	products recent interviews FastScripts archive about ASAP Sports

Our Clients:

Browse by Sport

Find us on

Subscribe to RSS

Click to go to
Asaptext.com

View our
e-Brochure

NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOUR

April 7, 2016

Tampa Bay, Florida

North Dakota - 4, Denver - 2

MODERATOR: We're joined by North Dakota Fighting Hawks. We have head coach Brad Berry and forward Drake Caggiula, center Coltyn Sanderson, and Nick Schmaltz.

COACH BERRY: I want to congratulate Jim Montgomery and Denver Pioneer team. We battled them all year, and that's what you see, a very good team, very well coached, structured, hardworking team, and they left it all on the ice. And it's a typical NCHC rival game.

MODERATOR: Questions for the student-athletes.

Q. Guys, talk about the home ice advantage you guys had. Felt like being in Grand Forks again, didn't it?
DRAKE CAGGIULA: Absolutely. Our fans are the greatest in the world. They travel anywhere we go. And go back to our campus, the students are probably going crazy, and the faculty is probably going crazy as well. Our fans travel everywhere with us and they support us no matter what happens. We love them as much as they love us. I know it's a special relationship, that's for sure. And it's certainly a lot easier playing in an atmosphere where it's pretty much a home ice advantage.

COLTYN SANDERSON: We're privileged, and with that comes with the fans and the support we get. I think there's a slogan, every game is a home game. That was definitely true tonight. We appreciate their support. We were happy to get this done and get rid of the ghosts a little bit.

We have a job to do Saturday, and we know they'll be cheering us on.

Q. Drake, take us through your second goal, if you could. Did you see that pass that was going to happen, or what led to the turnover and what did you do?
DRAKE CAGGIULA: First it started with a good offensive change by -- I think it was Rhett Gardner came off the ice early. I came off the bench, I was hiding behind some of the players in the high slot there and was able to pick a pocket out of a Denver player and made a quick move around the guy and tried to get it in the net as quick as possible. I think it went under his glove. I just tried to hide behind some of the defenders there and pick his pocket. That's all.

Q. You held Denver without a power play goal in 24 chances all year long. You came up big again with the game tied 2-2 in the third period with six minutes left. And tell us how you shut down the top line, their entire power play.
NICK SCHMALTZ: It's a special time of year. We gave them four opportunities tonight. Thought our guys battled when we went a man down. You have to do it this time of year. We had guys blocking shots all over the place. We're a team-first team that does whatever it takes to kill those penalties off and get back to work right after.

DRAKE CAGGIULA: Yeah, I think Nick hit it right on the head there. We take pride in our special teams, we definitely take pride in our penalty kill. It's a huge part of our game. We had a penalty kill there late in the third, we were able to kill it off. You can get a lot of momentum from a penalty kill like that. And we had guys sacrifice, and I think Tucker Poolman about six shots tonight. Just guys like that laying bodies on the line, team-first mentality, that's for sure.

Q. Coltyn or Drake, with the way the Frozen Four has ended for you guys the past couple of seasons, what does it mean to finally break through and get a chance for a title your final season?
COLTYN SANDERSON: It means a lot to us. It was a big thing. We talked about in our room, guys coming back, talking about the last two years and kind of the heartbreak of losing that semifinal game. We didn't want to have to go through that again in that locker room. Guys battled up tonight. Maybe it wasn't their best performance, but there's never any doubt in our minds that we were going to keep battling, clawing, trying to get to Saturday night. We did that, we'll enjoy tonight and move on tomorrow and get ready for Quinnipiac.

DRAKE CAGGIULA: I think first step on North Dakota campus first thing you talk about is winning a National Championship. For the first three years we came up short. As a senior class we wanted to leave this program with a National Championship. We're one step closer there. We're going to get ready tomorrow and get ready for Saturday and hopefully win the National Championship that we've been working for four years for.

Q. Considering what kind of an opponent Denver is and the circumstances, going ahead 2-0, them coming back, do you feel you're even more confident going into that game against Quinnipiac saying, hey, we can come back from anything?
NICK SCHMALTZ: Yeah, I thought we got away from our game a little bit early in the third period there, and when you do that against a good team they make you pay. Denver did that to us. I thought we regrouped pretty well. We knew that we had it in our bench. Everyone was staying positive. Everyone was confident in our team, and we knew that we'd be fine. We went out there and made a play and won the game. So, yeah, we're really confident going into Saturday and it will be a really good matchup against a good team.

Q. Drake and Nick, Brock Boeser set up a couple of goals tonight. Just talk a little bit about his contributions to your line and what he's kind of meant to you guys this season?
DRAKE CAGGIULA: We always joke around and tell him to pass the puck because all he does is score. No, a lot of people don't realize just how good his vision is and he can make plays all over the ice, not just scoring goals but he can definitely find you in open areas. He made a great play to me on my first goal, an awesome Sasha pass behind the defensemen, great play to Nick on the third one. He's been huge for our line. He's a freshman, but he doesn't act like a freshman, very mature kid on and off the ice. I think that's what makes him such a special person and such a special player as well.

NICK SCHMALTZ: Just going off of that, he's a fun player to play with. He thinks the game the same way as me and Drake. We like to make plays, but we also like to play hard away from the puck. I think that's the staple of our success is how hard we play away from the puck and getting the pucks back and going and playing offense. So he's been a huge piece to our line, and hopefully we can keep it rolling on Saturday.

MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. Questions for Coach.

Q. Two-goal lead is called the worst lead in hockey. You're up by that after 40 minutes. Do you caution that a storm is coming or how do you play that in the locker room?
COACH BERRY: No, our message after the second period was keep the foot on the gas. The only problem was we stopped making plays for a little bit. And I thought we started the game a little bit slow, a little tentative. And then in the second period I think the last two shifts of the first period we picked up momentum played into the rink, and in the second period we got back to making plays moving with confidence moving the puck to the north.

And being two goals up, you're playing against a good team. They're going to make plays. The first goal on a faceoff play, they made a nice play to score. If you stop making plays, that's what happens. It's a learning lesson for us tonight going forward that you have to keep the foot on the gas and keep making plays.

Q. I asked the players earlier about the success of the penalty kill. Can you talk about how you've been able to shut Denver's power play down all season long, and did you draw up anything specific for the big one with six minutes left in the third?
COACH BERRY: The first thing is everybody buying into the system, and that's five-on-five power play penalty killing. Tonight the penalty kill did a great job. It won us the game. I think it's a shot blocking mentality we had. I think we had 27 blocks tonight. Tucker Poolman led the way for that. But everybody willing to get in front of a shot.

The other part of that is Dane Jackson runs our penalty kill. I can't give him enough credit as far as what he's done with penalty kill this year. It's outstanding. Attention to detail.

That's what you have to do to win games, your structure has to be very good. We had three smart players sitting right beside me here. They're all about detail and they made it to a T tonight.

Q. Appreciate the segue into the blocked shots there. I know you're proud of your team when they score goals, you're proud of them when they kill penalties but when you see that number, that many blocked shots, how does that feeling of pride compare to everything else?
COACH BERRY: I love it, because that's kind of the player I was. I wasn't very skilled. And so it's kind of touching to my heart seeing a guy get in front of a shot. You see the guys that do it every day. But sometimes when the guys that aren't apt to do it are doing it that means it's contagious and guys are buying in and doing the right thing.

Just proud of the guys, the way they found a way to win tonight. And, again, you know what there was no panic on the bench. The guys, even though the game was going the wrong way the first ten minutes of the third period, they caught their breath after the timeout and said we've got this. It goes to the leadership in the locker room and it's their room right now.

Q. Yesterday you talked about the blue-collar ethic your team has and your players talked about the amalgamation of the young players and experienced players as well. How indicative of that, how representative of that is that top line, like how much do they represent the whole team, the youth and the leadership?
COACH BERRY: Well, you know, obviously that top line gets a lot of accolades, and it's well deserved. They played well the whole year offensively. But I think you just heard Nick Schmaltz say sometimes offensive players want to play with the puck, not so much without it. He made a note we're a 200-foot team and we do it too. Again, that's a big deal for our team.

As far as the young guys getting immersed in our group, that goes to our culture at North Dakota as far as not having the freshmen in one area and seniors in one area. It's about embracing them right away when they get on the campus. That's the big deal. You have no time to immerse the group. You have to make sure they're embraced right away, and that's what our leaders do.

Q. Luke Johnson has been a big part of your heavy line there. What's kind of his status and what has he meant to that line so far this season?
COACH BERRY: Well, he's meant a lot. And again he plays consistent every single game that he plays. But it seems like this time of year he really plays well. And I think he likes the high pressure situations. He's a gamer. It's unfortunate tonight that he went out early in the game and couldn't return. And that threw a wrench into us. We wanted that matchup tonight. We want it they call it the heavy line heavy line against Gambrell's line and they did a good job.

But saying that, it goes back to the next man up mentality that we always keep talking about. Coltyn Sanderson had to come in and play left winger, he put Rhett Gardner in the middle. Interchangeable parts, but everyone's buying in and finding a way to get it done. It was a great mentality tonight, and found a way to get it done.

Q. I know you're going to downplay this, but in 2005 David Hakstol had the chance to be the first rookie coach, first year coach to win the championship. Now here you are, make a comment?
COACH BERRY: First of all, going towards David Hakstol, he did a tremendous job for our program here. He's one of a number of coaches that added to the tradition of our program here. There's a bar of excellence. He got to that every year. We're fortunate enough this year to move forward because of a guy like him and also a guy like Gino Gasparini who has won three championships.

What we're trying to do is do what they did in the past here. We're fortunate to move on here. Our guys played well. Fortunate to move on. We said it early in the year in August, we have goals in front of us, and we want to check off all the boxes. Our last checked box was to play in the last game on April 9th here in Tampa Bay, and we want to check off that box with a win.

Q. Can you just run through just before the big goal at the end, what did you say to the team? Was that play run exactly the way you wanted or was it kind of just a matter of them going to the net and making the play?
COACH BERRY: First of all, I give credit to the players. They made the play. Big-time players make big-time plays. That's what they did. They executed on the play we drew up. In practice during a week, once or twice a week, we work on faceoff plays, offensive and defensive. That was a high block play we come off the wall. A lot of teams do that play, come off the wall, you win the draw and get a puck to net.

Brock Boeser took the draw for Nick Schmaltz. Brock's a strong body. He won it back. Drake whiffed on the puck a bit and Brock took it back, made a great play to Nick on the backdoor. It's guys executing, attention to detail of what we do every day in practice, and it reaped the rewards tonight because they were dialed in.

Q. You really kept that Pacific Rim Line in check tonight. Could you talk about the game plan, matchups, how you handled that?
COACH BERRY: I really didn't want -- I know Jim Montgomery liked to talked about it early, tried to bait me into making a couple of switches there. But we stuck with our game plan. We put the heavy line against them, which was Poganski, Johnson and Gardner, and obviously Sanderson had to come in and do that.

But we found some success over the last three or four weeks putting that line together. Playing heavy lines like the Stephens line and Northeastern like the Mott line in Michigan. They did an unbelievable job of keeping teams at bay on their big lines. They did it to perfection again tonight. It's part of a group. You have to have a little bit of different things in your group going forward. You have the CBS line, but you have to have other guys doing their roles, and the guys did their roles tonight.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297