Dec. 5, 2009

Recap |  Box Score

Wisconsin Head Coach Mike Eaves Quotes:
On what to expect from Brendan Smith...
"We know what he's capable of doing and obviously he's on the high end of that right now. Brendan's first goal tonight encapsulates the world in which he lives because before he scored he was about five seconds away from giving up a good break away, somehow he recovered and we get it  back and he gets a good pass from Derek Stepan and rips it home. He comes back to the bench and isn't even celebrating. He says, `I've got to be more careful on that.' That's really refreshing because it's a good sign when players can coach themselves. With Smitty, he is maturing to where he is becoming his own coach and that's a real sign of maturity."

What do you learn from a weekend like this with two blowout wins?
"The first thing that comes to mind is what didn't we do well last weekend. The big thing that was on our plate was our net-front presence. We did a much better job with that. We manufactured some goals because of that fact. "

Has your power play been such a game-changing force as it has been this weekend?
"Tonight was a big difference. The guys you could tell were getting in the situation on the ice where they're taking what's given. There's a bunch of things that we can do but whatever the defense is doing, we have the repetitions and the experience now that we can take what's given and manufacture a high-percentage scoring chance and that's the best kind of power play. And that's what you want to have is your best people out there taking what's given."

On the four-minute stretch in the first period when the goals were scored...
"That was a turning point in the game. It took the wind out of their sails. Up until that point, the game was in a balance which way the game was going to go. The major penalty and then taking advantage of the major penalty was the difference in the game."

Wisconsin Player Quotes:
Brendan Smith on his performance...
"Tonight was the opposite [of last night]. I got open luckily and Derek [Stepan] made good passes to me. The first one was a magnificent pass so I had an open net. It worked out for me tonight so I'm going to take those and hopefully we can keep that run."

How Smith feels about his run right now...
"It feels good. Sometimes I'm out on the ice and I just feel lucky. More than anything, I feel it's our team that's playing great. Somehow I'm just getting lucky with that third apple [assist]. A lot of my points have been third apples. I'll take them, they're great, but it's a show of how our team's been playing. I want to keep trying to help the team keep producing, but more than not, it's a lot of luck."

To John Mitchell: Does this weekend help your confidence and help you move forward?
"Yeah, I think it does. I was able to skate with Blake [Geoffrion] and Craig [Smith] and they're amazing players. I was kind of nervous coming in and didn't know if I had settled down with them, but I found my groove initially and it carried through the weekend. Playing with them made it a lot easier on me."

To Scott Gudmandson: Did the early goals make your life easier or harder?
"Any time you get a lot of goals it makes life easier on the goalie. I didn't really have a lot of work tonight. The defense was unbelievable. I think I only had 15 shots and I don't think too many of them were in the house. The defense did a good job and made it pretty easy for me."

To John Mitchell: How big is this game in looking ahead to your next away games?
"It's obviously really big, but the thing that can fall apart is our work ethic. Last week we went into the week and we worked out hard and battled in practice because we were going to come it demanding two wins from ourselves. Given how many goals we scored we need to be careful and make sure to do the same thing we did last week, this week. North Dakota is one of those top-ranked schools that's always hard to play against and we can't let down because we had two wins this weekend. We have to come with the same attitude up at North Dakota."