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UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN HOCKEY MEDIA CONFERENCEOctober 7, 2013Mark JohnsonTHE MODERATOR: Number 4 Wisconsin women's hockey team opened the season by sweeping Minnesota State last weekend, now travels to Minneapolis to take on No. 1 Minnesota on Friday and Saturday. They are the two‑time NCAA champions riding an NCAA record 51‑game winning streak. Coach Mark Johnson is here. We'll have opening comments and then take questions. COACH JOHNSON: I had a chance to watch footage from the weekend and am very pleased with a lot of things the team did not only Friday night but came back on a short turnaround Saturday afternoon. Very pleased with our younger players, our freshmen. For the first time, they experienced back‑to‑back games, elite conference games. Although we did win 5‑1 on Saturday, I'm not sure it was a 5‑1 game. It was much tighter than it was. As I mentioned before, we need different people to step up and score, and we were able to do that this weekend. Alex played well in the net both nights. Most nights that she's in the net, she'll give us an opportunity to win. She's been very consistent over the course of her tenure here. So the other exciting thing about Monday morning is you've got footage, and it's opportunity to start learning and start really teaching the players and try to make improvements. That's how I look at it. Whether it's Friday or Saturday's game, what did we do well? What didn't we do well? Most importantly, now it's Monday, what do we need to do to get better? As Brian mentioned, we're going to Minnesota. They won 51 straight games, which is very, very impressive, especially in this environment. It will be a challenge, but I like it early in the season. I like the opportunity to see how my young players and how we as a team respond to this type of environment that we'll be going into. Q. Mark, if you can address that winning streak that Minnesota has with your kids, do you need to, and especially some of your vets the mindset going up there? COACH JOHNSON:  Well, in today's world with Twitter and Facebook, I mean, everybody knows everything about everything. So they'll know what's at stake. My job starting today is to try to make us a better hockey team. Some of the things and some of the areas that we need to do to improve as we get ready for Friday night. I know in the past, when we played Minnesota, we play a couple of other teams, they get excited to play. It's a rival game. We've played them in National Championship games. We've played them in playoff games. And so both teams generally come to the rink and play their best hockey. So it's very entertaining. It's easy for me as a coach to get my team up because they're excited to play. Q. How much did the absence of Amanda Kessel change the complexion of this? Are you thanking Team USA for that acquisition? COACH JOHNSON: They've got one of our young ladies too, but I mean, if you took footage from last year's team and this year's team, you're going to see some differences. Kids graduate. Kids move on. Any time you're lucky enough to have a special player like Amanda on your team and the things that she brings, you're going to miss it. They'll miss her this season. They'll get her back next year. They certainly look a little different than they did last year when they ended up going undefeated. As a coach, your preparation is going to be a little bit different if the team you're playing against has a special player or special players. I mean, North Dakota had the Lamoureuxs last year. You had to be aware when they're on the ice, and they're not going to have them this year. It presents different challenges and presents different opportunities for players up there to get more ice time and show their coaching staff what they can do. They won a couple games on the road last week. I'm sure Friday night the place will be packed. There will be a lot of energy amongst their fans to extend their winning streak. As their team gets prepared, they're going to try to play the best hockey and do the same things that we're going to do as far as trying to improve as a group. Q. Can you just put it in perspective how difficult it is to win 51 in a row. You've had some long win streaks. How impressive is that? COACH JOHNSON: It's very impressive because, not only over one season, they've done it a couple of years. You're going to have an off night. In our business, the goaltender is such a big part of what we do as a team and what you play against. You would think at some point within that stretch, that the opposing goalie would have one of those nights where they made 50 or 60 saves and they won the game 1‑0. But hats off to them. They were able to do things and win hockey games. I think the energy really started when they beat us in the National Championship game up in Duluth, and it springboarded, and they were bringing a lot of people back last year. They had a special year. I'm not sure we'll ever see it again in women's hockey. We're moving on to this year. Like I say, they've got a little bit different look, we've got a little bit different look, and I'm excited to practice the next three days and then get on the bus Thursday and head up. Q. How big of a challenge is this, Mark, for your freshmen? It's one thing to play at LaBahn. It's another thing to play at the Ritter against the No. 1 team in the country. COACH JOHNSON: In our exhibition game against Japan, once they put on the jersey and got out, the younger players, they handled themselves very well. McKibbon scored a nice open net goal Friday. Her parents were in town. She was excited. I thought she had a great weekend. And then Sarah Nurse scored on Saturday. So I'm not seeing the nervousness that you might normally see with young freshman. Three of our freshmen are Canadian kids. I'm not sure they know about the Minnesota‑Wisconsin rivalry. I'm sure the other players will let them in on it. What I've seen to this point, I'm excited because they've stepped in, they've eaten up some minutes, they've conducted themselves in a real positive way, and they've made a contribution. Now the opportunity for us as a team to see how they react in a hostile environment. Q. Leading up to the season, people were wondering who might put the puck away. Nice to see Brittany Ammerman score a few times this weekend after the year she endured last season. COACH JOHNSON: She scored a highlight shorthanded goal. You can see it on ESPN. But it certainly was a goal that had some excitement on our bench. It was nice to see her make a contribution. She has that offensive capability, which if you take a year off, not sure where it's going to be when they come back. She's worked hard since the early spring last year to put herself in a position, number one, to be healthy, and secondly, make a contribution to her team. So it's nice to see her have a real strong weekend. Q. Mark, Madison Packer seems to have one of the more star‑crossed careers here. What about her ability to keep coming back injury after injury after injury stands out to you in terms of her ability to just kind of put it away and keep coming back? COACH JOHNSON: Well, it goes to her character. I mean, sometimes I think, when young people get hurt and they have surgeries, they get down, they get depressed. They don't want to do the things necessary to come back. To her credit, started off, she was an incoming freshman coming off ACL surgery. Worked hard, put herself in a position to physically be able to play, and then have a couple of other setbacks. I think a lot goes to her character and her willingness, and probably most importantly, her love and passion for the game of hockey. She enjoys playing. She's developed now and become one of our leaders as an upperclassman, as a senior. As a coach, you just hope that they have a great year. I know the time and energy she's put in over the course of her three‑plus years here, and some of the adversities she's had to meet and the hurdles she's had to go over, and she's done it very well. I'm just hoping she stays healthy this year and has a great season for us. Q. Coach Sauer is in town this weekend with the U.S. sled hockey team. Has it surprised you, since his retirement here at UW, how active he's been with USA hockey, coaching hockey, still being a part of hockey, and what do you think this is adding to his legacy as a coach? COACH JOHNSON: No, it doesn't surprise me. He's probably been involved 30‑plus years with deaf kids that play hockey and did the hockey schools for I don't know how many years down in Chicago. He recently got involved with the sled hockey team. I happened to go out Thursday night there in practice out in MIA, and Jeff asked me to come out and talk to the team there. He's got two teams there. He's got his Olympic team, and then he has a developmental team. Wanted me to talk and share a few things about 1980 with this group that he's taking over to Sochi. I walked away there absolutely impressed, just these young men‑‑ and he's got the youngest team of the teams that will be going into the Olympics‑‑ and how they conduct themselves. If you haven't seen it, you'd be amazed how fast these players play the game. I was blown away by the speed. Just watching them get off the ice, on the ice, in the locker room, an opportunity to share some of the experiences that they've had over the course of their short tender. It doesn't surprise me Jeff's involved and certainly has had a big hand in getting those kids and developing them into a top rate team, and they have a chance to win a gold medal in Sochi. I was very impressed when I left MIA, and I was just wishing I could have my team watch these young men go on the ice and the desire and the passion and the excitement that they had in the game and then watch them play and understand some of their backgrounds. You know, kids from Afghanistan, kids from Iraq, you know, one leg, two legs gone. It was very impressive. I just wish them the best of luck, and I certainly will be glued to the TV and watch them as they participate in the Olympics. Q. He joked that only he and Steve Stricker take retirement and become busier and more productive in what it is they do in their chosen profession. Are you surprised that that's the route that he chose, after being done coaching here, that he continued on and is as involved as ever? COACH JOHNSON: No, doesn't surprise me. He's been an ambassador to the game as long as I can remember. I knew him as a young player. I played in different scenarios with him. I've been an assistant coach for him. I think it's just a great opportunity, for the love of the game that he has, to pass it on to these young players to get an opportunity to fulfill a dream. Obviously, they have these disabilities, and now they get an opportunity for the team that will be taken over to Sochi, to put that USA jersey on and compete for a gold medal. The energy that I saw, the passion that I saw with these young men was equal to none. It was very impressive, and obviously they have a very good team. Their oldest player is only 32. Their youngest player is 15. Just to get them a chance to go on the ice and compete and be competitive like they are and get a chance to play the great game that we've played, it's very impressive. To have Jeff running it, that doesn't surprise me at all. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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