|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 5, 2012Chad BillinsKyle BonisBob DanielsTaylor NelsonTAMPA, FLORIDA Ferris State – 3 MODERATOR: We're joined by head coach Bob Daniels and Chad Billins, Kyle Bonis, and Taylor Nelson. Coach, an opening statement. COACH DANIELS: Thank you. Thoughts, first of all, the game pretty much unfolded as I guess I anticipated early. I knew it would be a tight‑checking, close‑scoring game. It's been hard because we haven't played Union all year. But you watch them on tape and watch how good a team they are, how well defensively they are, the fact that they play as a good unit of five on the ice. I just knew goal scoring would be at a premium. And I feel we played very good defensively.  Both teams have great goaltenders, and I said earlier in the week I thought it probably be a one‑goal game overtime game, and certainly it was a one‑goal game. We did get the open netter. But the other thing I would like to say is I want to congratulate Union, and could easily be them heading into tomorrow, it was that close a game, and we certainly feel very fortunate to get by them and look forward to the championship game. MODERATOR: Questions? Q. Kyle, are you normally a magnet for those kind of sweet rebounds, or were you just fortunate tonight? KYLE BONIS: I'd love to tell you yes, but lately no. It was a great shot by Sops, it's something we work on a lot in practice and things like that. When it came off his pad, I was hoping it would sit down and I could get a decent piece of the puck. And Grosenick made quite an extension. He pushed off pretty hard and he was a lot closer to stopping that than I would have liked him to be. But when it went in, it was quite a feeling when it did. Q. Kyle, can you just talk about your emotions, what was going through your head when you knew that was going to go in? KYLE BONIS: That was such a hard question. There was so much stuff going on. Like I said, it was a great shot by Sops. When it finally went in, I was obviously really excited. But I looked up at the clock and realized that we still had 4:30 left to go, and I knew Union was going to push really hard. And I just didn't want us to sit back, and I think we learned a lot of lessons from this year in how to handle a lead, and I think the guys did a great job and we closed it out with some confidence. Q. Chad, can you talk a little bit about the defensive depth your team has, and a lot of teams top lines are relied on, but you guys kind of have three pairings, you can get out there against the best the opponents have to offer? CHAD BILLINS: We were fortunate enough to have a great freshmen class of defensemen come in. So I think that the senior leadership and guys like Scott Czarnowczan really, I don't know, I guess taught the young guys the ropes, and we just tried to make the easy play out of the zone and block the shots when necessary and don't try to get too up or too down during the game or anything like that, just make the easy plays. Q. Taylor, this is your third straight tournament game. You went up one goal. Could you talk about the defensive performance and how they were able to limit some of the shot opportunities for Union? TAYLOR NELSON: We've been great all year of getting in shot lanes and blocking shots. And like I mentioned before, our team has racked up a lot of blocked shots and we're willing to sacrifice for one another. But a great‑‑ our team did a great job today of really forcing guys wide and forcing them to have a bad angle shot. When they didn't have those, when they didn't take the shot, I mean, we pushed them right to the corner. So I think overall we did a great job in the defensive zone, and we did a really good job of chipping pucks out and making our life in the defensive zone that much easier. Q. Chad, their top line with Welsh and that unit there, they've done a lot against pretty much everybody they played this year. What did you guys learn? People talked about Coach Daniels and his game planning. What did you plan for that made you successful against them? CHAD BILLINS: Obviously we know that that top line there is a pretty potent offense. But I don't think we really prepared any different than normal. I didn't really get nervous if we got caught out there with different guys. We believe in all guys on our team. I don't think we prepared anything any different. Obviously, like you said, they've definitely done some work this year, and it was a great line and Union's a great team. But we were fortunate enough to get the win. Q. Can you talk about the dream of every college athlete to play for a national championship? Can you tell us what this moment means to you guys? TAYLOR NELSON: It's certainly a feeling that I really don't think is going to sink in. I don't think it's sunk in yet. And it's one of those things that I don't think will sink in until after the season or maybe even after we're done playing altogether. I was able to win a national championship in Junior Hockey in Saskatchewan, and I don't think that one sunk in yet. So playing for one certainly hasn't sunk in, and I think our motto right now is we can't be satisfied. And I think we still have to keep it at that mentality. KYLE BONIS: I think what Nelly said makes a lot of sense. It's something that is really going to be hard to comprehend and you're just going to try and be in the moment and enjoy the experience like we tried to do tonight. But I think kind of the way the season started, with where we were in the polls and things like that, and everyone told us we weren't good enough, I think with what we have in that locker room, I don't think there's any 26 guys I'd rather go into a national championship with. And this is my first time to play in a game of this magnitude, and it's something that I'm really looking forward to with these guys. CHAD BILLINS: Yeah, these guys definitely touched on it. It's something that hasn't really set in yet. I don't know when that will happen. But I just know that we have to focus on Saturday and with all this‑‑ it's just a great event. We're really excited to be part of this. MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Coach, can you talk a little bit about what you guys did to prepare for Welsh and Carr and those guys? COACH DANIELS: I think Chad hit it pretty well. Couple of points, though, one, we knew how good Union's power play was, and we were very, very fearful of it. In practice we tried to mimic it. And I give our scout here ‑‑ it sounds funny, I give him a lot of credit for duplicating it. But as practices went on, we weren't very successful against our scout unit, and we came to the realization that this would have been a tough power play to stop with Welsh and the group. And so we thought minimizing penalties is where you had to start first. And I give our players a ton of credit. I didn't see a score sheet yet, but I'm guessing‑‑ I think they had two power plays, but it might have just been one, I don't recall. But we did an outstanding job of not going into box. And we knew, too, that coming in we were going to be the road team. Meaning, we wouldn't get last change. So you start thinking to yourself as a team: Well, can we set lines? And probably not. So it wasn't as though we could set certain lines. So all we could really do is make them aware of how good that line is and as best we could make sure that we got bodies on them. They're just too big and too strong. And so we also wanted to make sure we formed the puck, if you will, so when Welsh or that line headed in the offensive zone, rather than relying on a man‑on‑man type defense with them, we tried to send two players right at the puck to limit our exposure with them in zone. And even then Welsh had a couple of very good opportunities. The puck‑‑ he's one of those players the puck follows him. He earns his chances, but good players the puck seems to find, and he had it quite a bit tonight. Q. Can you just talk about how the players handled the emotions and the magnitude of the game, how you thought they responded to that? COACH DANIELS: Really well. It was interesting‑‑ I thought there has been times during the course of the year when we've had the lead late, and it seems like panic sets in. And we've won those games. But on the bench, it just seems like there's a panic almost. Like we're wishing the game to end. And we finally, I think, had gotten to the point now where we can embrace the moment and not wish the clock away and just play the actual game itself and leave the referees' calls alone and not worry about all the other things. I'm not just talking about the players, I'm talking about the coach, too. You almost have to take a breath and not necessarily wish the clock to run down, just figure, hey, there's 60 and let it run. I thought our players did a superb job of just staying focused. Once we had the lead and not getting too far ahead of ourselves and letting it become a bit of a mess on the bench, if you will. Q. Speaking of panic, I didn't see any from your team after you went down 1‑0. Is poise a characteristic for your team? COACH DANIELS: It is. And I would give the players the credit again. Chad Billins and Tom Hill, our captains, and the entire senior class is just not a high‑maintenance group of kids. Like every single team is different every year. And they all have different personalities. And Coach Kaufman before has told me that every team is like a snowflake, they're all different. And this team is certainly. And the one trait of this team is the maturity level is through the roof. Probably be a good time to mention, I've said it before, but the success on the ice is also being sought in the classroom by this team. 3.41 GPA last semester as a team. We won the elite‑‑ Tommy Hill, our senior, won the Elite 89 Award, and we're proud of those accomplishments. And I think that's a reflection of this team, that not only‑‑ their ability to do it in the classroom seems to permeate the team as well and just a very mature group. Q. Every year it seems at the beginning of the year you say we've got a great team but we don't know where the offense is coming from. Can you talk a little bit about the emergence of Kyle and the rest of that line this season? COACH DANIELS: Sure. Kyle Bonis, again, always a scoring junior. It's funny, no one recruited Kyle Bonis. We're probably the only school that recruited him. But we had a chance to see him play in Traverse City. He's always been a scorer. When you watch him, I think certainly we were concerned about his skating. And so everyone watches him. He scores. He's had a history of scoring goals since he was a 14‑, 15‑year‑old, and we asked him to walk on, which is kind of interesting. So we get a walk‑on that scores 20 plus goals in the year, and that's terrific. But the things we were worried about is skating aren't there. And he probably‑‑ I think when he first came, like a lot of kids, he had to learn how to play defense first before his offense followed. And he's done that, and now his offense has followed. Derek Graham was a forward that came to us, and because of his lack of size, he had a hard time finding ways to score. We moved him to defense because of his skill level. After two years of playing defense, battling in front of goals, we just moved him back to center. And he took those traits to center, and now he's doing well offensively. So that was the group, I guess, we didn't count on coming into this season. And obviously Taylor Nelson as well. Even if you look at Chad Billins, he was always overshadowed, and rightfully so, by Zach Redmond. But Chad's always been an offensive force on the blue line, and now with kind of him being the go‑to guy offensively on the point, he's getting the recognition he deserves. Q. Was this a game that you would consider vintage Bulldog hockey in terms of being a grind‑it‑out game and having some players emerge and really step up at key times in the game? COACH DANIELS: Yeah, I think that's right. And I will say this, that going against Union, we were very scared, because it was like looking in the mirror. And we were watching them play and we knew scoring chances for ourselves were going to be hard to come by. And we really preached all week getting ready, patience against Union. Because if we got impatient and had poor puck management and bad turnovers, we felt as though they would have a lot of capabilities to score in transition. And that would have given them opportunities they would not give us. We knew from watching video they do not give you chances. You've got to earn them. And all of a sudden it became a premium on our team to play good Bulldog hockey and we couldn't give them chances that they weren't willing to give us back. Q. When you talk about defending the Welsh line, it looked like Wysopal in your second pairing or maybe on paper the second pairing was out there. Can you talk about his play tonight and everything that he's brought to your team as a veteran leader over the years? COACH DANIELS: Sure. Brett Wysopal? He transferred to us from Colorado College, and he's kind of an unsung hero, again, because of the fact that he doesn't rack the points of a Zach Redmond or now of Chad Billins. But, yet, there's a lot of teams that would like him on their No.1 pairing in the country because of how well he plays defensively and he's really a warrior. For us to have him in our second pairing is really a bonus for us, because of the fact that now with the rules on icing, you can't change players, people that watch that game very closely, every single time we had an icing the Welsh line came out. So you would get a group of our players tired and so you could never guarantee who you're going to have on the ice, and then to have Brett Wysopal to be able to run out after Czarnowczan and Billins is a luxury a lot of teams would like to have. MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|