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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 13, 2013Keith AllainJosh BalchColin DueckAntoine LaganiereJeff MalcolmNick MaricicAndrew MillerPITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANIA Yale – 4 \THE MODERATOR: Well, Coach, what can you say? Congratulations. COACH ALLAIN: Thank you. First of all, I'd like to congratulate Jack McDonald and the whole Quinnipiac hockey team on having such an outstanding season. They carried the banner for our league all year long, and they were a really tough opponent. I think tonight was our turn. Our kids were ready, committed, and congratulations to them for having a fine hockey season. THE MODERATOR: About the game tonight? COACH ALLAIN: Well, it was a tie game until late in the second period. We've been stressing getting pucks and bodies to the net. And we threw it to net there, and Bourbs tipped it in, and that gave us momentum going into the third. That forced them to take some chances, and we were patient defensively and counter‑attacked pretty well, and came out on top. THE MODERATOR: We've got six guys up here. It's great. Doesn't that look great, that championship trophy. I'm sure it feels great. So it's going to be up to you to direct your questions to the players or player. I'm not going to pick for you like I have been. So let's use that as the ground rules, and who are we going to start with? Q. Jeff, a lot was made about the three losses to Quinnipiac this season. You weren't there for two of them and the third one was a consolation game that no goalie ever wants to play in. How excited were you to be a part of this game, and what were your thoughts on your whole performance tonight? JEFF MALCOLM: It's tough to not get up for a national championship game. Coming in we had a routine, personally, with Josh. So my day was the same as any other. I just felt comfortable in there today, and we got some bounces. Hartzell played unbelievable. He has all year. Yeah, here we are. THE MODERATOR: Guys, as we go along, please bend down and talk into the mic so we can hear. Appreciate that. Q. Andrew, what happened in the third period? I mean, you're up 1‑0, take it from there? ANDREW MILLER: I think we wanted to stick with our game. We wanted to pressure their "D", get pucks deep, and get a lot of shots on Hartzell. He's a good goalie and he's going to make the first save. We knew they were going to run around a little bit because they were behind, so we took advantage of those opportunities, and I think we shut them down a little bit. They had a flurry at the beginning of the third. And Malcolm sat tall as he has all year, and we played a good team today. Q. Andrew, you're the first team that's beaten three No. 1 seeds to win the national championship. Can you talk about how difficult it's been to go and pull this off? ANDREW MILLER: I think it's difficult to beat anyone in college hockey. Night‑in and night‑out, there is so much parity. In the NCAA Tournament, anybody can beat anybody, and whoever has the hottest goalie and plays the best team game wins. I think we did that for the last four games. Q. Andrew, this is kind of what you started to answer there, and this might be a dumb way to ask this question. But looking back, how does the last team to get into this tournament, win the national championship? How does this run come together? Can you put it into words these last three weeks or so? ANDREW MILLER: I think we were a 15‑seed; but, anyways, as I said, it's an honor to be in a NCAA Tournament. You have to play your game. We have some great players on our team, and a lot of the guys that don't get noticed; they're our heros. We don't focus on one player or one group of players. We compete every single night, and I think that's a testament to our team. We work hard in practice. We work hard off the ice, and I think that's why we won the national championship. Q. Jeff, first of all, happy birthday. You mentioned Josh in your previous comment. Can you talk about how he's helped you develop as a player to help you get to this point as a player to help you get the shutout in the national championship game? JEFF MALCOLM: Josh is a great guy off the ice. He brings a lot to our staff. Personally, and I know Nick can say the same, he's gotten to know us pretty well throughout the course of the year. We've spent a lot of mornings together just working on the little things. He's great for all of us off the ice mentally, just kind of getting into our routine. We went over a lot of film with him, so it's nice to share this with him. THE MODERATOR: Nick, I was telling the media when I came down to see who was coming out here, I heard some chant going on in the locker room. What was that all about? Was there some chant you guys were doing or some kind of cheer? NICK MARICIC: We've got a few. THE MODERATOR: I guess we're not getting behind closed doors, are we? It sounded good, Coach. I don't know. COACH ALLAIN: It may have been. Q. Jeff, I wanted to ask, we heard a lot about a couple of the other goaltenders in particular coming into this Frozen Four. Did the fact that maybe you were less heralded than the Hobey Baker finalist, et cetera. Did that give you a moment to focus a little better and not worry about some of the other trappings that come with these big events? JEFF MALCOLM: Like I said before, the national tournament, if you can't get up for that, you don't really have a heartbeat. But there are a lot of good goaltenders in college hockey. That doesn't change the fact that I still have to play a game. I mean, it doesn't really affect me, I don't think. Q. Jeff, I think it was late in the second you had a rough clear and you sort of left the net open and your defense swatted it away. Can you talk about how your defense picked you up at that point in the game when it was still tight? JEFF MALCOLM: The guys do a heck of a job in front of me. Our D‑corps is amazing. Coach has been stressing defense leads to offense, and you saw that tonight. Q. Colin, is there a point during this game when you realized that Jeff's got something special going? Can you just talk about the effort by you guys to keep the game in hand to keep that shutout intact? COLIN DUECK: Jeff played great all night. You could tell right from the start, he was feeling it. He was getting shots, and he was seeing them and moving well. In the second period, he made a pretty good short breakaway stop and I knew at that point he's just closing the door. Playing in front of him, I mean, that's huge for us because we're confident. We're just trying to get in the shot lanes. We're playing the guy and not worrying about if shots do get by because he's going to be there. I think it was solid defense, and obviously, he was really solid in that. So that was huge. Q. Jeff, there is that old cliche about how your goaltender has to be your best penalty killer. Take me through the five‑on‑three, how you guys survived that when the game was still scoreless? JEFF MALCOLM: Those five‑on‑three kills have been pretty crucial for us all year, usually does a heck of a job with our penalty kill. I mean, the guys just got the puck out for me and they let me see shots. It's been like that all year, I think. Q. Andrew or Antoine, can you talk about the forecheck? You guys really seemed you took the other team out of their game with the forecheck? ANTOINE LAGANIERE: Yeah, that's one of the things we really stressed. We stressed it all year long to have a lot of pressure on their "D". We know that they're a good structured team. I know we're a good structured team. We thought that if we play a speed game and really pressure them, by the end of it we'd wear them down. We got that goal at the end of the second; and I think in the third, it was clear that we had done our job. THE MODERATOR: Josh, take us through the closing seconds as it ticked down and what was going through your head and how it all ended? JOSH BALCH: For all of us, this has been our dream for our whole life. It was coming down, it was just a surreal feeling. All of us have worked so hard all year for the past four years we've tried to get here. We've been here two times, and never gotten to the Frozen Four. This is just a surreal feeling. It hasn't really hit me yet, but I'm sure it will. I'm just so proud of my teammates, proud of everyone. This is a team game, a team win, and we really did this together. It was awesome. Q. Coach, were you surprised when they pulled the goalie with a little over 7 minutes remaining? COACH ALLAIN: No, not really. I think they probably had to. I think we had a three‑goal lead at the time and it was four‑on‑four. If you pull the goalie in that situation, you can kind of go with your power play structure, 5 against 4. So it seemed like a logical choice. Q. Andrew, what does it mean to you to win Yale's first ever national title? ANDREW MILLER: I think for everyone it's an honor to represent our school in the national tournament. To win a national title is an absolute team effort. Everyone played their hardest and competed their hardest. To bring a National Championship back to Yale is unbelievable. Q. Jeff and Andrew, if you could take us back to February 1st, that collision in that game against Princeton. You go out with injury. Did you think at that time that you could get back to the, or get back to the NCAA Tournament, and that you'd get this far? For Andrew, what was it like when Jeff was back on that February 23rd game against Princeton? You get the rematch, get the win and start this run. JEFF MALCOLM: A lot of guys played injured this year. I wasn't the only one. So at that point, when you're hurt, you've got to be an athlete and try to get back and contribute to your teammates. Obviously, it's one of our goals at the start of the year to be here. It's just an amazing feeling right now. ANDREW MILLER: When Jeff got hurt, it was a sad feeling for our team. We were more personally worried about him. We didn't want him to go out like that his senior year. But at the same time, we have two superb goalies backing Jeff up and they work hard every single day. They're there when we need them. I guess that speaks for our team. We have other people injured, like Nico Weberg, and he's been out with an injury. And we had guys that fill roles that need to be filled. It shows the depth of our team, and it shows how hard we work from top to bottom. Q. Coach, when you took over, Yale had been playing hockey for more than 100 years and had made the NCAA Tournament twice. What made you believe that this was possible? COACH ALLAIN: Well, when they interviewed me, I interviewed them as well. Our athletic director, Tom Beckett, and our associate who is in charge of hockey, Wayne Dean, were as committed to the program as I was, actually, the senior fellow of the Yale Corporation, Roland Betts, at the time as well. We talked about what the program needed to get to the next level. And part of it was a major renovation on our rink, and they made it happen. And they showed me that they were committed to Yale hockey the same way that I was. I came back to prove that you could go to the best university in the world and compete in hockey at the highest level. And this group has proven that so far this year. Q. Coach and players, you guys made it through the ringer, sort of with this, and I'm curious to see your perspective on what this tournament is so difficult. There have only been two back‑to‑back champions in the last 30‑some odd years. Always seem to be new faces. Why is this tournament so difficult to win on a regular basis? COACH ALLAIN: I think, first of all, the nature of college sports is that your team turns over. So if you win it, you're probably going to win it with a great senior class, and the odds of having that back‑to‑back aren't terrific. Then I think youth hockey coaching throughout North America is so good these days that there's a real broad base of talent. And that helps lead to the parity in college hockey. THE MODERATOR: Nick, why is it so difficult? NICK MARICIC: I mean, college hockey, like Coach said, the breadth of players now coming out of all different regions is incredible. So there is such depth and talent. Especially with our league, the top team can lose to the bottom team every night. And that's true in most of college hockey. So it's definitely the parity is definitely a factor. THE MODERATOR: Let's finish up with the players and we'll let them go. Q. Andrew, I'm curious, when you guys were getting prepared last, whatever it was, 36 hours of this game. Did you watch tape of the first three meetings, or did you just sort of ‑ they talk about how you guysweren't the same team. I'm curious if you guys just burnt the tape and put it away? ANDREW MILLER: Yeah, we watched film on them. Our coaches do an unbelievable job of scouting. We're fully prepared for each team, but we needed to execute. They led us part way, and it's our job to do it. We did a great job executing on their game plan. Q. I meant specifically did you watch videotape of the three previous games you guys had against them in the preparation in the last day and a half or whatever? ANDREW MILLER: Yes, we watched film of them. Q. Antoine, can you just talk about playing with Charles and how well he's sort of gotten used to playing on your line? A freshman who obviously didn't play the whole season with you guys, and his ability to get comfortable with you and play a lot of minutes? ANTOINE LAGANIERE: Yeah, I mean, like you said, it's his first year here, and I think the learning curve for him has been great and he's worked hard all year. Numerous mornings it was me and him or Coach Red or Coach Muse out on the ice. And he came multiple times a week. As soon as he started playing more he got more comfortable, and the last part, I think heading into Atlantic City, we formed a line. Like I said, he worked really hard. I think in these big games he did a good job to keep things simple and like getting the puck out of our zone, getting it deep when it was time, getting shots on net. It's a great example tonight. He got his own rebound, so great job to him. THE MODERATOR: Guys, Yale is the national champion, thanks for being here, and congratulations on a great cap to the season. You're not through yet Coach. You guys can stay and listen, if you want. I'm not meaning to rush you out. Q. I asked Andrew before about your difficulty in the path here and all teams are tough. But still it seems like a murderous row that you faced and had to go and beat every single team. Can you talk about the difficulty of each of those teams as you progressed? COACH ALLAIN: I think one of the special things about our team and one of the qualities of all champions is the great ability to focus. If we look down the road and say we're going to have to beat three number ones and a number two seed, the task might have seemed daunting. But we went into Grand Rapids and focused on Minnesota, took care of that job. We focused on NorthDakota. When you chip away at it one at a time, obviously, it took a great deal of effort, but it's not impossible, for sure. Q. I'm wondering, you made a comment the other day about you thought the details the last time you faced them had improved. Talk about what maybe some of the improvements you wanted. COACH ALLAIN: I made that comment or one of the players? Q. You made a comment about the fact that the details in the game were better now than the last time you faced them. Maybe some of those details that made the difference today? COACH ALLAIN: Well, I think particularly we were more committed to blocking shots. We were more committed to keeping a third guy high in the offensive zone. I thought we did a better job of pressuring their defense. One of the things that I felt coming into the game tonight that gave us an edge is they hadn't seen our A‑game in the previous three games. They saw the result of it, but I don't think they knew what we had become as a hockey team. And I thought we could surprise them a little bit with that. Q. Jeff was almost quiet in the way he described his game tonight. But can you talk about the way your goaltender played tonight and throughout the entire tournament? COACH ALLAIN: Jeff is quiet. He's a quiet, hard‑working individual, and he's a great team guy. Tonight they had a couple of chances early, and it made me tell on the bench that Jeff was sharp. But to me what it epitomized was we get the goal late in the second period. They come out, and they're really pushing. In the first three or four minutes of the third period they were getting chance after chance, and he held the fort for us. It was after an extended offensive‑zone chance that Charles broke it out and was able to get down and score in the transition. He did what great goaltenders do. He gave us a chance to win. Q. Andrew Miller breaking the all‑time career record tonight. Does that seem appropriate? And what has he meant to this program over the last four years? COACH ALLAIN: He's one of the best play makers that I've ever seen at any level. His vision is incredible. His ability to put the puck in a timely manner to a teammate is great as well. We spoke earlier this week that Andrew came in as a great player, but this year he took a huge step forward in terms of his maturity and his leadership. This senior class has been amazing. The reason that we won this championship tonight was because of the leadership of that group. Q. You spoke in a radio interview right after the game about some of the personal stuff you've gone through, losing your dad and I know now your father‑in‑law and I'm sorry to hear both of those things. Can you talk about how difficult it's been to focus on the job this year and what's helped you along, whether it's the players, your assistants, that sort of thing? COACH ALLAIN: I'd prefer not to, if that's okay with you. Q. Coach, could you talk a little bit about that Bourbonais goal at the end of the second period and how that changed momentum coming off the scoreless tie after a nearly 40‑minute mark and what momentum that gave you going into the locker room and the third period as well? COACH ALLAIN: I think it was a huge swing. Particularly that we didn't score on Quinnipiac the last game that we played them. Now we're getting into two periods here where we had some chances and the puck didn't go into the net. That's one of the of the reasons we stress if you don't have a player in front of you, put the puck on the net, because oftentimes those are the ones that surprise people and go in. But it changed our mindset going into the third because we had the lead. And I think it changed their mindset going into the third because now they had to fight from behind, and that allowed us to get some of the other goals. Q. Coach, can you just talk a little about that five‑on‑three kill and what that can do for a team to build some momentum? COACH ALLAIN: You know, Andrew stepped right off the bench. He knew he was going for it. We felt pretty comfortable in the five‑on‑three kill. We've had a fair amount of success this year. As he mentioned, Dan Muse, my assistant coach, directs our penalty kill. Our guys were prepared and they know what to expect. They went out and executed it. It could have been a bigger momentum swing if we scored in the five‑on‑three that ensued. Q. Congratulations, Coach. Individually the spotlight's going to be on Jeff a little bit, obviously, because of the game he played. But can you expound on what goes into shutting out the No. 1 seed in the tournament? Not just beating them, but shutting them out? COACH ALLAIN: Well, one thing that I would have you think about is that what are the strengths of that team that we just played is, I think that they have as good depth as any team in the country. Then their top line is outstanding. We ruled all four lines tonight. I don't have a checking line. So it was a team effort. Our fourth line, they saw when I put the fourth line out and they'd throw their top line out against them, and it didn't matter. We shut them out because everyone was involved in the process. THE MODERATOR: What are you going to do to celebrate tonight, Coach? What is on the agenda? COACH ALLAIN: I'm just going to go back, sit down, and soak it all in. THE MODERATOR: I bet. You should. Anything else before we let Coach go? Coach, congratulations on a terrific year. COACH ALLAIN: Thank you all very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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