Michigan State 2, Notre Dame 0
11/18/2006 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
Nov. 18, 2006
Michigan State Head Coach Rick Comley
On the way the team bounced back from Friday's loss...
I thought for this game we found that you can't be afraid to name a game `a big game.' That's what we talked about - if we want to finish in the upper part of the league and to be legitimate, this is one of the better teams and we had to say `OK, this is one of the games we have to win.' It doesn't end your season if you don't win, but I was impressed with the way we came out. We played very, very solid.
I was really worried fatigue-wise. I think I won't do it that way anymore, go down [the same day] for the first game of a series, play, come back. It's such a long, draining day. But, we were very resilient. We held them in early and Jeff (Lerg) was really solid right from the start. The power play goal, they're so good defensively that they just don't give you much, especially on their penalty kill. It was a good series against two pretty darned good teams.
On the importance of getting the first goal...
I think it was really important. It had that look that it might be a 1-0 game and I knew that first goal was going to be very important.
On the differences between Friday and Saturday night...
They weren't as physical tonight. They didn't seem to have quite the same jump tonight. Maybe they threw everything they had at us last night. It's really tough to play that physical two nights in a row.
Michigan State Junior Forward Bryan Lerg
On the play of the offense tonight...
I think today we were very good in the offensive zone - cycling the puck and getting it to the net. All four lines played unbelievable tonight and the defense was doing a good job breaking the puck out. It was an all around feel-good, team win.
On the difference in tonight and last night...
It looked like we felt like playing tonight. We came out yesterday slow and a little sluggish and they were moving us around. Tonight, it seemed like it was a bit of a role reversal. It felt good to have the puck in their zone for a lot of the first period. We took some bad penalties, but we did a good job killing them off.
On the team's play in the offensive zone...
I was pretty surprised we only had 17 shots. I thought we had more than that, but if you think about it, we did a lot of work deep in the zone, but didn't really take it to the net as much as we probably should have. After the first, we said in the locker room we needed to drive to the net more and not just cycle. That is what we did.
Michigan State Sophomore Goaltender Jeff Lerg
On the difference between last night and tonight...
I thought we came out ready for them tonight. I really think the difference was them, though. Last night, they came out fully charged with a lot of jump. They were finishing their checks, flying around the ice, and it kind of caught us by surprise. Tonight, I think we outplayed them, even though they out shot us and we kind of let them back in the game with some late penalties. We tried to take it to them and finish our checks tonight.
On the play of the defense tonight...
We played well defensively. Most of the shots came on the power play when we took some bad penalties. We did a good job keeping them to the outside and were solid up the middle except for that one little flurry late.
On the difference in his play tonight...
For the most part, it was me doing a better job of controlling rebounds. Compared to last night, we had a lot fewer rebounds that we gave up and those can lead to some chances. Sometimes, you just have to create your bounces, which is what we did compared to last night. When the puck squirted out, we had defensemen tying up sticks.
Notre Dame Head Coach Jeff Jackson
On the difference in his team's play Saturday night... I didn't think we were as crisp for some reason. It seemed to me that we were on our heels a bit. They were first to pucks tonight whereas we were first to pucks last night. I think it was a little tit-for-tat as far as home ice advantage.
On Notre Dame not being as physical as they were Friday...
It's tough sometimes with Saturday night games because a lot of energy gets expended Friday night. It's difficult to keep it going Friday night. But, again I thought we were on our heels more and didn't get back into it until the midpoint of the game.
Notre Dame Junior Forward Mark Van Guilder
On the difference in Michigan State's play on Saturday night...
They were jumping a lot more tonight. They were on their toes and pressuring us all night. It seemed like we had a lot less time with the puck all over the ice.
On how Notre Dame tried to make adjustments to Michigan State...
We tried to make adjustments but we were losing draws a lot tonight. We didn't have the puck as much as we did last night and its tough to make plays offensively when you're chasing all night.
