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POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES:
UMass Head coach Don “Toot” Cahoon
General comments about the game:
I don’t think anyone was disappointed with the intensity and the quality of the play. Both teams went toe-to-toe, with lots of scoring changes and lots of opportunity to break the game open. I congratulate UNH for how they played and how they scored the big goal at the big moment. And I’m proud of my guys for the way they competed and the way they executed, and hopefully we get a chance to continue to play in the future.
Speaking of the future, can you speak of your chances of getting into the NCAA Tournament?
I don’t know, since there’s always the unexpected. Quinnipiac won their game tonight, and if they win their tournament, if Wisconsin wins their tournament, it obviously reduces the odds. But if more of the seeded teams win out, I think we’re in pretty in good shape.
Was the team sort of shaking your head after the first overtime after all the chances you had?
I don’t think so; we were pretty positive. We felt that we were doing the things we needed to go to win. In the back of my mind I was thinking back to a couple of years ago when we played three overtimes against Maine and we came out of the first overtime empty and then Maine took it over. But I think we played with a lot more energy, we played a longer bench than in that Maine game, so I thought there was more energy. Sometimes the puck just takes bounces, and they didn’t take them for us tonight.
Comment about stopping the top two lines, but having their third and fourth lines getting all their goals.
I thought that we did a good job of eliminating the matchups that they wanted. I think they wanted (UNH’s Trevor] Smith’s line on [UMass’s Jordan] Virtue’s line, and so tried double-shifting people and trying to mix it up the best I could to eliminate the matchups that they wanted. In the end they scored three and we scored two. There was no abundance of scoring, and pucks are bound to go into the net sooner or later. What you want to call our third and fourth lines, they had good chances on their end as well. That’s just the way the hockey gods played it out.
Keys for the team to staying into the end
Skated pretty well and didn’t give up a lot of situational rushes. Not a loot of odd man rushed, and we hade a few on our end, …wasn’t a lot of penalties…tigher checking game, which gave us some of an advantage
Quick shaking this off?
He’s taking it pretty hard now, since you never want to give up the last goal of the game. By midnight tonight he’ll be thinking of other things and getting ready for the next game.
Special game?
I knew it was an entertaining game. I olooked up and saw the shots at 40 and 45, so there was lots of opportunities around the cage. I knew…people were’s getting cheated out of a top-notch hockey game.
Consolation game?
I’m not a big fan…we’ve played in games that have helped us and ones that have hurt us. If it’s not meaningful, it can be hard to make something out of the game. I’ve seen it from both sides… I like the idea of playing for the championship.
UMass Senior forward Chris Capraro
Does the prospect of having a pretty good chance of making the NCAAs take any of the sting out of the loss at all?
Capraro: …Hopefully it works out for us; that we get a chance to play more hockey.
Could you describe your goal?
Cory Quirk made a great play to look over his shoulder and throw it out the back. I saw him coming out and thought I’d help out. (Cahoon: Just an easy thing to do without the puck [laughing])
UNH Head coach Richard Umile
General comments about the game:
Obviously it was a terrific college hockey game. It was an evenly matched game, back-and-forth, and both goalies played tremendous. As a coach, I try to stay out of the way and let the players play. Both teams played extremely well and both goalies made some huge saves, obviously Kevin [Regan] made a huge save on [Will] Ortiz. The two teams really battled. We’re just excited to be playing in the championship game and congratulations to UMass – Don [Cahoon] has done a terrific job with his team and we knew we could have a terrific college hockey game coming in.
Commenting on the job that Regan did in net tonight.
Kevin has been the backbone of our team all season. We’ve had a successful season, and obviously tonight he made a couple of huge saves for us, and that’s what he’s done for us all season. He’s been very very consistent for us all season. He’s been determined to get back to this point, and with him in net we can have a lot of confidence.
Comment on how the third and fourth lines came through when the top two lines could not.
The third line played very well for us. Thomas Fortney wasn’t sure if he was going to play tonight, we’ve had a bit of a bug going through the team, and he really sucked it up for us. That line did a tremendous job. They’ve been a tenacious forechecking line, they can really move the puck. Danny Rossman found out today that he was going to play tonight, and he absolutely scored a huge goal for us. He’s a great kid, a local kid. But that’s why we’re a balanced team, we’ve been doing this all season.
UNH forward Bobby Butler
Bobby, could you describe your shot?
When it popped out there, I really couldn’t get everything on the shot. It kinda popped up my stick and I just chipped at it.
Bobby, comment on how the third and fourth lines chipped in.
It was good to see those lines chip in. Everyone comes to play, and if someone’s not having a good game you need the other lines to help out. Today that happened. Those guys have been there all year: first, second, third lines, everyone’s been working hard. But today the goals were just there for the third and fourth lines.
UNH goaltender Kevin Regan
Kevin, could you talk about your performance tonight, especially in light of what happened here last year against BU?
It was important for me to come out and have a good tournament personally. Tonight was one of those nights that we talked about all season long where we just battled and worked hard. When you see the team working hard, it makes you want to be that much more on your game.
Kevin, what was going through your head with Ortiz coming in alone?
Not a lot goes through your head. We did a good job back-checking the play, and I saw him slow down an little and so I thought shot. I just tried to stay aggressive and get big. He made a pretty good shot; I got lucky, it just kinda hit me.
Kevin, you saw a lot of shots in the Providence series. Does it help you to see more shots in a game or fewer shots?
It definitely is easier getting more shots, as crazy as that sounds. We did a good job of keeping everyone to the outside and not giving them many Grade A opportunities. When you do that, you can get a good feel for the puck and see it better. Sometimes it’s harder when you only see 20-25 shots and a couple scoring chances, as it’s hard to step up and make a big save.
