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BIG TEN CONFERENCE MEN'S TOURNAMENTMarch 20, 2014Red BerensonZach NagelvoortCristoval NievesST. PAUL, MINNESOTA Penn State – 2 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with Michigan head coach Berenson. Coach, an opening statement. COACH BERENSON: Well, it was an endurance contest, obviously. We knew it would be a hard‑fought game and it would be a close game. Penn State, I thought, were the better team for at least half the game, then we started to play better and got more chances. We actually got better in the overtime. But our goalie had to play well to give us a chance and their goalie had to play well to keep us at bay when we had our chances. I'm disappointed, obviously. We've been on kind of a bubble here the last few weeks. We didn't help ourselves tonight. THE MODERATOR: Questions for the head coach. Q. What are the emotions like in the locker room? COACH BERENSON: Well, they're very disappointed/devastated. The one thing I can tell you, our team was not overconfident coming into this because we had hard‑fought games coming into this, they've beaten us twice in four games. We're disappointed we didn't play well and win. It's all about winning this time of year. Q. What is it about Penn State that they have been able to not only play you tough but three wins now this year? COACH BERENSON: Yeah, I can't tell you if there's anything in particular. Maybe they have a renewed respect or special respect for Michigan. I don't know. I can tell you every game we played them has been a hard‑fought game. So they played really well and they come at you hard. They back‑check hard. They play hard all over the ice. Good for them. We're playing our best hockey this time of year in recent weeks. We weren't good enough tonight. Q. (No microphone.) COACH BERENSON: We couldn't see. None of us knew for sure if that puck went over the line or not. The players thought it might. I don't know if anybody really eyeballed it. We didn't want to overreact to the decision because we didn't see it. If we saw it, they saw it go in, they called it no goal, we would have been alarmed or probably would have argued about it. Nobody saw or nobody knew. We thought it should have gone in, but it didn't. Q. You mentioned being on the tournament bubble. With your résumé as it stands right now, do you think you get in? COACH BERENSON: No, no. I'm not even looking at that. Some people look at it right now and they'll say we've fallen down to wherever we've fallen. I'm not one of those. We'll wait and see on Sunday where everything ends up. When you lose a game like this, you can't expect to move up. Q. What do you make of Zach's game? COACH BERENSON: I thought he played well. He gave us a chance all night. He won't like the winning goal. Nobody ever likes the winning goal in the overtime, whether it's first overtime or second overtime. But he made really good saves. He stopped a couple of breakaways. He kept the game close when we were at our worst and gave us a chance. So I liked his game. Q. Do you think the goal at the end of the second period rejuvenated your team, got them more focused? What did you tell your team at the second intermission? COACH BERENSON: I don't remember exactly. The goals were very precious tonight. The puck was not going in. Both goalies played well. Goals were precious. When they got the first goal, it took us quite a while to answer. To get that goal back was huge. I thought we got the momentum off that goal. THE MODERATOR: Thank you, coach. Questions for the players. Q. (No microphone.) ZACH NAGELVOORT: I mean, pretty much the same thing as the whole game. It's just another period. At this point every little mistake is going to bite you. Pretty much the same thing I had going all game: stay levelheaded, not get too up or too down. Q. Can you take us through the last goal. ZACH NAGELVOORT: It was good faceoff play on their part. I'm not sure who put it home. Lost sight of the puck. Went down to cover, and the next thing I knew, it was in the net. Q. Overtime, how does that affect you physically, mentally? CRISTOVAL NIEVES: It's tough, playing basically two games in overtime, it's a pretty tiring thing. I think we dominated most of the periods, we just came up a little short. Q. What did you see on the setup for the goal? CRISTOVAL NIEVES: It was sort of a simple play. Got the puck off of our zone, knocked it in. Kind of a little luck, a little hustle added up to our goal. Q. You guys go right to the NCAA tournament bubble, or have you thought about that at all? ZACH NAGELVOORT: I don't know where we stand. I don't know what's going on with that. Not really on my mind yet. I'm sure we'll figure that out in the next little bit. Q. (No microphone.) CRISTOVAL NIEVES: It comes down to playing physical and competing. Everyone is tired. Everyone wants to score that goal. It comes down to who wants to sacrifice. Q. Chris, Penn State played you tough all season. What was it? Anything they did? Do they seem to get up for the games against you? CRISTOVAL NIEVES: It's tough to play against a team like that. They're a good team. We always started a little slow against them and it shows. We can't wait for them to score a goal and then for us to come back. We have to play desperate the full 60. We didn't do that. That's how we lost this game. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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