University of Minnesota Athletics
Minnesota Postgame Quotes
1/4/2009 12:00:00 AM | Men's Hockey
Minnesota Gopher Assistant Coach John Hill
Opening statement:
“It was good to have Don in the building tonight and have his input in between periods. I think that Northeastern is a very good hockey club. I think their coach Greg Cronin has done an outstanding job his three years there. I also think that they are possibly an NCAA tournament team. They are a tough team and were able to get of couple of goals against us. We made some mistakes when we gave up the outnumbered rushes against us but they were able to capitalize on them.”
“Our guys stayed resilient tonight. I think in the third period we felt that we were starting to make some plays in the offensive zone and if we could get that tying goal, we would get the victory. The two power-play goals were huge. Alex Kangas made some saves which were nice.”
“It was sometimes an entertaining game and other times it was against the walls. Northeastern deserves credit and in some ways they played the game that they wanted to play which is a strong defensive game. To our team’s credit, we stayed together. They were pumped to know that the game was not going to end until someone won and not end in a shootout. It is big for us to get this win as we get ready to head up to North Dakota.”
On next week’s games in North Dakota coaching on the bench...
“The players will respond fine. Our coaching staff is very active in all aspects. We all recruit these guys and we all have input into everything we do from personal decisions to the philosophy and the systems that are implemented. We have respect for them as players and they have respect for us all as coaches.”
“I don’t want this to be taken wrong but I have been a head coach in this league and have had some big wins as a head coach and you go with your gut instincts. Don, Mike, and I discus everything and I just happen to be the lead voice and that is all. Our philosophy will remain the same.”
“What gets hard is that you miss that third coach on the bench because he is that guy that just watches the game because one of us is changing the forwards and one of us is changing the defensemen. You need that guy who is just watching what the other team is doing. Don had some key points tonight after the first and second periods. After the third period, he said to get the game over with because he wasn’t going to make it through a second overtime so I am thankful for our win.”
