The top ranked Gopher Hockey team held their weekly press conference at Mariucci Arena this afternoon. Head Coach Don Lucia met with the media, as did Seth Ambroz and Tom Serratore. The team takes on another former WCHA foe Minnesota-Duluth this weekend at Mariucci Arena in Friday and Sunday games.
Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the Goaltending situation… “You know, I’ll tell you what, It’s nice to have Mike (Shibrowski) come in and play as well as he did. It gives him confidence, it give his teammates confidence, his coaches confidence and it’s nice to know he stepped in and played as well as he played last Saturday night. We don’t need him to play every night, but he needs to play a handful of games this year, and he did a great job in the first one. I thought, quite honestly, the last few games before Saturday I think we became a little bit sloppy at times. We were giving up quite a few shots. Granted, we’re playing real good teams, but I thought, to a degree, we were trying to rely too much on Adam (Wilcox). That was part of the reason too. that we’ll see if they tighten up in front of Mike (Shibrowski). It’s going to be his first game. And they did that, especially the first couple of periods, we didn’t give much up for scoring chances. Our goaltending has been good. It’s given us a chance to win every night we’ve played. We’ve got some young guys back there. But more than just the defenseman, the forwards have to make sure. We’ve got a lot of freshman playing any given night, and what their given responsibility is based on their first, second or third guy back”
Regarding Tom Serratore… “We talked to him about, if you’re playing every night, you’ve gotta chip in offensively. I think he was feeling it a little bit, and he really responded with I think his best game of the year on Saturday night. He had a lot of hits, he had about five scoring chances, and scored the type of goal that Tom Serratore needs to score. That’s a rebound or deflection type goal. That’s going to the blue paint and being hard to play against. That’s Tom’s game. If you’re a forward in our lineup, our expectation is that, we don’t need you to score every night, but we need you to create some chances from an offensive standpoint. For Tom, he does other things, like killing penalties, playing physical and being hard to play against. What we recruited him to be is a type of guy that’s going to play more in our bottom six, and develop into a good penalty killer, be a physical presence, and be hard up on the forecheck. That’s what he’s been able to do. He’s been a very good complimentary player for our team”
Regarding the UMD Series… “Last weekend against Minnesota State, UMD this weekend and then Wisconsin next weekend. In many ways it feels like we’re still playing in the WCHA, because it’s the same teams we play each and every year. I think anytime you play your instate teams, there’s a rivalry involved. That’s something we talk about when the year begins, we want to have success in our own state. We feel good about winning the first four that we’ve had the opportunity to play. UMD, I like there team. I saw them a few weeks back when they played Notre Dame. They won that game. They’ve got a lot of good young talent, and I think their future is very bright right now. They’ve had a good year so far. They’ve got good team speed, their goaltending’s been real good, and defensively they haven’t given up very many goals“
Regarding UMD Head Coach Scott Sandelin… “We’ve got a good relationship. It’s not like we sit there and call each other every week. But, you don’t do that with very many people anyway. You’re so engrossed in your own team and running your program. He does a good job. He’s been there a lot of years, won a national championship, and he’s a good young coach”
Regarding the Women’s streak coming to an end… “I saw him (Head Coach Brad Frost) at a faculty luncheon we had yesterday. It was a phenomenal streak that they had. I don’t think that they had any illusion that it was going to last this year. I think they were a little surprised that it lasted as long as it did. It’s a real credit to their players and their coaches. It’s drawn awareness to Women’s hockey, and certainly their program. They have a couple of national titles, and I think the best thing is that their attendance has really gone up the last couple of years. They have a great product, especially for the younger females playing hockey. What a great role model. What a great place to go if you want to play Division I women’s college hockey some day. If I’m a parent, I’m bringing my girls to the game. I give him grief, because we’re the second best team on campus for hockey. They’ve had a great run. And it’s good for everybody. It’s good when the Women’s hockey does well, and it’s great when the football team is winning. The more success every athletic team can have on our campus, the better it is for everybody”
Regarding Seth Ambroz… “He worked hard in the offseason on his game. His skating has improved, and I just think he’s a better player than what he was last year. He’s more involved, he’s playing physical and we’re using him in specialty situations. I think that’s one of the things that’s really helped our team up to this point, is that we have better depth throughout our four lines. And that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to score every night throughout four lines, but creating pressure. Seth has had a lot of body contact every game, and he’s a very good defensive player as well. We have a lot of trust in him as coaches”
Regarding Jake Bischoff… “He’s been quietly getting better each and every week. The two freshman defenseman have had to switch off quite a bit. One of the things we wanted to do last weekend was get him two back to back games. He hadn’t had the opportunity to do that. The hard part is, I know for our staff, and certainly Mike (Guentzel), the runs in defenseman is, who do you take out. There’s seven guys that deserve to play night after night, but they all can’t play. It’s that fine line of giving us the mix of who can play on the power play, who can kill a penalty, and then whose got the upside that is going to continue improving by the end of the season”
Seth Ambroz:
Regarding his empty net goal… “He (the goalie) did not have a chance, I think. It was a pretty well placed shot”
Regarding the UMD Series… “It’s always been a rivalry with Duluth. Obviously, sometimes it does get overlooked with Wisconsin and North Dakota, but it’s an in state rivalry. A big in state rivalry. They’re always ready to play us, we’re always ready to play them, so it should be a good series. They always give us their best, so it should be fun to watch”
Regarding the teams season so far… “We’ve played some good teams so far. We’ve had a real tough non-conference schedule, which has been going well. Minnesota State has a good team, and they’re really well coached. They obviously started off slow, but they’ll be there at the end of the year. They always are. And Duluth, they’ve had a good start so far. They’ve won some good games. They beat North Dakota, and they beat Wisconsin and some good teams. It should be another good test for us to see where we are as a team”
Regarding his line… “We played well together. We’ve played together in the past, so maybe we had a little chemistry there. We were able to put some stuff together at the end there, the last ten minutes, I felt. We had some good scoring chances. And I was happy to see Tommy (Serratore) put one in there. It was great. It was fun, and we’ll see what happens. Everything is still kind of getting mixed around, so we’ll find out here at the end of the week. I’ve been skating with Tommy and (Christian) Isackson this week, and it’s been fun, so we’ll see what happens”
Regarding Tom Serratore… “He’s been working hard all year. You could tell earlier in the week he was putting some pucks in the net. And maybe he’s been gripping the stick a little too tight, trying to get that first one. And now that he did, I feel like that’s just a big monkey off his back. It’s really good. You can tell in practice too. He’s playing with a lot more confidence, and actually lighting up our goaltenders in practice this week. I was really happy to see him score such a big goal, and it was huge for our team as well. It’s fun. We both kind of feed off each other. We’re both physical players, and we almost have an inner competition to get some hits on the boards, and put pucks in the net. You know, Tommy’s game is bringing it night in and night out, and do what he can for the team, just to help out. He’s a great guy, a great team guy, and everyone loves him. It was really nice to see him put that puck in”
Regarding Mike Shibrowski… “That was awesome. He’s probably our ultimate team guy. Every day in practice, he brings his A-game, works hard, and works with players after practice, just waiting for his chance. He deserved it. He deserved a chance, and he got it. It was great to see. I think a lot of people don’t see Shibrowski, with Wilcox in net, but he’s such a good goaltender too. It’s nice to have two reliable goalies. He deserved that outcome. He’s been working hard, it was good to see, and everyone was happy for him”
Regarding playing on a Sunday… “You know, we adjust our times with the time change. We’ll just move things up a couple of hours, but stay in the same routine. Obviously having the day off, you might have to regroup after friday night, and see what happens. We’ve already done it once this year, so we know what to expect. We should be fine, and ready to go for both”
Regarding the Women’s streak coming to an end… “It almost doesn’t seem realistic, it’s so impressive. Sixty two wins in a row. I mean, they have girls on that team who hadn’t lost a game yet. That’s incredible. It’s good for them, and good for their program. I’m sure they’ll start another streak right now, and go from there. That’s gotta be fun to be a part of. Two national championships, and who knows, maybe a third one here at the end of the year if they keep playing the way they do. They have a good squad over there, and it’s been fun to watch. It’s great. It’s great for Minnesota. It’s nice to see that both hockey teams are contributing really well. Hopefully, we can keep it going from here”
Tom Serratore:
Regarding his goal last weekend… “You know, I don’t really try to focus on that as much, but it felt great. I had a little bit of a drought there, and you like to get on the board here and there, so it obviously felt really good for me. I was really excited, that’s for sure. Big goal”
Regarding the UMD Series… “These Minnesota rivalries are something we really take personally. We want to be the best team in the state. So, every weekend that comes in, and we play these teams again, they’re big rivalries for us. We don’t take it lightly”
Regarding Mike Shibrowski… “It was unbelievable. He’s one of the kids that comes to work every day. He doesn’t have a negative bone in his body, and he comes to battle every day, so it was great to see him have success. We all did everything we could to battle for him, and get that win. It was awesome. Great for the team, too. Obviously we’re comfortable back there with (Adam) Wilcox, but we were comfortable with him (Mike Shibrowski) too. And seeing that he can do what he did, it’s really good for the team to know that we have two guys back there that can really stop the puck”
Regarding his line… “I think the last weekend we were really coming together, and feeling a little more chemistry coming. We got a few more shifts with Boyder (Travis Boyd) there at the end, and felt that chemistry back from last year. So, I could see that coming into this weekend, or (Christian) Isackson, or (AJ) Michaelson, or somebody else. We’ll battle through it, and do as well as we can. I don’t really have much say in that. I just come to the rink and battle every day, and try to do my best. He posts the lineup, and you go to work and battle with those guys”
Regarding playing on a Sunday… “We weren’t really expecting it, but it is what it is. They’ve got the football game here, so… We’ll play friday, and then Saturday we’ll regroup and have a little practice, and get ready to go on Sunday”
Head Coach Don Lucia:
Regarding the Goaltending situation… “You know, I’ll tell you what, It’s nice to have Mike (Shibrowski) come in and play as well as he did. It gives him confidence, it give his teammates confidence, his coaches confidence and it’s nice to know he stepped in and played as well as he played last Saturday night. We don’t need him to play every night, but he needs to play a handful of games this year, and he did a great job in the first one. I thought, quite honestly, the last few games before Saturday I think we became a little bit sloppy at times. We were giving up quite a few shots. Granted, we’re playing real good teams, but I thought, to a degree, we were trying to rely too much on Adam (Wilcox). That was part of the reason too. that we’ll see if they tighten up in front of Mike (Shibrowski). It’s going to be his first game. And they did that, especially the first couple of periods, we didn’t give much up for scoring chances. Our goaltending has been good. It’s given us a chance to win every night we’ve played. We’ve got some young guys back there. But more than just the defenseman, the forwards have to make sure. We’ve got a lot of freshman playing any given night, and what their given responsibility is based on their first, second or third guy back”
Regarding Tom Serratore… “We talked to him about, if you’re playing every night, you’ve gotta chip in offensively. I think he was feeling it a little bit, and he really responded with I think his best game of the year on Saturday night. He had a lot of hits, he had about five scoring chances, and scored the type of goal that Tom Serratore needs to score. That’s a rebound or deflection type goal. That’s going to the blue paint and being hard to play against. That’s Tom’s game. If you’re a forward in our lineup, our expectation is that, we don’t need you to score every night, but we need you to create some chances from an offensive standpoint. For Tom, he does other things, like killing penalties, playing physical and being hard to play against. What we recruited him to be is a type of guy that’s going to play more in our bottom six, and develop into a good penalty killer, be a physical presence, and be hard up on the forecheck. That’s what he’s been able to do. He’s been a very good complimentary player for our team”
Regarding the UMD Series… “Last weekend against Minnesota State, UMD this weekend and then Wisconsin next weekend. In many ways it feels like we’re still playing in the WCHA, because it’s the same teams we play each and every year. I think anytime you play your instate teams, there’s a rivalry involved. That’s something we talk about when the year begins, we want to have success in our own state. We feel good about winning the first four that we’ve had the opportunity to play. UMD, I like there team. I saw them a few weeks back when they played Notre Dame. They won that game. They’ve got a lot of good young talent, and I think their future is very bright right now. They’ve had a good year so far. They’ve got good team speed, their goaltending’s been real good, and defensively they haven’t given up very many goals“
Regarding UMD Head Coach Scott Sandelin… “We’ve got a good relationship. It’s not like we sit there and call each other every week. But, you don’t do that with very many people anyway. You’re so engrossed in your own team and running your program. He does a good job. He’s been there a lot of years, won a national championship, and he’s a good young coach”
Regarding the Women’s streak coming to an end… “I saw him (Head Coach Brad Frost) at a faculty luncheon we had yesterday. It was a phenomenal streak that they had. I don’t think that they had any illusion that it was going to last this year. I think they were a little surprised that it lasted as long as it did. It’s a real credit to their players and their coaches. It’s drawn awareness to Women’s hockey, and certainly their program. They have a couple of national titles, and I think the best thing is that their attendance has really gone up the last couple of years. They have a great product, especially for the younger females playing hockey. What a great role model. What a great place to go if you want to play Division I women’s college hockey some day. If I’m a parent, I’m bringing my girls to the game. I give him grief, because we’re the second best team on campus for hockey. They’ve had a great run. And it’s good for everybody. It’s good when the Women’s hockey does well, and it’s great when the football team is winning. The more success every athletic team can have on our campus, the better it is for everybody”
Regarding Seth Ambroz… “He worked hard in the offseason on his game. His skating has improved, and I just think he’s a better player than what he was last year. He’s more involved, he’s playing physical and we’re using him in specialty situations. I think that’s one of the things that’s really helped our team up to this point, is that we have better depth throughout our four lines. And that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to score every night throughout four lines, but creating pressure. Seth has had a lot of body contact every game, and he’s a very good defensive player as well. We have a lot of trust in him as coaches”
Regarding Jake Bischoff… “He’s been quietly getting better each and every week. The two freshman defenseman have had to switch off quite a bit. One of the things we wanted to do last weekend was get him two back to back games. He hadn’t had the opportunity to do that. The hard part is, I know for our staff, and certainly Mike (Guentzel), the runs in defenseman is, who do you take out. There’s seven guys that deserve to play night after night, but they all can’t play. It’s that fine line of giving us the mix of who can play on the power play, who can kill a penalty, and then whose got the upside that is going to continue improving by the end of the season”
Seth Ambroz:
Regarding his empty net goal… “He (the goalie) did not have a chance, I think. It was a pretty well placed shot”
Regarding the UMD Series… “It’s always been a rivalry with Duluth. Obviously, sometimes it does get overlooked with Wisconsin and North Dakota, but it’s an in state rivalry. A big in state rivalry. They’re always ready to play us, we’re always ready to play them, so it should be a good series. They always give us their best, so it should be fun to watch”
Regarding the teams season so far… “We’ve played some good teams so far. We’ve had a real tough non-conference schedule, which has been going well. Minnesota State has a good team, and they’re really well coached. They obviously started off slow, but they’ll be there at the end of the year. They always are. And Duluth, they’ve had a good start so far. They’ve won some good games. They beat North Dakota, and they beat Wisconsin and some good teams. It should be another good test for us to see where we are as a team”
Regarding his line… “We played well together. We’ve played together in the past, so maybe we had a little chemistry there. We were able to put some stuff together at the end there, the last ten minutes, I felt. We had some good scoring chances. And I was happy to see Tommy (Serratore) put one in there. It was great. It was fun, and we’ll see what happens. Everything is still kind of getting mixed around, so we’ll find out here at the end of the week. I’ve been skating with Tommy and (Christian) Isackson this week, and it’s been fun, so we’ll see what happens”
Regarding Tom Serratore… “He’s been working hard all year. You could tell earlier in the week he was putting some pucks in the net. And maybe he’s been gripping the stick a little too tight, trying to get that first one. And now that he did, I feel like that’s just a big monkey off his back. It’s really good. You can tell in practice too. He’s playing with a lot more confidence, and actually lighting up our goaltenders in practice this week. I was really happy to see him score such a big goal, and it was huge for our team as well. It’s fun. We both kind of feed off each other. We’re both physical players, and we almost have an inner competition to get some hits on the boards, and put pucks in the net. You know, Tommy’s game is bringing it night in and night out, and do what he can for the team, just to help out. He’s a great guy, a great team guy, and everyone loves him. It was really nice to see him put that puck in”
Regarding Mike Shibrowski… “That was awesome. He’s probably our ultimate team guy. Every day in practice, he brings his A-game, works hard, and works with players after practice, just waiting for his chance. He deserved it. He deserved a chance, and he got it. It was great to see. I think a lot of people don’t see Shibrowski, with Wilcox in net, but he’s such a good goaltender too. It’s nice to have two reliable goalies. He deserved that outcome. He’s been working hard, it was good to see, and everyone was happy for him”
Regarding playing on a Sunday… “You know, we adjust our times with the time change. We’ll just move things up a couple of hours, but stay in the same routine. Obviously having the day off, you might have to regroup after friday night, and see what happens. We’ve already done it once this year, so we know what to expect. We should be fine, and ready to go for both”
Regarding the Women’s streak coming to an end… “It almost doesn’t seem realistic, it’s so impressive. Sixty two wins in a row. I mean, they have girls on that team who hadn’t lost a game yet. That’s incredible. It’s good for them, and good for their program. I’m sure they’ll start another streak right now, and go from there. That’s gotta be fun to be a part of. Two national championships, and who knows, maybe a third one here at the end of the year if they keep playing the way they do. They have a good squad over there, and it’s been fun to watch. It’s great. It’s great for Minnesota. It’s nice to see that both hockey teams are contributing really well. Hopefully, we can keep it going from here”
Tom Serratore:
Regarding his goal last weekend… “You know, I don’t really try to focus on that as much, but it felt great. I had a little bit of a drought there, and you like to get on the board here and there, so it obviously felt really good for me. I was really excited, that’s for sure. Big goal”
Regarding the UMD Series… “These Minnesota rivalries are something we really take personally. We want to be the best team in the state. So, every weekend that comes in, and we play these teams again, they’re big rivalries for us. We don’t take it lightly”
Regarding Mike Shibrowski… “It was unbelievable. He’s one of the kids that comes to work every day. He doesn’t have a negative bone in his body, and he comes to battle every day, so it was great to see him have success. We all did everything we could to battle for him, and get that win. It was awesome. Great for the team, too. Obviously we’re comfortable back there with (Adam) Wilcox, but we were comfortable with him (Mike Shibrowski) too. And seeing that he can do what he did, it’s really good for the team to know that we have two guys back there that can really stop the puck”
Regarding his line… “I think the last weekend we were really coming together, and feeling a little more chemistry coming. We got a few more shifts with Boyder (Travis Boyd) there at the end, and felt that chemistry back from last year. So, I could see that coming into this weekend, or (Christian) Isackson, or (AJ) Michaelson, or somebody else. We’ll battle through it, and do as well as we can. I don’t really have much say in that. I just come to the rink and battle every day, and try to do my best. He posts the lineup, and you go to work and battle with those guys”
Regarding playing on a Sunday… “We weren’t really expecting it, but it is what it is. They’ve got the football game here, so… We’ll play friday, and then Saturday we’ll regroup and have a little practice, and get ready to go on Sunday”