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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 4, 2018Jeff JacksonJake EvansCale MorrisJordan GrossSt. Paul, Minnesota MODERATOR: We're joined by Notre Dame. Coach, some opening thoughts. COACH JACKSON: We can just go right to questions. We're excited to be here. MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Jeff, you played Michigan four times. You've won two, they've won two. Talk a little bit about this team that you'll be playing Thursday night. COACH JACKSON: Well, they're much improved. I mean, they've grown a lot over the last several months. I mean, I remember when I took over Notre Dame, it took us over half a year to get our culture in place, to get our system in place, to figure out what players we had. And they had to figure me out. And I'm sure the same thing happened to Mel this year. But I saw from January to a month later when we played them, I saw them better than they were earlier. And I think that he's done an incredible job this year and that program's back on the rise. I mean, they had a great coach for a number of years in Red Berenson, and it was, like, an easy transition for Mel since he worked for Red all those years. But it was a fresh face, a new staff for the most part. And those kids really grew as a team. So they've been one of the best offensive teams in the country in the second half, and their goaltender's certainly solidified their game in the second half as well. So all in all, I mean, they're as good a team as there is left playing. So we'll be more than -- have our hands full. Q. Jordan, knowing this event was here in your hometown, how much has this kind of been in the back of your mind for your senior season? And, also, your consecutive game streak, how much does that mean to you? JORDAN GROSS: Yeah, it's definitely in the back of my mind coming in here at the beginning of the year. Any Frozen Four is extremely special, but knowing it's in Saint Paul, that kind of meant a little more to me. And then consecutive games, I think that's a big attribute to our trainer and strength program. They've done a really good job of building up the muscles, doing a lot of stuff to make sure you don't get injured. So I think that mainly goes to him. Q. Cale, when you look back at last season, what's the big takeaway you took from sitting on the bench, watching and learning in practice? And what was your mindset coming in at the start of September, knowing you had a good chance at the number one job? CALE MORRIS: Sitting in behind Cal Petersen at World Class Goalie Camp, I knew it was going to be a great opportunity for me to soak in as much knowledge about the game on and off the ice. I think I developed as much on the ice as off the ice learning from him as being the captain as well, so he definitely took me under his wing. And going into this year, I knew that I would have a great opportunity to battle for the starting position with the two freshmen coming in, and that it would be a healthy competition for all of us, and we all push each other each day. So it's been a great ride so far. Q. Jordan, three Big Ten teams in the Frozen Four. What does that mean to you in the conference and do you take a lot of pride in that? JORDAN GROSS: Says a lot for the conference. We knew -- we've experienced it every game this year. No matter who we were playing in conference it was a really tough series. And we had a lot of success in the first half against all the teams. And it kind of proved the second half where all the weekends seemed like they were being split. So there's not a bad team in the Big Ten and I think it shows right now with three out of the four in the Frozen Four right now. Q. Jake, you played Michigan four times. They're the only team that's beaten you twice. What makes them so difficult to play against, particularly the way they have an ability to block shots? JAKE EVANS: Yeah, I think obviously the blocking shots is a big thing to their game. And I think when we've played them and done well, we've done a good job against their net and also shutting down some of their top offensive players. When we've lost to them we've had trouble getting pucks to the net and getting to that net. And they've got a goalie that's doing really well right now, so getting at that net is going to be crucial for us. Q. Coach, Cal Burke, I think, last year had three goals. He's got 13 this year. What's gone into his development and what's helped him improve his production this year? COACH JACKSON: Cal's been a key guy for us as far as every aspect of the game -- 5-on-5, special teams. I think a lot of it has to do with the skating and tenacity. He's just -- he plays hard and he's hard to play against. And that's a nice combination. I think one of the big keys for us, too, is a year ago at this time he was hurt. Staying healthy is an important part of being successful, too. And he's had a pretty close to injury-free season, which has really allowed him to gain more confidence in his game. And I think that we knew he was a good offensive player. I think that he had a stretch where he was scoring some key goals for us in the middle of the season. And that's kind of been, like, a number of our guys, you never know on a given night who is going to score the key goal. And Cal's been one of those guys. But it's more about his total game. Because he plays a 200-foot game, and he gives us a lot of quality minutes on special teams. Q. Jordan and Jake, just wondering what are the differences playing in front of Cale compared to Cal last year? And when did you guys kind of get a sense of what he was going to be capable of and kind of finding that confidence in him as your number one goalie? JORDAN GROSS: They have a lot of the same characteristics, obviously. They're both really confident, pretty calm guys. Main difference, I guess I'd say, Cal is a lefty -- Cal is a righty, Cale is a lefty. They're both calm, stayed really composed back there. There hasn't been too much of a transition for us. JAKE EVANS: I'd probably second that. I don't think there's many differences between the two. I think for Cale just learning from Cal last year has really helped him out. And like Jordan said, they're both confident and calm guys. I think going into this year, it might have been a question of who is going to be the starting guy. But there was no question from the team who was going to -- one of those guys was going to step up, or both of them. And Cale's done an unbelievable job and really helped lead this team. Q. Coach, you've obviously gone through a change in conferences. What has that process been like? And has anything surprised you about Big Ten hockey or what do you make about Big Ten hockey? COACH JACKSON: I've been asked that a lot. First and foremost is, like, we were a real good member and a very proud member of Hockey East, and they gave us a home for four years, and it was a tremendous conference for us. I still feel that way. I think all along I think from their perspective and our perspective, in many ways, it was challenging. Because I know that, I was talking to Nate Leaman just last week, and we were talking about -- we had several instances where we got stranded out east because of weather. But I forgot to remember that there was a lot of teams that were at our place that got stranded going back home or getting out to our place. So just from a geographical perspective it made a lot of sense. And from a program perspective it's made a huge difference in, I think, the excitement level about our program because now, with much respect for all the programs in Hockey East, outside of Boston College, our fans probably didn't know a lot of those schools. And our fans have always loved to hate the Big Ten. So from my perspective it's been great because we're playing teams that we played in the CCHA. We had some great rivalries with Michigan, Michigan State, Ohio State, and we also have had recent nonconference series a lot against Minnesota and Penn State. But the quality of the programs is unbelievable. And you're going into big venues with big, big crowds, big-time environments. You're always on, at our building, NBC Sports, always on the Big Ten Network on the road. So for our guys, their families get to see them play at home on TV, or they get to -- most of our guys are from the Midwest, from Minnesota, from Michigan, Illinois. So most of our guys grew up in Big Ten territory. So it works for us from a fan perspective, it works from us from a recruiting perspective and it works for us from a team perspective. And the conference is like -- I compare it to Hockey East without the bottom five teams. That's the quality of the conference. So every night you're playing a top-level team. And it's been challenging all season long. And I expect it to get more challenging in the next few years. Q. Could you guys tell me, you've had a 16-game winning streak and all the things that you've accomplished this year. How do you guys stay loose? And who is the loosest person in the locker room? COACH JACKSON: Outside of me (laughter). JORDAN GROSS: I mean, we had a 16-game win streak, but I don't know if you ask guys, a lot of them probably wouldn't even know how many games we won. We've got just a team that just loves to play hockey, loves coming to the rink and working hard and having fun. So it was a great win streak, but we were just having fun and working hard in the process. Q. Jake, who is the loosest in the locker room? JAKE EVANS: I think we probably agree that Bo Brauer is the loosest. He's the loudest and most energetic and he's just fun to be around. I think it's good before games just to get guys loose and talking. And Bo does a great job of that, getting everyone's voices heard. And I think that's been a big reason for our success this year. CALE MORRIS: I think definitely throughout the 16-game win streak it wasn't more about the streak, it was more just about coming to the rink every day with the mindset of getting better and sticking to the process. It was awesome to get those results done, but I think the bigger picture was just preparing ourselves for kind of final test, final weekend that we're here at. We definitely wouldn't be here where we are without that streak we were on. But we just kind of stuck to the process throughout the whole time there. Q. Loosest in the locker room? CALE MORRIS: Definitely Bo. He has a good time. COACH JACKSON: I'd say that's accurate. Q. Trumps you? COACH JACKSON: In a big way. Q. Coach, in the '80s and '90s you took three teams to the NCAA Tournament at Lake Superior, one as an assistant and two as a head coach. Is there a difference preparing teams now in this age of college hockey than it was then for a Frozen Four? COACH JACKSON: I think it's much more challenging today than it was then. Not that it was easy then. There were some great programs, great teams back in the '90s. But it was much different because, I mean, the recruiting landscape has changed so dramatically. So many -- you've got every program -- back in those days, like, when I was at Lake State originally we had one assistant. Now everybody's got two assistants. Everybody's on the road. Recruiting has become a lot more challenging. And then you have the other aspect of it where you have a lot of attrition with the National Hockey League signing players before they're seniors. So that creates a lot more balance in college hockey. There's a lot more programs out there like my Lake State team that recruit 20-year-old freshmen. That's fine because we did it at Lake State all the time because it creates balance. And then you've got programs that are more recruiting the top young kids, and it creates balance because those top young kids generally don't stay for four years. They're there for maybe two, three years and they're gone. So we're fortunate this year that we actually have some quality players that are seniors. I mean, that's a rarity in today's game. When you get them like Will Butcher last year, you get players of that caliber that stick around for four years, it's a positive for a program. And, frankly, I think it's a positive for the player. Getting their degree, there's a lot of value to that. They still have a lot of time to go and play pro hockey. But to me there's a four-year player that's the olden days. And I miss those days, because I think that there's something to be said for -- I would bet both these two guys here wouldn't trade this year for anything because it's the best year of your life, especially when you get to be part of a great team. Q. Coach, Andrew Oglevie enjoyed a nice breakout season last year. And this year he moves positions to center. Misses a couple of games with injury but still ends up with some pretty respectful numbers. What can you say about, one, how he handled the move to center and, two, what he brings to the team in general? COACH JACKSON: I think he likes playing center. That was part of the reason. And plus for offensive depth. He had been playing with Jake on right wing. But I think for offensive depth we needed Andrew to play center. But I think in some ways he's better on the wing because he gets to utilize his speed a little bit more. Because last year playing wing you'd see him on a stretch pass from Jordan get a break-away and score a big goal, and he doesn't get to do that when he's playing down low on the breakout or defensively. But, I mean, he's a responsible player at center. So he does a great job in that aspect. But with his skating and puck skills, he's got a lot of positive attributes. And he does a great job on our penalty kill. He's a key guy on the power play. But I think that being a captain this year was important, too, the transition into a leadership role. He's a mature kid. And he's had a good year for us, maybe not to the same level last year. But I don't think -- playing with Anders Bjork probably helped him a bit point wise last year as well. But he's certainly a guy that can change a game with his skill and ability. Q. The Big Ten was a pretty offensive league last year. And you've been known for having a good defensive structure with your program. That seems to have rubbed off on the other two Big Ten teams that are here. What have you noticed about the job Mel and Steve have done with their programs? COACH JACKSON: It's a good point. I think Steve was heading in that direction anyways. It had nothing to do with us. Everybody talks about us structurally and defensively. We use a lot of the same system. We copycat a lot of teams that we have relationships with the coaches. We copycat the Pittsburgh Penguins a lot because I have a great relationship with Mike Sullivan and we've had a lot of players go through Pittsburgh. So we have a good rapport with that organization. So I learned from guys like him. Obviously we have a great relationship with the Blackhawks, in talking to Quenneville and their staff. We try to emulate a lot of teams that play in the National Hockey League. And one thing people misunderstand and it's actually been a deficiency of ours is puck possession and that's something that we continuously are working on. Actually we've gotten better in the last half of the year, last month or so here. But that always comes across as being defensive. But if we have the puck 60 percent of the time we look like a great defensive team. When you do have to defend, yeah, we spend a lot of time on fundamentals defensively and try to make sure we're responsible, because that's how you get the puck back to be on offense. Everybody aspires to have the puck. That's how the game is played; you aspire to score goals. We do as well. We may not have the same offensive depth as some teams, but to me it's just as valuable to have guys on a given night, have a Bo Brauer or Joe Wegwerth score or Jack Jenkins score. Because you can't defend what you don't know. And if you're getting contributions from 10 guys that may not have 20 goals, you know, that's just as valuable because you can't shut down everybody. So for me, we're proud of the way we play the game. We try to emulate the way the game is played at the highest levels. And I think that, better answer to your question, is I think that Ohio State's certainly one of the hardest teams to play against that we've played against all year. And Michigan has become that way. And they're both very good transition teams. And that's because they defend so well. They both play a very similar system to us in the neutral zone, which is -- we've played that system for a long time. Mel plays it a little different than Steve. Steve plays it very similar to us in a big way. It's more of a 1-3-1 or 1-1-3, depending on how you look at it. It's about protecting the guts of the ice. I think all three teams are very good at that. They're all good at controlling the middle of the ice defensively. And that's how you generally have success on transition as well. Q. Wanted to ask you a little bit about -- I know the guys talked a little bit about Cale coming in and securing that number one spot after sitting on the bench last year for most of the year for Cal. What's it been like watching him progress, and did you know what you had coming into the season? COACH JACKSON: We recruited Cale to be our heir apparent to Cal two years ago. I'm not sure that I expected him to play at the level he's playing at this year. But all the credit goes to him, because if it wasn't for last year I'm not sure where he would be this year. I'm talking about, in today's game, with teenagers or young men, it's like if they're not playing they're usually not happy and they're not fun to be around. But Cale was awesome last year. His attitude, his work ethic. I mean, he's getting what he earned. And I think because he had the right mindset, the right attitude. And like you said, he became friends with Cal. He wasn't an enemy to Cal as his partner. He learned from Cal. I think they learned from each other, frankly. I know they still communicate and I'm still close to Cal as well. I'm the every-other-year resident goalie guy. So when I can't get a volunteer coach that has goaltending background. So a lot of credit goes to our volunteer coach, Zack Cisek, too, that has done a great job with Cale. Baby sat him all season long. And he's a bright, young goalie guy. So that's certainly been beneficial to Cale as well. That's going to kill me too, Cales and Cals and Cams. MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
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