Head Coach Scott Sandelin
Opening Comments
“First of all, congrats to David [Quinn] and BU. It was a great hockey game, just unfortunate the way it ended. Hats off to them…a lot of back and forth, zone time for both teams in certain situations but they made a play at the end, right at the end of the power play, won a hockey game…they’re moving on and we’re not.”
Penalty call near end of game
I was surprised [at the call]. There are things you can’t control, all we can control is trying to kill it, we almost did and they ended up making a great play and scoring the winning goal. It’s frustrating sometimes but just trying to get our guys focused on the penalty and we almost did. Tried to keep it 2-2, keep the game going…try to win in regulation or try to win it in overtime.
Game control in third
“We talked about the same thing. They came out and had probably a little more jump. It’s tough to generate anything when they were winning races and getting pucks to the net, which they do very well. We had some long, extended shifts. They only had two shots one time they had the puck a lot and sometimes you have to weather those. They’re a good hockey team with some offensive players and we knew that they were going to put pucks at the net all night and they came pretty hard in third. At the end of the day, it was still 2-2 and they had some chances and we had a few, not as many as in the first couple of periods just unfortunate it has to end on that.”
Willie Raskob’s play
“He went through some ups and downs this year but the second half and certainly the latter part of the year, he really played well and I think you saw a real strong weekend from him, things that he can do. He’s still young—he’s a sophomore, but he was a true freshman, it was nice to see. Next year he’s going to be a key component back there [on defense] like he was this year, but a year older.”
Kasimir Kaskisuo’s play
“I think he’s played great all year, he’s had a tremendous year for a freshman and he’s been a backbone for us. He made timely saves, key saves at a lot of moments in the year….you need great goaltending to win games and they got to steal games for you. Today was no different, he was just solid, it was nice to see him grow as the year went on. For me, it was just another game that he played well in.”
Eichel and Minnesota Duluth Defense “You can sit and focus on him…you have to pay attention on any team to the best players. He’s certainly a great hockey player that’s a threat any time he’s out there and our guys did a good job. Like every team there’s other players, that’s no different throughout the year, his linemates are good. I thought their fourth line had some good shifts, some good energy shifts with some good looks. It happens sometimes when they don’t get points but they’re still a factor in the game and he certainly is one of those players. Most of the times it might not seem like those guys are getting points but they are doing other things but they find a way to make that play….he’s a pretty special player.
Younger Players Experience (this weekend)
“When you start the year you have goals for your team—regular season, regular season championship, tournament championship and then the ultimate is to be one of the teams playing at this time of the year. We fell one step short of step three, which is getting to the Frozen Four. You can talk about all the experiences but they have to go to live this, for our seniors, this is the second time for them unfortunately it had to end this way just like it did when they were freshman but hopefully our young guys can get some experience knowing how hard it takes to is to get to this point, how hard it is to continue past this point…in one game shots they’re difficult.
You can’t control bounces, you can’t control those types of things but I think any of these experiences are good for all your players especially your young guys. Hopefully they come back extremely motivated and try to get here again and to try to go further, the ultimate goal is to win a national championship, we had a chance but we just fell a little short so they should take some good experience from it.”
Sophomore forwards Kyle Osterberg and Alex Iafallo
On how this experience will help next year
Osterberg: “It’s our first time coming to the tourney so it was a pretty special experience. Being still young, I think we can take out the experience and do it next year.”
On the senior leadership
Iafallo: “Our seniors had great leadership throughout the whole year. I’m proud of them and I want to thank them for the whole season. They showed us all the ways to score and to play hockey, so it was fun being with them.”
On the team’s offensive effort
Iafallo: “I thought we had a couple chances and we could have buried those. We could have had a couple bounces but that’s how hockey is. BU had a good game so you have to respect them. It’s a tough one to swallow, but that’s how it goes, I guess.”
On BU taking control late in the game
Iafallo: “I guess they just through everything at us but we held our ground. I thought it was going our way but they just kept throwing pucks on the net.”
On being a victim of tough breaks
Osterberg: “It’s things that we can’t control. We did what we had to throughout the game by playing the way that we should have. Give credit to BU for taking advantage of that opportunity.”
On if the close loss stings more than a blowout
Iafallo: Of course it stings. It’s not how you want to end a season. I didn’t expect that to happen.”
On if the team got the effort they wanted
Osterberg: “Yes, definitely. I thought everybody played their hearts out. The seniors got us ready for each and every game and I think it was shown on the ice that those guys were the ones that really carried the team throughout the weekend.”
Recent Comments