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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOUR

April 5, 2017

Chicago, Illinois

THE MODERATOR: We're going to welcome Notre Dame to the podium here. Head coach Jeff Jackson, and to my immediate left, we will have Anders Bjork, Jake Evans, and Cal Petersen.

As we have earlier today, once we're situated, we'll have Coach Jackson deliver an opening statement and then have questions of our student-athletes.

Coach, any thoughts on the weekend so far?

COACH JACKSON: We're thrilled to be here. Obviously, being in Chicago, it's even extra special for us. Chicago's like our big sister city from South Bend and Notre Dame. We have a lot of Chicago natives and a lot of alums and a lot of friends in this area, including the Blackhawks and Stan Bowman. So for us, it's extra special to be in the Windy City.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks, Coach. Open it up to the student-athletes here.

Q. Anders, you guys have to be the comeback kids in the regionals in both of your games. Can you just talk about -- and earlier in the season, you've had wins where you've come back from two-goal deficits. Can you talk about your team's ability to come back but also maybe the importance of not falling behind in this one.
ANDERS BJORK: Yeah, we've been fortunate enough to come back from a few big games, especially last weekend. I think our team stays calm and poised. We play desperate when we need to. It's just really helped us in the past.

I think we kind of want to avoid that and get off to a good start this weekend and get off to a good start tomorrow, especially in the first period, going hard and setting the tone.

Q. This is for Anders, and I hate to jump the gun, but a lot of folks back in Boston, watching the Bruins sign a lot of their draft picks, does that ratchet up the decision for you? I know you're trying to focus on this weekend.
ANDERS BJORK: Not really. I haven't really been thinking about that, just kind of focusing on Notre Dame and this team and doing the best that we can and hoping to have continued success.

So, yeah, I haven't really thought much about that, sorry.

Q. For each of the players, what was your thought, feeling, about skating on the ice out there with the banners? And how did it compare to Philly, to other maybe NHL venues you've skated at?
THE MODERATOR: Cal, why don't you jump in there first.

CAL PETERSEN: Yeah, it's obviously incredible playing at the United Center. I think a lot of us have watched Blackhawks games here, even come to a couple games. Obviously, you're kind of in awe at first, kind of the magnitude of it, but I think we got settled in fast.

This being the second kind of NHL building we've been in, from Boston Garden to here, I think we're a little bit more customary to handling that. But it's obviously very cool to have it in a venue like this and makes it really special.

JAKE EVANS: I think for me, like Cal said, we've been in one. Any time you play in an NHL rink, it's pretty cool. It's what we all dream of playing in in the future. I think the cool thing here is the recent success they've had the past few years and some of the top players in the world that are playing here. It's cool skating on the ice they've been on.

I think, when the game starts tomorrow, you kind of forget all that stuff and just play hockey really.

ANDERS BJORK: Just along the same lines, I think, as Jake mentioned, it's pretty cool. We walk through the Blackhawks locker room, like seeing Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews and some other young stars, too, just seeing their stuff and realizing we're playing on the same ice as them is pretty cool and kind of adds to the excitement of the weekend.

Q. Jake, you'll be taking a lot of face-offs in critical situations. Have you watched their team on tape? Is there anything that they do that you're going to try to take advantage of or anything that you go in with a preset plan?
JAKE EVANS: We haven't really watched tape yet. We'll start watching it soon. We know they've got some good guys on the draw, but we're mainly going to focus on what we can do better and how we can improve from our last game. That's the biggest thing in games like this. Every face-off is crucial. One bad draw loss or one lost man can end up in a goal and that can be your year.

Intensity is going to be a big thing on the face-offs. It's not just me, it's the whole unit on the ice. Everybody has to know what their whole job is on there. These draws will be big, and it's going to be pretty intense every draw.

Q. Cal, can you talk about your personal preparation for facing Denver's dynamic, relentless offense.
CAL PETERSEN: Yeah, we obviously know they're a great team. They've earned the respect of having that. We know they have a good offense, but I'm very confident in the guys I have in front of me.

I understand there's going to be pressure action, but I think, as long as we can manage that and understand where their attacks come from, I think we'll be real set.

I think, like I said, confident with the guys that we have in front. Obviously, they're a very good team. We'll be looking for a little pushback too.

Q. For any of the players, back a couple of weeks ago at the regional, I think Coach mentioned the second period against Minnesota, you guys finally started to get back to your game a little bit, and that was a team that you remembered seeing over, I think it was, the last eight weeks. When you describe your game, what are sort of some of the key elements that you look at as being your game?
THE MODERATOR: Jake, why don't you jump in there first.

JAKE EVANS: Yeah, like Coach said, we've been caught up in the moment sometimes. Starting out second period, I think we had one big shift by some of our bigger guys, Bo Brauer and Joe Wegwerth, and they started setting the tone. I think the biggest thing is using our speed and working the team down low.

I think that one shift by Joe and Bo mainly, having an offensive grind time shift, really helped us out. We started getting our legs back in. We got back to our game, and that was probably the biggest shift of our year so far.

Q. This is for Jake and Cal. Obviously, Anders has had a pretty exceptional season. He's only the second player in history to be deemed a Hobey Baker finalist and Hockey Humanitarian. Can you talk a little bit about what he brings to the table for you guys both on and off the ice.
CAL PETERSEN: Yeah, Jake and I are roommates with him, so we see a lot of sides of him, which is a good thing. Obviously, he's earned all the accolades this year and good publicity. As hard as he works on the ice to improve his game, he works just as hard off the ice to help our image in the community.

The hard work he's done off the ice with the school is great. It's awesome that it's been noticed. Because without that, just the kind of guy he is, people never would have known about it, but he's obviously worked extremely hard to get to the point where he's at right now, and we're very fortunate to have him on our team.

JAKE EVANS: I think to add to that, he's a pretty energetic and fun kid. The biggest thing is he's humble. He doesn't brag about anything he's getting. He doesn't drag any extra attention to him. He's focused on the team and what's best for us, and I think that's the best thing about him right now.

THE MODERATOR: If there's no further questions, we'll let you head back. Open up questions to Coach Jackson.

Q. Jeff, your coaching career has been a long and somewhat contrasting one. You had those powerhouses at Lake State you weren't expecting to get here, and now you have the teams you expect to get here. What's been the key for you on the coaching end, strategy end, to get this program evolving and hopefully to where Lake State was?
COACH JACKSON: Things have changed a lot since the Lake State days in college hockey. When I started at Notre Dame, I honestly believed it was a real diamond in the rough. It was a program that had so much potential, obviously, with the name recognition and the tradition and the great education that you get at Notre Dame. I figured it would be a great place to recruit.

We've had success. You still you want to win National Championships, you want to win championships, and I think for us we've been close.

I've said that before. The times we've won at Lake State, everything falls into place for you. It's a number of different things. There's a lot of things that are out of your control, but there's some things that are in your control. If you manage those things that are within your control, then you can win.

And the things outside your control have cost us at times. We've been in the Frozen Four a few times at Notre Dame, and I think back to our first trip, when we went to Denver, we were playing without our captain, our best player, Erik Condra, and that team did a great job getting there. They were a 4 seed as well.

So we knocked off Michigan in the semifinal, who was No. 1 overall, and that was quite a feather in that team's hat, but we had a tough time the next night against Boston or the next day against Boston College. Last time we played, we ran into a good Duluth team. It was the last time we played Manchester too.

But the thing is that you've got to put yourself in position to win championships, whether it's finishing in the top four of your conference to get a bye and then a home ice, you've got to make the NCAA Tournament. You have to put yourself in position to win the tournament, to win a championship.

That's what our goal is at Notre Dame every year, is to put ourselves in position to win a championship, whether it's a conference championship or a National Championship, it's to put ourselves in that position.

And then all those things have to fall into place. As coaches, we try to make sure the things that are within our control, that we manage those things, and the things that are outside of our control, there's nothing we can do about.

So just every year it's different, but this year's team is certainly different than the first two that made it to the Frozen Four.

Q. Can you talk about your connection with Jimmy Montgomery. He was maybe the guy that kept you from winning three championships in a row at Lake State, and then he learns from you, and now he's gone from student to being the guy you've got to knock off.
COACH JACKSON: I mean, that's one of the great things about coaching is that you not only watching your former players go on to win in the National Hockey League and maybe be All-Stars or Hall of Famers, but you're also watching the guys that went on to be doctors and presidents of companies and their families.

But there's also that third aspect and people that work for you as assistant coaches, people that you -- that help you, and hopefully you help them. With Jimmy, going way back to 1993 -- I was just teasing the other guys talking about it wasn't Jim Montgomery, it was Paul Kariya, but Jimmy just happened to be at the other end of the passes.

But we get along great. He's a great young coach. He's got a great future ahead of him. He's got all the right aspects to being a great coach. I'm proud of him. I'm happy for him. Tomorrow we'll go head to head, and whatever happens happens. I remember a lot of great games between Shawn Walsh and Ron Mason too. Those things happen. It's part of coaching. You develop coaches, and you end up competing against them.

Yesterday I recruited a kid whose dad played for me. So that tells you you're going full circle. But that's the great thing about coaching. It's the relationships that you establish, and it's been my life, and to see him be successful is a great part of that.

Q. Coach, you come to Chicago with a lot of Notre Dame presence in the city and just wondering, for people who aren't maybe as familiar with your program, Notre Dame hockey, maybe Notre Dame football fans or basketball fans, how would you sell your program to those people? And how much do you take advantage of how popular youth hockey is in the Chicago area and produces talent that you obviously recruit?
COACH JACKSON: Well, I mean, we recognize early on, when I first started at Notre Dame, our lifeblood was going to be through Chicago and recruiting, and the fact that it never fails, when an NHL franchise all of a sudden takes off, like the Blackhawks have, youth hockey is usually right on the coattails. Youth hockey in Chicago is growing, and we've had a lot of great players, a lot of great kids from the Chicago area.

And we have a great relationship with the Blackhawks. The fact they come to our building for training camp almost every year for the last several years. Our relationship with the GM, who's a Notre Dame alumnus, Vinny Hinostroza being here. Stephen Johns was here for a while. Barry Smith is a very good friend of mine. We have another alum that works for the Blackhawks, Mark Eaton. So there's strong ties with the city, strong ties with the Blackhawks.

I think that it is a good chance for -- I get the fact that, when Chicago thinks Notre Dame, they think football, but we like to believe that it's not football season right now. So we'll worry about playing hockey right now.

Q. Talking to Jim last week, he told a great story about how he used to have to work kind of physical labor in the morning and come out to practice, and he'd show up covered in paint and dirt, and you'd kind of laugh at him and say, boy, you really want to be a coach. Just wondering if you remember those stories at all and maybe just his determination to pursue this line of work.
COACH JACKSON: Well, it's hard to break into college hockey now because they eliminated graduate assistantships. A lot of great young coaches, young guys that want to be coaches, there's really no easy way, easy avenue for them to get into the business, and it's unfortunate.

But we've tried to take pride in the fact that we actively try to go out and find good young people that we think may have potential to be coaches and bring them in as volunteers.

But it's not easy. They have to have the means to do it because we have to follow NCAA rules, and you can't pay them. We can't do anything to help them get paid.

But Jimmy, in that situation, he went out and found himself a part-time job, and he had to do -- and he was working at the steel company, if I'm not mistaken. But he needed -- even though he played in the National Hockey League and he had the means to do it, he had enough motivation to make a few extra bucks to put in his pocket and come to the rink every day and do a great job for us.

It's never easy -- the ground level of coaching, my first coaching job in college hockey, I got paid $12,000 a year, and I'd work like 16 weeks in the summer hockey schools to make money. That gets monotonous over time. But the good thing for that, when you do that kind of stuff, is you're creating a network of contacts, and that's what I did when I was first starting in coaching. I think that that's where you build up relationships and help yourself become a better coach.

Jimmy certainly paid his dues in the early years to make himself a good coach.

Q. You've been to the Frozen Four before the new team this year. Do you take something away after each time you come as a coach that maybe you change to tell your players in preparation the next time you go? Anything -- you know, any new advice you give, any physical things on the ice?
COACH JACKSON: There's a number of things you have to be prepared for. The biggest thing is about what our team went through a few weeks ago in Boston. It's about the moment. Everything gets elevated. You have to make sure that your players understand that, okay, this is a hockey game. Nobody -- hockey's hockey.

No matter where we're playing, it's the same thing. The first thing I think about is that scene out of the movie Hoosiers, where the coach goes out and measures the court and measures the height of the basket. It's the same size rink. It's ice. It's an ice rink. But when you put everything else around it, it's the distractions, and controlling those distractions is probably the biggest thing.

You've got all these different things going on. Today they've been doing stuff all day long, so have I. From the morning, you've got thing after thing after thing, not what you're accustomed to. It's different than what you're accustomed to. You've just got to make sure you don't allow everything that's going on around, away from the hockey game, affect the hockey game. To me, it is about that focus, and it's an overused word, focus, but it is about just staying in the moment of what you're doing.

I want these guys, hey, I want to win. We're not happy just to be here. We want to win a National Championship. But the thing is I also want them to enjoy the ride and enjoy the experience, enjoy practice today. I told them, before we went on the ice, the first time we went to the Frozen Four, our guys couldn't make a pass, and it was because their heads were up here somewhere, you know. I said, that's our goal today. Let's just make sure we go out there and have a good practice.

So it's about the moment, and it's about not being distracted by all the outside factors away from the game.

Q. Coach, sort of along the same lines that I was asking the players, you talked, I think after that Minnesota game, that second period, something sort of clicked coming out of the game against Lowell and the semifinal hockey too. Was there a concern -- did you have a concern that you guys maybe wouldn't get that focus back? Or did you see something in the way you were playing where you knew it was just a matter of time?
COACH JACKSON: I don't think going into that game my concern was their focus. I think going into that game my concern was their confidence. Lowell, they took it to us pretty good in Boston Garden. It wasn't the same team -- it's actually the first time, as I mentioned earlier, the first time I've really gotten on them in a negative way was that Sunday morning of the selection show because it's the first time I really addressed them after the game we played at Boston Garden.

And I was upset with them because they were all mesmerized by the moment, and we also played a very good team. But the thing is we were -- it wasn't the same team I'd been seeing for eight weeks. So after that game, my biggest concern was, okay, did that knock all our confidence out of us.

And it showed. We were on our heels the first period against Minnesota. But as Cal mentioned or Jake, we had -- just we had the two goals -- first, Minnesota had to deal with the two-goal lead, which is the worst lead in hockey. And the second thing is we had a great shift before Cal made that head man pass up to Oglevie for the goal. Then that changed everything. All of a sudden, boom, we're all right.

I don't think we went into a panic mode, even though we're not playing great. The coaches, when we're not playing well, I'm not going to harp on them in a negative way. I'm going to build them up. I was trying to work on their confidence. Every TV time-out, I tried to have a little bit of a theme, and it was about, all right, something to build their confidence. I asked Andy, pick one thing for me before every TV time-out, and about one or two guys that are doing things, and even asking them, what are you seeing out there? What are you feeling out there? Trying to engage them.

And they responded after that goal, and all of a sudden, we started to see the team that I had been seeing for the last eight weeks.

THE MODERATOR: Thanks for your time, Coach. Good luck tomorrow.

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