Feb. 20, 2010
Recap | Box Score
Wisconsin vs. St. Cloud State post-game quotes
February 20, 2010
Wisconsin Head Coach Mike Eaves
On the play of Wisconsin’s seniors with the loss of Blake Geoffrion…
“Blake wasn’t able to finish the game as you saw and I don’t think it’s anything that’s going to keep on for very long, that’s our hope. The ability of everybody on the bench and a part of that was our seniors to adapt. The fact that he wasn’t on the power play, he wasn’t on the penalty kill and we had our best face-off guy gone, everybody stepped up and chipped in. For a while there I thought it was going to be whoever got the last shot wins, but we were able to get a bit of a spread. The seniors got the hard hat tonight because they all contributed, they all got points and it was well deserved.”
On the goal by Ben Street at the end of the second period…
“Well think of the mindset going into the second intermission, it’s either down 3-2 or 4-2. It’s a different mindset. It was a turning point in the game and every time they scored we responded tonight. They get a first goal again and we’re able to get on the power play and execute and get some energy. I’m really happy by the response from our guys all night. Every time something happened on the down side we were able to respond and have something positive happen.”
On the energy from the bench to keep the momentum tonight…
“We were ourselves tonight. We were ourselves even after that first goal. We had an interesting talk as a team tonight just because it wasn’t us last night. Why wasn’t that us last night? And the fact remains that in athletics, and in business sometimes, you get complacent with what you do and what makes you go. And perhaps that’s what it was last night. It was a big series; we just weren’t ourselves last night. We didn’t have that edge and we found it again tonight. It showed up multiple times within the course of the game and even when we had something negative happen we were able to bounce back. It was a good response by our group.”
On the mood of the team after beating a top-ranked team…
“It’s the same thought process we’ve had all year. When we lose a game, we’ve been able to come back and have a statement game. We know our kids care, they’re competitive, they’re young and they just slipped a little bit last night in Friday’s game for whatever reason. We’ve had a few lessons this year as you’re going to have and you hope that those lessons are things that you can pull back on when you get to the end of the year. Friday’s game had a lesson for us and we responded well tonight and we have that lesson in our hip pocket to build on for another occasion.”
Wisconsin Player Quotes
Ben Street
On his break away at the end of the second period…
“I knew I didn’t have very much time. I was actually thinking I was going to have to shoot it pretty early. When I looked up I saw the goalie was charging at me so I figured I would probably make a move on him and then get an open net. Luckily I was able to hold onto the puck as I was falling down and it slid in.”
On the significance of his goal compared to others throughout his career…
“Right now that goal is pretty fresh in my mind. It seems like the biggest one right now. I got pretty lucky but it felt good because they scored in the last minute and it seemed like the momentum was shifting their way to go into the locker room. To be able to shift the momentum back to us was pretty big.”
Michael Davies
On seeing Ben Street’s break- away goal…
“I looked up early in the period and there was about 15 seconds left. I saw [Derek] Stepan rim it and had no idea how much time there was left. I saw Ben [Street] over my right shoulder and I just threw it to an area and he was able to get it and throw it in. It was a tight play and a huge goal for us.”
On the team’s difference from last night to tonight…
“We just played like the way we’ve been playing all year. Last night we got away from that a little bit. We put the puck in the net tonight and we had two big goals by Ben Street and we had Streeter’s goal [Ben Street] and that basically set the tone for the third period.”
Derek Stepan
On how Wisconsin recouped after Blake Geoffrion’s injury…
“When Blake went down, as a group of 20 guys we have to step up and we have to fill his shoes. It’s a tough role that he takes on so we had to have guys take a bigger role. We all had to chip in to make sure we got the job done tonight.”
On Wisconsin’s comfort with the lead in the third period…
“Any time in this league, I don’t think you can every feel too comfortable in this league, no matter who you’re playing. When Bomber [Andy Bohmbach] and Bendy [Aaron Bendickson] had those two big goals, you kind of said ‘Alright, now let’s just finish the job.’ I don’t know if it was a comfort level or if it was just ‘Okay, let’s make sure they don’t get another one here and let’s just close it out.’”
