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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 12, 2013Zack CurrieJeremy LangloisRand PecknoldJordan Samuels-ThomasPITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA THE MODERATOR: After a short turnaround, thank you for joining us for what makes most sense, because they have ice time, Quinnipiac, after this. So we'll take questions for the players and let them get back and finish up with Rand. We have microphone holders here. So let's use the microphones. First question? Q. Zack, I don't know if you got a chance to watch Yale play yesterday, but the coach was saying this was a different team that you faced four weeks ago. If you did get a chance to watch, what was your impression of the number one line and how you're going to approach stopping them tomorrow? ZACK CURRIE: I think they're playing on a different level of hockey right now. They've won some impressive games including last night, but I think our approach doesn't change. We've played the same way all year. We've played some very good lines, some very good players and some very good teams. We play our hockey. We play the way we want to play, and that's how we're going to take care of that. Q. Even though this is a rivalry game against Yale, going off the previous question, do you approach it as if there's any other game and do what you always do? JORDAN SAMUELS‑THOMAS: I think the fact that it's a rivalry game is irrelevant. Right now both teams are competing for a National Championship, and that's kind of what comes first. Obviously, they are our rivals, but I don't think anyone's thinking about that. They're thinking about winning a National Championship. JEREMY LANGLOIS: Yeah, I agree. I think the fact that it is a national championship game, the emotions and everything are definitely going to be risen. I think the fact that it is between two teams that are so close to each other just makes it even more exciting. But I think we're going to be ready for it. We're going to use that to our advantage. ZACK CURRIE: I think it's funny. We got asked that question going into this week, what if it happened you and Yale in the championship? And our answer is the same each time. We don't care who it is as long as we're in that game. So that stays true. We want to win that National Championship, and it didn't matter who was in it. Q. When you came to Quinnipiac, you were essentially building blocks. You came to build a program into something that people could be proud of. Now that you're here, looking back, did you actually think this is a possibility for you guys to achieve in your time at Quinnipiac? JEREMY LANGLOIS: Yeah, I definitely think that was a goal. Coming here, I knew that this program was definitely just waiting to get to that point. The coaching staff did a great job of getting the right players here and at the beginning of this year we sat down and realized we have something special here. It's just been amazing to see how much we've achieved this year and to get to the national championship game. We're looking forward to it. ZACK CURRIE: I think more than anything, it was just the culture that we have at Quinnipiac and the rink that we come to every day. When we first game, we were a long way from this point. But it was apparent that we were working for everything we've got. It was the ultimate goal, obviously, for any team. So I think whether it was a goal at that point, we knew we were going to work toward it and hopefully get there. JORDAN SAMUELS‑THOMAS: I haven't been a part of Quinnipiac as long as these guys. This is my first year playing at the university. But I knew that this team had the potential. When I was talking to Coach Pecknold and the rest of the coaching staff, they told us about the great players that we have there coming in and by the time that I'd be able to play, that we'd be able to do something special. Obviously, you dream about making it to this level, and I knew it was possible. But it's one thing to think that it's possible, and it's another thing to get there. THE MODERATOR: Did you guys see any of the pictures of the celebration on your campus last night? SPEAKER: We heard about that. Big night for Quinnipiac. Q. Just curious what you guys, maybe some of you had some familiarity. What do you guys think of Pittsburgh, and what have you done that's fun since you've been here? ZACK CURRIE: We've been here for a singular reason. So very haven't gotten too much out into the Pittsburgh area, but it's been great. We've had a lot of hospitality. People have been great, and we've been having a great experience. We couldn't ask for more. Yeah, it's been awesome. JORDAN SAMUELS‑THOMAS: Yeah, it's been great. We got to go see Heinz Field the day before we played, which was nice, especially as someone who loves football. Obviously, coming here and playing in this beautiful rink, and the beautiful facility, and downtown Pittsburgh, for me, it's my first time seeing it. It's a nice city; it's really clean. And what Zack said, the hospitality has been great, the people have been great. It's been a great experience. JEREMY LANGLOIS: Yeah, to echo what these guys said. Everyone has been so nice for us here. We got to do some cool things, see Heinz Field and a couple guys walked over to fire stadium and stuff. I've been to the city before. It's a great city, and thank you guys for hosting us. THE MODERATOR: Coach, what have you done here in the city? COACH PECKNOLD: We had a nice win last night. That would be at the top of my list. Our schedules have been busy with media and stuff. So we haven't done as much. But it's a gorgeous stadium; I'm really impressed. Q. You guys are facing the biggest life of your game at this point. What is your confidence level having Eric Hartzell in goal for you at this moment? JORDAN SAMUELS‑THOMAS: Pretty high. He's been the bag stop of our team the whole year. He's bailed us out when we've come out flat. When he's playing good, we're a pretty tough team to play against. So a lot of confidence having him back there. He played a great game last night, and I know he's going to carry that over to Saturday night as well. THE MODERATOR: Zack, any confidence in Eric? ZACK CURRIE: Obviously, any time you have a goalie back there of his caliber, it makes everything easier. It makes your life easier as a defenseman, personally, and I'm sure even as a forward. So it's awesome having a guy back there. And it goes both ways. We make his life easy; he makes our life easy, and it keeps that confidence up. JEREMY LANGLOIS: Yeah, I agree. Eric has been amazing for us. He's confident right now. When he's confident, the rest of the team is pretty confident. He's been amazing for us. We look forward to taking that into tomorrow. Q. Jeremy, how does it feel to be here this weekend, and get your hundredth point? Does that take any pressure off the next game, or is it just really cool? JEREMY LANGLOIS: Yeah, it was definitely good to kind of get that monkey off my back. It couldn't have happened at a better time for me and in such a pivotal game. But I think it's more than just the team aspect of it being able to score in a game like that to help your team. I think that it is good to have that happen. But I'm just so happy for the team to have won and to be moving on. Q. Zack, you guys have an older defensive corps, lot of seniors back there. Can you talk about what's made you guys so successful this year? Is it the experience, the system, or is it just chemistry? What is it that's allowed you guys to be so successful? ZACK CURRIE: I think it's kind of a perfect storm. Obviously, the experience, and we've played together for so long is a big part of it. But we have a lot of forwards that kick into our defense. Our system has obviously been working for us. We love those. We're high octane, high pressure defense as a team. I think it's all just together. The age, the experience and the systems together have just come together at the right time. Q. We've talked a lot about the positives of, can you believe you're here? Did you believe this would be possible? Et cetera, et cetera. But there is sort of a flip side to that that you guys have been very good for most of the year and not quite getting the credit, even when you are number one and it seemed there were a lot of doubters, did you guys have a chip on your shoulder by being here that you maybe need to live up to what people were criticizing you for or doubting you for at all? JEREMY LANGLOIS: Yeah, I think we did kind of receive that from some of the other leagues. Having two ECAC teams in this shows you what type of league it is. I think when it comes down to a game like this and you get down to two teams, that kind of goes out the window and you're just focused on the game at hand. JORDAN SAMUELS‑THOMAS: Building off the last thing Jeremy said, I think this time of year you can't get wrapped up on what the outside says. All that matters is that the 28 guys in your locker room believe that you can do it. Any disrespect we get from any leagues or teams or coaches doesn't really matter, as long as we believe we can do it and we reach our goals. ZACK CURRIE: Yeah, I think they said it pretty well. At this point, we've put that behind us. If they still want to doubt us, that's okay. But I think we've proven ourselves that we're here, we're here for a good reason, and we're happy. Q. Jordan, it seems like whenever you score this year, it's a big lift to the team emotionally. We all know about your celebrations, and you really love getting into that. But when you have a few minutes, like when you started the game last night, do you get the sense that the team feeds off you, in particular? JORDAN SAMUELS‑THOMAS: I'm not going to say they feed off me in particular. I think any time anyone goes out there and works hard and makes a play, I think that rallies the guys. I know if I see Jeremy out there or Peca and they make a great play, I want to go out there and do the same. So guys can rally around me if that's what it takes for that night or Hartzell or Jeremy. I think our team is so deep that anyone can have that position, and just last night it happened to be with me. Q. Zack, I thought Yale did a pretty good job on their forecheck last night getting in on the "D" pretty quickly. Do you think one of the keys is the ability as a defenseman to move the puck pretty quickly and get it out of your own zone? ZACK CURRIE: Certainly, that's a key for us every night. We want to go north, play with pace, and get that puck up to our forwards. So I don't think anything changes there for us. Obviously, they've been doing a good job of that, so that's going to be extra important. But, yeah, it's definitely going to be a big part of the game. Q. For each player if you wouldn't mind commenting, having gone 3‑0 against Yale to this point, do you think that boosts your confidence going into game and boosts your motivation at all? How does that play heading into the championship game? JEREMY LANGLOIS: I think each team's going to be very motivated tomorrow. I think our record so far against them kind of goes out the window in a game like this. I think more than anything, just playing a team so many times, you kind of get the feel of what they do good and what we do good. We know what we have to do to be successful in a game against them, and we look forward to doing that. JORDAN SAMUELS‑THOMAS: Yeah, I think it also goes out the window. The Yale team that we're going to face tomorrow night is completely different than the team we played earlier in the year. They're clicking on all cylinders at the right time, from goaltending to defense and offense. So I think our record against them doesn't matter. We just need to out‑compete them and out‑battle them and hope for good results. ZACK CURRIE: Yeah, again, I can't add much to that. I completely agree. Those games are irrelevant now. We both know what the other team's going to bring. The stage and what's at stake is going to be way bigger than any games we've played so far. It's completely different. THE MODERATOR: Guys, thank you very much, and we'll continue on with questions for Coach. Q. Coach, what Yale did to Lowell to slow them down last night, how much do you think that can impact your game? Because you seem similar to Lowell in terms of team speed and liking to use that speed? COACH PECKNOLD: Yeah, I didn't watch all of the game. We had to deal with some of the things with our team in our pregame meeting. I watched some of the game in the second and I will watch the rest of it on tape today. But my feeling on that game was I thought Yale played one of their best games of the year; and I thought Lowell just were flat and they really struggled to get it going. So I think it was a combination of Yale playing well and Lowell struggling a little bit. With our match‑ups with Yale, we know what they do well. We don't have to change a lot of what we've done all year. We want to stay the course and do what we do well. I know Yale's a very good transition team as was St. Cloud, as was Nebraska‑Omaha and some of the other teams we've played this year. We have good transition defense. We're not perfect at it, but I thought it was one of the keys to the game and one of the keys to the St. Cloud game. Q. Could you speak to the whole thing about the ECAC and what this means for the conference potentially for no matter who wins the game tomorrow night? COACH PECKNOLD: Well, yeah, I think it's great respect for our league. I mean, we take hits every now and again. That's what people want to do, you know. But it's tough to put us down this year. We've got two teams in the national championship game. I talked about it last night. Our league has been great all year long. I mentioned, and I'll say it again, we were one in the pair‑wise this year because we had a great record, and we had some great wins. We have to be‑‑ to be number one in the pair‑wise, you have to have great wins. All the teams in our league did a great job. I haven't seen the final stats. I know for a while we had the best non‑conference record in the country. I don't know if we finished with that. But we were up there for a while. But it's great respect for our league. We have great players, great student‑athletes, and we play hard. We compete hard, and we do it, all the teams in our league do it, and it's a great league top to bottom. Q. Obviously, a huge season for the team, and really putting Quinnipiac on the map a little bit with this victory. So how do you think this will change the face of Quinnipiac hockey and the university reputation as a whole moving forward? COACH PECKNOLD: Well, that's yet to be seen. We can't predict what's going to happen. But the publicity and notoriety from the entire year, and this is another step for us, has been great. The ironic thing is our recruiting class, we got our last kid in December before all of this happened, and we love our class coming in. We're really happy with it. So we know we're not going to reap any of the media benefits with next year's team, but we're ecstatic with next year's class. It will help us down the road with recruiting. I think the other thing too is as people watch us, I think we're a fun team to watch, and I think recruits want that. Some of the kids we have, like Connor and Kellen Jones and Peca and Langlois, they come watch us. We go, we play hard, we compete, and it helps us whenever we get a kid in to watch a game. Now we're on national television, so that's certainly going to help us from a recruiting standpoint. Q. Coach, you mentioned it last night, Jeremy mentioned it just a second ago that the Yale team that you're going to be playing tomorrow night is a different team than what you played a few weeks ago in Atlantic City. How are they different? Is it just a factor of momentum or what is it? COACH PECKNOLD: I guess it's just confidence. The Atlantic City weekend they didn't seem to have a lot of confidence and didn't have their best weekend. But they've got some high‑end players from what I watched last night. And I have watched the Minnesota and NorthDakota games they won, and I thought Agostino was great. Miller does what he does; he's really good. And Root does what he does. That's a great first line. And they're getting some balance from another lines. Then Malcolm's making saves, and I think that is the key. If you can get goaltending, you can win a lot of hockey games. We've dealt with that all year. But Yale's on a run right now. I know everyone's talking about the rivalry, and we're 3‑0, and what will motivate them? And it's a national championship game. I don't think anybody needs motivation. Both teams are going to be fired up sky high, and it's all going to be about managing their emotions and controlling and dealing with adversity and trying to minimize the mistakes. Q. What is it that makes your defensemen so successful? Is that something that you saw before the season that they had the potential to be this good or is that something that developed over the course of the year? COACH PECKNOLD: Yeah, we knew we were going to have a great "D" corps. I think there are a lot of things with our defensemen. I think, first off, we have four senior defensemen, and then Tolkinen is a junior and Federico is a sophomore. So they're veterans. Ton of game experience with those seniors, and you can't substitute for game savvy. They deal with adversity well. They deal with adapting within the game, and when teams like last night St. Cloud was running a little variation of a part we haven't seen a lot last year. We had to make adjustments. I thought St. Cloud's first two power plays were awesome. I think they had 10 or 11 shots on it, and the last two I think they got one shot. So we did a nice job of adjusting and adapting, and that's something that's hard to teach freshmen. Second thing with our "D" corps is Danny Federico has been great. Last year as a freshman, he was our seven, and he played 16 games out of 40. Part of that wasn't fair to him in that we had six really good "D" ahead of him. But he's been awesome for us. That's big when you can have a freshman take that kind of jump to his sophomore year. Then lastly, I think our system allows our "D" to be effective in their roles. We try to put kids in good roles to be effective. We do a good job of puck retrieval. We do a good job in practice of working things, and I think the best thing for our "D" corps is our practice staff. They're awesome. Our forwards go. Connor and Kellen set the tone with that. Matthew, Peca and Langer are right behind them. All our guys compete hard in practice. So all week long they're going up against Jordan and Peca and the twins, and they're competing against kids like that. Then you get in the game and you can handle the other team's best forwards, and I think that is a big part of it. Q. Same question I had for the players, Coach. Even though it is a rivalry with Yale, is your approach that it's just any other game for you guys? COACH PECKNOLD: It's not any other game, Brian. It's a National Championship. This is a big one.  I think we'll definitely do what we've done all year. We'll spend a little time on what we need to do to be effective against Yale. But ultimately we need to do what we do well. We're really good at our game, and we need to stay the course. It doesn't matter who we're playing. We could play the Montreal Canadiens tomorrow night, and we're going to play the same way. We've got to tweak things a little bit and make some small adaptations to shut down Yale in certain situations. But ultimately we have to play our game. We're good at it, and we don't need to change anything. THE MODERATOR: I think they just clinched a playoff spot last night. Good reference, Coach. Q. We talked a lot about whether you believed this was possible X‑number of years ago, et cetera, et cetera. We've asked the players some of that as well. But at the start of this year, and maybe even before you guys started playing, did you get the sense that this group in particular was going to buy in that this was a group of believers maybe more than in past years when you've had some success that these guys really had the right mindset, and they were kind of listening to what you had to say? COACH PECKNOLD: Yeah, there is no question. I knew this was going to be the best team we've ever had from a talent perspective from a compete perspective. This was going to be a veteran team. The kids definitely buy in. They listen and do what's asked. I know people all the time say, why wouldn't everybody buy in? Well, it's hard to get 21, 22, 20‑year‑old kids to buy in. It's hard in the NHL to get guys to back check and get shots. Everybody just wants to score goals. But it's more difficult than you would think. But I knew we were going to be great this year. I knew we'd absolutely be top 20. Probably thought we'd be top 15, and had a good chance of being in the Top 10. Did I think we'd go to the Frozen Four and play‑‑ I mean, I knew it was a possibility. But was I thinking, hey, we're going to do this? No, nobody thinks that. It's really hard to get to this point. And I think just always in general, if you have a great goalie and you get in the tournament, you know if he gets hot, you can do anything. Kids prove that all the time. So, to answer your question, I think I knew that we were going to be great this year, no. But it's really elevated us and it's kind of a perfect storm, and everything's just worked our way. Q. Timing‑wise, if sounds it sounds like none of these players played in the ole rink like you guys did with the old program? COACH PECKNOLD: Correct. Q. Did they have a sense of where they came from? Have they ever stepped foot in the old rink and do they know what you guys went through as a program to how it is now? COACH PECKNOLD: Not really. I think some of them read the stories and they were a little shocked. They didn't know how far we had come. But that's okay. We've had building blocks all along the way from our early Division II and III years, we had our four years in that and the early years of the MAC. It's been a steady progression all the way up, and you make the jump from the ECAC which is great for us. We open the rink in January of '07, and that's another big jump. It feels like my 19 years has been a constant transition. Luckily, for me, it's always been upward. We haven't gone backwards, so after this year we'll see what happens. It's all been good. But I don't think the guys really realized where we were and what we have. I'm still in shock from some of the stuff from our early year that's we had to deal with. It is what it is, we've moved on from it and we're better for it. Q. First of all, I want to compliment you on the way you guys have handled all of these sessions. They're doing a great job. COACH PECKNOLD: Thank you. Q. Also, yesterday you mentioned that it was going to be a game of two contrasting styles. So can you elaborate a little on that? Also, can you expand a little bit on how you got Federico, what you saw in him, and what is his upside? COACH PECKNOLD: Are you talking about St. Cloud, Quinnipiac contrasting? Or Yale? Q. Yale? COACH PECKNOLD: Well, Yale is similar to St. Cloud. They transition well. Their forwards like to make plays. Both teams, you have LeBlanc, you have Miller, they love to get over the blue line, cutbacks, Gretzky curls, delays, hit the late guy. I thought we did a good job of taking that away from St. Cloud last night. Again, we weren't perfect. But I think you need to be respectful of that. If you give those guys time and space, they'll make plays and score goals. But, Yale is a really good offensive team as St. Cloud was, and I think we're a really good defensive team. We're number one in the nation in goals against and number one in P.K. Certainly we've been scoring goals lately, but our defense is about wins for us. In a lot of ways, our defense is our puck pressure and our attack mode that we're always in, and that's what makes us good. I know Federico. Danny had a lot of schools on him. I don't remember all of the schools. He had some Ivys that were talking to him. We really liked him as a player. He is a great kid. He's a great character kid. He is an awesome student, gets great grades. He had really developed. He kind of flies under the radar and now people are actually under the radar, and he's like wow, that kid's pretty good. If you watch us every game, he's probably Quinnipiac's second or third best player. He doesn't quite get the press. But Fed's right up there, quiet, does his job, and you need kids like that to win championships. Q. I've heard the term perfect storm going around just in terms of everything that's happened this year. But I remember in the preseason conference call you mentioned that the twins and Peca were definitely coming back. Was there any worry they might leave last off‑season? COACH PECKNOLD: Absolutely, yeah. I think there are a lot of things in college hockey that head coaches need to be good at. Recruiting is probably the main thing is getting the players. I would say now retention might be too, keeping your players. If you're, the way the NHL is set‑up right now with the CBA and everything, if those kids don't like their coach, they don't like the school, if you don't win, it's really easy to turn pro quickly. I think one of the most‑‑ not the most important, but second most important thing we need to do as a head coach is make sure our kids love where they are, they love the program. That's why Connor, Kellen and Peca all came back. They love Quinnipiac. They love their teammates. They love the culture that we've created. They know we have a good thing going here, and they're going to be patient with their professional careers. We've had multiple players over the years offered to leave early, and we've never had a kid leave. It's funny, we had a recruiting battle last year when two schools actually used that against us. They're like, Quinnipiac doesn't have kids sign early; can you come here and leave in two years? And I turned it around, and said why don't they leave? And we actually won the battle on those kids, the brothers. And it's something that we're proud of. Again, if it gives a kid the right time to go, that's fine. If Tampa Bay decides, hey, Matthew Peca is ready, and we feel he's got a great opportunity, I'll drive him to the airport. But I think Tampa's been good. They're patient; they know he needs to get bigger and stronger, and I'm hoping we get one more year out of him. He's getting better. We're doing a great job of developing these kids. So the bigger worry is with the free agents. They can go anywhere they want. But, again, I think the retention is a big part of what head coaches have to do. Certainly you don't want to cater to those kids. You definitely can't cater to them because you're not going to make them a better hockey player. But you need to be professional, run a good program, and your chances of them staying is much higher. THE MODERATOR: Rand, thank you very much. Appreciate it. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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