University of Minnesota Athletics
Wisconsin/North Dakota Final Faceoff Quotes
3/4/2017 12:00:00 AM | Women's Hockey
2017 WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF – Quotes
WISCONSIN
Wisconsin Head Coach Mark Johnson
Opening Statement
“Certainly happy with the win this afternoon. I told the team if they were successful today, they’d get an opportunity to play for another trophy. I think we seized on that moment. Obviously it was a very tight game and was going to come down to somebody capitalizing on an opportunity. The young lady to the left of me (Emily Clark) was able to do that, so we’re excited to play again tomorrow for the playoff championship.”
On competitiveness of the WCHA…
“It has been a very good season. UMD has had a very good season and certainly deserving of being where they are, both in the league standings and in the national rankings. North Dakota had a very good season. We played them four times and all the games were extremely tight; we were able to come out on the winning side, but not by much. It has been a very competitive league this year. The teams that advance and get a chance to play after this weekend will benefit from that. Our four games with Minnesota Duluth, when you’re done with those series, each team becomes better because of it. Our games with Minnesota were very similar.”
On the shot discrepancy…
“That’s the great thing about our game. You don’t know how it’s going to go. There’s different energy levels for each team throughout the game. (North Dakota goalie Lexie) Shaw played well for them, as she her whole four years; she had a wonderful career for them.”
On the early flow of the game…
“It’s the first time we’ve been in a scenario where it’s one-and-done, where if you win, you play in the championship game; if you lose, you’re back on the bus with a sub sandwich heading back home. Usually in those games, early on, unless somebody makes a spectacular play, it’s a little game of chess back-and-forth.”
Wisconsin Forward Sydney McKibbon
On today’s game…
“Credit to North Dakota. I thought they played their hearts out. I thought we had a good game, got a lot of shots on net, people in front and driving on net.”
On the play of Wisconsin goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens…
“We have so much confidence in Ann-Renee. Even when we have breakdowns, 2-on-1s, we know she’s going to have our back and stop the puck. She had another great game today. Sometimes she’s not getting shots on net for minutes at a time, but she stays on her toes. Credit to her and the way she played today.”
Wisconsin Forward Emily Clark
On North Dakota and the game-winning goal…
“Every game we’ve played North Dakota since I’ve been here has been gritty and like playoff hockey, even during the regular season. It was no different today, and a battle right down to the end. Close games like that are going to come down to a little breakdown. Nurse (Sarah) had two people on me and saw me open and did a great job getting me the puck.
The play slows down for me, as the puck is coming towards me. I just tried to put everything I had behind it and was I fortunate it found the back of the net.”
2017 WCHA FINAL FACE-OFF – Quotes
NORTH DAKOTA
North Dakota Head Coach Brian Idalski
Opening Statement
“We had talked about just competing and leaving it all out there, and I really thought we did that today. We competed, we played to the best of our ability, and none of our kids have anything to hang their heads.”
On these four teams potentially could have been in the NCAA Frozen Four…
“We’ve talked numerous times that winning the conference tournament a lot of times can be tougher than your road to a national title. With the number one, number two, and number four teams in the country here, I don’t feel like I was lying. Quite honestly, other teams in the league will say these kind of games are why they are so battle tested when they move on. You can’t come through our league and games like this and not be prepared physically and mentally to compete in the NCAA tournament.”
On low scoring games and the recipe for success…
“Recipe for success, we’re not going to win a shootout the way we’ve been scoring this year. Going into the third we talked about just wanting to make it a ‘third period game’, just get to the third period, keep it close, and give ourselves an opportunity and we did that. It kind of felt like through the adversity and the penalties, and losing a couple players, that you felt like it was your night as a group that had some pretty poor puck luck this year that we were getting repaid in spades and that today was going to be our day—but unfortunately you know that’s why great players are great players. Clark and Nurse made a play there at the end with about three to go to win them a hockey game.”
North Dakota Forward Amy Menke
On getting open ice and scoring a goal…
"You get the opportunity you have to capitalize on it, i think we had a couple that we didnt and we kind of shot it right in their chest, so i think you learn from your mistakes and once we get get the next one we are going to do something different and try to get a goal."
On this game being similar to the previous four meetings…
"All 4 games we played in the regular season were very competitive, if not more than this one even. so a lot of penalties, a lot of bodies being thrown around both ways, so yeah we knew what we were going get into coming into this game, we knew what to expect and i think we still gave it our all, and we just came up short."
On shots being one-sided to Wisconsin, but having the game close…
"Lexie (Shaw) held us in this game, she played ridiculously good today. I think that was one of the best games she could end her career on. She really held us in there and can't thank her enough.”
