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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 11, 2014Nate CondonDon LuciaJake ParenteauKyle RauPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA Q. Don, I don't know how much you've had a chance to scout Union on tape, but it does seem like the system they play, particularly structurally is similar to NorthDakota. Can you comment on that? COACH LUCIA: Well, we'll watch some more this afternoon. I watched both their games in the regional. They're an outstanding team. They're an older, veteran team. They've had a tremendous amount of success the last three years. They're balanced with Bodie and Gostisbehere. They've got two elite defensemen they're going to get to jump up to play, very similar to what NorthDakota's defensemen did. So they certainly earned their way here. They've won 31 games, and not just this year, but the last three or four years. I think back in 2010 we played them in the Mariucci tournament, I believe, and they beat us 3‑2 in overtime. In that game I said you know what, that's a darn good hockey team. Then they went on that run the last few years and they've been tremendous. Q. To follow up on the Bodie‑Gostisbehere, is that important to shut them down? If you do that, do you think that shuts down their offense? COACH LUCIA: No, it's not just going to shut down their offense, but when you have two elite defensemen that can control their back end, one of them for the most part can be on the ice all game long. NorthDakota's defensemen are very offensive and very active in the play last night, so that's going to help us, I think, with the mentality we're going to have to have in the game tomorrow. I think they're a deep team. From the goaltender right on out, they're elite at every position, and that's why they're sitting and playing for a National Championship tomorrow. Q. Nate, your coach said last night it was almost more of a feeling of relief and jubilation than what NorthDakota threw at you. 12 hours later, how does it look to you guys? NATE CONDON: I think we're coming down a little bit now. It was great how it happened last night. Really happy for Justin. Being a really selfless player for our team. You're really happy when a guy like that gets a big goal like that. So last night I think it was a great feeling. I think we were all just excited in the moment, kind of just taking it in. Hopefully the next game we have doesn't go down to the last .6 seconds like that. Q. Jake, how do you not suffer a letdown after such a fantastic game, fantastic finish from last night, how do you not suffer a letdown going into tomorrow? JAKE PARENTEAU: Well, it comes with our practice today. We have to have a good practice with the guys on the ice and then keep to our schedule and our regimen. If we stick to our game plan, we'll have a good showing on Saturday. Q. Jake, yesterday Nate said that before the game he kind of called out you and Justin and said you guys haven't scored a goal yet. I was wondering if now you feel some sort of additional pressure since Justin scored? JAKE PARENTEAU: I mean, I'm more than happy that Justin took the cake on that one. That was a big goal and I'm glad he got it. But I've still got one more game, so we'll see what happens. Q. Kyle, how did you guys decompress after the way things ended last night? You set up the winning play. How do you guys kind of come down? Were you able to sleep last night and what did it feel like this morning? KYLE RAU: Not many of us were able to get to bed till late because we didn't get to the hotel until 12:30. But when you wake up you realize tomorrow you get to play for a national title and you better get your mind ready to go, because if not, you're going to come out laying eggs. So like Jake said, we'll try to have a good practice and get back to our normal routine right away. Q. How does last night's ending compare to the end of your high school career? You're obviously playing on a big stage, scoring a big goal. Have you thought of any parallels there? KYLE RAU: No, I haven't thought of any parallels. But it's way bigger, on a way bigger stage here, back in high school and Minnesota, now it's college and nationals. So it was a way bigger goal for Justin there. Q. Expand on the Union game from a few years ago. What did you see in that game that made you think that this team was going to be a force down the road? COACH LUCIA: Talent. I mean they were a very talented team. They were on the cusp at that point in time. Obviously with the coaches that have been through there and Coach Bennett's taken it to a whole new level. But they had some very good players on that team. I think there were some guys that turned pro. I think there was another Bodie on the team, if I remember correctly. But just I was impressed by their talent level. They skated well. They were an older team back then, but that's their way of doing things. You look at college hockey, and I said it before the tournament began, the great thing about our sport is Union is on equal footing with Boston College or NorthDakota or whoever they're going to play. It's unique to our sport, but that's what makes our sport so great. Q. Nate, your coaches talked about facing NorthDakota's mobile defense and how it's probably the most mobile you faced all season. What did you guys learn about playing against a D‑corps like that and what do you have to do tomorrow against the better one? NATE CONDON: I think the big thing is for our forwards. We have to be more sound defensively. When they got in the offensive zone they ran a lot of high cycles and their "D" used their feet to change shooting lanes and things like that. So it was more of a matter of our Wings had to be more active defensively. It wasn't so much as standing out and guarding your point. It was really you had to be involved and be communicating with the "D" corps, and the guys that you had to switch with there in the "D" zone. So it made it a whole five‑person, six‑person effort in the "D" zone where you had to really communicate well. That was probably one thing we picked up big early in the NorthDakota game. Q. Kyle, how did you see that last play develop? It seemed like you were just trying to chip out the puck, or were you trying to take a shot? Did you even see it deflect over to Justin? KYLE RAU: Yeah, Justin came up on the break out and gave it to me, and I tried to get a shot on it and see what happened because I knew Justin was coming. Got my shot blocked and it ended up on Justin's skate. He made a good play and just shot it on net. I didn't know the buzzer hadn't gone yet. So I was pretty nervous when I saw everyone celebrating, so it was awesome. Q. Nate and Jake, it's just so rare that the seniors get a chance to go out in a National Championship, how much do you appreciate the fact that's the scenario for you guys? NATE CONDON: Yeah, obviously, that was our goal coming into this season. Us being seniors makes it even that much more special. It's a last shot at everything. That's kind of what is expected at Minnesota is that we make this game. I think that it's big for our class coming in that when we were freshmen we kind of struggled. Now to be seniors and kind of hitting the top of where we can reach here, it's really great for us to think that we maybe had that kind of success while we've been at the program. JAKE PARENTEAU: Yeah, it's a dream come true. This is what you work for as a young kid and finally getting here. As seniors, it's a pretty special moment. To share it with the other classes, it makes it even better. Q. Nate, in 1980 a Minnesota guy by the name of Herb Brooks made a famous speech that that big win against the Russian team wouldn't mean squat unless you were able to follow through and win the gold medal. Is there pressure on your coach now to come up with some words of wisdom going into tomorrow? NATE CONDON: No, I don't think so. This is kind of a self‑motivating thing. Guys grow up wanting to play in National Championships and wanting to win titles. So while I'm sure Coach has something worked out for us, I think it's going to be on us to get ourselves ready. Q. Jake, you've been along with this journey with Justin from his transition from forward back to defense. How have you seen that journey for him and touched on how selfless of a player he is? JAKE PARENTEAU: Yeah, in any position he's put in, he's always got a smile on his face. He's here for our team and he's a team‑based player. As long as he's helping the team out in any way possible, he's happy. Q. Don, following on Tim's question, what do you have to do as a coach to get them not only physically recovered from what last night took out of them but mentally refocused after an emotional game like that? COACH LUCIA: It's nice to have a day off in between. It was a late night last night, so the most important thing we have to do is spend the day recovering. And that's where Cal, our strength coach comes in. I didn't even crawl into bed until 3:00 a.m. you're eating your postgame meal at 12:30. You get back to your room at 1:00. It takes a while to decompress and here we are back at the rink at 11 a.m., and that's another topic. So we need to go through 30, 40‑minute practice today and recover, then just get mentally refocused. We need to play better tomorrow to beat Union than we played last night. I thought some of our young guys played tentative. It's amazing. Sometimes you're a little nervous and your legs get heavy and you're not moving the way they need to move. I thought that we were fortunate in some regards last night to be moving on, but sometimes you have to find a way to win. We found a way to win and we stuck with the game until we made a play. But we have to be a little bit sharper and get pucks behind "D" and establish some more offensive zone time than what we did last night, because Union is a very, very talented team. THE MODERATOR: You're in the Flyers locker room, any history or players you looked to growing up or anybody that caught your attention? COACH LUCIA: These guys were probably not even born with some of those guys in the '70s. I can relate to those guys. THE MODERATOR: Anything stand out, guys? STUDENT‑ATHLETE: I know the goalies really appreciated the Ron Hextall. That was a good one. STUDENT‑ATHLETE: He was one of my favorite goalies. He had a couple goals and that's more than me this year, so... Q. Jerry York said Bill Belichick came and spoke to his team for motivation. Do you have anything like that for these guys or did you leading up to this week? COACH LUCIA: No, for me, going through this process, my big thing is I just wanted to play well. Get to the end of the year, just play your best. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen. I think that you get to this stage, you've worked all year long. Really at this point you hope your team is on autopilot, because if we have to push and prod at this time of the year as a coach, that's all been done October, November, December. We tell our guys all year long that sometimes we're critical of them after a win. But we're coaching for the end of the year. How important little details of your game become at this time of the year because one mistake and your season's over. I think our guys have bought into that. We've kept it with ourselves. We've had some of our former players send emails. We've posted them. We've got the poster in our locker room with some of our former players. Obviously, you get a lot of texts and emails from former players, and they want us to do well. I'm happy for our guys that get to experience not only the Frozen Four and certainly playing in a national title game. As a coach, I've been on both sides, won one in overtime, lost one in overtime. So I know how it feels each way. So just want our guys to be in a situation tomorrow where they feel they can play free. That they can play to win and play aggressively. Because if you're going to play on your heels this time of year, it's awfully difficult to win. Q. Nate, your coach kind of talked about how some of the younger players were playing tentative. Do you feel they've worked that out of their system in this first game, and how do you as a senior captain help them with that transition? NATE CONDON: Obviously, it's tough for them coming to the big stage like this. But we play on a big stage all season, so I think that the freshmen have gotten used to it this year. It was one of those things where our team has always been balanced all season. When one line has a tough night, another line has a good night. So I think it doesn't really matter who on our team, there is always going to be someone that's going and someone that's having a good night. We'll see who that is on Saturday. But just being a senior, it's just my job to kind of get them relaxed and get them ready to play.  Playing with Kloos and Cammarata has been a did have experience for me being the old guy on the line. But there are some good players. If you get them to calm down a little bit, they'll be really productive for us, especially if they can use that offensive talent that they have. Q. Don and Nate, have you guys noticed just a different confidence this season? How has the attitude changed in the postseason from last year to this year? COACH LUCIA: Well, I don't think it's changed. Puck goes in or puck doesn't go in. When you evaluate your team on the outside looking in sometimes, I remember I got the question after we lost to Yale, was that an embarrassing loss? And I said Yale's a pretty good team, and lo and behold they went on to win a national title. So we, obviously, in our program we have a lot of high expectations, especially from the outside looking in. I was proud of last year's team. I thought they had an extremely good year. It ended suddenly. It ended disappointingly, but that's part of the NCAA Tournament. This year's team had a chance to obviously play in St. Paul and take advantage of that and beat a couple good teams in St. Paul. Then caught a break and won that game. So I've always said, you do this long enough and you're on each side. Some years you go further than maybe you should have, and other years you don't go as far. But you've got to keep knocking on the door and sooner or later you hope that you win that final one. Now this team has put themselves in a situation that they get a chance to play for a national title, and you've got to make the most of it. And that's something we talk to even our freshmen. You don't know if you're ever going to get back here again, so play your best game, you know, and make sure you give it your best shot in the game tomorrow. NATE CONDON: Last year our team was top heavy. We have a lot of talented guys that are playing regularly in the NHL now. A lot of really skilled guys. I think we leaned on them heavily. Where as this year it could be anyone. It could be 1 through 4 on our lines or any of our defensemen that gets our team going on any night. So I think maybe the team aspect has really helped us this season, and really, you know, pushed us to get here to the National Championship. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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