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NCAA MEN'S FROZEN FOURApril 9, 2011J.T. BrownScott SandelinKyle SchmidtMax TardyST. PAUL, MINNESOTA Minnesota-Duluth – 3 THE MODERATOR: We'll start with an opening comment from Coach Sandelin. COACH SANDELIN: Wow, pretty special. I don't know if I can put it into words. I am so extremely proud of these guys. I know every coach says that. But to do something that the school's never done is, I'd say that a couple of days ago it would mean everything. And I think this is just for not just these players, it's for our alumni program and city. I'm just so excited for these players to have this experience. They're the ones that need to talk. They're the ones that went out and did it. I'm kind of speechless. That's scary. But, no, it's just a tremendous, tremendous feeling. I'm so proud of this group. THE MODERATOR: First question is for Kyle. Kyle, describe the game-winning goal. KYLE SCHMIDT: I didn't do a whole lot. My linemates were working their butts off in the corner. Seidel got it on the right hand, right to me. Luckily it was a "give me" because I was too late to bury anything else. I saw it go in and started skating for the other end. It was amazing. Q. Kyle, am I correct in assuming you have to give back the National Unsung Hero award now? KYLE SCHMIDT: Can you say that again? Q. Am I correct in assuming that you have to give back the National Unsung Hero award? You're very sung right now. KYLE SCHMIDT: We'll see I guess if I have to, I will. I'll take a national championship any day of the week. Q. You're very sung right now. Very good. You're the only player that didn't dye the hair, you got the game-winner, do you think that had anything to do with it? KYLE SCHMIDT: Yep. (Laughter). Had to have something to do with it. But I think it was more the other guys on my line than me. I was just in the right spot at the right time. So blond hair, just the tips, either way, I think I would have buried that one, hopefully, and luckily I did. Q. Max, how does a guy go from playing 25 games registering two assists, scoring a power play goal, no less, in the national championship game? MAX TARDY: I know my teammates and my coaches had a lot of confidence in me, putting me out there on the power play, and I was just trying to stay calm, act like I was trying to play some junior hockey; it worked out. Q. J.T., just talk about what this experience was like to be named most outstanding player in this building and as a freshman doing it; you were on fire tonight. J.T. BROWN: Yeah, definitely was an honor to get that. It's kind of hard not to get up and play 100 percent when you have 19,000 people. So I just feel like the crowd, played off the crowd and the crowd was great today. Q. Max and Kyle, you're both local guys. Can you explain how this impacts the community as a whole, the area? MAX TARDY: Well, just a tremendous feeling to be a part of the first Minnesota-Duluth team to ever bring a national championship back home. And it's something that we're going to be able to look back on a long time from now and all that, we did it. And it's great for all the fans back home. KYLE SCHMIDT: It's great for the players, coaches, everyone here, but I think it's been way too long of a time coming for everyone in Duluth and Twin Ports, anyone. Up north, UMD fans, to be around 50 some years and not have it and be so close back in 84, 27 years ago, to finally bring it home. I mean, it's for everyone. It's awesome. Q. J.T., as this game was going on, you piled up the shot totals. You were having a hard time following Hunwick. Tie game. How did you keep from getting frustrated and to stick with it? J.T. BROWN: Definitely we have a lot of confidence on our team. We knew if we kept getting pucks behind their defense we'd eventually get something. We knew if we kept working hard and going 100 percent we knew we would come out on top. Q. Kyle and Max, picking up on being local guys, you've seen the women's team bring home national championships a couple times growing up, and last year, could you talk about how having seen that happen impacted your drive to bring one home for the men's? KYLE SCHMIDT: I believe they have five national championships and to see them be up there every year, obviously we've had our down years. We've been strong as of late, and I've been fortunate enough to be part of the team while we're having this great run. And I mean, it's obviously motivating to see them have success, but at the same time you want it so bad. And I think now we have it hopefully we can start racking them up. MAX TARDY: I think the men's program has always been behind the women's program 100 percent. I think they definitely support us just as much. We're one big hockey family, Minnesota-Duluth. We're glad the men's team finally brought one home. Q. Max, you obviously played your game tonight but how did you prepare for Michigan and how did you continue to watch and react to Michigan as the game went on? MAX TARDY: Well, I don't know, I mean this whole year, and especially in these Playoffs in the tournament, I mean, yeah, we look for little things about Michigan, but it's always about us, and making sure we're playing our game. Because we feel that if we've played our game that gives us the best chance to win. Not really focus on them, not try to get intimidated by them but move our feet and make us the No. 1 team in the country. Q. Any of you that want to answer this, between the end of regulation and the overtime period, what did Coach tell you in the locker room? Were there any Herb Brooks-type moments there? KYLE SCHMIDT: Definitely. Yeah, perfect. He had one of his best performances in between periods there. He got us going in there. We were able to feed off that, get a little music playing, some familiar tunes, and I think that carried us out into the overtime. MAX TARDY: I think he said it's our time about five or six times. Q. Kyle, your younger brother won the Minnesota State championship title a couple of years ago. He's been able to hold that over your head. What do you have to say to him now? KYLE SCHMIDT: I think we have the locker room that they won it in, too. And when he scored the empty-net goal to clinch it, my family was right down in the corner, and it was kind of freaky how my family was right down in the corner again for me this time. Obviously, to win a state championship is something you can never take away, and it's an amazing experience. I unfortunately never made it to State. We were close a couple times, but I think I probably got the trump card on this one, with a national championship. But I mean, you can't even compare them, because there you're playing with kids you've grown up your entire life with, the special bond there. Not to say there isn't one here because we're one of the closest-knit group of guys I've played with. It showed this year especially in overtime games, we've been really able to come together. But, yeah, it's a great feeling, and I mean, I'm happy for him and glad that I was finally able to bring something home, too. Q. J.T., 15 school overtimes this year. Did you guys relish playing extra hockey or was that the game plan this year? Can you talk about all the extra hockey you guys played this year, including tonight, and had to be kind of a comfort zone? J.T. BROWN: Definitely we played a lot of overtime games, especially in the beginning of the season. Not always something you want to play, but we found a little knack for getting it done in overtime, and that's one of the things we did pride ourselves going into the overtime period, that we've played the overtime more times than they have, and most of the nation. We know what to do to get it done. THE MODERATOR: Thank you. Questions for Coach. Q. Coach, I'll rephrase my question I asked Max. I mean, how does a kid like that end up in a power play in the championship? Has he been on that unit for a while? COACH SANDELIN: Actually, last few weeks we practiced him there. Ironically, too, when we were out in Bridgeport, he had practiced. We kind of rotated him through there. He's got certainly very good skill level. He sees the ice. And ironically out there, that's when Kyle got hurt in the second game. Max got some power play time. It's funny how things work out. But we stayed with him there. With Kyle's injury, we kept him there on the second unit all week and practiced him there. So he was kind of there on and off during the year, but more in our mock units. But you'll probably see him there a lot next year, trust me. Q. How much did you hear the crowd or were you aware of the crowd tonight? COACH SANDELIN: It was unbelievable. It was great in the beginning. It was packed. We saw some different-colored jerseys besides maroon and gold. We saw some green and white ones. Maybe some ties there that I've had. But it was great. It was a great atmosphere for the kids to be in. I thought the whole tournament was tremendous. It's a phenomenal experience. I mean, this is one of the best venues you could have in this tournament, if not the best. It's a hockey city. It's a great building and a great atmosphere. So we noticed it a lot. I think J.T. even mentioned it throughout the game. Q. Obviously you won the game, that's all that matters. But tell me how good a game you thought your team played. Were there any moments during the game you had some concerns and what did you think you prepared for Michigan that you thought you could exploit? COACH SANDELIN: I thought the first ten minutes we were really good, really moving. I thought the first period we stopped moving our feet and we made some slipped passes which drive you nuts and things like that. But things don't happen when you don't move your feet. This is a team that plays up tempo and they move in transition and you can't turn the puck over. I thought we did a good job early in the game. But they got their first goal. In the second period we talked about some things. We got better. I liked their last two periods. Both teams are playing hard. Both teams are trading chances. So in that respect I thought it was a pretty entertaining game. But it was that part of the game I was only worried. Both teams started settling in, especially the third period. It was again who was going to make that mistake or get that break, and we got it in the overtime fortunately. Q. You've had a lot of teams try to take aim at that line. You play anybody that was more effective in shutting them down than these guys were today? They're a very tough team. COACH SANDELIN: They were a very good team. They forced them to be a little off their game. They were still pretty effective. They didn't show up on the score sheet. But, again, we can't rely on those guys game in and game out. We all know what they can do, but we needed guys like J.T. and Kyle to step up which they've done during the year. I thought Mike Seidel did a great job, and Hendrickson drew a couple of penalties. You need other guys to step up. Those guys can't carry us all the time. But they were just off a little bit. I think it showed a little bit even on the power play. We knew they were going to pressure. We were just off with passes and certainly we had some opportunities to get one. I wasn't expecting nine power plays, I can tell you that. Q. When the game was tied at 1, there was a momentum swing there where, I think it was Rust was left alone, got a shot off and it hit your net, defenseman knocks it out. You end up getting a penalty ten seconds later and then scoring on the power play. How big was that? COACH SANDELIN: That was huge. Thank God Jack's got great eye-hand coordination. I couldn't tell - I think Red was wanting them to review it, too. I think it would have got called down. You always look for those. There are always those in the game. I thought we had a pretty good second period going. And Jack blocks a shot and ends up back on the guy's tape, throws a backhander through traffic and next thing they get a little momentum. And I think third period it was pretty even. There's always those momentum swings in the games. But I really - our team felt comfortable going into the overtime. I think the guys were talking that they felt strong; and, again, I think playing those overtime games before and having success, you know, I think you go in there a lot more, more confident. There's no secret. I mean, granted, thank God they're only five minutes during the regular season. These are 20. I always joked - we used to get an extra minute between regulation and overtime. That was the only thing different between that and the TV time-out. Q. I asked this question of the players. I'm going to ask it of you. What did you tell them between the regulation and overtime period? COACH SANDELIN: Get pucks to the net. Don't pass up shots. Make sure we're taking care of the puck. And I didn't say it five times, but I told them it's our time. I told them you've been in this situation all year. You've been in the most games, won the most games. It's your time. And whether they bought into it, I don't know. I was running out of things to say. Q. Maybe you can take us through your emotions. You were talking about today it was all about the kids, but it's been 27 years, and I think many a day when you waited for this day. COACH SANDELIN: When I came here 11 years ago, I left a team that won a national championship, actually two in three years. So I left a pretty good position. But I was willing to accept that challenge, because I believe you could win here. And sometimes you gotta go through some rough patches, but we've had a great staff that's worked hard. We've recruited some great kids. But there's so many good teams. Sometimes the chemistry and things have to go right. You have to get luck, and we certainly had luck in overtime games. But this group was unique. I've been through two of these as an assistant coach. I've always said it: The best team wins. I feel we were the best team. Maybe not talent-wise, and I lived that through the '97 and 2000 at North Dakota. And that's really - now it's three times. We've got some great players. I've said it before. We've got a great group of guys. We've got the right pieces of the puzzle. But everything's got to come together and this group was resilient all year and worked hard and believed in each other. That's why I'm so happy for them. I'm happy for the program. Yeah, I'm happy for me. I've had a design on the ring planned since I got here. So now I get to put it into reality. Q. I was just wondering, except for the first half, the latter half of the first period when they seemed to have you hemmed into your own zone on the breakout, did you think that -- did you feel they were playing a little more passive than they normally do? They seemed to be pretty passive for the vast majority of the game while you were breaking out, your control breakout, and one more thing what adjustments did you make at the beginning of the second period to adjust to your breakout to make it more smooth? COACH SANDELIN: The first part of it, you know what, I'll be honest with you, I watched the North Dakota game, and we had clipped some things. I know we had the games from when they played UNO and CC, and I didn't see a whole lot of that. So I know how their teams play. I've played them before. They're always up tempo and they work hard and have a lot of speed and skill. I don't know if they were sitting back. I don't know. Maybe we had something to do with that in the first ten minutes. I think we had a good jump. I think that was critical to our start. Q. What adjustments did you make? COACH SANDELIN: Well, number one, we stopped moving our feet. We talked about short passes, not trying to force things, not trying to flip pucks especially through the middle. We were just standing around and we kept giving pucks to them. And nothing good happens from there. We talked about getting back to getting our feet moving, supporting the puck, whether it's on the wall, especially through the neutral zone and short passing up the rink and trying to get pucks in. Q. For a team that is really well known for the Connollys and Fontaine line, how important do you think it was that all three goals were scored by other players? COACH SANDELIN: Huge. I said earlier. I think teams, when you look at our line chart and you look at 160, 70 points on one line, you know you've got to shut them down. Obviously our second line's somewhere in the 80s and drops off to 20 something and 17. So teams can focus on that. But like I said, part of the reason -- early in the year we needed to find someone like a J.T. Brown come in as a freshman, be an impact player. And we put him in the position, and he had a phenomenal year, obviously, phenomenal game tonight in the tournament. We just needed someone to kind of help out and give us a good solid second line that could score. And he was certainly that. Our other two lines are very similar that chipped in. But you need it. You win as a team. You know what, it's the beauty of the game. Everyone's probably thinking those guys are going to score. And truthfully I wasn't even picking those guys. I was picking Mike Seidel to score the winning goal. So tells you what I know. Doesn't matter. Certainly needed that. Those guys can't carry us each and every game. THE MODERATOR: Congratulations. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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