University of Minnesota Athletics
Coach's Corner: Women's Hockey Preview
9/20/2010 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
The University of Minnesota women's hockey team will hold its annual media press conference tomorrow, but here's a video preview from head coach Brad Frost. The season starts Sunday with an exhibition game against Manitoba, 2 p.m., at Ridder Arena.
Q: We’re here with head coach Brad Frost of the women’s hockey team. Coach, the season is starting this month. We’re opening with an exhibition game on September 26. Can you just talk a little bit about the start of the season and what to expect overall?
Brad Frost: It’s interesting that the season’s already here, but we’re really excited about it, and really looking forward to getting our players on the ice, and seeing where this team goes. Right now, it’s kinda like you got both feet in the boat, and you’re just not sure what’s ahead, if there’s a storm ahead or safe waters, you just don’t know. It’s just a really exciting time around here, and we’re really looking forward to getting together with our players and kicking things off.
Q: A couple of familiar faces are rejoining the coaching staff this year in Joel Johnson and Natalie Darwitz. How will it be working with those two and what kind of skills can they bring to the team?
BF: We’re really excited about both of them rejoining our program. Natalie was with us two years ago, obviously was with the U.S. Olympic team last year, and captaining that team, and helping Team USA win a silver medal. So she just brings great experience. She’s won two national championships while she was playing here for the University of Minnesota, and then obviously her Olympic experience as well. She’s a great coach, she’s young, but somebody our players can really look up to and admire, and she knows what she’s talking about too. Joel Johnson, getting him back to work with our defensemen, we’re very excited about that as well. He was with our program from ’99 to 2004, was part of the coaching staff when the Gophers won the National Championship in 2000 as well as 2004. He’s been a head coach at Bethel University for the last number of years, and so we’re very happy to have him back, and we know that he’ll bring a lot of great experience and great things to our program. It’s nice to have two people coming back that know our program so well.
Q: A big question is how the Gophers are going to stack up with the rest of the WCHA knowing that a lot of the Olympians are returning to play collegiately this season. Can you just talk a little bit about where the Gophers are going to fit within the conference and nationally?
BF: Yeah, I think it’s a very interesting year. Last year was also interesting because all the Olympians were gone, and now they’re all back, so I don’t think anybody knows. One thing I do know is that our league is going to be tremendously tough. North Dakota was the eighth-place team in our league last year. I think it’s pretty safe to say that they won’t finish in the eight spot. Some teams lost quite a bit to graduation, others didn’t, and a lot of teams have their Olympians coming back. I would hope that we continue to battle for our WCHA Championship, and then put ourselves in a position to hopefully be selected into the final eight and advance from there. It’s a long ways away, and we have a lot of work to do, and we’re looking forward to just getting better each day.
Q: You’re returning 15 of your letterwinners from last season, and then you also add Jen Schoullis. Can you just talk a little bit about what some of your returning players can bring to the table and to the team?
BF: I think the majority of them have had two cracks at the National Championship, and most of our returning players have been to the Frozen Four the last two years, and so they bring a lot of great experience, but they also understand what it takes to be successful in the WCHA in the hardest conference in the country. So it’s just a matter of them continuing to lean on that experience and help our youngsters along, because we do have some talented freshmen coming in, and we’re excited about the roles that they’re going to play as well.
Q: Speaking of some of the talent that you’ve got coming back—you’ve also got two first-team All-Americans in Noora and Annie Schleper. Can you just talk a little bit about what they bring and how much a year of experience will help the team as far as a leadership role or on the ice?
BF: Well, you look at Anne Schleper, and where she came from out of high school . . . She’s just gotten better and better each year, last year obviously being an incredibly successful year becoming a first-team All-American as a sophomore. We’re really going to rely heavily on her to log a lot of minutes for us on the blue line, again has great experience–she was just with the under-22 team for the United States. We expect her to take another jump this year. I think she has the talent to be an Olympian in the next Olympics, and we hope to help develop her, and get her there. With Noora, she’s been tremendous ever since she was in the Olympics back in 2006, and obviously winning a bronze medal for Team Finland this past Olympics was pretty special. She was a rock for us this past year, and we would expect the same out of her this year as well. I know she’s very excited to be back.
Q: Just speaking about Noora, obviously one of your deepest positions is at goaltender, with her and Alyssa Grogan, who was also on the under-22 team, and then also Jenny Lura. Just talk a little bit about your goaltending core and how you’re going to balance that like you did last year.
BF: Yeah, it’ll be interesting. They’ll play it out similar to last year. I think it’s fantastic that Alyssa was able to be chosen for the U.S. under-22 team. She played in all three games against Canada, and I was not there, but by all accounts played very, very well. I’m very excited about her coming back, and gaining that experience, and confidence as well. Coming back into the year, obviously we know the athletes with Noora. I would expect all three goalies to compete, but those two to really compete for that number one spot.
Q: We just talked about Anne Schleper, but obviously in front of Nora and the goaltenders you need good defense. Obviously, Anne was a first-team All-American, but you also have people like Megan Bozek, second-team All-WCHA, Kelly Seeler . . . Just talk a little bit about your blue line and what they can do to help the program.
BF: I’m really excited about what they all bring to the table. We’ll have two new defensemen this year. One is a familiar name in Katie Frischmann, who really came in as a defensemen, we just had so much depth last year that she played mainly forward for us, but she’ll move back onto the blue line and she’s healthy and ready to go and then Baylee Gillanders, who’s coming to us from Saskatchewan, and the Warner hockey school is again, another five, ten, strong-skating defensemen who can move the puck and so we’re really excited about what Baylee’s going to bring, and Katie, and I think our defense is the position where we have the least amount of depth. Numbers-wise, I think we’re going to be very strong.
Q: Moving up to the forwards . . . Emily West and Sarah Erickson are returning. They were your top two point-getters. Do you see them in that same role, or who else would you like to see battle for some of those top points.
BF: I would expect both of them to again have great years, especially Emily West. She’s returning for her senior year, and obviously was kind of the main cog that turned the wheel last year. Sarah Erickson started out tremendously last year, and started to pick it up again towards the end, but we’re looking forward to her having a more consistent season this year and really fill in that for us. The addition of Jen Schoullis coming back . . . she was one of our top players a couple years ago, and I would look for her to provide some good leadership. She’s arguably our hardest worker, and one of our toughest players. Beyond that, you look at Laura May, who had a great year last year . . . Terra Rasmussen . . . Becky Kortum as a freshman had a good first year, but I know she would like to see a little more from herself, and we would as well. And then just a couple of our freshman, with Kelly Terry, Amanda Kessel, Sarah Davis, all have international experience at the under-18 level, and Amanda Kessel with experience now, and with the under-22s, we would expect them to be top contributors for us as well.
Q: How much would you say the experience that a lot of those players had, from the under-22s or under-18s or the international stage. . . How can that relate to the collegiate level, or to this program?
BF: I think it’s huge for a number of reasons. One, the more players that are representing the United States or Canada or Finland from our program, the more it speaks to the dedication of our program, and what we’re about, from our coaches to our strength coach, to our support staff. It speaks volumes about players from the University of Minnesota. But as well as that, the overall experience and the transition to the collegiate game I think is one that makes the transition much smoother, if you’ve been able to play at a higher level like a lot of our players have. They also see what else is out there and what’s expected of them, and hopefully they can bring a lot of those things to the University of Minnesota.
