University of Minnesota Athletics
Five Minutes with Caitlin Reilly
12/11/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
MINNEAPOLIS -- Gophers senior Caitlin Reilly caught up with the voice of Gopher Women's Hockey Dan Hamann before Minnesota's game against Bemidji State on Saturday, Dec. 2. Reilly reflects on scoring goals, recovering from injuries, being a leader, and more.
Listen to Caitlin Reilly's pregame interview with Dan Hamann.
Dan Hamann: Welcome back to Gopher women's hockey as the Gophers are going for the sweep against the Beavers. My player guest here at the first intermission is Caitlin Reilly, a senior out of Chanhassen. And Caitlin scored a power play goal yesterday, first off let's talk about that power play goal. Kind of interesting how it developed. And on top of that, scored the goal without a glove. So, talk about the sequence, and what happened there and how did you get the puck.
Caitlin Reilly: Yeah, I definitely think I got a little puck luck there. My main focus was my glove flew off somehow, I was kind of going to grab it. I wanted to pick it up just so I wouldn't get hit in the hand or anything. Then, I saw the puck coming towards me so I kind of hesitated and just thought that I was going to try to get a shot on net then pick it up. Then it went in while I was picking my glove up. So, it was kind of a funny goal, I definitely think I got some luck there. But it was a way to give our team some momentum as we were down 1-0 during the second period.
DH: Bethany Brausen, when you got to the bench, kind of took it away and didn't want to give it back.
CR: Yeah she came up and goes, "Sorry, you're not playing with the glove for the rest of the game." Then took it away for a second, kind of joking around. It was definitely something I've never done before and probably won't do again.
DH: For a person who doesn't play much hockey, or for the common viewer, those gloves, how much do they actually protect?
CR: I mean, any kind of our equipment helps a lot. With block shots, or you know, the puck can just go anywhere at anytime. I know some girls on our team, if the puck's coming, they'll grab it with their hand. I know Syd Baldwin has hurt her fingers a few times doing it but if she didn't have gloves, it'd probably hurt worse.
DH: Speaking of blocking shots, last week you blocked a shot and you suffered the consequences for that but good to see you're up and at it. If you could, talk a little bit about the injury and what you were thinking at the time?
CR: It was a pretty tough hit and it kind of hit me right in the ankle where I have no padding. So, it kind of just hit me in the right spot. But, I tried to tough it out the rest of the shift and luckily we got out, we got an icing, and I was able to get off the ice. But in time, when you have to deal with an injury, it's kind of tough seeing if you have to sit out or not. Unfortunately, I had to sit out the rest of the game and then on Saturday's game which is never fun. But luckily, I was able to do a lot of recovery and rehab this past week. It's fun to get back out there, even after missing a game and a half. It's always nice and fun to be out there with everyone.
DH: Your senior year, you certainly don't want to be sitting out for any nagging injuries. It looked like, at the time anyways, that it could have been a little longer. You're up and about, could you have gone last Sunday?
CR: Yeah, I mean, like I said, it's tough to be out with injuries and I think, based on how my ankle was, it just wasn't ready to be back. The thing for me is that if I'm going to be out there, I want to make a difference rather than just being out there to be out there. So, I knew I wasn't ready then. I wish I could have been but there's not much you can do about it. Happy to be back now and finish the rest of the year out strong.
DH: On the line last night was Sophie Skarzynski, the center there, she's got a mouth that can run a mile a minute. Sometimes do you just want to say, "Hey, Sophie, settle down!" or is that energy something that you can build off of?
CR: I think a lot of the time, people use their energy in good, maybe bad ways, they're using it too much or too little. I think Sophie, sometimes can use it where it's kind of a lot but I think overall, we are definitely lucky to have someone who has a loud voice and wants to get everyone pumped up when maybe we're kind of down on ourselves or our team. So, it's never a bad thing, I'd say.
DH: You played with four D last night and that's not the first time that this team has played with four D. As a forward, does that affect how you go into play, maybe mentally?
CR: Yeah, I definitely have to give our D a lot of props. We've had four D for about two weeks now and I can only imagine how tough that is when us forwards are getting tired playing three lines. And the four D, they play average thirty minutes a game and that's insane. We're definitely lucky that they are able to push through it and still be as good as they are. Us forwards want to come in and make sure we're doing better on our back checks and kind of just be aware of the fact that we have four D. Whether we're getting pucks out quicker or being stronger on the boards, is a key thing for our team.
DH: As a senior leader, how do you think your role fits in here?
CR: I think just by being older, we've gone through a lot. Whether that be that we've gone through tough losses or good wins and all the in-between. We're able to teach the younger kids how to get through that. And try to keep them in line with, you know, we never want to be too high or too low as a team. We're going to go through a lot, we're going to go through hard losses and good wins, like I said, but as long as we can use our leadership and our experience that we've gone through in the past, and use that in positive ways to put our team in the right direction when maybe we're going in the opposite, that's always a success in our book.
DH: Resiliency has been a word that has been thrown around a lot with this team. We saw the resiliency again last night. Down in the second period and came back to take the lead, gave up the lead again at the end of the second period then got the win in overtime. Four overtime wins, I guess that would be the definition of resiliency with this team.
CR: Yeah, I think that's a super important value that our team has been using for the past month to a month and a half. I think it really speaks volume to our team's effort. Like you said, we were down, or tough game maybe when we're up, just continuing to put pressure on the puck and making sure we are never giving up until the final horn because really it's hockey and it can go either way. Using that word is encouraging, to know that we need to give everything we can in those sixty minutes.
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