Oct. 8, 2011
Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
Head coach Mike Eaves
On Wisconsin making the plays tonight that Northern Michigan made last night (particularly the game-winning goal):
“That was the same play just on the other side of the net. Last night the young men was left, tonight Derek Lee is right-handed and wraps it around. We did many more good things tonight. It was nice to see the line of Zengerle, Mersch and Barnes play at the level they’re capable of. They were disappointed in their effort last night, and we had a long talk about it. They want to be ‘the guys’ on this team, that means offensively, and play against the other top line. They didn’t hit that mark last night, and they did tonight. Every line played solid. Dahl did a nice job, and young Mr. Moher’s line did a nice job and contributed, drew some penalties. We did just did more things better tonight than we did last night which contributed to the win.”
On how battling back the last two nights been a confidence booster to the team going forward:
“Maybe that’s the unwritten character of this team early in the season. Being young like that, sometimes with that naïveness they just expect to come back and keep playing, and they don’t think about it too much. That’s a nice quality to have in a group of young men, and one that we’ll probably have to pull on in later games this year.”
On what needs to be stressed to build leads going forward instead of having to battle back:
“Well it’s not by design that we give them the lead, actually we gave up two power-play goals and they weren’t fancy goals, so we did a very good job of killing penalties tonight, blocked a lot of shots, had some good structure. The two goals they scored gave them the lead we were just sort of battling them in front and they ended up whacking them into the net. Our emphasis is to have a great start every game and we will continue to play. We were playing good enough to have a goal or two, but they got them before we did. Fortunately for us, our kids stiffened their backs up and came back again.”
On his team’s play building all weekend toward the third period of tonight’s game:
“I agree. I think the position that was a leading factor in that was a young goaltender named Joel Rumpel. I thought he was tentative in the first period, got a little better in the second and felt the puck a little bit more. I thought he was confident in the third period and that reflected our team.”
On the eight shots on goal from Mark Zengerle:
“He really ripped a couple too. Mark is a one-dimensional player if he doesn’t do that. His passing lanes are opened if he starts to shoot and score, and it’s been an emphasis. It’s nice to see that that’s moving in the right direction.”
On how he would contrast the way Justin Schultz played last night compared to tonight:
“The difference between tonight and last night, in my opinion, is the fact that he wore his frustrations on his sleeves last night. Tonight and this morning, we spoke about it and how he has a great desire to be successful and to be one of the leaders of this team, and when his frustration flows out you can tell and that effects everybody. So we talked about bottling that and to let the game unfold for him, and tonight it did.”
On the play of both goaltenders and whether or not one showed anything over the other:
“No I think we’re going to keep doing what we’re doing right now based on what we saw. Both played well enough to play again and gained experience. I think there’s a lot of value too as watching as a young freshman. Even the guys that sat out tonight and didn’t play last night I told, ‘Don’t just sit up in the stands and have popcorn and look around, but watch the game. You can learn from being up here so that when you’re down on the ice you’ve already seen the game happen from a higher level.’ I’m hoping Joel sitting on the benches last night saw what was coming and that helped him tonight. At this point right now I see both kids continuing to play”
Derek Lee, Justin Schultz and Michael Mersch
Michael on the heart-to-heart he had with coach Eaves the previous night:
“I think me, ‘Zangs’ and Barnes thought it was going to be easier than it was. We took it to heart, we talked about it last night and brought it over tonight. We knew it couldn’t get any worse and we took it from there and built on it.”
Justin on his three assists tonight:
“I’d credit that most to the players I was playing with. They made great plays. I made a simple play on one of them and didn’t do much on that goal. I think our team just went out tonight and battled when we were down and had some fun out there and got the win.”
Derek on what two big comebacks in the first two games does for the confidence of this young team:
“It just shows that we should never give up. We’re a young team and we have a lot to prove out there and we showed that. It builds confidence for our young guys, and our goalies didn’t quit on us and definitely kept us in the game.”
Michael on Zengerle’s eight shots on goal:
“He had eight shots on goal? Wow, that’s impressive. We’ve been emphasizing to him to shoot the puck more with me up front. Hopefully he keeps shooting and one of them bounces in one of these days.”
Derek on the team getting better as the game went on:
“It’s kind of like practice. As a group we’re getting better and becoming more comfortable with one another. We’re building on our systems and everything’s slowly kind of coming in to one another. We’ve got a young team, but everybody’s growing, including the older guys, so it’s been a big confidence booster this weekend.”
Justin on wearing his frustrations on his sleeve the previous night, but controlling them tonight:
“Last night I was maybe trying too hard and trying to do too much myself. Tonight I kind of relaxed. I know we have good players out there and I can rely on them to make plays and not have to do it all myself, and they made some good plays tonight.”
