It's tough to find any weaknesses and probably even more difficult to expose those weaknesses if you find any. They are a team like every year in the WCHA, where the cream rises to the top. They've gotten strong play from all four of their classes, and they've got a good senior class that has given great leadership. |
No question, these games mean an awful lot to us. Minnesota, Colorado College and North Dakota, those are the three teams we finish with. I don't see any way we can sweep the table. But if we're able to get a win or two... |
One of the challenges we have is not allowing our team to look ahead. (Looking ahead) really takes your energy off what you really need to -focus on. We're too experienced to fall for that foolish way of looking at things. |
Our three teams the last three seasons have been remarkably different. We lost nearly half our team from last season, eight players, and we've had to become much more of a three-line team. |
Sometimes you have to send a message. |
Stripping the puck, blocking shots and making quick passes up ice are more the things he brought to our program. |
That opened some eyes and a sense of urgency took over. I don't think I'd define this as a great team, because we can still struggle at times, but we've improved quite a bit. |
They are special players. They have great stick skills, but will learn early how quick the game is and how strong the opposing players are. |
They couldn't score and didn't play as well defensively. But once he got healthy, the ship was righted and they were right back on course again. |
They don't have an abundance of ability to create offense but they skate well and defend very well. |
They have good depth in every class and they have good leadership in their senior class. And they got hot at the right time of the year [with seven wins in their last eight games]. |
Throughout the season, Matt's been able to play at a very high level. It's not often that a defenseman is able to be among the top scorers in the league. That tells you how gifted he is offensively. He also is our No. 1 guy matching up with other team's top line. He's extremely valuable to us. Out of all the teams we played, I don't recall seeing a defenseman on the ice better than Matt. |
We fought very hard to put ourselves in position to get the second seed, and to not be able to move on and prolong our postseason play is disappointing. Anytime you're eliminated before you want to, it's difficult. But with this team, it's especially difficult considering some of the great play we've seen from this team throughout the year. |
We knew their team was better than their record, yet I think perhaps as a team we did not give them the respect they were due. |
We never recovered after Minnesota's fast start. Our guys battled in the final period, but it was too late. We're a resilient group and we'll bounce back. |