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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 12, 2014Travis BoydJustin KloosDon LuciaPHILADELPHIA, PENNSYLVANIA Union – 7 THE MODERATOR: We'll begin with opening thoughts from Coach Lucia. COACH LUCIA: First, I'd like to congratulate Coach Bennett and their whole staff and their team. Very, very deserving of being national champions. Kind of looked at the end of the year that there were kind of three teams that were BC, Minnesota, and Union that were right at the top most of the year. Union beat BC and Minnesota back‑to‑back, and they certainly earned their national title. Outstanding team. I thought we came out and had real good jump. I thought we had great energy. I'm not sure the mental part of our game matched the physical part. We made a few mistakes tonight that we don't normally make. The game probably got away from us in that little three or four‑minute stretch in the end of the first period where they scored the three goals. Again, I think some of that was just trying too hard, trying to do somebody else's job. But that's going to happen in a game of this magnitude. I couldn't be more proud of our kids for the year they had coming in. I certainly probably wouldn't have thought we'd be here on the last day of the year. I told them in the locker room, this is one of the most enjoyable years I've had in coaching. Great group of kids. They worked every day. Their play was consistent from start to finish, and just I'm sad to see it end. This is one of those years you could keep coaching for another month or two just to be around a great group of guys. Q. Can you talk about that three‑minute span, that two‑minute span toward the end of the first period? JUSTIN KLOOS: I think, yeah, Coach explained it well. It just got away from us. We hung our goalie to dry. He's been our best player all year, and for us to put him through that was kind of disappointing. I think we just made mental mistakes. I don't think you can look at anyone in our locker room and say they weren't physically trying their hardest, but mentally I think made a few too many mistakes in that segment. TRAVIS BOYD: Justin said most of it. I just think it got away. We made mistakes that we haven't been making all year. Didn't pick a great time to do it because there is no excuse for it today. And there is no other game where you can make up for it. Q. When Hudson got that power‑play goal late, did you guys think we're still in it, we've still got a shot. There is still time left to play? Was the push too much for them or did you not have anything left in the tank at that point? TRAVIS BOYD: I definitely thought if I got to a 6 on 5 situation I was confident we could put something in in the last minute. Once again, I think we made a mistake there. Turnover at their blue line. Came down, guy made a nice one‑on‑one play and ended up scoring. So once again, made a lot of mental mistakes tonight. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. Congratulations on a terrific season. Q. You mentioned mentally being there. Was there a fatigue mentally? COACH LUCIA: No, when I say mentally, just you're trying to cover, you're trying to do too much. When you look at some of those goals after the first period, you're leaving your guy to go help out a guy that doesn't need help. Union's a good team. They're everything they were advertised. We knew it going in. They were an outstanding team. When I watched in the regionals last weekend, I was very impressed with them, so you know what? Some of it is them forcing you into those mistakes. I thought we had great energy tonight. I thought we worked. I thought we took more penalties; it's just the way the game was called tonight. Too many men on the ice halfway through the third. You know, our guys tried. With their effort and how hard they wanted to win. Sometimes you want to win too hard, too bad. You wanted to Chase rather than just play your position. It was great. I thought Philly did a tremendous job as a venue. I thought we had a great atmosphere in the building tonight, obviously it was a pro‑Union crowd. It's not like you're not used to that on the road in college hockey, but I thought it was a great environment for a National Championship. Our guys kept battling. We had the lead and all of a sudden 4‑2, and we closed to make it 4‑3 after 2. And now it's a one‑shot game. But we made a mistake. Their guy did a nice job driving the net, and our "D" didn't move over. They tipped one by Adam and now you're chasing again. We had the power play. To our guys' credit, they kept fighting and battling to the end. You're hoping at that point you can get a face off in the offensive zone and call your timeout and try to make a play on 6 on 5. They did the job. They closed it out. Like I said, I'm very deserving of national champions. Q. Coach, yesterday you talked about Union's defensemen. Hoping you could comment on their play, especially Gostisbehere, on the offensive side and defense late in the game to set up the play he made in his own zone to set up the sixth goal. COACH LUCIA: Well, he's a special player. I helped out with the World Juniors two years ago out in Lake Placid. I had heard he was a pretty good player, but I hadn't seen him. Boy, when we were out there, it was like this guy is a serious talent. He's a special player, and he kind of controlled the game back there. In my opinion, he was the best player on the ice tonight. Made a nice play on the goal. With the long TV timeouts he can play major minutes in a game like this and impact the game even more. They have a lot of good players and that's why they're sitting with the National Championship. Q. Gostisbehere's offensive talents are pretty obvious. Can you talk about the way he's able to play in his own zone? Not a big player but still able to do what he can do? COACH LUCIA: Well, he can defend with his feet. He's such a great skater. In this day and age you can still defend with your feet and your stick. That is the strength of his game. He's not going to go be a big bruiser, but you don't expect that from him. But his ability to get to a puck, get it up the rink, initiates a lot of their offense. You look at their numbers. I was looking at that the last six weeks. They've been scoring four or five a night in just about every game they played. I thought if you would have told me going in that we'd have scored four, I would have thought we won the game. But just not the way the game turned out tonight. Q. I know we're talking about Gostisbehere a lot, but is there anything from his game that you saw tonight that surprised you at all? COACH LUCIA: No, no. He's just effortless the way he plays. He's a special player. It's not often you see two first‑team All American defensemen on one team. I mean, they're a good team. Four All Americans and they're deep throughout their lineup. They know their roles well, and they're obviously very well coached. Like I told Rick, enjoy it. The first one is always the best. Q. Coach, you mentioned that you thought your freshmen players were playing a little tentative in that first game. What did you think about their contributions tonight and what's it say about the future of your team? COACH LUCIA: The freshmen scored three of the goals tonight. Just proud of our whole team. Like I said, this is a great year for us. Disappointing. It always is when you lose your final game of the year, but to have the opportunity to play on this stage and get the experience. It's not just the freshmen though; our seniors led the way. They've had tremendous years. Adam gave us a great year. We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him during the course of the season. It wasn't an easy game for him. But just I'm really proud of our group of kids. I mentioned earlier how much fun it was to coach this team. For the freshmen, you know, it is part of the process that you learn from, hopefully they can take this as we begin next year and take another step forward. A lot of them have had great years for us, and we wouldn't be in the position we're in without them. Q. You talked about some of the mental side during the first period. Is there anything in that intermission that you would do or say to try to settle them down or do you just have to let the rhythm of the game go as it is? COACH LUCIA: That's what we did. That's what we talked about is the mental part of the game. I told them after the first, guys, you're physically trying your rear off, but you're trying a little bit too hard. All of a sudden, you start to chase instead of just doing your job. Whether that's nerves or not, you know, who knows. But you just can't chase. That's what we did. You get yourself into trouble, and then obviously that happened to us. I thought after the second we were in decent shape. We came back. It's four‑three. I think Condon had a great opportunity, didn't lift the puck, and goaltender made a big pad save and could have tied it 4‑4 later in the period. So I thought we were in pretty good shape. Then we made a mistake and gave them their fifth goal, and if that doesn't happen, maybe it's 4‑4 with three minutes to go in the game. THE MODERATOR: Coach, thank you very much. Appreciate it. COACH LUCIA: Okay. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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