Johnson Addresses Media Monday
October 14, 2002 | Women's Hockey
Wisconsin women's hockey coach Mark Johnson spoke to the media Monday during the Badgers' weekly news conference. Johnson talked about the Badgers' opening weekend, the skill of women's players and addressed various issues about the team.
A transcript of the news conference follows. The news conference video is available by clicking on `multimedia' on the red menu bar.
Are you happy with your two wins' 'I was really excited from the success we had over the weekend obviously, but from my standpoint, to see other players and what I have been working with over the past two and a half weeks. I didn't know what I was up against as far as what the other teams were going to look like. Getting us to play in a competitive situation was one of the things I was looking forward to ' to see how we matched up. Northeastern obviously brought in a good team and a good goaltender and presented a real solid challenge to start off with.'
You talked a little bit in the off-season about adjusting to coaching women's teams in terms of personality and other things, but is there any strategic adjustment for you' 'They say no checking, but the one thing that surprised me in both games was the amount of contact there was during the game. I saw some pretty good body checks. I saw one of my defensemen do a complete 360 and bounce her head off the ice and come up with her helmet the opposite direction. So they say no contact, but it certainly looked like quite a bit out there. The one thing they do bring to the table is that they are very competitive and they are going to battle for loose pucks. So from that point I have to go back and try to figure out some drills that are legal and aren't considered checking, but yet will give our women an opportunity to steal pucks and gain possessions of pucks without getting a penalty. The one thing I have to make an adjustment to is how they are going to call the game and try to find some sort of consistency that they are going to show us as far as what a check is and what a penalty is and what is not. I saw all kinds of different things on both Saturday and Sunday. '
Do you think people realize how skilled some of these people are' 'I think if they come out and watch us play they 'll get a flavor of it, especially this year now that we see a number of people coming back from the Olympic team and Minnesota loading up with a couple of real top, elite players. Minnesota Duluth is going to have several people back off the Olympic team. The caliber of play within our league is going to be at a real high. I think over time, it is just going to get better and better. If you watched our games this weekend, you looked at a line that was made out of freshman who are all pretty good players. I think the pool over the next three or four years is just going to get better. As my wife said Saturday after the game, she was pleasantly surprised with how enjoyable it was. I think if people come and watch it, they might be surprised by the talent. We have some good players. We were missing Carla MacLeod this weekend who was up in Toronto at an Olympic camp with the Canadian team. We do have some good quality players and eventually some of these players may have an opportunity to play for the U.S. Olympic team or the Canadian Olympic Team. If people want to come check it out, they will see some competitive, highly skilled players. '
You held Northeastern to just one shot on goal in the second period, and even though you guys didn't score the pressure was still on. Did that surprise you' 'As I told my team after the second period, from a coaching standpoint I thought the last six minutes of the second period were outstanding. We did a lot of great things, except put the puck in the net. So I had everyone stand up and shake their hands a little bit and grab their sticks and shake the cobwebs out of their sticks and try to put some goals in it. We were fortunate enough to get the power play with about ten minutes left in the period. Nicole [Uliasz] was able to make a real nice shot over the goaltenders' left shoulder. Some nights the first goal is the toughest. Some nights you run into goaltenders that have been in a lot of games where you could throw everything but the kitchen sink at somebody and it is not going to go in. As I was sitting on the bench in the third period, I was starting to get the sense that it was going to be one of those afternoons. But, we were fortunate that the power play came through when we needed it to and we were able to win the hockey game because we certainly dominated it. '
It seemed like there was a lot of disappointment after the first goal Sunday was waved off. Did you get a good look at that' It seemed like the girls lost a lot of energy after that. 'No, My first reaction was to tilt my head to the right and look at Tracy, my assistant coach, and I said `we just got a break,' because I personally saw the hand pass and I looked at the referee and he did not see it. The linesmen stepped in at that point and said he needed to talk to the referee. I just wanted some clarification when he came to the bench because I actually saw it. So, it was the right call.'
