NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOUR: MINNESOTA STATE VS DENVER

April 9, 2022

Mike Hastings

Cade Borchardt

Dryden McKay

Sam Norton

TD Garden

Minnesota State Mavericks

Finals Postgame Media Conference

Denver - 5, Minnesota State - 1

COACH HASTINGS: First of all, I'd like to congratulate Denver University, David Carle and their hockey team on winning the national championship tonight. I thought we got off to a good start, even a good 40 minutes. And once we gave up the first one, I thought we started leaking oil a little bit and couldn't stop the bleeding. They scored a power play goal to get it to two. And then we started chasing the game a little bit.

So I think tonight's a perfect example of understanding that a minimum of 60 minutes at this time is going to be something that you might have to have. And I thought we had a good 40 and not a great last 20. So congratulations to Denver for earning it. We haven't lost a game since around Christmas until tonight. Congratulations to Denver for earning it.

Q. Coach alluded to this a little bit, but it looks like you weren't expecting to give up a goal at all. And then after that, the composure kind of fell apart. Like, what happened with the team's composure there?

SAM NORTON: I think we're a defense-oriented team. Obviously we're trying to defend hard. We didn't want to let up a goal, but usually you need more than one to win a hockey game. I think it deflated us a little bit.

CADE BORCHARDT: It deflated us a little bit, but have to stop the bleeding when it happens. And it kept coming.

Q. Mike, what did you feel like Denver, or the players, what did you feel like Denver did well in that third to get you guys out of your game, after two pretty strong periods like you said?

DRYDEN MCKAY: I thought I gave up a rebound on that one. They capitalized. Then we took a penalty shortly after. It was just a bad bounce. And then a guy makes a nice shot on the power play. All of a sudden it's 2-1, and just never really recovered. It would have been nice to make a few more saves for the guys, keep it at one or two, but it just didn't happen.

Q. Dryden, the second and third Denver goal seemed to be scored in a similar fashion with the 2-on-1 break. What did you see maybe on that second goal exactly what happened there?

DRYDEN MCKAY: It was a heck of a shot. They worked it around the power play and guy just opened it up for a one-timer, went by my D's face and right over my shoulder, short sighted. Good shot by him. And it would have been nice to get that one.

Q. I know it's the last thing you want to think about right now, but can you grasp what you guys accomplished this season? You're one game short of the ultimate goal, but you had so many things you can be proud of this year.

CADE BORCHARDT: You look at the whole season, and we hadn't lost a game since around Christmas until tonight. And I mean, obviously nothing's going to solve this or make us happy right now. So I am proud of everyone, proud of the seniors, it stings.

Q. Question about what you thought Denver did good to get you guys out of that game that had worked so well over five periods?

COACH HASTINGS: If you look at their first goal, I think it's Pav ends up wrapping a puck around the net. We have a good scoring opportunity. They transition. We've got numbers back. And we get back into our zone and Barrow, I think it was, gets around and loses our defender and gets to the net, gets a rebound, finishes.

Up until that point, I still thought we were in decent shape. And then momentum got on their side. And they got to the power play. We had done a decent job at getting that killed up until last 10 seconds of the power play. And then I think it's a spot we hadn't been in in a while. And I didn't think we managed it very well.

So I thought they smelled some blood in the water and they were incredibly aggressive and they were awarded for that, because we wanted to get to two in a hurry without understanding if they get to three, that hill's going to be a little steeper.

Q. Were there any points in the first 40 minutes where you had excellent chances to get it to two, and you just thought that, hey, this may not be our night just because not able to get to the second? Did you have any foreboding feelings on that?

COACH HASTINGS: I don't know if it was Morton that hit the post, but had an opportunity. You've got to give him credit. He kept it at 1. And I think that's a big piece in this game for us not to get to 2. Then we get it back to 1-1. I give him a lot of credit at what he did and keeping it at 1.

Q. In that third period, is there a part during that where you want to make an adjustment versus reinforcing just the same concepts that your team had employed, or was there a balance you tried to strike in there as Denver started its run?

COACH HASTINGS: Again, it was right after the power play, I wanted to try to get us back into -- there were some guys I thought were having a decent night because we had a couple that were off. And so we tried to adjust some things as far as getting back to us being four lines.

And we just couldn't find a rhythm again. And I want to give Denver credit for keeping us out of that. And they kept the game simple. And I thought we started to press. And when you press, you can create offense for the other team.

And Denver's a good enough team you don't have to help them to create their own offense. And I thought they took advantage of it.

Q. You just talked a little bit about Denver. But I wanted to ask about the pace of the game and how you think that fell into special teams, because it seems like you were just saying that Denver was able to kind of make adjustments that forced your team a little bit?

COACH HASTINGS: I thought the pace of the game was good. I mean, I didn't think we had created a lot of Denver's offense. We had good opportunities. We couldn't extend the lead. We scored a power play goal. They get 1.

Their guy made a few more saves than we wanted him to. But I just thought, as I said earlier, when they got the second one I thought we started to chase it instead of settling down a little bit and understanding there was still time on the clock, that we could go and make a difference.

Q. Wanted to get your thoughts on Dryden. Obviously the last 24 hours is a bit of an emotional for him. Highest of highs last night and then tonight. Your thoughts on his night, his last 24 hours, and his career with the school.

COACH HASTINGS: He's helped elevate our program over the last four years. And he's done it as you just saw tonight in a very humble way. I was happy for him to receive the award. I thought it's something that he's earned.

Obviously there's a lot of people out in, whether it's social media or whatever, everybody's got an opinion, and everybody they can have their own opinion. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

What you're starting to see in college hockey there's a lot of good hockey players, a lot of good goaltender. Levi is a heck of a goaltender. He's going to be playing -- and somebody made the point -- there was a lot of critique when Swayman -- he's a pretty good goalie, making some money right now.

To me, just the way he's handled everything that he's had, he's not a guy -- I got asked the question last night at the Hobey Awards ceremony: Did Dryden feel he's been slighted before? Not if you ask Dryden. Dryden's got a tremendous amount of respect for all the other players that have had opportunities and who have won the award before him. He's a special young man, and I look forward to following his career.

Q. Asking about Dryden, I know he said he gave up a bad rebound on that last goal which kind of led to everything else. But what did you think about his composure getting back after that, because I know he didn't face a lot of shots, which for some goalies it's not really an easy thing to combat because you're not in the action all the time?

COACH HASTINGS: Dryden is going to be heck of a lot more -- he's going to be a lot more critical of himself than his coaches tonight. A, because that young man, like I said, he's helped elevate our program both on and off the ice. And he'll handle tonight's game just like he's handled the enormous amount of wins that he's had in a very humble manner.

I think he's going to look at it and say, hey, I should have put that in the corner. And his coach is going to look at it and say, hey, we could have helped you defend that a little bit better and not had him standing alone in front.

So like I said, he's a guy that looks in the mirror every day and sees 20/20. And so I feel for him right now. I feel for the whole group. They had a tremendous season. They lost to a good hockey team tonight. We all did. So there will be time to look at this down the road right now pretty open wound.

Q. I looked it up. It's 1414 miles from your rink to this ring. Yet that red carpet welcome was as big as what we've seen for one of these. What do you say about the amount of purple that turned out this far to see this?

COACH HASTINGS: We're still building. Pretty special to be a part of it. And to have the people travel that distance, spend the money, spend the time, away from work. We had some students hop on some flights. I'm not sure where the pay came from, but -- (laughter) -- but they hopped on some flights out here to support us.

All the way from the president down. Very proud to be a part of Minnesota State and the CCHA. And the ones that hurt are the ones you learn from the most. This one hurts a bit, but I'm really proud of the way that our fans traveled.

And people talk about that when you talk about regionals, you talk about Frozen Fours. It's been phenomenal. Like I said last night, or I think Thursday, I think we're at about 98, 99 percent capacity in our building. They're passionate, and we appreciate it.

Q. I know it's still fresh right now but a 38-win season. Just talk about what this group accomplished this year.

COACH HASTINGS: Incredibly proud of them because they've gone to work every day. And we all know, your dailies are what make your week, what makes your month, which makes your year. And these guys came to work every day with a smile on their face and made the dailies fantastic.

And so the ride they took our staff on and our program on was special. And right now I've got a little bit of a headache just from going through what we went through and the idea of we've also decided in our program to point thumbs, not fingers. And the thumb's gotta look right here.

And there will be time for reminiscing and thinking about the rest of it. Like I said, it's a little raw right now. And we're going to learn from it and we're going to move on. And we're going to be better because of what happened tonight and because of the journey that these guys allowed us to have together from the beginning of the year until now.