Men's Hockey

Postgame Quotes: Wisconsin vs. North Dakota

Men's Hockey

Postgame Quotes: Wisconsin vs. North Dakota

Nov. 8, 2014

Recap |  Final Stats |  Photo Gallery 

POSTGAME QUOTES
North Dakota 5, Wisconsin 1 
Kohl Center - Madison, Wis.

HEAD COACH Mike Eaves

On the offenses' solid play in the second period:
"It started by having our feet moving and being able to put pressure on them and not allowing them to have the time and space to make the plays that they wanted to. So that was a key factor, and you're right, it could've been a turning point in the game and if we converted on some of the chances we made --we had some dandies--and their goalies came up with big saves. We put the puck on net but we needed to elevate them a little bit more. We moved our feet and took their time and space away so that allowed us to have more offense in the second period."

On if the own-goal by Chase Drake deflated the team:
"I would say more so on the fourth goal [deflated our team.] I felt like that on the bench, it's still 3-1, there's a half a period to go. [Corbin] McGuire had a chance to tie it up there but it bounced over this stick. People will look at that score and say "oh they got spanked." We were a better team tonight.  We were closer to earning that victory for two and a half periods and we put one in [for them] and [the next one] it hits Jack's [Dougherty] stick and goes over Rump's shoulder. At that point, we were working it hard on the bench and telling the guys that now we need three shots to tie it up, so it was the fourth goal I thought."

On he said to Drake after scoring the own-goal:
"Work through it. He lived through John Ramage's three or four goals on [his own] net so he's seen it before."

On Joel Rumpel's play tonight:
"You know, at times I thought he made good saves. One comment that I talked to some people about was I think his rebound control was off a little. We'll look at the video, but he did make some good saves. The first goal was a rocket over his shoulder. Should he have stood up and taken that one? Yeah. Even Chase's goal, it hit his glove and dropped when he was trying to clear it. The fourth goal, it looked like it hit Jack's stick and hit right over his shoulder. A tough night for Rumpz a little bit, but we'll take a look at the tape and see how the rebound was."

On if the team is sick of losing:
"Yeah, nobody likes to lose. I think the comments after the game were, there was a sense of frustration which is good. As a competitive person, you don't like to lose. Walking out of the locker room, things we mentioned earlier, our penalty killing was better, our power-play gave us energy. We created more offense, we were closer to earning that victory than last night so that's the building block we leave with tonight. We go back to work with that on Monday and I said, "come back with that in your hip pocket knowing that we're moving forward."

On if he thought they deserved the win tonight:
"For two and a half periods, yes. Sometimes, one of the branches breaks off and that's what happened tonight in the last 10 minutes."

On is Kevin Schulze was on the ice the entire five minute power-play:
"He might've been. I was telling Brian Posick that Jim Snider had our guys do a Max VO2 test on the treadmill and I think he was in the low 70's which is a long-distance runner or a cross country skier, so he has the capacity to work for long periods of time and recover. Sometimes as a defenseman, you're not running around and you can recover. He's such an efficient skater that he doesn't have to work as hard as Aiden Cavallini has to work. Yeah, he very well might've."

On Schulze's defensive play tonight:
"He's playing really well. He's a leader on the defense and he has to be. We had four freshmen out there today. He's playing at a high level, playing a lot of minutes and he probably deserves Monday off as well."


Sophomore F Grant Besse
On having a good second period, but not being able to even it at 2-2 going in to the third period:
"Honestly it's frustrating. We had good chances. I believe we outplayed them in the second period. Outshot them, didn't give up too many shots, so it's frustrating but we knew we gave ourselves a chance in the third but weren't able to follow through with that."

On if the third goal took the wind out of the team:
"Maybe a little bit. You're only down one then you go down two, obviously there's a little bit of deflating there but we still knew we had a chance.  A lot of people say two goals is the worst thing in hockey, but if we get one back and [inaudible] some shifts, but we weren't able to get that one. We had some chances. One right off the top of my head is Corbin (McGuire) had that one right in front of the net, so it wasn't for lack of effort. We didn't get a few bounces."

Senior G Joel Rumpel
On if the team is discouraged:
"It's obviously tough when you start 0-6, but we took a lot of big steps this weekend. They're the number two team in the country and we were tied, beating them and down by one. Both games we went into the third, so obviously we can tell that we're getting better, so I wouldn't call it discouragement, but more like improvement."

Senior D Chase Drake
On how he handles the third period:
"We're all frustrated, but we have experience with this. We can look back from two years ago when we started off 1-7-2 and learn from our mistakes from then. They're pretty similar now. We have to keep getting better. We progressed, now just have to be able to play a full 60 minutes. We had two big periods again tonight, and just fell short again in the third, let momentum swing toward the end."

On what happened on North Dakota's third goal at 10:23 in the third period:
"The guy shot it on net, and I was just trying to clear it and (Joel Rumpel) was trying to save it. I should have let him have it, and I ended up getting my stick caught in his glove and pushed it in myself."

On if it was miscommunication or just a mistake:
"I think it was just a mistake on my part, I should have known to let (Joel Rumpel) take that. It's his puck and he can see everything in front of him, while I had my back turned so it was my responsibility and I take blame on that one."
Joel Rumpel: "It was a miscommunication. It's on both of us."

On going up against North Dakota's solid goaltender Zane McInyre:
"Goalies like that are frustrating. You have to be able to take their eyes away when they're playing so good. When they see the puck they're going to pretty much stop it all the time unless you can pick a weak spot on them. But he really didn't have any this weekend. Most of our goals came on screen shots, so goalies like that you've got to be able to take their eyes away and get rebounds on them."

Print Friendly Version