Dave Hakstol Quotations

The plain fact is that some guys really have to look deep within themselves and figure out how badly they want to play. You can't come out and play rope-a-dope for two periods. On our home ice, you don't want to leave a game to a bounce of the puck in the last 20 minutes and we did. And this is what you get, a 1-0 loss.

Lee is a guy who has a lot of experience playing up front and back on defense. I really like the experience level he brings. I think the potential for him to bring a solid, physical presence is a real positive thing.

One thing I really like about these guys is that they're not afraid to play. If they make a mistake, they're not afraid to go out there the next shift. The first half (of the season) as a freshman, there is a pretty big learning curve. The only way to go through it is to experience it, if you have the mental ability and toughness.

No. 1, we knew we didn't come out of the dressing room Friday night the way we needed to. We didn't match Mankato's intensity Friday. I thought we did that tonight.

I feel pretty good about our position as far as the NCAA tournament goes. But every game is an opportunity to improve your position. Every game is an opportunity to improve your overall team play. Hopefully we haven't peaked yet.

He wears a lot of different hats for us. He's a guy we expect a lot out of.

He won't be on the ice, but he'll make a lot of contributions.

He had enough trouble taking his T-shirt on and off, let alone playing. But he played.

He made an awful lot of good saves. That's one factor you can't control in a hockey game -- how the guy wearing the pads at the other end is going to play.

He's a dynamic force for us right now offensively.

Guys that have got it done in the past, they know how to elevate their game at the right time. There is a connection there. Guys have that attitude and expectation of themselves to win.

Jordan elevated his game once again toward the second half of the year, as he's done before. He's the leader for us in the locker room and he carries that onto the ice with him. I believe our guys play a little extra hard with him in the nets. At this time of year I wouldn't trade him for anybody.

I think it's important to be playing well at this time of year. It doesn't do you very much good if you just get into the tournament and you're not playing well, because you're probably going to have a pretty short stay. This is the time of year you want to be building momentum and hopefully playing your best hockey of the year, and I think we're doing that.

I thought Drew Stafford played some of the best minutes he's played in his career here this weekend.

I thought there was a drastic difference from the way we played the last 30 minutes and the way we played the first 30. We didn't come out and play well in the first half. Now, our backs are against the wall.

I think the way we played was the most important not necessarily the outcome of the game. We had a poor performance (Friday) night, taking nothing away from Minnesota, because they had a lot to do with that. But we really needed to come out with a good team effort, and that's what we did.

Our first goal is to solidify home ice. But it was only one step. We have more steps to go.

Our backs are against the wall. All we did tonight was even things up. Tomorrow night, the winner moves on. It was a battle tonight, a war. We were fortunate to come out on the right end of it.

I won't say anything about what happened to him (Stafford). Obviously he wasn't available for the rest of the game. We've got to adapt and overcome injuries this time of the year. They're part of the game. Whether or not he's available for Saturday night, we just adapt to that and overcome it.

I was very happy with the way our team kept pushing and kept pressing all the way through 60 minutes. I thought our team did an excellent job of closing out the game.

I think he stuck with it and has continued to work extremely hard, and now we're starting to see some of the results for Jonathan coming on the ice. He's a guy that does an awful lot for us. ... He's really starting to come on and be a dynamic force for us offensively.

I thought he had some tough saves to make in the first period. Those were critical to get us through that first period when we didn't really play all that well and we weren't sharp. He was sharp.

I wasn't here, but I've heard so many things about the job they did in 1997. We've only been in town for a few hours, but everybody has been first class in every way. I think that makes it easy for our guys to concentrate on the job at hand.

We've got some guys back there who can bring some offensive ability and make some offensive plays. That's part of being a good offensive team. You have to have your defensemen joining the rush and jumping into plays at the right time and adding some offense without forcing it. That's something young guys grow into.

We fought real hard to get this opportunity, but we're certainly not happy just getting there.

Those are things we'll turn to next week. We've got an awful lot of ability, an awful lot of character in our locker room that will be returning. And the one thing that sticks out in my mind is we have some unfinished business.

When you're playing your third game in three days, it's a heck of a lot easier playing with the lead than it is trying to play catch-up. So getting a two-goal lead was obviously a key for us.

We're not going to expect a guy to jump into the league his first year and lead the WCHA in defenseman scoring. That's not realistic. I think our young guys are doing a good job, but they can continue to get better and continue to add more offense. We want them to do that.

We open up with Manitoba and then do not ease into our schedule.

We got off to the start we wanted. We established our game and played physically.

When we went down 2-0, I actually thought we were playing pretty good. The first goal we scored was important. It relaxed us a bit and gave us a little extra confidence. Then we scored at the end of the first and we were able to carry that momentum with us into the locker room.

You can look back over a long period of time. Some of the teams that won it at UND were expected to and others maybe not so much. It says a lot about how important it is to have the right to advance to the Frozen Four.

We've had tight battles with virtually every time we've played them. It was a playoff-type hockey game tonight.

We've had a lot of situations where you lose a guy to a hitting from behind midway through games. You just adjust to that.

Those two guys we have in back will have a lot of stability for us. They can give a lot of confidence to the guys playing in front of them.

We saw some good chemistry with our forward unit. All the goals we scored came after two or three passes.

We wanted an opportunity to come back to the rink (today) and prepare for another game. That's what our focus was tonight. We had a real tough task against a real good Michigan team. We had leads of two, three and even four goals, but against that team and the weapons that they have, you really never feel comfortable.

At the beginning of the year, one of the things we talked about was how we needed to gain some experience. There's only one way to do that. That's to go through the wear and tear of a season. We have gotten a little bit better. Our consistency has gotten a little bit better and that doesn't end. We want to keep getting a little bit better. Hopefully we have a few weeks left to do that.

Drew is very important because he plays in all situations. He brings a certain level of calmness and good stability.

Drew has to be the offensive leader for us. But what I was happiest about was how strong he was on defense and how well he killed penalties.

Early in the year, we lost four or five in a row at home, and you don't get all those back at once. You just have to slowly chip away, and we feel like we're playing pretty well at home right now.

Erik is an awful important part to our hockey team. He's going to remain an important part. He just won't be on the ice with us.

There's no halfway at this time of year. We've been pretty cautious over the past week. Drew has been skating for over a week now. With a situation like that, we're not going to rush anybody back. Certainly, that was the case with Drew.

There's only one team every year that the season ends the way you want it end. Certainly when your season does come to an end, whether its earlier on in the season, earlier on in the tournament or a night like tonight, it's tough.

The second half of their season, they've been as good as anybody. We fought hard to get home-ice advantage. Now we have to take advantage of it.

I've always said about Jordan, maybe his best attribute is his competitiveness.

Sometimes blocking pucks doesn't feel real good. But that's something he does, and it's something that's contagious with his teammates.

That's hockey sense. You saw some chemistry between some of our forward units tonight. Guys made some great plays.

They should be offensive leaders for us and throughout the country.

This is tough. No use looking at the standings on Friday, because through a weekend, depending on your performance and job you get done, things change pretty drastically.

There's been no change in philosophy as far as the way we approach the game or as far as what we're trying to teach or the attitude that our team is going to try to play with.

It was awful important to score that first power-play goal. That's the start we wanted to have.

The No. 1 thing it says is that what our team is doing offensively maybe gets more of the headlines. But if you take a close look at this team, they're a group of guys who take a lot of pride in good team defense.

It was a battle out there, right down to the final buzzer. I'm very, very proud of our hockey team. We took another step forward tonight.

It was obvious what (Stafford) added. Not only the offense he brings, he also brings a certain level of calmness. He's been a leader in that way. The more veteran leadership this time of year is a big positive. I thought he brought some real stability.

Things change an awful lot. From Friday morning to Sunday morning, those standings can take on a whole different look. There's nothing expected or guaranteed. You have to go out and work for what you get.

That's all we've talked about. For six weeks we've been talking about how we can only control what we do, and we've got to win hockey games.

I know what he's doing is impressive. He's been a rock for this team. I feel that's been apparent in his play.

If you asked Jordan, he'd tell you that he just did his job. They came strong the last four or five minutes. As he's done throughout the season, Jordan was there for us.

Being at home for the regional is very important and something we've heard about all year, but an NCAA berth is just the byproduct of playing well during the season. Our play has been pretty consistent since the middle of January. Our goal right now is to secure home ice for the league playoffs.

Hopefully, we'll get a chance to bump into him.

He's really gained some composure and puck poise. And he's got that big shot from the point.

He's ready to go, he's ready to play. He wouldn't be in the lineup if he wasn't ready to play.

I chalk that up to nothing more than coincidence. Tonight we were just sharper offensively than we were on Friday. We didn't get a lot of chances, but the ones we had, we made count. We wanted to take one step this weekend and we took one positive step.

I don't think anybody was too happy with our performance and effort (Thursday) night. I thought as a team, we responded well to the challenge. I really liked the second efforts we saw in all different areas - not just the goals.

I don't want to get into anything technical because I'm not a doctor. But it is season ending.

You've got four very competitive regions. It's a great sign for where college hockey is at. All 16 teams are competitive.

All the way through, our forward units did a good job and worked extremely hard down low. Michigan Tech is tough to play against. It was an awfully tight hockey game going into the third period. But the guys continued to do the little things and eventually they were rewarded for it.

(The freshmen) made a lot of plays in a lot of areas of the game, not only getting on the score sheet. Guys made plays in all three zones in the rink. That's positive.

The level of hockey that is going to be played this weekend will be tremendous. It's a great regional hockey tournament for college hockey fans.