DeKeyser previews the Bullldogs with the media
November 30, 2009 | Women's Hockey
Nov. 30, 2009
MADISON, Wis. - The Wisconsin women's hockey team is coming off its final non-conference series of the season after posting a tie and a win against Providence. The Badgers (9-5-2, 6-4-0 WCHA) return to the Kohl Center to face WCHA rival, Minnesota-Duluth on Dec. 4 and 6. Both games will start at 2 p.m. and the annual "Skate with the Badgers" will follow after the conclusion of the second game starting at 4:30 p.m.
UW's interim head coach Tracey DeKeyser met with the media Monday afternoon to talk about the upcoming weekend and UW's progress this season.
A complete transcript is below.
Opening Statement
Well, we're pretty excited to host the Bulldogs at the Kohl Center this weekend. It's always been quite the rivalry between our two programs over the years, and I'm excited we're hitting the Bulldogs this time of the season. I feel our team is off and running in the right direction. I know we've had some troubles scoring, but if you look at the dominance of the play or the number of shots taken per game, it's pretty clear that we should feel confident in the direction we're going. And people have stepped up and made contributions, and I just think it's a great time to be matched up with Minnesota-Duluth.
Tracey, how would you assess the play of the Kelter twins?
Well, we've had limited opportunity to evaluate them. Alev was the only one that did see playing time this weekend. But true to form, kind of like her soccer game, she's a physical presence out there. She can go into the corner against two opponents and come up with the puck, and that's, we know she can do that. We've seen her play for the past couple years, and that's why she got the nod and saw some playing time this weekend.
Is consistency something you're still trying to figure out with this group and kind of stress as the season goes along?
I'm not sure if it's consistency or if it's just finishing, because we're doing the right things. Our transition game is looking good. Power play still has to be worked on, you know, with people in and out for injury and new, obviously, personnel with the soccer twins coming in, I guess from that standpoint, but it's really just finishing. If you count the number of scoring chances for each game and, again, the number of shots on net, it's too bad we haven't been able to put the puck in. I don't want the players to get discouraged simply because we haven't been finishing, but that is our focal point.
This year's Bulldog team, how do they compare to the squad we saw last year?
They're speedy. They're skilled. They don't have as much size. I mean, they have a good size defender in Rasmussen on the point, but they have some new players that are going to contribute to the attack in Wilson and Emmanuelle Blais, a junior this year, #47. She's extremely fast and skilled. Fridfinnson is there again, a left winger, Team Canada player. She's always a scoring threat against our squad, and she's always been successful, so we need to make sure we hone in on those particular individuals as we line up and just watch video this week and see what they have in store for us.
Coach, you came up on the short end of a shootout in the first game against Providence, although technically it went down as a tie. What's your feeling on shootouts at the end of tie games?
Well, I think the reason why we both, Coach Deraney and I, decided we would go through and just do it, is just for practice reasons, because in the WCHA it does count and it's a great opportunity to kind of go through the motions and get any bugs out or just have a look at who's successful in those types of situations.
It seemed like in your last really, really big series against Minnesota, the fact that it was so big helped the girls get up and carry the momentum through the two games. Do you feel like that feeling is sort of the same heading into this series?
I'm quite sure that there will be no need to try and motivate the players for this particular series. I think they understand the importance of these games, and they know this is important, a highly skilled opponent. I think what's different between Duluth and Minnesota, compared to basically every other opponent we've played so far, is they play a very wide open game. There's a lot of flow. They don't clog up the middle. They don't just retract into, you know, this hornet's nest in the slot. I think it will be a wide open game, and that should allow, playing on the big ice, it should be fun to watch, more so than just trying to attack four people in front of their net. So hopefully that will be good for our players.
