Eric Thurston Quotations

We started off a little bit slow in the first period. Saskatchewan came out and were physical. We responded to that in the second period and we stepped up our level of play.

When we were there at the beginning of the year, they handed it to us pretty good. We have to make sure we come out, play well and play smart. We have to be very strong in our own end. Defensive zone coverage is going to be key.

We knew they were going to be a tough team to play against. We respected their team chemistry, their team speed, the way they move the puck. They were very much a reflection of our team.

If teams are going to be aggressive against us, we want to make them pay.

We put our trust in our key guys and they did the job again.

The third period has always been our best period. This is the reason why we do all the conditioning and all the hard work. We have a lot of leaders in our dressing room and they all know what it takes to win. We were able to get it done.

Saskatchewan has a very good program and they have a tremendous team this year. They have nine tremendous forwards and two very good goalies, so it'll be a good test for us.

Our defensive core really stepped up tonight in his absence.

People don't realize how tough this tournament is. It's a tough format, but it's the same for everybody.

This isn't the end of our season. We were ready to go and it really showed tonight.

They (the players) left it on the table and they turned their backs and when they came back to the table the trophy was gone.

They played very well, they're a very good team, they're very well-coached. We had to try and shut their big line down. We were able to do that and get a few goals of our own.

It's halfway there. Maybe later on you can look back on it and enjoy it, but right now, we have bigger fish to fry.