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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 4, 2018Scott SandelinParker MackayScott PerunovichKarson KuhlmanSt. Paul, Minnesota MODERATOR: We're joined by the Minnesota Duluth. Coach, an opening comment. COACH SANDELIN: Hello everyone. Pretty exciting time for our program, our team. Really excited for the guys sitting next to me, especially Karson who was a captain. But hasn't been an easy road. I think this team's really grown through the year, and real proud of their effort to rebound from our tournament losses to have a good week and win two games against two very good teams in Sioux Falls and get an opportunity to come back and try to win a national championship. So it's pretty special to be back in Saint Paul. Obviously '11 was a good year for us winning it here. And it was nice. And we feel fortunate to be in the position to be back here playing and having an opportunity to do that again. Q. Scott P, the talk about your team heading into the season was they return a lot but very inexperienced on defense. How did you look at that? Was that a challenge for you or how did you approach the youth on defense? SCOTT PERUNOVICH: Obviously we were really young coming into the year. I think that motivated us quite a bit. We had a lot of talk that we weren't going to be ready; that we were young. That just wanted to make us keep getting better and better, and I think we came together a lot this year. (Indiscernible), our headmaster there and I think he's done a great job, getting us all to come together and gel together as the year has come along. Q. Karson, your team is the only non-Big Ten team in the field. Do you have conference pride for the NCHC going into this? KARSON KUHLMAN: Definitely, props Big Ten. Pretty awesome having three teams in here. But at the same time we know that NCHC is one of the top if not the top conference in college hockey. I think we've had teams on top of the charts for the majority of the year. But at the same time, I think, it kind of gives us an advantage. We don't really know too much about Ohio State from playing against them-wise, and they don't know too much against us. So I think it's an advantage for us there. Q. Karson or Parker, how much do the two of you remember from the meeting with Ohio State last year in Fargo, specifically the second, third period and overtime? PARKER MACKAY: Yeah, they were a fast team. They played with a lot of skill and they played the game the right way, I feel like, throughout the 200-foot of the ice. So it's going to be a challenge for us. I think we'll have to shut down their speed and push pucks north as best we can throughout the game. KARSON KUHLMAN: Obviously they had a great team last year, too. I think our goaltender made a couple huge saves late, especially in overtime there to bail us out. But at the same time we're a different team, they're a different team. It's a new year. Q. Karson, you talked about the big saves Hunter Miska made last year in that game. Do you feel you have a similar or greater confidence for Hunter Shepard this year for what he's done? KARSON KUHLMAN: Yeah, very similar to Miska last year. It's been fun to watch Hunter grow this year. Confidence is through the roof right now which is what you need this time of year as a goaltender. He's made some big saves and won us a couple big games down the stretch. It's important to have that in the goaltender spot this time of year. Q. Karson, you were a leader on last year's team. How different is it being a leader on an older team versus this one? KARSON KUHLMAN: It was different. Last year we had a pretty great senior group, lot of core guys that have been around the block. And this year I knew it was going to be different. As much as it was a learning year for our younger guys, especially our freshmen, I think it was a learning year for me as well. Learned a lot of things about how to push some buttons and motivate guys in different ways. And couldn't be prouder about that freshmen class just watching them grow throughout the year and obviously stepping up into big roles. Q. Scott, can you talk a little bit about what Rohlik meant for your teams for the 10 years he was there? And since their loss in the Big Ten final, and overtime kind of got you guys here, do you owe him anything? COACH SANDELIN: No, I owe Jeff Jackson a lot, couple beers in Florida will probably work. There's about five other teams I could say the same thing for. No, Steve was great. We built a relationship when we were assistant coaches. And when I took over at Duluth I knew he was from Minnesota. We became good friends and he was with me for 10 years. He did a great job recruiting. He's a very good coach. I think he's very fiery, very passionate. You see his teams play the same way. I'm not surprised that he's done a great job. I think their team this year is better than last year in different ways. They're a little more complete team. But he's got a good staff around him, too. He's a good friend of mine, and obviously when you spend 10 years together you become pretty good friends. And he's a very good coach and very deserving of the opportunity to be here with his team. And it wouldn't surprise me down the road they're going to be down here more times. Q. Karson, if Mikey and Joey Anderson go in the corner for a puck, who comes out and why? KARSON KUHLMAN: They've had good battles this year. But I think it's pretty split down the middle. A lot of sibling rivalry. It's pretty fun to be around. They're pretty hard on each other, and I think it's honestly best for both of them, benefits both of them in the long run. Q. Parker, who do you think wins? PARKER MACKAY: I would like to -- probably I would say probably be 50/50 as Kars said. They're both fiery guys, play with a lot of passion. You see it on and off the ice. Q. Scott? SCOTT PERUNOVICH: Those guys are pretty insane when they go against each other. I remember the first battle they had they ended up throwing down and getting in a fight on the ice and I had to break it up. So those guys are definitely passionate about hockey. I'd say 51-49 to Joey. (Laughter). Don't let Mikey know that. COACH SANDELIN: I'm just glad he wasn't a fence sitter. Q. Karson, specifically where has this team definitely gotten better from day one to now? And what did you really see come right a couple of weeks ago? KARSON KUHLMAN: I think obviously every week we've kind of been trying to take steps. It's been our goal since day one is kind of play like this. And I think we're doing that obviously up into the NCHC weekend here in this barn where we took a couple of steps backwards. But at the same time it was a learning experience for us. A lot of guys had not been in games of that magnitude where it's playoff hockey, and now that we're where we are here it's obviously one and done. I think it was good learning lessons for us. But just consistency. I think really been focusing on 60 minutes of hockey. Early on in the year we were a couple of shifts there and a couple of shifts there and then take a few off. And we're doing a good job of playing a full 60 now. Q. Karson or Parker, that third period against Denver in the national championship, you did everything except tie the game. Do you turn the page on that or do you use a time like that as inspiration throughout a season like this one? PARKER MACKAY: I think a little bit of both. Obviously it's not going to leave our mental state. But it definitely drives you to continue to push yourself through these times and through this tournament. You use that experience, if you're down in the game, kind of thing, to know that you're never out of it. But at the same time it's a new tournament, and we look forward to playing full 60 minutes. We're going to put that behind us and look at our new opponents here. Q. Parker, battled some injury problems earlier this year. How grateful are you to be personally sitting right here right now? PARKER MACKAY: Yeah, it wasn't easy throughout the year just trying to stay conditioned when you are injured and things like that. And trying to jump in when it's playoff time. The pace jumps up -- the game's magnitude. So it is tough a bit. But kudos to the guys for battling and putting ourselves in a good spot throughout the playoffs. Q. Scotty P, how have you seen this game develop especially the second half of the season? SCOTT PERUNOVICH: I think my confidence has gone up. That's definitely a big part of it. The guys up here for sure, the captains are always helping, being positive. And my D partner will see, he gets on me sometimes. But it's in good nature and he always tries to help me as best he can, too. So I think the team we have, no matter what you're doing, they'll be supporting no matter what. If you make a mistake they'll say get over it. I think just my confidence overall and that's a big part from my team. Q. Coach, can you maybe look through the season and see if -- maybe identify some milestone games or weekends where you maybe knew that this was a special team? COACH SANDELIN: I think one for sure was the game against Omaha before break. We had 7-5 shootout game with them on Friday, and challenged our guys to kind of get after that a bit better and we ended up winning 6-2 before the break. That was good. Obviously we knew we were losing five guys. I think the tournament out at the Ledyard Classic was a good step for us. Even though our whole team wasn't there, I thought the guys that we put in -- kind of like what we went through November with injuries, they were a little bit used to it. But they really relish that, and I think just coming out of there with a win and a tie and winning in the shootout and having that feeling moving forward I think really kind of gave us a springboard into the second half. And the guys that came back had more confidence from the World Juniors. And we got healthier and kind of had a real good -- I won't say a real good -- a more consistent second half. We won six or seven games in a row. When you start doing that, obviously you start to build that, even more confidence. And I think those kind of areas right in December there was a critical area, because even though we won that game we were still in the bottom of the league. But that was a big win for us heading into break, mentally. And then to come out of it and have a good tournament and follow that up, I think those were two critical times for us. Q. Karson, the Bulldogs' last nine games in the tourney have all been decided by one goal. What do you guys have to do have that cushion and keep that cushion? KARSON KUHLMAN: I think it goes back to playing a complete game. Seen a lot of crazy things obviously in the Frozen Four the past couple of years where teams are up by a couple and then they scored on late and tied back up and end up losing the game. So I think just sticking with it, whether we get up or down, it's just a matter of sticking with it all the way through. Obviously you saw it in Sioux Falls a couple of weekends ago where we got down two pretty early and then stuck with the program and ended up coming back and winning that game. So I think that's what it comes down to. Q. Coach, WCHA playoff championship here, national championship here, watching your son win a state title in this building, which is the greatest thrill for you? COACH SANDELIN: Wow, I mean the national championship for me, and when you do something for the first time in program history, it's special. I would probably say real close to that is watching my -- I actually didn't see the second state championship. I saw the first state championship, so I'll put that right underneath there, not to be selfish, but it was pretty special for our program to do that here. Q. Coach, when you watch Ohio State on video, what's different about them now compared to a year ago when you all played them? And obviously they seem to have gotten, I don't know for want of another word, tighter defensively and from there on out. They have this five-man-connected kind of approach. But what do you see that's a little bit different from a year ago? COACH SANDELIN: I think you answered it. I think they're a much better defensive team this year. I think last year maybe a little bit looser defensively. So their system, what they've employed, has worked. You look at, they're barely giving up just over two goals a game. Their penalty killing is good, number one. So I think they've always been good offensively. And they are still, just like they were last year, but I think just tighter defensively. And those guys play a little bit more complete game on both sides of the puck. Q. Riley Tufte is one of your top goal scorers. When he's on and he's scoring, what are you seeing from him? COACH SANDELIN: Number one, for his size, he's a tremendous skater. When he's moving and really getting engaged physically and really kind of getting his nose to the puck and in those areas, I think those are a good start. He can shoot the puck very well, too. So he's got to get in those positions to do that. But when he's engaged and really having his feet and that kind of extra step playing on his toes a little bit, I think that's when he's most effective. So he's good around the net. You'll see him there on the power play. But he can shoot it. And he just needs to, when he plays with that, a little bit more of that physical edge and uses his skating ability, he's a tough guy to stop. Just like they've got a couple guys that are that bigger -- that maybe don't skate like him -- but those guys that have size and their reach and their length can be hard to stop. And when he's like that, that's what makes him a much better player and a dangerous player. Q. You mentioned that first-ever national championship. How did that change your program? COACH SANDELIN: Changed it a lot. I think anytime like it's the first -- I mean, obviously since I got there, they had the '83, '84, '85 group that really had that sustained back-to-back tournaments under Mike Sertich. And we got there in '04. But to win it and again do something for the first time, obviously it's tremendous exposure nationally for your program. So I would say it's helped a little bit in recruiting. Obviously we ushered in a new facility the next year, midway through that year. So that was nice. But I think it's helped in a lot of different ways. But to me, you get to these stages and it's the experience as a player, to go through and -- to me those are the ones, when you go through those together, it's pretty special. We didn't wait for a ten-year reunion with that group, we had a five-year. When we did it, they wanted to do it every year, go every year. And we had a good time. And again those groups are so close. But it's done a lot for our program. It's going to put us on the map. And you can't get lazy with it. You've got to keep working. And really proud of our coaching staff for going out and continuing to identify the right players and continue to build what we started there. Q. You played in the Frozen Four? COACH SANDELIN: I did. Way back in '84. Q. How has it changed? COACH SANDELIN: We didn't have the week off. We stayed out there. And it's certainly not the magnitude that it is now. But it was -- they even had a third-place game back then. But it was pretty cool, still but I don't even think it was the Frozen Four then, but I remember it being out -- we beat RPI that year and stayed out in New York because it was in Lake Placid. I was in North Dakota and we lost to Duluth, surprising, but it's a big event. It's awesome how it's grown and it's something that people look forward to every year. Q. Coach, you were part of a national championship with two teams in the same game. Now three Big Ten teams here. What does it do for a conference's reputation or perception to have this kind of postseason success? COACH SANDELIN: Good. Their team -- everyone's talked about their conference being down. Just because you're not in this tournament year after year, that doesn't mean your conference has bad teams. You look at the programs in the Big Ten, they're always very, very strong teams with long histories and traditions. And everyone's going to go through it. The parity -- college hockey is hard right now. The parity in college hockey is not like it was 10, 15 years ago. It's a lot harder to win and harder to get there. Teams lose players now more than ever early. It's hard, sometimes, to plan. They've earned their way in here, just like our league did the previous three years. And we're fortunate as a member of the NCHC to be here. And we're going to relish the opportunity to play. Doesn't matter who you play at this time of the year, what conference they're in, they're all good teams, and you have to just focus on what you need to do to win a hockey game and hopefully keep playing on Saturday. Q. Somebody mentioned earlier about asking about Hunter Shepard. Obviously he's been really good for you guys. And I guess what did you expect from him this year especially after you guys had another goalie last year leave early? Did you expect him to be so good to step in right away? COACH SANDELIN: Yeah, I mean, I hoped someone's going to step up. I felt we had two good goalies returning that didn't have a lot of game experience or college experience. They were good goalies in junior. Nick Deery, who hasn't played, was the Manitoba Goalie of the Year. Hunter was the North American League Goalie of the Year, prior to them coming here. They played a lot of games, just hadn't been at the college level. No different than Miska last year, where I think they're all good goalies. And like our young defensemen, I think they're good players, how are they going to do at this level. But going into the year we knew we had two that we felt could play. Was one of them going to emerge? We didn't know. We gave them opportunities in the first month. Brant Nicklin, our goalie coach, has done an outstanding job with our goalies over the last three years. And I give a lot of credit, if not all the credit, to their development to him. Because he's done a great job in not only working with the starting goaltenders, but the guys like Hunter and Nick when Miska was here, making them better. And I think those goalies have grown confidence-wise. When Shep kind of grabbed the net in November, there were games where, like the 7-5 Omaha game, where I was going to put Nick in the next night but I let them fight through it and he's responded. I think from that point on he's really grown. But we felt comfortable with both of them. And whether we split them all year -- I know in November, or October, late October, we talked about this could take a while until someone emerges and they might not. Some teams it's okay to have two. But Shep did and we've run with him and he's grown. And it's certainly given our team a big lift and a lot of confidence. MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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