One more to go. We came here to win a championship. |
That first year was the toughest year of hockey I'd ever been through. |
The boys will win another one. I think the guys are going to be the first ones to win three (in a row). |
The guys are excited. We know it's going to be a red-and-white filled building. People are going to be screaming for Wisconsin, so it's going to be an exciting atmosphere. |
The guys in the dressing room feel as good as they have all year. The confidence is there and we feel we deserve to be here. And we're 60 minutes away from a championship. And if we do all those little things, we give ourselves a good chance. We're obviously playing for the biggest title in hockey. We're excited and we're looking forward to it. |
The last couple weeks here, guys have been excited. Guys have been rejuvenated. They want to practice. They want to be around each other. You can't ask for anything more this time of year. |
The promise was I was going to do a Lambeau Leap into the glass, but I got so wrapped up in the moment, I didn't know what I was doing out there. |
They talk their trash, they come out there and they back it up. They're in your face the whole game. They don't back off for one second. They're tough, they're physical, they have skill. I can tell right now why that team's won two national championships. |
They're going to support us and that place is going to be packed every night, I'm sure of it. They're going to be loud, they're going to be screaming. It's going to be a mini-Kohl Center feeling that we're going to have. |
This is the same group of guys that got to 18-2-2, so that excitement and that magic is still in that dressing room. The feeling we have now is, 'Hey, we're back to where we were, if not better, the way we've been playing.' To still be able to score goals while at the same time not allowing these guys to score anything, you feel awesome. |
This is the ultimate stage in college hockey and we're excited. I don't feel any pressure. I don't think these guys feel any extra pressure, it's more of an excitement. We've been saying we couldn't wait for this time to come. |
Those guys said our attitude was, we were going to win this junior championship. So now you can put that energy into this - we're going to win this Showdown. That's what we're going to do. Put your mind to it and that's it. No other way about it. |
To go through that, to build the character that us five seniors have and kind of formed us who we are today, I wouldn't change a thing. I'd have that first year the same way so I could end up just like this year. |
To me, he has been the best player all year. Will it hurt him getting injured? I don't know, but as far as I'm concerned his statistics speak for themselves. In his position, he has blown everybody away. He's as deserving as anybody in the country, I think. |
To score a goal early always helps, especially in a big game like this, to settle guys down. |