Final Stats Postgame Quotes Wisconsin vs. Minnesota
Jan. 30, 2015
Kohl Center- Madison, Wis.
Head Coach Mike Eaves
On the mistakes made in the defensive coverage:
"Well, it was one minute and forty seconds that kind of deflated the game for us. If we can take that minute and forty seconds back, it would have been a different outcome. In each case of those four goals in the second period it was a breakdown of a freshmen, and three out of the four were getting beat back to the net. It's something we've certainly worked on in practice, and we have to have the ability to do that in a game situation. We obviously haven't proven it there."
On Joel Rumpel's confidence:
"This is a young guy that when he is in opposing rinks and people start singing to him, he starts bobbing and weaving with them. I think he's got a really neat ability of letting things go."
On Ryan Wagner's performance on the top line: "There was a good element that he brought to that line. He's different than
Adam Rockwood. If you're looking for more offense and puck handling, Adam brings that to the group. But there was a little bit more stability, and I thought he looked good on the ice. I was encouraged, and we stayed with it. I think we'll look at that again tomorrow night."
On the silver linings from tonight's game: "We had 58 minutes and 20 seconds of silver linings. The penalty killing did a really nice job, although they scored twice on three chances. The first one I don't think Rumpz got his foot in the right place and it was a bad-angle goal, and the second goal actually hit a shin pad and bounced to the open man on the side net. But our spacing was good and their zone entry was under contest. So we did a couple of good things there. We scored power-play goals. We generated 32 shots, and those are all positives. For a large part of the game when we were playing well we were protecting the puck. We played more in their zone than we did in Minnesota. Those are all little silver linings things that we have to build on."
On whether he has to build up the confidence of his players at this point in the season: "We had a little chat, and we asked the team the question of how they feel right now. They're frustrated and they recognize the mistakes. They have this resolve in their voices, and right now they have to put these things into the games. We do them all week, but they have to do these things in games to give us a chance to win and we're not doing that yet."
On whether the team felt safer with the lead tonight than they did against Michigan: "In comparison to the lead we had last Friday night, I thought we were better. We were better, but then that minute and forty seconds happened. It just snapped on us. Going into that point, in our own zone, I thought we were much better. It was like somebody turned the light off for a minute and forty seconds, and we had no clue what our brain was doing."
On his message to the team during the timeout in the second period:
"I didn't say a word. I kneeled down behind, and the guys took over. That's what we were hoping they would do, and there was no hesitation by the older guys to say 'We just need to collectively get our breath'."
Wisconsin Players
Chase Drake
On Coach Mike Eaves' statement-"it was like somebody turned the light off for a minute and 46 seconds and we had no clue what our brain was doing":
"I'd say that's pretty accurate. We stuck to our game plan all the way up to that point, and then it just seemed like we got away from it. (We) let guys beat us back to the net, didn't make hard plays, and they capitalized on it seemed like every mistake that we had in that stretch."
On if they felt more confident with their early lead than they did last Friday against Michigan:
"Yeah, absolutely. I think with this happening before, we were a little bit more confident in that, and I think the results show that we weren't tonight."
On what was said by the players during the timeout in the second period:
"That was actually Matt Paape, one of the seniors. He pulled everyone in, and he was really calm about it. He was pretty expressionless on his face and just tried to calm everybody down and just tell them that we need to get back to our game plan and get pucks deep and get more physical, and if we're not, it's just going to be the same things happening. I thought he did a really good job."
Joel Rumpel
On his confidence after tonight's game:
"I don't know. It's obviously tough letting in seven, but I was battling as hard as I could. I was inches away from making three of them. I think three of them hit me but still went in. Obviously it's unfortunate but it happens some games I guess."
Grant Besse
On what the team needs to do to be successful:
"My personal opinion is probably, when we have a lead we've showed that we get a little too excited and forget our game plan. I think if we learn to stay focused throughout the rest of the game then we'll be fine."
