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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOUR

April 6, 2017

Chicago, Illinois

Denver - 6, Notre Dame - 1

MODERATOR: We welcome Denver. We're joined by head coach Jim Montgomery and student-athletes Will Butcher, Dylan Gambrell, Tariq Hammond, and Evan Janssen.

COACH MONTGOMERY: I don't know what to say. I'm amazed at the effort our team produced in a big-time moment against a really good college hockey team in Notre Dame.

Q. Any of you guys, you guys just jumped on Notre Dame from the start. How were you able to do that?
WILL BUTCHER: I think we have to give a lot of credit to our forwards. I think our forechecker dominated and ate them up. Whenever we have a good forecheck going, we seem to get the puck back a lot more. It's great when we get the puck back because we're a puck-possession team. When we get that more, we get that early jump, as you're referring to.

Q. Will, after the regional you talked about how that had been a business trip, referring to kind of the lack of a celebration, and I noticed that again tonight after beating Notre Dame 6-4 and you were pretty subdued gathered around Tanner at the net. Is that the same type of mentality you have this weekend?
WILL BUTCHER: Yeah, exactly. I think the guys know what's at stake and pretty focused on the national championships from the beginning of this tournament. So that's definitely what it was.

Q. Tariq, can you talk about your goal, and what are you doing crashing the net on a 2-1 being a defenseman there?
TARIQ HAMMOND: Just kind of Janny made a great play there, and I kind of jumped up into the rush moved up on the rush, did a great move to get around that guy when the defenseman dove, and I was luckily there to tap it in. But Janny made a huge play, huge goal for us.

Q. Dylan, you guys have talked all year about the motivation you guys had for the loss for the semifinal last year. How much did that play into how fast of a start you guys got off to and how much of a purpose you guys came out with tonight?
DYLAN GAMBRELL: Exactly. I think everybody's got that in the back of their mind and just the feeling of that. We still think about it all the time. So here this time we're looking to go to the next step.

Q. Will, we hear so much about the high-pressure offense and how much pressure that puts on opposing defenses. What does it do for your responsibilities as a defenseman behind that pressure?
WILL BUTCHER: Yeah, I think I said it earlier, when our forecheck is going, makes the game easy for the D men because we can gap up and stay right on their forwards in our offensive zone. I think when our forwards are playing well, it makes our jobs as defensemen easier.

Q. For any of the players, could you talk about the starts? First period in these first three games in the tournament, you guys have outscored the opponents 8-1. Obviously that's a huge positive.
EVAN JANSSEN: That's a big part of our game, is setting the tone right off the first draw. Marcinew is one of our top face-off guys, and generally he starts, because of that. We get the puck to get to work right off the get-go.

Q. I wanted to ask you will about the set up of that goal and how that came about, please.
EVAN JANSSEN: I just did a high roll play with Fins, and he just dropped it to me, and I just saw a space behind the net, started skating and saw I had the angle on the guy and decided to take the puck to the net. Borgy made a great spin off a guy and laid it out to him, and he put it in the back of the net.

Q. Dylan, you obviously had a good night tonight, scoring twice. You guys got a UMD team, obviously, a conference rival, faced them twice already. What do you guys expect on Saturday?
DYLAN GAMBRELL: We're going to expect their best. We played them twice this year. We know they're a hard-working team. They're great in the D zone and they've got some great offense. And they're backed up by a good goalie.

So we're going to have to bring our best, and I think we're going to be ready.

Q. Will, do you see any similarities between your team and UMD, especially with both you guys were at the top of the conference and the top of the polls all year? Seems like both teams have the ability to offensively and defensively control the game, if you want to.
WILL BUTCHER: Yeah, I definitely do. I think both teams, also, they have some older leadership that does a really good job. I think that's also another similarity.

So like Dylan said, it's going to be a really good college hockey game. We know their best, they know our best. It's going to be a great game.

MODERATOR: Thanks. Questions for Coach.

Q. Your fourth year, obviously the team now has taken an extra step each year. First round, second round. Frozen Four, loser and now a national title game. Just if you could talk about that feat in itself?
COACH MONTGOMERY: It's been a real nice progression. I wish we could have skipped a couple of steps, to be honest, and we're looking to skip one more step on Saturday night.

I just feel that the culture of the program has just gotten better and there's been a more we attitude and a team-first attitude that you can see it on the bench. No one cares who is scoring the goals. We're just relentless with four lines and 6 D, and we have a hell of a goaltender behind everything.

Q. You've talked all year about special players making special plays and how when your best players are your best players on the ice usually good things happen. But what struck me about the run recently is the way the fourth line has stepped up, starting with Colin's two goals against Western in the consolation game. Can you talk about the contribution by that line and how they're making the next step for you in the postseason?
COACH MONTGOMERY: It's funny, people want to call them our fourth line. I actually thought BorgstrÃ¶m's line was our forth line going into Michigan Tech. But he plays so well they peg him as our second line.

I think all four lines I have confidence in, and they have confidence in each other. And the support they have and trust they have in the communication on the ice allows all lines to play well. But that depth that we talk about has been really pronounced here in the tournament.

Q. The players obviously have been very motivated by what happened in the past year in the postseason. Taking it a couple steps further, how much did you address that with players at all this season? Was it in your mind at all? Did you know they were motivated and didn't have to say anything?
COACH MONTGOMERY: I had some meetings just with the seniors. One in the spring, one in the middle of the summer when they're all training in Denver. And we spoke about it. And from then on we haven't spoke about it again. We have great senior leadership.

And that's what happens when you have a great culture and you're at a great university like the University of Denver, it makes people better people. And that ensues, it goes through our program and how much we care about each other and how I don't have to worry about monitoring the dressing room. I mean, our seniors are incredible people on and off the ice.

Q. Was the purpose of starting the Marcinew line to set the tone early? Because that's what it looked like to me.
COACH MONTGOMERY: I just knew I wanted Marcinew out against their best defensemen. They started Evans, so we started Marcinew's line. They knew how to set the tempo.

Q. Coach, Evan Ritt got on the board for the second time in his career tonight. How did your bench react, and how did you react?
COACH MONTGOMERY: Wasn't as ecstatic as the first time, because everyone was so happy for him when he got his first career goal. But tonight it was more the relentless pursuit of our forecheck and doing the things the right way that led -- obviously everyone is happy, because it kind of took the air out of the balloon for Notre Dame, but it was more about the team now and it's not more about individuals having success.

Q. Yesterday you said you hoped you guys could jump on Notre Dame early with your pace. Why did you think that was a possibility?
COACH MONTGOMERY: Because outside of the NCHC, what I've seen the last two years is we're able to jump on people. That's not going to happen Saturday night. It's an NCHC opponent.

Q. What will be the level of familiarity and how comfortable will your team be playing UMD? It's almost like because you guys just had that one series in December by break it seems like these guys are in some way nonconference rivals?
COACH MONTGOMERY: I know what you're saying, but I think their staff knows us inside out. I feel like we know them inside out. The players know each other extremely well. I don't think the coaches have to tell who has to go out on the ice when one line goes over because they're going to know it's my responsibility.

It's going to be a great college hockey game. NCHC opponents, two best teams consistently throughout the year in the NCHC, it's going to be a barn burner and a great show for college hockey.

Q. You talked about it a little about it with Marcinew taking the opening draw, but seemed like you were able to with the last change get some mismatches right before the goal, you had them in for pretty deep. What did you see in those matchups that you were able to exploit with the last change tonight?
COACH MONTGOMERY: Well, in particular I knew Gilbert was their best defenseman. I didn't want him out against Gambrell's line and sticking BorgstrÃ¶m out against their third pairing, was important to us. And we were able to get that with the last change, especially on the fly, because they would send out Gilbert in the D zone all the time, so we'd send out Marcinew's line and we'd be coming with those next two lines knowing that he's probably not going to be out there.

Q. Going back to Denver and UMD, was there any level of disappointment for your team when you guys weren't able to meet up with them in the Frozen Faceoff final? I know you talked about Saturday's game was the ultimate goal, but was that a game at all that you guys were hoping to get to?
COACH MONTGOMERY: I think when you look at your bucket list, yeah, we wanted to. But getting punched in the nose and not responding well against North Dakota I think has allowed us to regroup, refocus, and play the right way.

Q. Is this the best that your team has played so far this year, the last three games or two weeks?
COACH MONTGOMERY: It's probably been the most dominant. We're playing well. I mean, you know, there's no doubt about it. But we've had some long stretches of playing well before. So I think it's just we get in a rhythm and we start to really believe in what we're about.

MODERATOR: Thank you.

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