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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOUR

April 7, 2016

Tampa Bay, Florida

North Dakota - 4, Denver - 2

MODERATOR: We're joined by Denver head coach Jim Montgomery, defenseman Will Butcher and left winger Grant Arnold. Coach, an opening statement.

COACH MONTGOMERY: It was a great college hockey game. It's what we expected. When North Dakota and Denver play, it's great hockey. And I said two days ago that the team that's going to win is the team that makes the last play, and North Dakota made the last play. They're a great team, and I wish them luck, and I hope the NCHC brings home their first national title.

That being said, I can't be more proud of our group. I think what you saw from the fight in us all year long and in this game exemplifies the great leadership with have led by Grant and the three seniors and Butchy, and I think it shows what's inside of us to be able to just keep fighting and to keep believing no matter what the score was or how we were playing.

And I'm very proud to have coached this group, and I know that the numerous text messages I've got from the Denver hockey alums, they're very proud of our group and what we've accomplished this year.

MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Seems like you guys were in control in the third period. It was tied 2-2, then you make that ice -- I'm sorry, that icing. Could you talk about that icing and how maybe that was not the play right then?
GRANT ARNOLD: You know, in between the second and the third we really wanted to just focus on playing Pioneer hockey. And, I mean, man, we came out and we played hard. We played Pioneer hockey for 19 minutes there. It's a tough play, it's a high-intensity situation and you want to get the puck out.

So I can't blame the player that did that. There's no question about it. We had a faceoff in our zone. And that's hockey. North Dakota is a great team. They won the battle and they put the puck in the neck. Like Monty said, we came out and we played so hard in that third period, and I'm just extremely proud of my teammates, the heart and the fight they showed in the third. No question about it. It was a pleasure to lead this team, for sure.

Q. Will, it seemed like the offense started with you guys on the blue line tonight with two defensemen scoring for you. What did that say about kind of the fight that you had despite being down 2-0 in the third?
WILL BUTCHER: I'd say a lot of it came from mostly our forwards, honestly, creating space for us up top. I think that faceoff play we ran, Grant had great faceoff intensity right off the bat and just bumped the puck back. All I had to do was just put the puck in the open area, which I did.

VanVoorhis made a great rush towards the offensive zone, and he just turned around and tried to throw one to an open guy, went off a stick and got a little bit of puck luck.

I think our forwards did a lot more than what I think they were given credit for tonight.

Q. Will, your power play I think went 0 for 24 against North Dakota on the season. Can you talk about what they were able to do to shut you down, especially in the third period you had that late power play with the game tied 2-2 and it seemed like you struggled there?
WILL BUTCHER: That was our worst power play tonight, to be honest with you. I made a crappy pass over to Trevor, didn't seem like it was clicking too much. They did a good job of clogging the middle. And it's hard to get shots through them. And they know what we want to do is drag and flank, and it's hard for our flankers sometimes to make open reads or make open shots.

But I thought our power play did a great job the beginning of the game, building momentum for us creating opportunities. We just weren't getting the bounces.

Q. I think I have an idea of why you guys still have your jerseys on, but could you just talk about why?
GRANT ARNOLD: This is the last time I'm going to be able to wear this jersey. A lot of blood, sweat and tears. Two surgeries on my body. A lot of great wins, a lot of great friendships. Denver hockey is a family. Denver athletics is a family. I'm just keeping it on as long as I can and just enjoying it, maybe get a couple more pictures in it with my face in the media. That will probably be the last of that.

But I just want to show the pride I have for Denver hockey and Denver athletics. And like I said, it's a family. We're at the NCHC conference, and I know North Dakota's going to represent them well in the National Championship game. Like I said, I love Denver athletics, I love Denver hockey. Coach Montgomery, I've learned more than you can ever imagine from him. And we'll be lifelong friends. And that's what Denver hockey is, Denver athletics, it's a family and we love each other. And I just want to keep it on for a little longer.

WILL BUTCHER: Just to go off what Grant said, the organization we play for is top-notch. It's the best, I think, and it's an honor to put on this sweater every time I wear it, and it's hard to take it off. That's why I've got it on still.

Q. Grant or Will, you guys have demonstrated a lot of resiliency during the course of the season coming back from setbacks. Talk about how that might have informed your attitude going to the third period down 2-0 and having struggled to get any momentum going against North Dakota in this game?
WILL BUTCHER: It's just our mentality and how we play. Coach runs tough practices all year. It helps us out. We're on the bench laughing, and VanVoorhis is saying this is why we do laps all the time at the end of practice. That's how we are and how we're built to play at Denver.

GRANT ARNOLD: We're never going to give up no matter what the score is. It could have been 5-0 in the third, we would have come out with a ton of fire regardless. That's just Denver hockey. That's how Monty coaches. That's how he recruits. We recruit great kids. You can see it with our freshman class this year, how much they've grown, how much they've grown since the beginning of the season. They've been awesome.

We recruit great kids here with a lot of heart, and they're never going to give up. We're going to fight until the end, and that was just Denver hockey. That was not a surprise to us that we came back from 2-0. We were living in the moment and giving it everything we had.

MODERATOR: Thank you, questions for Coach.

Q. Jim, on the last North Dakota penalty, were you asking for a major penalty there?
COACH MONTGOMERY: No, I was just asking for clarification. My assistant coach, Tavis MacMillan, said it was a high hit. I asked. I said, don't you have to review every high hit? They said, we're going to do that. They did it. They said the initial point of contact was I guess the shoulder and then it went up. I thought the referee crew did a fantastic job tonight. I thought there was some situations where it looked like there was a penalty, and I thought both ways they made the right non-call. So they let the teams play. And like I said, North Dakota made the last play, they won the game.

Q. I asked Will about the power play earlier. I'd like to get your perspective on it. Why was North Dakota able to shut you down so effectively? You had two or three chances during the first period and one late in the third as well.
COACH MONTGOMERY: I think the big thing is they won faceoffs. And then the second thing, anytime there's a scrum, they came up with it. They're a really good penalty kill team. We had opportunities. The one thing we didn't do, we wanted to try to go to the goal line, and we never did that. And we shot in the shin pads a little too much. We need to show a little more poise in those situations. But I give full credit to the North Dakota's penalty kill. They work us for -- it's not easy to penetrate their blue line. It's not easy to get open sticks at the net. They're really good. And I wish we would have made a couple more plays. But we didn't. Gotta give credit to them.

Q. Seems like you guys failed to establish a net front presence during the course of this game. Could you talk a little bit about that?
COACH MONTGOMERY: I think you're right. The toughest thing against North Dakota to score against them, and you saw it early in the game, we didn't have a lot of shots, is because they give you the outside and they take it away really well. If you don't have a middle lane drive presence, it's hard to back them off.

We started to create I thought in the last seven minutes of the second and the first 15 of the third. I thought we started to create a middle lane drive. And I think you could see Johnson because any goalie will back into their net if you have a middle lane drive presence, and I think that's why VanVoorhis scored from where he scored from.

Q. Any thoughts about the icing? Obviously you're not going to pile on the player who did it. But obviously he had time in space there and it was a big play in the game?
COACH MONTGOMERY: Yeah, you know, Mike, I'm not with you on that one. I thought that he was trying to go off the glass, and our weak side wing, part of our we breakouts, we don't have a play. He was starting to get squeezed off, go off the glass, and our weak side wing's gotta go pursue. Our weak side wing was tired. He didn't negate the icing.

We called timeout, and then we had three seniors on the ice and we got outmuscled at the net front. CBS line scored all three goals. You've got to tip your hat to them.

Q. Seems like you guys were giving up a lot of odd-man breaks, which is uncharacteristic for a Denver team. Could you talk about that as well?
COACH MONTGOMERY: I think -- geez, I said it after the first period, I said to our staff, I think both teams had more odd-man rushes than shots on net. Surprising with the skill level there weren't more goals because of it. But we had odd-man rushes and we had looks. And we didn't make clean plays, and because of that, our defensemen -- we tell them to jump, and they're jumping. And North Dakota had good sticks, they deflected and they got two-on-one or three-on-one the other way.

That's where we need to make cleaner plays. I thought in the first period we had the momentum of the game, especially early, and I didn't think that was where we needed to capitalize and we needed to go up.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.

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