Postgame Quotes Versus Michigan
3/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Men's Ice Hockey
March 16, 2007
Michigan State Head Coach Rick Comley
Opening statement...
I thought that in the first period we played fairly well, we had a couple of goals disallowed but those are the breaks of the game. I thought that after we got our first goal to make it 3-1 that we had a chance. They're a very good team and they deserve to win. If you shrink the ice, they are really going to hurt you. Their upper level players are so good.
On the quick turnaround with playing in the consolation game Saturday afternoon...
This is disappointing, but our season isn't over. If we win tomorrow then we'll be in the national tournament for sure so it's a very big game for us tomorrow.
Michigan State Sophomore Forward Justin Abdelkader
On his penalty shot...
That's probably the most nervous I've ever been in a game like this. I came down, faked the shot and I kind of saw the five-hole open up. I went for the five-hole and it just got a little bit too high, otherwise it would have been in. Give Sauer credit on that though, he made a great save.
On the second period...
I think we just had a couple of mental errors that cost us three goals in the second period and one in the third period. You can't give Michigan odd-man rushes because they're really skilled. They've got a lot of guys that put the puck in the net when you turn it over.
On going into the first period tied at zero with numerous chances to score...
I don't think it was necessarily deflating. We felt like we had a lot of chances and that we had the momentum. I thought we played, for the most part, pretty good in the first period but in the second and third period we didn't play smart with the puck and didn't do what we wanted to do.
Michigan State Senior Captain Chris Lawrence
On Michigan State's overall play...
I think we played pretty physical, maybe we could have been a little more physical. I think just our lack of respect with the puck burned us four times. We know that their strengths are their transition game and their speed. I also think that that was the best I've seen them play defensively, with the exception of the last five minutes, against us in the last couple of years. You got to give them credit but we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times and it really hurt us.
