|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 10, 2014Dave HakstolStephane PattynDillon SimpsonPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA Minnesota – 2 MODERATOR: We'll begin first with some thoughts from head coach of North Dakota, Dave Hakstol. COACH HAKSTOL: Really proud of the effort of our hockey team today from top to bottom. Get into these games, if you walk away on the end of it that we're walking away on, it's real important to know that you left everything out there. Our guys did that today. It felt like our group played an excellent 60 minutes. And it's obviously it's a bit of a numbing feeling to be walking away at this point in time on a good bounce of the puck that our opponent took advantage of, right at the buzzer. Really want to commend our group of seniors. They're a small group. They played varying roles within our team. But they provided great leadership. And I think really set a tone throughout our work right from back in September all the way through tonight. So it's painful to have it end this way for those guys, as well as for this particular group of players who are a bunch of just outstanding teammates that has really become an outstanding team. MODERATOR: Questions for the players. Q. Stephane, you had a couple of shots on that power play late. Could you guys feel the momentum sort of swinging your way and then what did you see when the puck went back the other way? STEPHANE PATTYN: I don't know if it was just the momentum of that last puck, but I felt our momentum was very hard, very fast, very good pace, and I think momentum was kind of, I guess you could say, in our hands. A couple of close calls, a couple of good saves by our goalie, and the puck going the other way, just hit a couple of skates, hit a couple of sticks, and it was in the back of our net. There's not much more I could say. Q. Dillon, could you talk about the last play, what you saw on that? DILLON SIMPSON: Obviously I don't play like that on a faceoff when you're trying to get an offensive chance. They did a good job of chipping the puck past the pressure. We had three guys up on the play, and like I said, a bounce here, off a skate and whacked to the back of the net obviously ended up with the momentum. Can't really say much about it. They were driving the net and nothing but traffic and couldn't see it. Q. Dillon, it seemed like your team did a good job of getting sticks in lanes, taking away Minnesota's offense much of the night. Was that a matter of preparation and how much video, how much scouting with Minnesota went into this game? DILLON SIMPSON: Absolutely. Going into a big game like this, video and preparation is a big part of it. Our guys had a really good mindset going into the game, what needed to be done. For how hard they worked, both offensively and defensively. Like Coach said, we left it all out there, went for the, puck and ti was a close hard‑fought game. MODERATOR: Questions for Coach. Q. These two teams have squared off almost 300 times. Does it get any harder to try to figure each other out and as the game went, being tied for almost the whole thing? COACH HAKSTOL: There's no secrets at this time of year really between anybody. Whether you've got a long‑standing rivalry or you haven't played each other over the last few years, just no secrets at this time here. For sure amongst these two teams, I think you saw it tonight, there's no secrets. Nobody's trying to step outside of their game and play differently. I thought both teams did exactly what they've tried to do all the way down the stretch, and that's what gives us success at this time of year. I felt we played our game. I thought we checked very well. I thought we moved our feet. I felt we had our whole bench contributing, and I thought we did an excellent job for the most part making it a 200‑foot game, and trying to give ourselves the best chance to win this game. The best bounce of the puck went to them. My hat's off and congratulations to them. Q. Between the playing going so close and following your shot and blocking shots, is it fair to say this was a game that was full of a lot of beautiful moments for younger kids watching? COACH HAKSTOL: Can you clarify that a little bit? I guess I don't understand the question. Q. Seemed like there was a lot of things that both teams were doing right. Something you can show younger players in terms of this is exactly what you should be doing in whichever situation you're talking about. COACH HAKSTOL: It was good playoff hockey. I think both teams played extremely hard. Both teams played disciplined. Both teams played‑‑ I know our team played within the way we want to play. So I'm sure there's some teachable moments in there for the youngsters and a different time, a different place, I'll be able to answer that a little bit better. I'm happy with the way our team played. But that doesn't bypass the fact that our season ends tonight. Q. Not just tonight but the entire tournament seemed like Zane Gothberg was playing his best hockey. How crucial was he in getting to Philadelphia and what do you say to him after that kind of game? COACH HAKSTOL: In due time, we'll obviously look back and evaluate and talk about his year and his tournament. I think Zane was very good for our hockey team. Along the way, you need a goaltender to win the game. I think if you look back ten days, I thought against Ferris State in the third period, he was a difference maker for us. He did his job, got us to overtime. His teammates did their job after that. I felt like tonight everybody did a pretty good job in chipping in with their roles. And certainly his play was excellent. A lot of confidence for all the players that play in front of him. A lot of confidence in Zane. And that doesn't just come from game performance. Guys watch him work. They watch him prepare. And that's good leadership on his part. Q. I'm curious, same question I asked the players. You had the ten days to prepare, and seemed like you had a lot of answers, your team had a lot of answers. Tell us some of the things Minnesota had success doing moving the puck, rushing into the zone, all of that, how much video scouting prep, all of that, went into the ten days you had? COACH HAKSTOL: Our players did a great job. They went out and they played hard. They played within our structure. They did a good job preparing. We didn't overprepare. We didn't overprepare for an opponent. We never do. We went out. What we spent our time on last week was improving the things that we did. And I thought our guys did an excellent job through the week of really concentrating on improving some of the details of our game. It wasn't necessarily specifically towards Minnesota. We wanted to play our best hockey game tonight. I thought without the puck, we probably did play our best game of the season. There weren't a lot of plays to be made out there because there wasn't a lot of time in space. Obviously, we would have liked to have made one more play on the offensive side. But, again, I thought our guys prepared well, prepared hard, and played as a real good team tonight. MODERATOR: Thank you. 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
|