University of Minnesota Athletics
Frost Previews St. Cloud State Series
10/7/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
Oct. 7, 2015
MINNEAPOLIS - Head coach Brad Frost previews this weekend's Gopher women's hockey home-opening series against St. Cloud State (2-0-0) at Ridder Arena. No. 1 Minnesota (2-0-0) will celebrate the 2015 NCAA national championship prior to Friday's game with a banner-raising ceremony.
On this weekend's series at Ridder Arena...
Brad Frost: Well, we are looking forward to getting back home in front of our fans, for really the first time since the national championship last year. The opportunity to raise another banner is pretty exciting for our program and for our team. Overall, we're really looking forward to getting into conference play against St. Cloud and we are trying to build off of last weekend.
On celebrating the 2015 NCAA title and raising the banner this Friday...
Frost: You can't dismiss it too quickly, you have to enjoy it. I know myself, our staff and our program, the players, really enjoyed it over the summer. It actually brings some closure, a little bit, as well. Once it goes up to the rafters we know that was then and this is now, and now it's time to go out there and try to raise another one.
On moving forward with this season...
Frost: I think it's easy to turn the page, quite honestly, just because we have nine new players. Our seniors who were very instrumental in our success over the last four years have moved on. They've got jobs, they're doing great things, and so now it's just a matter of our team focusing on us and becoming hopefully a real good hockey club.
On expectations for the Gophers' defense this year...
Frost: We've lead the country in goals against, or been in the top two, for the last number of years. Really for us, it starts in the net and goes out to our defense and to our forwards. Our team does such a great job back-checking and identifying and picking sticks up, and bodies, so it's not just on our goaltender, it's not just on our defense. It's on our forwards as well, and I think with hopefully the emergence of Sydney Baldwin this year for us, Lee Stecklein, an Olympian, Milica McMillen, an All-American, Megan Wolfe, continuing to get better, along with Sophie (Skarzynski) and Kelsey (Cline), I think we're going to have a real solid D core. It is a work in progress, as well.
On the chemistry of the line of Brandt, Cameranesi and Potomak...
Frost: Certainly, for Sarah to have players like Dani and Hannah to play with is both easy and hard at the same time. Dani and Hannah have such great chemistry that they have built over the last couple of years, and now Sarah is trying to get in there as well. But, all three of them have to develop that chemistry. Game one, I think, was a little bit of a struggle for them, just trying to figure each other out. I thought, in game two, Sarah gelled extremely well with those two.
Puck drop between the Gophers and Huskies is scheduled for 7 p.m. CT Friday and 4 p.m. CT Saturday at Ridder Arena.
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