|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 11, 2014Rick BennettMat BodieShayne GostisbehereCole IkkalaPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA THE MODERATOR: Coach, I know when you left last night, you were busy designing the practice. How did it go off today? COACH BENNETT: I guess you'll have to ask Joe Dumais, he's the guy that ran practice today. But thanks for asking. Q. Guys how important is it not to get let down or have a letdown going into this championship game? Obviously the first time for you guys to be in this situation in an NCAA title game. MAT BODIE: Yeah, it's huge, you want to get out to a quick start, and hopefully we can learn from last night's game that you've got to bring it from the opening shift. But we're just treating it like any other game. You prepare the same way, and you've just got to be ready to go. THE MODERATOR: What is with Ghost, by the way? SHAYNE GOSTISBEHERE: It was actually Josh. I remember my first day at Union, he was like what's up Ghostbusters. I was like that's not my last name. But it stuck ever since, and it's pretty much my nickname. Just like Bodie said, we're just trying to keep everything as routine as possible here. We know it's a big game and it's on the line here. But we're going to stick to our game plan and play our game. COLE IKKALA: I agree. We've learned from the past that both teams deserve to be in this game. We'll have to come out to a good start and stick with our process that we've been using all year. It's just another game for us. We've learned from the past and we're ready for this game. Q. Mat, you had said during the week this was a business trip. I thought last night after the win, as dramatic as it was, I thought the celebration was a little subdued. Does that go in with the mindset of the team that you came here, as Coach said, to play more than one game? MAT BODIE: Absolutely. It was a huge win for the team and for the program. But at the end of the day, it's just a semifinal game. So you really haven't won anything yet. I think that's why guys weren't celebrates as much as some people might expect. Q. I don't want to paraphrase you wrongly, but last night you talked about pushing these guys to "uncomfortable areas," if I have that right, I'd like all three of you to address where you think you've gone in the process, and if you understand what he's talking about in that. COLE IKKALA: Coach expects a lot out of us, and at every practice he pushes us to that uncomfortable point where we'll learn from our Mississippi takes and he'll push us and learn from them. We see that in game, we've made those mistakes in practice, and we'll be able to learn from it and respond quickly. SHAYNE GOSTISBEHERE: Yeah, what Cole just said, Coach will think it's an easy practice, but Coach will put that practice plan up, and it's like, wow, it's a battle day, I guess. He just puts us in places where we don't get too comfortable and complacent. It's important because sometimes with all this stuff, you can get caught up in it. Coach and Bodie and all the leaders just kept us level playing field here and kept us down to earth. MAT BODIE: I read a quote. I'm not sure who it was from, but it said great players learn to be comfortable in uncomfortable situations. I think that's what the coaching staff has tried to accomplish with this team. I think guys have done a good job of pushing their comfort levels and finding out how to be comfortable in those uncomfortable spots. Q. Mat, when you beat Minnesota at their place as a freshman, how significant a win was that for the program or where your program was at that time? MAT BODIE: That was a massive win for us. Guys were really excited. It was an overtime game. It was at their place. It was one of the bigger programs we've ever beaten. It's all about taking baby steps, and I think that was a huge step in the growth of Union College. Q. Rick, what little you've done in breaking down Minnesota, what are some of the dangers that they present to you? COACH BENNETT: Well, just a lot of depth. Obviously their goaltender is phenomenal. We have to make sure that we get some traffic in front of him, you know. That is a standard coach speak that you're going to hear. In general, we have to be sharp. It's more about us. I feel the same as it was last night against Boston College, we don't have to help them out either. Q. After an emotional win like you guys had last night, how was it that you decompressed? Did you guys get a lot of sleep last night? Did you stay and watch any of the second game? MAT BODIE: No, right after our game we saw our parents for a bit and said hi to everyone, but then it was back to the hotel and get some rest. I think most of the guys were watching that game in their beds, which was nice. It's nice to play that first game and to get that extra rest. I don't know if it can have that much of an effect with a day off in between, but it was nice to get back to the hotel and start shutting it down. SHAYNE GOSTISBEHERE: Just like Bodie just said, it was nice to get that breather right there. We just got on the bus, came back, and got a good meal in us and just watched the game in our rooms. COLE IKKALA: We had some adrenaline after the game, so I think we were up for a bit. But like they said, we enjoyed it for about an hour or two. Once we went to bed, we put it behind us, and it was all our focus on Minnesota. Q. Coach, you were here? COACH BENNETT: Yeah, I had a chance as a staff, we watched the game here live. We were on the moon here. When we watched it, we were so high up. It gave you a nice perspective of the game. Just got back, broke down the Boston College game. The other staff, Coach Tapp, Coach Dumais broke down the Minnesota game. So we both had things going at the same time. Woke up today, watched a little video, put Boston College to bed, and I guess tomorrow we'll address Minnesota here. That is the format for us. Q. You guys had an emotional win last night, but Minnesota had arguably an even more emotional win. Do you think that will affect them all heading into the Saturday game? COLE IKKALA: Yeah, at this level I think our team and their team respectively, you can deal with those emotional games. I'm sure they're handling it the same way. They're probably going to put it behind them and start focusing on the next game. I don't think it will have any effect. MAT BODIE: I think both teams have a little bit of momentum coming into tomorrow's game. But it's about keeping an even head. Letting your lows get too low or your eyes get too high. I think both teams will get ready to go and preparing for each other for tomorrow. Q. Shayne, picking up on that first question, from day one till now, what are you most happy with in terms of the progression of your game, and what are you most frustrated with? SHAYNE GOSTISBEHERE: My game? Q. Yeah. SHAYNE GOSTISBEHERE: I would have to say some of the stuff off the ice, becoming a leader, learning from both these guys and Coach Bennett. Just controlling my emotions sometimes and just learning from that. With my game, just defensive side and learning every day and just being a sponge out there. Learning from players, learning from our coaches. Just being a good listener out there. Q. (No microphone). SHAYNE GOSTISBEHERE: Sometimes you get frustrated out there. Sometimes it doesn't go your way. Keeping it all in and controlling your emotions. You know if you're a leader on the team, young guys are going to look at that, and that's not too good. Q. Rick, looking back to that Minnesota game back in the Mariucci Classic, how important was that for the development of the program winning that game out there? COACH BENNETT: Well, Mat touched on it. It was a monumental win for us, because we went out there a few years previous. I'm not even sure what the score was, you probably know. It was like 9‑1 or something like that. So it wasn't pretty. I know one of our defensemen at the time, one of our better defensemen, Lane Caffaro, found his way through the crease and ran their goalie over. I think we had to put him in a stick bag to get him out of there because it was pretty hostile. It was one of those things. To come back and have that win in overtime was really special. Who knows, maybe it sets the tone at that time for where they are today. Q. Mat, can you put into some perspective what getting to a national championship game means to the program, and if there is even a way to describe what it would mean to win this game for Union? MAT BODIE: You know, it's great for the school, it's great for the program. It's great for players and everyone involved to get to this point. As far as winning it, it would be huge. I don't really know if you can put it into words, but it would just be huge for everyone involved. Q. Rick, we asked Don Lucia in the press conference if you have to say anything to the guys after coming off an emotional win like that? I want to ask you the same question. It seems your guys were pretty level and pretty even and no one is too up. Is that how you feel the team is right now? COACH BENNETT: Yeah, because it seems we've gone through a lot of these past weekends, which we're very fortunate that these guys have obviously given us a chance to have these moments here. They're probably sick of my "let's not get too high or too low" speech. But I don't have to say too much at all because these guys know the drill. I mean, they act like professionals. They make it easy, basically, after games. Q. A few weeks ago the GM here talked about how it's great to have guys that they're interested in playing in college. I'm an old goat too. I feel like that's a bit of a sea change. I don't know if you agree with that or not, but they're happy now to see kids mature through the college system rather than grabbing them at 17 or 18. Can you comment on that? COACH BENNETT: I'm in the college racket. I'm not a GM. So I obviously would like that a lot. You're seeing more and more college players play on after. I think it's great. It's great for hockey. Obviously we're in the States here, but I'm sure in all of Canada, you look at the players that are going to college too as well, you're seeing more and more of those players coming out of college too. It's just nice to see. 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
|