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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCE

March 7, 2016

Mike Eaves

Madison, Wisconsin

THE MODERATOR: Coach Mike Eaves is here and will take questions.

Q. You hung on on Saturday and people will tend to kinda look at how the game ended, but you did so many good things in the other portion of the game. Is that the way you will break it down with the team this week?
COACH EAVES: Well, we've played better and lost, so I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth and say no thank you. It's not the way we diagrammed it out, and we found a way to win, and that in itself is a small step in the right direction. Different task for us in terms of our young team finally figuring out how to play with a lead and win, so another chapter in a book, another paragraph and we'll move forward from there.

Q. Was the learning, that they somehow survived that third period, or was it learning that this wasn't quite good enough, we've got to do it differently in order to survive in more cases?
COACH EAVES: It was interesting watching the game yesterday at home. I kept writing "SL" down, "SL" "SL", story line, what's the story line here? In terms of things that we were doing in the third period, that weren't the things we talked about or diagrammed, and until you're in that situation and you live it, you have to walk through it and step on the coals do you find out how really hot it is. So we'll look at those story lines, and we won't look at the whole third period but there was definitely themes that we can do better, and we will be better at because of this week and the experience that we had on Saturday.

Q. Mike, did you see enough of Adam Miller to include him in your plans for goaltending down the stretch here?
COACH EAVES: As good as Adam played, he's still a back-up. It was good to see for a couple reasons how Adam played in that he hadn't played for so long and for him to come in and just play and just -- well this is my last chance and he put it all out there and really played well.

So we know that, you know, if something happens to Matty, that young Adam is ready to go for it, but in playing Matty on Saturday and the performance he gave, 46 saves, 49 shots; he's going to be our guy as we head into the stretch here.

Q. The series against Minnesota here had to be a low point for years. How does that play into this? Do you forget about it, bring it back, is it a motivating factor?
COACH EAVES: Absolutely! I went down to the weight room this morning and the guys are there, and I said, "Fella's, looking for a theme this week, what do you think?" 8:30 in the morning, what is Coach doing down here? "What do you remember about the last time we played this group?" And Matty was in that group, and I said, "Matty, was the score of that game?" It was 9-2, 30 shots, everything they shot went in. The guys came up with it, they said, "We've got to redeem ourselves. We've got that opportunity here"

So that's kind of the focus of the weekend in getting prepared for going back in there. When you are around sports long enough, it was unfortunate timing. We had our biggest crowd of the year and our biggest rival, and the roof caves in on us, because of the score, and that's stuff you hate to happen, but it did, and now we have a chance to get back in the saddle again.

Q. Mike, you went in there with a purpose though, did you not? Did you not want to go in there and have that rhetoric come out of their mouths?
COACH EAVES: Yeah. I just wanted to bring it to a level of awareness for them, make sure everybody was on the same page as they went through their workout and as we get ready to go on the ice today.

Q. Do you think Matt learned a little bit watching on Friday?
COACH EAVES: Absolutely. I have no doubt. Having been a player, having been sat out in my career and being up top and watching, you definitely get a different perspective, and it helps the next time you go on the ice. And I think I mentioned this on Friday night, I was amazed at how into it Matty was and how vocal he was on the bench, which was a good thing. So I do believe that it helped him.

Q. Mike, how would you assess the season for Jedd Soleway?
COACH EAVES: I had a talk with Jedd Saturday morning after Friday night's game, and actually we had chatted a couple times. There's definitely a level of frustration there for Jedd, and the thing I don't know if people will know, he's putting in the extra time in practice in terms of skill work and taking shots and in the weight room to try to get out of this funk that he's been in, and we talked about it point blank.

He's frustrated, he wants to help this team. His single goal, and I have no doubt about this, for Jedd, is he wants to help this team win, and he still feels that he can. So getting that goal on Saturday night, I don't know if you noticed, but young Luke Kunin came right off the ice and hugged him when the puck went in the net, because he's been trying and pressing.

So the conversations are there; it's not an elephant in the room. We've talked about it, and we keep working toward getting him out of this.

Q. You've got All-Conference ballots due soon. Who on your squad deserves consideration?
COACH EAVES: Well, the Big Ten All-Rookie Freshman, Big Ten Freshman team we will nominate and have nominated Luke Kunin for that. As far as the regular teams, I think that, you know, for us, I think Kevin Schulze has done a really good job along with Eddie, for the ice time they get. Their numbers probably aren't going to help them in terms of plus, minus and points, but I think for us those guys have been really good for us.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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