Boston College Athletics
2010 NCAA Tournament Quotes - Boston College
March 27, 2010 | Men's Hockey
March 27, 2010
Head Coach Jerry York, Freshman Forward Pat Mullane, Senior Forward Matt Price
Synopsis of the game:
York: "I'm awfully excited to be advancing. I think this is a special time in the lives for coaches, players that chase trophies. This is our first step in the NCAAs. Our team was in a terrific battle tonight. We knew Alaska was good but didn't realize just how good a player Knelsen was. He is as good a player as we've played against all year. We've played teams from all over the country, so he's very very impressive. I think Alaska and Dallas have to be very pleased that this is their first tournament action. They played us so well, the game could have certainly gone either direction. After two periods, I thought we got aggressive. Good offensive play or shots from the point, redirections was our second goal. I've never been in an NCAA Tournament where the games aren't difficult, where they're hard to advance. Again, credit to Alaska. I know a lot of people in this area don't know much about them. Like I've said, I've had a chance to play at Fairbanks a number of different times, and they've got a really good culture up there... Die hard hockey fans. They play in a really good arena. They'll be back on the national stage the way Dallas is recruiting, way he's coaching. I thought Matty Price had another real solid game, his line with Matt Lombardi, and they (are) just really doing special things on the ice as we go through the season."
On the victory:
Mullane: "Any team that is going to make a push here in college hockey is going to need everyone to step up, and everyone is going to play a different role every night. Sometimes your checkers are going to score, and that's something you need. The more guys you have going the better off we are going to be, and I think we've seen that in the last couple games and it has contributed to our success."
On the teams reaction to Alaska's goal:
Mullane: "As a team we didn't get frustrated or down. It was a tough goal to give up late. We had fought off a lot of penalties and we were pretty close to fighting off that last one. There was never a sense of defeat on our bench and I feel that we came into the locker room in the second period and kind of regrouped."
On the team's reaction to last season:
Price: "With this program you always expect to be in the national tournament and you expect to do well. We set our goals high on purpose and after that game every guy in that locker room that was coming back the next year and the freshman coming in found that out real quick that this is where our goals are, and that's where those expectations were... Guys were focused. You could see everyone was a little bit hungrier. Everyone wanted to be back here. I think throughout the entire year guys were taking it one game at a time, but building towards getting to this tournament."
On goalie John Muse:
Price: "I think he has been playing phenomenal lately and you need that... And you can sense that on the bench sometimes. A huge save can pick up your bench real quick and turn that momentum the other way, and I think he's definitely been doing that a lot as of late. He's a huge part of our team and he has been playing phenomenally."
On the penalty kill:
Price: "I think as a whole the penalty kill did a pretty good job today... But I think we did a pretty good job and had some pretty good pressure on them up ice. We made them make plays, which is what we want to do, and not give them too much time and space. We have to keep that up, keep working hard, and try and out work them out there."
Did you know what a Nanook was?
York: "I think we do follow college hockey. They have a youtube, their introduction. A polar bear taking out campuses and battles. I tried to show my grandson, he started crying."
How optimistic were you coming into this season?
York: "I knew we had an excellent freshman class coming in. Our current players were capable of cohesion. Especially with defense"
On John Muse:
York: "I thought he was exceptionally strong tonight, certainly if I were to pick one reason why we're advancing, it's the play of John Muse"
On the play of the fourth line:
York: "My wife always asks me why people say there's a fourth line. We really do play a lot of lines and sometimes we mix and match. The heart of the line plays more often."
On Alaska-Fairbanks' poise:
York: "I thought they matched us. I don't think there's any stage fright in their players. I thought they were very good. We feel very fortunate that we are moving on. It took a pretty good effort to get by Alaska."
Alaska Quotes
Head Coach Dallas Ferguson, Senior Forward Dion Knelsen, Senior Forward Kevin Petovello, Freshman Forward Andy Taranto
Opening statement:
Ferguson: "Well first of all I just want to congratulate Boston College. I thought they played a great game. Obviously they are a real good hockey team. So congratulations goes out to them... Obviously I think the game from our standpoint was kind of where we wanted it to be. We didn't want to be 7-6, 8-6, that type of game. But the first period I thought we were a little bit nervous. A little bit, I wouldn't say rusty, but to jump into that pace and be down 1-0, on a short handed goal... The guys responded. The penalty kill was good in the second period. Our power play got on the board to make it 1-1. And if you were to ask me six, seven months ago to be 1-1 going into the third period here in a regional I would have took it. So I think our team came out and we had some chances. (Boston College) got that second goal on the line change, we were just a second off and the puck found a way into the back of the net. I thought again we responded, like we have all year, we never quit and we had a few chances of our own at the end. Obviously it wasn't enough. I was real proud of the way our team competed for our first time being in the tournament, how they handled themselves in this environment. So I was real proud of our team not only this week but all season long. They are just a great group of kids they work hard and they are very proud to put that jersey on every night... I'm real proud of them and obviously (we have) a lot to build off of from this year."
On the first goal:
Taranto: "It was a relief to get that first goal to get it going; great save by Dion, Joel, and Kevin. Were working the puck around, cycling, and getting chances. It was a great play by Dion to take it to the net and the puck bounced right up to me and I finally got one in."
On goalie John Muse:
Taranto: "Yeah, he played fantastic tonight. He had a great save on me; it was the second chance on the power play there. He's a hard working guy and you can tell that he has had a lot of experience in net and his "D" core did a good job getting in front of him."
On the last five minutes:
Knelsen: "There is no quit in our locker room and I think all the lines that were going out there at that point were getting chances, Salger hit the post, two other chances close to the net. This how we score goals, we get pucks to the net and unfortunately they wouldn't go in for us today.
On the tournament experience:
Petovello: "I think it's just something we've had in our locker room all year. We're a confident group, we haven't made it to many levels were you get lots of recognition yet. But we have many guys with a lot of heart and we know where we can be and what we can do. It's just kind of been something that we've built all year. We've won a couple tournaments at the start of the year, the Governor's Cup against Anchorage. Just kind of built up a lot of tight games with a lot of top teams in our conference. We lost to Northern, that was kind of tough. But I think it was almost one of those things where you take it for granted and get the second opportunity and we great heat from practice and guys were excited. We knew second chances didn't come often so we went prepared coming into this week and wanted to make the best of it, guys leaving it on the line tonight. We didn't just get it done.
On whether on not the team was nervous going into the game:
Knelsen: "I don't know, I think obviously we haven't played a game in two weeks and it's a pretty big stage and we've never been here before. I think we had a little bit of nerves. Overall I thought after the first goal, we realized it was just another hockey game. I thought we were able to calm down and start playing our game a little bit better as the game went on.
On slowing down Boston College's speed:
Petovello: "We just wanted to get on their game as quickly as we could. Prevent them from transitioning the puck. Obviously something we do all year, a big thing in our locker room is controlling the middle of the ice. We wanted to keep them to the outside as much as possible. Obviously have a strong back check as they have their transition game going, we need to be back to help our "D" out, and for the most part it worked out pretty well."
On Boston College:
Ferguson: "One of the questions you get asked obviously when they are ranked where they are and the success they've had is 'How are you going to do it?' We try to deflect that stuff and tried to focus in on what we need to do to be successful. I think you can beat yourself before you even drop the puck if you think that way. We've got to believe that you're going to be able to do the job and get out there and compete. If you don't then you are not going to be successful or even have a chance to be successful. Just having belief in what we are doing on how we need to do things. I think our guys went out and did what they needed to do they had a chance to win. Tonight they didn't go in for us."
On the tournament experience:
Ferguson: "I think when you have been there before... It differs from the first year to the second year... There's a little bit more sense of knowing how things are going to work. Truthfully I don't know how much of it is on the ice. All these guys have been in big games somewhere along their careers and I think its half managing the format and getting here, the things you need to be doing and not letting that stuff play into it... The ice sheet's the same size and everyone puts their skates on the same way. It's about going out and executing your game plan and not getting distracted by all the other stuff... Hopefully we get the opportunity again next year. It will pay off for us, getting to where we need to go and we can put that much more into our performance."
On Scott Greenham:
Ferguson: "Scottie was good all night. For most of the season he's been like that. He stops all the ones he's supposed to and a couple he's not supposed to... He's a quality goaltender... You don't see him getting panicked, and that's one thing we like in our goaltender. There is a subtle ease to him when he's making big saves. He obviously did his job tonight and gave us a chance to win."
