Speaker 1: So I gotta play the state championship le over again.
Speaker 2: Huh yeah, yep.
Speaker 3: If I imagine, it makes it easier to prepare for
Speaker 3: familiar opponent like you can play every year.
Speaker 4: Uh yeah, no question, We're familiar with their team. So
Speaker 4: from that standpoint, Yeah, it's not like we're, you know,
Speaker 4: looking at a team we haven't seen all year long,
Speaker 4: so uh and we've played them year in, year out.
Speaker 4: So yeah, from that standpoint, it's nice to have some
Speaker 4: familiarity with the opponent.
Speaker 5: It's a little I don't know if ironic's the right word,
Speaker 5: but the NCAA tournament's all about you play different teams,
Speaker 5: teams you haven't seen before, and then it's Quinnipiac in
Speaker 5: there instead of just some.
Speaker 1: Out West team that maybe you don't see as often.
Speaker 4: If you had told me in the beginning of the
Speaker 4: year you're going to make the NCAA tournament, you have
Speaker 4: to play Quinnipiac in the first round, I would have
Speaker 4: said done.
Speaker 2: It's like it doesn't matter who we play.
Speaker 4: Like, we're in the tournament, right and Quinnipiac's in the tournament,
Speaker 4: So you know, you have to prepare at any point
Speaker 4: you're gonna have to you're playing great teams that when
Speaker 4: you have sixteen teams, they're all really good and anybody
Speaker 4: can beat anybody.
Speaker 2: And you've seen it over the years, and.
Speaker 4: You know, I've coached some really good teams in that
Speaker 4: tournament and we've lost games as a top seed to
Speaker 4: an opponent who on paper might not be as good,
Speaker 4: but in a one game, you know, win or take all,
Speaker 4: anything can happen.
Speaker 1: How about half the field being from New.
Speaker 4: England, Yeah, I mean that's well, just our league was
Speaker 4: so strong this year, you know, of the basically all
Speaker 4: six teams were in the tournament before the Hockeyas tournament
Speaker 4: even started. So that's how strong the league was this year.
Speaker 4: I've never seen it before.
Speaker 3: Does the weekend in Boston help prepare you for the
Speaker 3: NCAA's just the atmosphere.
Speaker 4: No question that that game Friday night against Maine was
Speaker 4: that was a frozen four type atmosphere. That game, you know,
Speaker 4: seventeen thousand people, It was loud and there was so
Speaker 4: much energy in that building.
Speaker 2: That's exactly what a frozen four is like.
Speaker 3: Did your younger guys send did you send any nerves
Speaker 3: for your younger guys in that game Friday night? Or
Speaker 3: does Maine get all the credit for playing really well.
Speaker 2: I think Maine played really well.
Speaker 4: I have to give them a lot of credit. I
Speaker 4: thought they've played well and they deserve to win. But
Speaker 4: it was a game that I think we can learn
Speaker 4: from as well.
Speaker 5: You knew you were going to be in the field,
Speaker 5: But what's the feeling when you finally see your name
Speaker 5: come up for the first time in the twelve years
Speaker 5: that you've been here, but even just for the first
Speaker 5: time ever.
Speaker 2: For the school.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that's a good question because you're so excited. I
Speaker 4: don't know if relieve there's a type of the word
Speaker 4: I want, but it's something that we've been striving for
Speaker 4: for a while, and we were pretty close that COVID year,
Speaker 4: you know, and then a couple of years we were sixteen,
Speaker 4: and you're just outside of it. To finally get over
Speaker 4: the hump, that's great, and it's a feeling of accomplishment maybe,
Speaker 4: and then you switch to you know right away and
Speaker 4: be like, we got to prepare for a game here,
Speaker 4: like this is going to.
Speaker 2: Be a battle.
Speaker 4: So that feeling of excitement immediately shifts and goes to
Speaker 4: we have.
Speaker 2: Some work to do here.
Speaker 4: So but overall, I'm really happy, especially for Hudson and
Speaker 4: John who came back for a fifty year and you know,
Speaker 4: no matter what happens, they'll go down as two of
Speaker 4: the great Huskies for sure.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Buddy, you expect them to play.
Speaker 2: You think? I hope? So, yeah, I hope. So we'll
Speaker 2: see as the week goes.
Speaker 4: But he's doing everything in his power to try to
Speaker 4: play on Friday night.
Speaker 3: If the scenario were different where you would had to
Speaker 3: win to get in, could he have played last weekend?
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: Maybe maybe the players are just built that way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, maybe it might have been different.
Speaker 5: Is there ever a moment that you think back to
Speaker 5: since you've been here that kind of reminds you of
Speaker 5: how far you've come since those early days?
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was funny this today. I was just looking at.
Speaker 4: Different teams that have won the National Tournament, like Providence,
Speaker 4: you know, when they got in, and I think they
Speaker 4: were they were definitely a four seed because they played Miami,
Speaker 4: who was number one at the time, and Yale.
Speaker 2: But as I was.
Speaker 4: Looking at the Providence I was going through their schedule
Speaker 4: that year and I looked when they played US and
Speaker 4: it was ten to one, and I remember that game
Speaker 4: distinctly at Providence and we lost ten to one. And
Speaker 4: to think now, like how far we've come as a
Speaker 4: pro yeah, kind of, you know, it was it was
Speaker 4: this morning that kind of I don't know if triggered
Speaker 4: is the right word, but it made me realize how
Speaker 4: far we've come as.
Speaker 5: A program because you didn't have scholarships your first year
Speaker 5: here that Atlantic Hockey aer right, it was once you
Speaker 5: got into Hockey East.
Speaker 4: Those game they we weren't fully funded until Derek Pratt
Speaker 4: and that class was we're seniors and we lost to
Speaker 4: bu one game in overtime. Those the best of three,
Speaker 4: one game in overtime, and I think the second one
Speaker 4: was two to one, and we played great yeah games,
Speaker 4: but that was the first year we were fully funded
Speaker 4: where we had eighteen scholarships in the league.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: B Carpenter killed you guys, Sink.
Speaker 5: You have talked about you being an important leader for
Speaker 5: this team because he's been to the NCAA tournament. How
Speaker 5: does that now manifest itself now that you guys are
Speaker 5: in it.
Speaker 4: Well, I think I think you know, he can definitely
Speaker 4: talk about his experiences, you know, and I've been him
Speaker 4: a lot too, so I kind of understand how it works.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 4: The one interesting thing where I haven't been involved is
Speaker 4: the regionals where you have a day off in between. Now,
Speaker 4: we never used to have the day off in between,
Speaker 4: and that'll be something different. I mean the Frozen four
Speaker 4: was always a day off in between, so be able
Speaker 4: to manage it. But it's certainly something different than in
Speaker 4: year's past with the regionals.
Speaker 2: But other than that, I just know that.
Speaker 4: Like every game, you know, I tried to tell the team,
Speaker 4: every game is going to be like Friday night versus Maine,
Speaker 4: Like that's the type of intensity you have to prepare
Speaker 4: for when you're playing in a national tournament game.
Speaker 1: Yeah, did you notice the level of play go open nottch.
Speaker 3: I mean even the Providence game, like to me, out
Speaker 3: of the regular season, like every weekend was a grind,
Speaker 3: you know, you know we talked about that, but then
Speaker 3: it goes up a notch for every round.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean when.
Speaker 4: You know the thing about this tournament is, you know,
Speaker 4: the hardest thing I think to do in hockey is
Speaker 4: take another team sticks away. And these games someone sticks
Speaker 4: are going away, and you know when that's on the line,
Speaker 4: that the intensity just.
Speaker 2: You know, ratchets up to a level that you have
Speaker 2: to be ready for. And I think.
Speaker 4: Fortunately for us, you know, we've played Providence be all
Speaker 4: the games we played in the Hockey East Tournament were
Speaker 4: really intense battles, and I think that's can only help
Speaker 4: your team as you go into.
Speaker 2: A national tournament.
Speaker 5: Quinnipix been there plenty of times, especially recently. Do you
Speaker 5: think it could be a almost benefit for you guys
Speaker 5: that you haven't been there and maybe you don't know
Speaker 5: what you don't know?
Speaker 2: I don't know. I think.
Speaker 4: I think really what it comes down to is who
Speaker 4: executes and who plays the best on game night. I
Speaker 4: don't think you know all the experience in the world.
Speaker 4: Like the year Providence won it, I don't think they
Speaker 4: had been there in a long time.
Speaker 2: I'm not sure they got there in fourteen.
Speaker 4: I'd have to look at that, but I think that
Speaker 4: was their first time there in a long time in fifteen.
Speaker 4: And is that the Garden, Yeah, they might have been
Speaker 4: in the year before. I'm not sure, but you know,
Speaker 4: Yale had never gone for a long time, and you
Speaker 4: know they performed really well. So I just think it's
Speaker 4: it really comes down to It's not so much experience.
Speaker 4: It's not what's happened in the past. That's like our
Speaker 4: game with Quinnipiac back in January is gonna have zero.
Speaker 2: Influence on the game we play Friday night. It's not
Speaker 2: gonna have any It's not gonna have any factor in
Speaker 2: the game.
Speaker 4: It's just gonna be which team plays the best and
Speaker 4: executes that'll be successful.
Speaker 1: Had you heard from some of your alums alum.
Speaker 2: Oh a lot of them, Yeah, a lot of them.
Speaker 4: There were a lot of them were in Boston for
Speaker 4: the games, and I heard from Maxiltunov and Russia and
Speaker 4: card Turnbull wherever he is in Europe, reached out, like
Speaker 4: Spencer Naz who's in Europe. So there's a lot of
Speaker 4: guys that you know, follow the program intently and still
Speaker 4: bleed blue.
Speaker 5: You kind of mentioned it earlier, but the COVID year,
Speaker 5: the twenty twenty one, you guys were practicing after you
Speaker 5: lost to Providence, hoping that you could get in. Just
Speaker 5: what do you remember from that preparation and then the
Speaker 5: disappointment of not being in the field.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I was disappointing that day. It was over in
Speaker 4: the freights. I remember watching it. I really thought we
Speaker 4: had a chance to be in it because it was
Speaker 4: a crazy year. But our strength of schedule I think
Speaker 4: was we played I think that year we played BC
Speaker 4: four or five times.
Speaker 2: Four times.
Speaker 4: Yeah, like the teams that you mess won it. So
Speaker 4: two of the top teams in our league we played
Speaker 4: eight times or nine times, I can't remember what it was.
Speaker 4: And I thought that that was going to factor into
Speaker 4: it because that year wasn't so much on the numbers
Speaker 4: as it was. There was some subjective I think to it.
Speaker 4: So it was disappointing we didn't get in that year.
Speaker 4: But I think Hudson and John were a freshman that year.
Speaker 4: So to see them sit here today and know that
Speaker 4: they were in it and not have to sweat it out,
Speaker 4: that was pretty good.
Speaker 1: Speaking of Honey, I think it was after the guest
Speaker 1: U mess that summer you had lunch with them, I
Speaker 1: guess out in Vancouver. Yeah, and the want to do
Speaker 1: it again, the hunger to do it again, and you.
Speaker 4: Are yeah, it is well, it tells you a lot
Speaker 4: about him as a kid.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know. And I don't know if I can
Speaker 2: say it enough, but.
Speaker 4: Loyalty were just talking about it earlier in today's college
Speaker 4: athletics loyalties a hard thing to find, and the fact
Speaker 4: that those two stayed loyal when it wasn't the most
Speaker 4: opportune time to stay loyal. It's one thing. If your
Speaker 4: team's going to frozen fours year in and year out,
Speaker 4: you know, am I going to transfer from that program?
Speaker 2: Probably not.
Speaker 4: But when your team had a season like we did
Speaker 4: last year, where we felt we underachieved and everybody's flying
Speaker 4: the coop, you know, it's very easy to leave. But
Speaker 4: that loyalty, you know, I'll never forget it and I'll
Speaker 4: always remember it, and I just I think it's really
Speaker 4: special when you have players like that that believe.
Speaker 2: In a place so much and then they see them
Speaker 2: get rewarded like they have.
Speaker 3: I think a last game that I did the first
Speaker 3: half was the first Merrimac game that was a tough weekend,
Speaker 3: and then the comeback and rally and beat BC the
Speaker 3: next weekend. Yeah, you had, you saw the pieces there,
Speaker 3: but could you could sort of a big turning point
Speaker 3: for this team when they beat BC, got some confidence
Speaker 3: after a tough weekend the weekend before, and then you know,
Speaker 3: you get to the Christmas break and it's like you're
Speaker 3: wondering because I hadn't been around it. I think I
Speaker 3: saw eighteenth in the pairwise and everything was sitting in
Speaker 3: front of him.
Speaker 2: If you want to see it January first, it's right there.
Speaker 3: But I remember Christmas, I mean, getting getting ramped up
Speaker 3: again thinking for hockey. For you guys going to Wisconsin,
Speaker 3: it's like you look at the skuns like okay, everything
Speaker 3: in front of you, and then you just ripped it off.
Speaker 4: In January, well, at Merrimack weekend, we came off you know,
Speaker 4: a weekend against Vermont where we lost one in overtime
Speaker 4: and uh won one in overtime.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then uh.
Speaker 4: That you know, we played without and then Jake Richard
Speaker 4: got hurt in that game at home, so he we
Speaker 4: didn't have him for the Merrimack series.
Speaker 2: And yeah, we didn't.
Speaker 4: We didn't play well that weekend, you know. Right that
Speaker 4: being said, I think it did somewhat motivate us to.
Speaker 2: Was.
Speaker 4: I don't know if i'd say it was a turning point,
Speaker 4: but we had a great week of practice before BC
Speaker 4: and then we played BC here and while the game
Speaker 4: was five to four, it really wasn't that type of game.
Speaker 4: I thought that we might have been one of our
Speaker 4: best games of the year. It was a game we
Speaker 4: should have deserved to win against BC. It wasn't a
Speaker 4: fluke win where a goaltender had to make a million saves.
Speaker 4: We played really well on that game, and then we
Speaker 4: came back and Lowell was tenth or eleventh in the
Speaker 4: country at the time, maybe.
Speaker 1: Even higher, and that's what Callum started playing.
Speaker 4: And musically got hurt in that VC game in Callum
Speaker 4: came back and we played great that weekend at Lowell
Speaker 4: and beat him the first night and then lost one
Speaker 4: nothing just you know, Halas played dynamite that night and
Speaker 4: it came back and played a great game against BC
Speaker 4: and lose it in overtime, where a game we could
Speaker 4: have won that game too. So I think that was
Speaker 4: the point where the team realized we have a really
Speaker 4: good team. And when we came back from break, I
Speaker 4: thought we played dynamite. I do you know, even that
Speaker 4: tournament in Wisconsin, we played a really strong game, you know,
Speaker 4: being down to nothing coming back tigh in that game,
Speaker 4: and I thought we played really well in against Wisconsin
Speaker 4: and from that point on, you know, New Hampshire was
Speaker 4: highly ranked when we played them, had to go to
Speaker 4: Maine for two then the Connecticut Ice Tournament and then Providence,
Speaker 4: like it was a murderer's role that we had to play,
Speaker 4: and we got through it and played really well, and
Speaker 4: I think our team started to believe then that we
Speaker 4: have a chance to be an NCAA tournament team.
Speaker 5: Kind of to that point when you stepped on the
Speaker 5: ice the first time with this team back in September,
Speaker 5: You've always talked about getting to the New National Tournament
Speaker 5: as a goal. Did you think this was actually a
Speaker 5: legitimate goal for the season, that it was realistic?
Speaker 2: Yes, I did. I did.
Speaker 4: The only question mark I had, well, I shouldn't say
Speaker 4: the only question mark, but we had two goaltenders coming
Speaker 4: in that I wasn't very familiar with. I liked them both,
Speaker 4: but you're not familiar with them. It wasn't like we
Speaker 4: had Jacob Fowler coming back, or you know, we had
Speaker 4: two new goaltenders coming in.
Speaker 2: So that was an area where.
Speaker 4: You know, I didn't know, I didn't really have a
Speaker 4: strong feeling one way or the other where we were
Speaker 4: going to be there. We certainly had a lot of
Speaker 4: new defensemen coming in. You know, John and Thomas Sinio
Speaker 4: were the only ones coming back that had played substantial.
Speaker 2: Amount of minutes for us SO that was an area.
Speaker 4: But I really liked the kids coming back, and I
Speaker 4: knew we were going to be pretty good upfront because
Speaker 4: I saw the step Joey Muldowney took last year at
Speaker 4: the end of the year. I saw the step Ryan
Speaker 4: Taddle had taken at the end of last year. Percival
Speaker 4: and Frasier and he Slip were just ultimate warriors, and
Speaker 4: I knew that that kid line was going to be
Speaker 4: a talented group. So I felt like we were going
Speaker 4: to be pretty good upfront. I just didn't know I was.
Speaker 4: I knew our goaltenders were good, I didn't know they
Speaker 4: hadn't played a lot of college hockey. And on defense,
Speaker 4: you know, guys really came in and like Trey Scott
Speaker 4: was a kid I wasn't counting on and it's turned
Speaker 4: in where he's running our power play and kai Jan Veraia.
Speaker 2: I knew he was going to be a good player.
Speaker 4: I didn't know he was going to have as much
Speaker 4: impact on our team Viking.
Speaker 2: We got really late. You know, he's turned into a.
Speaker 4: Excellent defenseman for us SO and then Nick Carabin I
Speaker 4: felt like he was going to be a solid piece.
Speaker 4: I didn't realize how good he was going to be
Speaker 4: for us. So and from that standpoint, you know, you
Speaker 4: have expectations and you have you hope that these guys
Speaker 4: are going to pan out, but when you haven't coached him,
Speaker 4: you know, I wasn't as sure about them as I
Speaker 4: was about Tattle and Muldowney and Rashard. I knew they
Speaker 4: were going to be great players for us.
Speaker 1: How could you jump speed wise? Did you take from
Speaker 1: last year this year? I mean you see it on
Speaker 1: the end.
Speaker 4: A big jump, A big jump, yes, yeah, pretty much.
Speaker 4: All the guys we brought in are really high end skaters.
Speaker 4: So that that's probably the biggest difference between our ten
Speaker 4: from last year to this year is I think we're much.
Speaker 2: Quicker up front.
Speaker 1: You can see in the vord check for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I liked it in the BU game where A they
Speaker 3: won the puck battles.
Speaker 1: On the half boards.
Speaker 3: But I like it when your defenseman picked their spots
Speaker 3: to go and keep it in but take those battles
Speaker 3: on the half.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I think all good teams, I mean, Maine does that
Speaker 4: really well, Quinnipiac will do that.
Speaker 2: Uh, you know, I think a lot of teams that
Speaker 2: are successful in college apply a lot of pressure to you.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and it's when you're you have to win those
Speaker 4: wall battles, when you're coming out of your defensive zone exits.
Speaker 2: We know we're gonna have to win some wall battles.
Speaker 4: You know that puck's got to get out that five
Speaker 4: foot battle between the blue lines at both ends. You
Speaker 4: got to keep them in you like you just alluded to,
Speaker 4: and then you got to get them out when you're
Speaker 4: in your own zone.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: I thought, mean did a good job of that. I
Speaker 1: guess what, like about ten.
Speaker 3: Minutes into the second you had you got to throw
Speaker 3: a good start in the second and then they took
Speaker 3: a lot of space away, especially in their D zone.
Speaker 1: They didn't really give you a lot of good looks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but you guys kept grinding. That's what we love about
Speaker 1: these guys. I say, see your foot soldiers getting some payoff.
Speaker 2: For Yeah, it was good, all right, you got it,
Speaker 2: guys of them. Thank you