|
|||
|
|||
|
 |
|
|
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 5, 2015Mark JohnsonMadison, Wisconsin MARK JOHNSON: Certainly an enjoyable weekend for a lot of different reasons. Obviously to play against somebody in a different jersey and really get a chance to see what your team looks like is sort of, as I told the group Friday as we started the game, we're at the starting blocks and let's go out and after the game we'll have some idea where we're at and what we need to do to improve. As we prepare for Ohio State this weekend, obviously there's some things in the other part of the season that we need to continue to work on, but the overall production and a lot of people got to play, a bunch of people got a lot of minutes, and so a lot of good things came out of the weekend. But obviously we're two games into the season, and the big thing is to make strides throughout the week and practice here and be better this Saturday afternoon. With Ohio State coming in, obviously with league games, exposure for our sport is always important, and Sunday afternoon the Big Ten Network will televise our game, so I know the players will be excited, and certainly as a staff we're excited. The one great thing about getting an opportunity to do what we did this past weekend, playing out in San Jose, it was yesterday, we utilized three rinks and had 150 young girls on the ice, and both Providence and our players collectively put a youth clinic on, and after an hour of being on the ice had a chance to have some pizza and sign autographs and just exposed Division I women's hockey, as I mentioned last weekend. So the response was great, we had wonderful crowds, and for a lot of people it was the first time they've seen college hockey at the women's level, and I know a lot of them were impressed. I think the most impressed person we had was our bus driver. He had this expectation of what women's hockey and girls' hockey was all about, and then he watched the first period, and he was just blown away. You guys hit each other, you're competitive. So it was fun for the people to see it out there. The only tough part was yesterday trying to get out of our hotel because we were right next to 49ers stadium, and the Packer fans came rolling in there Saturday afternoon, so the elevator was a little bit slow yesterday morning. But all good stuff, weather was great, and a lot of good things came out of this past weekend. Q. Seemed like one of your main concerns going into the season was being able to score goals. It didn't seem to be a problem over the weekend. Is it just too early to get a read, or do you have more offensive threats than you might have thought? MARK JOHNSON: Well, it's enjoyable to watch it happen because that's one of the questions we have, and it's certainly probably too early. So Providence, they lost a big senior class, and they were a little bit younger than we were, and so some of our experienced players certainly made an impact early in the games both nights, and so it's work in progress as we go. You only get a few days to work on your power play. We spent just a little bit of time on our penalty kill. The nice thing is we've started, and the big thing is to each day come to the rink and try to make improvements. As we go along, we'll get a better read and a better understanding of who we are, and hopefully we can get better every weekend, and if you can do that over the next three or four months, you get to the end and you become a pretty good hockey team and you have an opportunity to do something special. Q. You mentioned exposure of women's hockey at the college level. Over the years how much growth have you seen as far as the popularity of the sport, and where would you like it to be? MARK JOHNSON: Well, I think it's like anything; you know, each year you hope it increases. You hope more people get involved, and I think if you look at statistics, whether it's through USA Hockey or Hockey Canada, the last seven or eight or nine years, the number of young girls playing the game has increased, and so that's all positive. To expose the college game into an area where there's a lot of hockey going on, there's four sheets of ice where we played at. The San Jose Sharks use one as a practice facility. They've since moved their American Hockey League team there, so there's a lot of hockey going on. The rink opens at 4:00 in the morning and it closes at 2:00 in the morning, and all four rinks are going throughout the day, so it's a very busy spot. Yet it's the first time a lot of people got a chance to see women's hockey at the college level, and again, it's an eye opener, and there might be five, six, eight, ten kids that we touched yesterday, and our players had a chance to work with that maybe set in the back of their mind that, hey, someday I want to play college hockey, and I'm going to work the next four, five, six or eight years and try and become good enough to go get an education and at the same time play hockey. You spread the word, you showcase a product, and hopefully it excites people. We had this little Maggie girl. She was six years old yesterday. She was about two and a half feet tall, but yet great skater, big smile on her face, and it was just fun to watch our players get a chance to work with these young girls. Q. Jenny Potter is one of the most recognizable names in women's hockey. What type of job do you think she'll do down at Ohio State? MARK JOHNSON: Well, she's -- I think I'd put her in a category with Brianna Decker. Very fierce, very competitive player on the ice. Jenny falls into that category where she was the -- the tougher the game got, the more pressure the game that she was involved in, the better she played. She always loved to play against Canada. She's a very well-educated player, and as you mentioned, she's very highly decorated. She'll take all those skill sets that she learned and put it into her coaching philosophy. I think she's going to do a great job. It's like any new coach coming into a program; it takes a period of time to get your players, install your systems and get an opportunity to work with them, and so I think her and certainly John Harrington and a couple of the other new coaches, it strengthens up our league. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports   |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
About ASAP Sports •
FastScripts Archive •
Recent Interviews •
Captioning •
Upcoming Events •
Contact Us
FastScripts | Events Covered | Our Clients | Other Services | ASAP in the News | Site Map | Job Opportunities | Links |
|
ASAP Sports, Inc. | T: 1.212 385 0297
|