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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOUR

April 6, 2016

Tampa Bay, Florida

MODERATOR: We're joined by University of North Dakota coach Brad Berry, Gage Ausmus, Bryn Chyzyk and Troy Stecher. Coach, an opening statement.

COACH BERRY: First of all, we're happy to be here, excited to be in Tampa. Want to thank the city of Tampa Bay and the Amalie Arena for having us here. Should make out to be a great weekend with four really good college hockey teams and a great environment.

MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Gage, I wanted to ask you, you grew up in North Dakota, what was it like growing up following this program? And as you're part of it now, what is your relationship with the fans and the players and the fans?
GAGE AUSMUS: Obviously growing up in Grand Forks, East Grand Forks, that's all we had there, was the Fighting Sioux at the time, the University of North Dakota. And kind of looked at them as a NHL team. That was my only team, so followed them growing up, and it was obviously one of my goals to play here eventually.

And obviously being here now it's surreal. It's unbelievable feeling putting on that jersey every night knowing that I watched them grow up and I watched the players play here and the tradition and culture that the University of North Dakota has, is just unbelievable. So it's amazing to play here.

Q. The people out there, they're already out there wearing the green from all over the country. What's that like? I'm sure you see them everywhere. Just the relationship you have as players with those people?
GAGE AUSMUS: Well, obviously as a team you want to win for yourselves and the coaches and the players, but in our locker room we really want to win for our fans as well as along with all of us. So our fans are a huge part of our program and who we are, and sometimes they help us win games even. So they're a huge part of our program.

Q. For any of you guys, really, what's the focus been this week in practice, and do you like where you guys are as you head into the game tomorrow?
BRYN CHYZYK: Yeah, we've been excited to get down here. That week off, you just want to fly down here right after Cincinnati, we were so excited to get down here. But we got a good week of preparation. Looked at a lot of things even from last week that we need to improve on to be successful. Good week of preparation. I know all guys were happy to fly down here yesterday, and we're ready to get at it. So, yeah, it was a good week.

TROY STECHER: Yeah, we started the season as a young team with 11 freshmen. So as you press the season, you try to get those guys up to speed as fast as we can. And I'm really confident about the group we have, and I feel like we're a mature group now and we understand the task at hand. And we enjoyed our victories in Cincinnati, but at the same time we knew we had business to accomplish, and that's exactly what we did.

Q. Any of you, Denver offensively the past two NCAA Tournament scoring a lot and really hot offensively. What are you guys trying to game plan? What are you trying to do to try to slow this team down knowing what they've done, especially the last two games?
GAGE AUSMUS: Obviously playing this team five times already, this would be our sixth, we're pretty familiar with what they have on their team and how they're going to play. Obviously they have some skilled players on that team up front and on the back end as well.

So we just want to play our game, play a full 200-foot game, make the game hard on them and get pucks past their defensemen, make them chip the puck in our zone instead of skating it and just making it hard on them.

Q. Can you guys just take me through the last 24 hours, what it's been like from when you got on the plane to when you arrived, anything special happened?
BRYN CHYZYK: Yeah, we got on the plane going to Tampa here. Had a warm welcome from the folks in Tampa with a band and stuff. It was nice of them to do it. And it was great to see. Checked into our hotel, had a nice meal. Just kind of we went for a little team walk just on -- I think it's called the River Walk there, it was cool. And we just got a little stretch in.

But for the most part we're not trying to be tourists here. I think we'll come back here and be tourists one day. I think it's a business trip for us, and we're trying to dial in for that game. We're just kind of hanging around the hotel, focusing on Thursday at this point.

Q. I watched you practice. You guys seem to be enjoying yourselves. At one point you piled on a player. I want to know who is he and what did he do?
TROY STECHER: It's kind of tradition here at North Dakota. We do a Thursday shootout before the weekend series, and at the end, when there's a winner, we all decide to dogpile them. Luke Johnson was the lucky one this weekend with him winning. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. It's a tradition we have, and we're going to continue to do it.

GAGE AUSMUS: That's why I don't win shootouts, so I don't get dogpiled on.

Q. There's a long history of North Dakota against Denver, even at this big of a stage. You guys have met before in championships before in years past. Can you talk a little bit about your experiences in playing against Denver and how that history has impacted your time here?
BRYN CHYZYK: Absolutely. Everyone knows it's a rivalry game. We've played them so many times over my four-year career here, and every time it's a great game and it's a high compete level. And it's always very intense. So I expect nothing different tomorrow here.

But we definitely respect them as a team. They've got a lot of skill up front, but we also respect our ability over here. We have a lot of confidence what we can do, and we'll play our game tomorrow and take care of business.

GAGE AUSMUS: It's a great rivalry between us and Denver, obviously. One of my great memories of Denver and the University of North Dakota is at the Ralph. Denver is in town, and I don't think Coach Gwozdecky liked one of the calls, and he stepped out on the ice and walked out there and got the fans pretty riled up. And that's just one of the many examples in our series, why it's a great rivalry. And every time we play, I'm just like Bryn said here, it's a battle, and I'm sure it will be a battle on Thursday night.

Q. For anyone who wants to answer, you made a few consecutive Frozen Fours. Is there anything that's changed over the years in either your experience in it or your preparation leading up to it?
TROY STECHER: I don't think too much has honestly changed from our preparation standpoint. Obviously we got Berry this year when Hakstol left. And he's done a great job with continuing with the same philosophies and systems.

We changed a bit of our backcheck system. But we go through the same day, the same way every single day. We try to be professionals here at this university. And we try to act like good citizens in the community. So I think if you do that, you're going to have good karma on your side and good results.

Q. Gage, third Frozen Four for you guys. Obviously it's another different arena, obviously, with a different location. What did you guys think of the ice out there? How big of a role does that play?
GAGE AUSMUS: The ice was, I thought, pretty good for the most part. Obviously with a lot of teams, four teams skating on it in a day, it's going to get chipped up and stuff like that. It plays a factor into the game, but at the same time, the other team plays on it, too, so it's pretty fair that way.

MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach.

Q. How loose is this team? They seem really loose in practice, not unfocused, but how relaxed are they coming into this Frozen Four?
COACH BERRY: I think there's a balance. And that's a great question. This is a very special group. We've said it all year long. The three guys that are to the right of me and a bunch of the juniors and seniors in that locker room, we've been here before. We've experienced a little disappointment in the last couple of years in Philadelphia and Boston.

They're hungry. They're focused. They're committed. They're dialed in right away. But at the same time, there's a little bit of levity there as far as being a human being and enjoying it. We're all about that. And, again, tomorrow's game day, and they'll be ready to go.

Q. I saw you testing out the glass and the boards there a little bit. Whenever you come to a new arena, is that something you do? And what did you think of how the glass and the boards were playing for you?
COACH BERRY: Answer the first part of the question. Absolutely, whenever you go to a venue we haven't played in, generally the coaches and the players, too, we test out the boards for the bounces and the glass to see if there's any different hops coming off it.

And, again, this is an NHL facility, it's a first-class organization -- or facility, I should say. And, again, it's state-of-the-art. So it's a perfect arena to have a Frozen Four in. And, again, we were just making sure we're comfortable in that environment.

Q. Those of us who kind of don't see as much of you because we're on the East Coast get the perception that you guys always played with that snarl, but sometimes that style gets you into a little bit of trouble with regards to penalties and sorts. Can you talk about the fine line of maintaining that style and staying out of the penalty box?
COACH BERRY: That's another great question. We are made up of you could call it a blue-collar mentality. We take our lunchboxes and we go to work every day and it's all about the work and the humility and getting after it. In saying that, we want to be aggressive on the ice, but we do talk about discipline.

As you can see, I thought we did a really good job in Cincinnati, and even in the Frozen Faceoff, of limiting our penalties. That's playing hard, but playing with discipline. That's a big word we use every day in our locker room about playing with tenacity but playing disciplined.

Again, it's going to be an important factor this weekend going forward. Again, four great teams here. They have great power plays and you can't get caught up being in the penalty box all the time. Again, we talk about it, and I think our guys have done a great job over the last couple of weekends of it.

Q. Obviously the team overall has a lot of Frozen Four experience. But a couple of your most impactful players are freshmen. How have you seen maybe the upperclassmen help them get through this, and what have you seen of them in terms of them dealing with the experience?
COACH BERRY: You look at the Brock Boesers and the younger players that are having success in our group, and it's by no coincidence. First of all, they're very good players. They're gifted and talented. But those three gentlemen to my right and a lot of the leaders in the locker room have been a big part of his development.

The biggest thing we notice -- and, again, we call it a special group, we've talked about through the mid part of the year when we went through all the injury problems and we were going into a third string walk-on being our number one goalie and reeling off nine wins in a row, it's a that special bond, that team-first mentality that the next man up has to do the job. And it's because of the leadership. They've been a big part of us not only staying on the rails this year but also for the development of our 11 freshmen.

Q. Cam Johnson has passed every test facing him this season with his play. How confident are you he can perform tomorrow night?
COACH BERRY: 100 percent confident. He's been on a stage before like this, albeit in the USHL. He's gone to the finals in the Clark Cup finals in the USHL, and he was the go-to guy. He's played in high pressure situations before. It will be no different for him. We play in the Ralph, which we get 12,000 a night, and those USCH games are wars. They're battles every single night against any one of the seven opponents we have in that league. He's been in front of that all the time. He's well versed in it, and he'll do just fine.

Q. Matt is probably not going to play this weekend. Your third string goalie taking you through the first ten games or so, how important was he to where you are now?
COACH BERRY: 100 percent. Just like I said. When you go through a season, you always think you'll have few nicks and bruises and some injuries here and there, short-term injuries. Both of our scholarship goaltenders were on long-term injury, which resulted in Matt Hrynkiw having to come in and play. Well, you know what? He did an unbelievable job. Guys rallied around him. Nine wins.

Goes to a couple of different things. First of all, his character on coming to work every single day his first two years in North Dakota, knowing he's probably not going to get an opportunity right away, and just battle his tail off.

And obviously Karl Goehring, our volunteer coach, doing an unbelievable job not only with Matt but Cam and Matej Tomek and Ryan Anderson. Like I said, very fortunate to have a great staff around us to help those guys.

Q. Coach, what would you say is Denver's biggest strength?
COACH BERRY: Dangerous team off the rush and the offensive zone. They alluded to it earlier. They're very good offensively. And not just their forwards, their D help out in the offense too. They can attack at all different times. We've gotta make sure we play the right way.

Again, we know what they're going to do. They know what we're going to do. But the biggest thing is we gotta be aware when they're on the ice and what they're doing, but we have to accentuate what we have to do and what got us here. We have to play our game, just like these guys said.

Q. There's gotta be some great irony in the fact that Hakstol is driving his Flyers into potential playoff position. You're taking this team to the Frozen Four. Can you talk about the common -- the relationship, what Dave imparted to you the last couple of days?
COACH BERRY: We communicate all the time. It's not about hockey all the time, but families, other things. He's been a big part of this, our foundation and our group going forward here. He laid -- he was a big impact on the 11 years he was here as a head coach, and he's done a great job. And it's no surprise he's doing that in Philadelphia.

The other thing, too, is we brought along Gino Gasparini and his wife, Tootsie, on the trip that he won three National Championships with North Dakota. He's a huge part of the North Dakota tradition and history and success and laying the blocks, the foundation of what we are. And it's great to have him with us.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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