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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 10, 2014Justin HollDon LuciaSam WarningAdam WilcoxPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA Minnesota – 2 MODERATOR: Opening comments from Coach Lucia. COACH LUCIA: Another boring Minnesota/North Dakota game tonight. It was a hard fought game. I thought North Dakota played extremely well. Sometimes you have to find a way to win, and Adam certainly gave us an opportunity to win the game based on his play. And obviously the penalty at the end of the game was huge. Looked like we were going to kill it, and then we jumped up on that 3 on 2. And no better time for Justin to score his first goal of the season than tonight. But that's our team. We haven't relied on any one guy. A new guy has to step forward each and every night. So just proud of our guys to have the opportunity to play in the last game of the year. MODERATOR: Questions for the players. Q. Justin, is that the most improbable goal that you've ever scored? JUSTIN HOLL: Yeah, I think most of us were just focusing on killing the penalty and getting overtime, and it just developed where there were five seconds left, and I figured might as well jump in, and it went in. Q. What do you think, Adam? What did it look like from where you were at? ADAM WILCOX: With nine seconds left. I looked up, I was hoping we would get that nine seconds with another shot so we could go into overtime. Made a great play off the faceoff. Huge play by our center and chipped it out, and I was just kinda looking up, thinking waiting for time to expire to go into OT, all of a sudden see Hollsey shoot the puck and it went in. And I looked up and also skated out and did a half celebration, half kind of arms up, what's going on, and then jumping the pile not. Trying not to celebrate too much. And when the ref called it a goal, haven't had a better feeling in my life during that game. Q. Justin, you're a senior. This potentially could have been your last college game. What does it mean with that in mind to get the goal that sent your guys to the national championship game? JUSTIN HOLL: Obviously our seniors have a lot of desperation because we know this is our last crack at it. I think that's the feeling we have throughout the whole team because you never know if you're going to get back to this point. It's a great feeling, but it doesn't mean anything if we don't do well on Saturday, so we're looking ahead to Saturday and we're excited for that game. Q. Justin and Adam, with the North Dakota guys, there's a little bit of shell shock, numbness, and how quickly it ended. Is it the same thing for you guys at all in victory? Is it hard to process because of the way it finished and how quickly it ended in your favor, it was so unexpected? JUSTIN HOLL: Yeah. Definitely, I think nine seconds left with a faceoff in our own zone, if you're on their side, you're not thinking the game's going to come back and be won against you. You're thinking you might get a shot off and score yourself. I can see there's definitely probably shock on their side and definitely surprise on our side, too, because really, as I said, we're thinking we're trying to kill it off and get to overtime and get through this penalty. And just like that, the game's over. So yeah, definitely. It's something that's kind of surreal right now. But we're looking ahead to Saturday. Q. Sam, what was going through your mind? SAM WARNING: I saw right when the faceoff, so I figured they just iced the puck. I kind of got my head up and saw that Rau was coming down, and Rau took a shot. And then Hollsey was jumping up in the play, like he always does. And he just wired the puck on that and happened to go in. Q. Adam, want to chime in there? ADAM WILCOX: Yeah, it was unbelievable. You could see on the bench the shock and disappointment. Kind of reminded what our team was like when we lost nine seconds in overtime. That's the thing about this time of year. Things like that can happen. You have to take care of your chances when you get them and be really good defensive. And it's hard to look at them because we're celebrating and that feeling we had was unbelievable. We came into this tournament thinking it's about us not about the other teams. And I think we've had a good little thing there for us, realizing we're going to the championship game off a pretty memorable experience there. Q. Justin, do you take a quick peek at the goal to frame it to where you're going to put your shot, or you just put it on there, put it on target? JUSTIN HOLL: Honestly, at that point in the game, I was focused on getting the shot on goal because I knew there was hardly any time left. Puck came to my stick and I just wanted to get it on net. And fortunately it went to the right place. So happy about that. Q. For Sam, was your team frustrated offensively? Seemed like North Dakota did a lot of things to take away passing lanes, clog things up, not give you speed into the zone. Was there some frustration there, and what did they do? SAM WARNING: I don't think there was too much frustration. Gotta tip our hats to North Dakota. They're one of the best D corps in the nation. Thank God the first couple of periods we didn't get in the blue paint in the house area. And I think in the third period, going into the second intermission, talked about that in the locker room. I think going from the locker room on to the ice in the third period, kind of our mindset was to get pucks on there and get to thegood hitters. Q. Any of the players, how difficult was it defensively tonight against the North Dakota team that seemed really relentless? ADAM WILCOX: Yeah. They threw a lot of pressure at us. It was really tough at times. There was a few minutes getting shots off. Seemed like when they were missing, get the puck right back and shoot. But our defense did an unbelievable job blocking shots, boxing out, Holl took one in the ear. Brodzinski took a couple to the ankles. We really sold out in front of our net. Our forwards did a good job of getting back, tying guys up at the point. Cammy did a good job in the middle of the rink there tying the guy up and he collapsed down. I thought our team did a good job of weathering the storm. There's a few storms that we had because they're a good team and they give a lot of pressure on us, but I thought our team did a really good job throughout the game. Q. Sam and Justin. Justin, right now obviously everyone's talking about your goal, but it seemed like it was fitting that that play started with Kyle Rau winning the faceoff given everything he's done for you guys this year and Sam as his linemate. Could you comment about his play tonight and all year? SAM WARNING: Yes, definitely Rau is a good player. But he's a grinder, too. So playing with him is an honor for me. But tonight I think he had an apple on both goals. He's right in front of the net. He's always creating havoc for the other team. JUSTIN HOLL: When Rau gets going, we know he's bringing it every night. That's a big reason he's one of our captains. He's a great asset to have on our team. As Sam said, he's involved in both goals tonight and shows how important he is to us. Q. Justin, you were able to celebrate that goal three times. What were the emotions like? JUSTIN HOLL: First time I didn't know it went in for two seconds after because there was a guy right in front of me. I didn't see the goal at the time. And everyone jumped on me. I was dying on the bottom of the pile. But I was like I didn't know how much time was left in the clock. It was zero seconds. Let's relax a little bit because we're not sure it's going to count yet. Then a pretty tense minute when they're at the scorer's table or whatever trying to figure out if it's a goal or not. Then when he comes out, gestures the goal signal, I don't know what the right verb is for that, but it's a pretty amazing feeling. And as I said, it's surreal right now and we're just happy to be moving on. Q. Adam, you mentioned not wanting to look at the North Dakota players at the end. Could you elaborate on that? The epitome of the thrill of victory, agony of defeat moment, split your emotions of the two teams? ADAM WILCOX: Definitely. It's a tough feeling. We went through it last year. No one likes to go through that. Season ended. It's a disappointing way to go out. So kind of like that. You really don't think about what they're feeling because your emotions are so high, at the highest point in your game. You could win a national championship. So after the game really think about what they could feel like and that could have been your spot. You are just really fortunate we were able to move on and the guys playing as well as we did tonight and we're playing the best hockey we have all year at the right time. MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Same question, seemed like North Dakota was able to counteract your offense pretty well. Did you feel like you were well‑scouted? COACH LUCIA: I thought North Dakota's defensemen, they all skate so well. And they generate so much from their back end that‑‑ more so than any team we've seen so far this year. And we knew they were going to present some problems. They played very confidently and they really get up into the play from an offensive standpoint. I think we had some freshmen that looked like freshmen at times tonight, which I'm not surprised about. Hopefully they'll be more relaxed on Saturday. But North Dakota played very well. Probably in many ways deserved better tonight. We packed our goalie, packed our specialty teams, getting a shorthanded goal tonight. And that was a good smart play by Justin. He read it. Seconds were winding down, a good smart move to jump up into the play like he did. And that's a confident senior making a play like that. I'm really happy for him. But North Dakota played well. I thought we did a little bit better job in the neutral zone after the first period. I thought we gave them too much of their "D" time to move up in their play. And we have to be good at that Saturday because Union's defensemen are outstanding and as is their whole team. So we need to play better on Saturday, our lineup, to win on Saturday. Union is an outstanding team. And we'll do everything we can to get our guys ready to play on Saturday now. Q. Can you talk about what your emotions were on the winning goal? I don't know if you saw how much time was left on the clock when it went in, whether you thought it was a good goal or not? COACH LUCIA: To be honest, I thought it was a good goal because I thought I saw the ref pointing before I heard the horn. And he came over and said it was a goal. But you don't know. You feel lucky. You feel relieved. Here you take a penalty in the last two minutes of a game that's tied 1‑1, but the penalty killers did a good job. Adam made some critical saves, like he always does. Like I've said most of the year, we're a good team with a great goalie. Adam gives us a chance to win. And he certainly did tonight. That's what we've come to expect with him. We got some timely scores. I thought once we got the first one, then they counterpunched right back and scored the very next shift to make it 1‑1. And they had some zone time. No question they had some zone time. We need to be cleaner in some areas on Saturday in our game. It was a sense of relief for me. I mentioned to the guys, this is the fourth time now as a coach I'll have an opportunity to play in a national title game. And one was in double overtime. Another one was a 3‑2. Another was an overtime win. And tonight was essentially an overtime win. It's hard this time of year. As devastating as it was for our team last year to lose nine seconds into overtime, here you have the elation. Probably for me it was more relief than joy, but I'm happy for our kids that they found a way to win the game tonight. Q. Coach, you've been involved in a lot of great rivalry games between North Dakota and Minnesota, obviously. But this being the NCAA semifinal, how much more‑‑ is it any more kind of exciting because it was North Dakota? COACH LUCIA: To be honest, no. And it didn't matter if we were playing North Dakota or North Carolina. And you know what, they're a good team, well‑coached, great program. When you get to this time of the season you're going to see great teams and great programs and great coaching. It's just the way it is. And, hey, I've been on the other side of that. It's no fun. I feel bad for them. And we compete. You play hard. They've got passionate fans. We've got passionate fans. But for me personally I don't get any extra enjoyment because we beat North Dakota. They were the next team that we had to get through. Just like Robert Morris was the first one. And St. Cloud State and North Dakota was the next opponent. Now we have Union, who is probably the best team right now. And they've shown that throughout the course of the season. So we have to do everything we can to find a way to get past Union on Saturday. But it is a‑‑ it's a little bit different this year because we haven't played them, but you don't have the same feel of their team because there wasn't two or four games against them over the course of the season. But we've played some historic games. I think one of the things that makes it a great rivalry, I was looking through the notes, I've been at Minnesota 15 years. We're dead even in those 15 years. So now we're one up after 15 years. That's pretty incredible. But that's what makes a rivalry great. And I think even for the fans, because you really don't know who is going to win and there's a little more angst, a little more anxiety going into the game, gets you a little bit more on edge. But you have to enjoy the victories. I've been on the other side, lost to North Dakota in the regional final in overtime. WCHA final five in overtime. So I've been on each side of it. It's obviously elation when you win, and depressing when you lose. Q. All the video work and diligence you put in over the season to get prepared for these moments, is it hard to come to grips it can come down to the last second or nine seconds as it was last year, that all that work would be up to a small margin? COACH LUCIA: See all my gray hair. That's why. And you know what, you just want your kids to play well. You get to the end of the year, it's a single elimination. I've had some teams that have gone further than maybe they should have and other teams were upset. You're on each side of it, like you see in the NCAA basketball tournament. This is a great tournament. There's so many more good teams in college hockey than there was 10, 15, 20 years ago. The depth of college hockey and U.S.A. hockey, and the expansion of so many more areas where players are coming out of‑‑ probably some of the expansion NHL has created more good players in the United States than what there used to be. And I think that's led to a lot more parity to the game. So like I told our guys, there's no guarantee you're ever going to get back here. I don't care if you're a freshman. It's hard to get here. It's hard to get to a Frozen Four. It's even more difficult to get to the final game of the season. But that was our goal. We met on Saturday after we lost to Ohio State, and I told them that I'll be disappointed if this team doesn't play on the last day of the year. So we're going to play the last day of the year. They have responded well over the last few weeks. Q. Same question I asked the players. Obviously it was Justin that got the moment, but that play started with a play Kyle made. He's done everything for you guys this year. Can you think back to the decision to move him into the middle, why he was the right guy for that, and how he's responded? COACH LUCIA: You mean at the beginning of the year or that faceoff? When we lost Bjugstad and Haula, our top two centers last year, Kyle was a center all his life. I watched Kyle play from PeeWees on, same age group as Meyer was. It broke my heart when they won in double overtime in the regional finals after beating Wayzata. And Kyle scored the game‑winning goal, went on to score the game‑winning goal in the state title game. That's the type of player he is. He scores big goals. He makes plays in those moments. And so for me, who was going to be our number one center? Was Condon going to play center? Was Kyle going to play center? So we moved Kyle to center. We let Nate kind of babysit the two freshmen on his line. But Kyle makes plays and that was a big faceoff. There's nine seconds to go. It's a critical faceoff. You lose the drive. They're going to get a good scoring opportunity. We went up the short side. He started to play. He made the play to Justin and Justin scores. But it all started with Kyle winning the faceoff. MODERATOR: Thank you. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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