seems to have been coming on strong lately. He's one of the four players you have from Kimball Union Academy up there in Meriden. I wonder if his teammates from KUA‑‑ Doyle Somerby who also had a goal against North Dakota and guys like Nick Roberto and John MacLeod have been helping him come along this year. COACH QUINN: I think they have. I think everybody on our team has, and that's what made this season so special. It's why we played tonight. There were no cliques. I know I've said this before, it was a team in every aspect of the word. And not only did the guys believe in each other athletically but they believed in each other socially, they trusted each other athletically and socially. When you have that at this level, you can do special things. Because obviously we had talent. But there's a lot more ingredients that go into a championship team than just having talent. Q. Talk about your captain and is he the building block you start with in October? COACH QUINN: I can't say enough about Matt Grzelcyk. Hell of a player and hell of a person. He competes in everything he does. His personality is infectious. And he is a‑‑ like I said the other night, when you talk about a captain, Matt Grzelcyk is one of the first people you think of when you talk about a true captain. Q. Have you had any inkling whether Jack Eichel will be back next year or what? COACH QUINN: I honestly haven't thought about that. As I said earlier throughout the season we had one small conversation regarding that in December. We're talking about a lot of things, and there's going to be a lot of factors that go into that decision. And I don't think a decision will be made anytime soon. Q. I know you said you win as a team, you lose as a team but how much of your heart personally feels for your goaltender at a point in time like this? COACH QUINN: You know, you have college sports for people like Matt O'Connor.  Great athlete. Great student. Everybody here if you spent ten minutes with him he acts like he's 35 years old. He's exactly what you want in a student‑athlete. And we wouldn't be here without him. We've won championship after championship this year. The least amount of losses in the country. You don't do that with just average or just good goaltending. It was a 60‑minute game. We had chances to a get a two‑goal lead. We couldn't do it. We give up the faceoff goal with six minutes to go. So there was a lot of reasons why we lost tonight. And one of them, a big one was the way that Providence College played. Q. Building a little bit off of what Matt said, Anthony is the one who started this. It's been a turbulent few years for the program, even before last year. Getting back to this title game, what does that mean for BU hockey moving forward, and what do you think Matt meant by Anthony started it all? COACH QUINN: I think there's certainly the beginning of hopefully something special here in the seasons moving forward. We feel great about the kids we have coming back. Not only are our kids great players on the ice, the way they carried themselves off the ice. It's people like Anthony Moccia who didn't play a minute all year but he had an awful lot to do with why we played tonight. And like I said, there's so much that goes into a championship‑type team. And certainly people like him played a big factor in it. MODERATOR: Coach, thanks very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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