Feb. 4, 2012
Recap | Final Stats | Photo Gallery 
Wisconsin vs. St. Cloud State
Kohl Center - Madison, Wis.
Head Coach Mike Eaves
On whether St. Cloud focused on taking away Schultz and Zengerle:
“No, I don’t think so necessarily. They had a lot of shots; they were involved in a lot of chances. They just didn’t get on the score sheet. If we were to take a look at this and see they didn’t have shots or look at the film and see they didn’t have scoring chances, then we would wonder what was going on. But they had a lot of shots, they had a lot of chances. [Tyler Barnes] had six shots tonight too. We talked all week about getting more shots on the net, and we did that. But we ran into a hot goaltender tonight, [Mike Lee], who was their first and second star.”
On coming off a tough loss last night:
“I can’t speak for the players, but I can speak for myself and say it was a long day. It’s an eight o’clock game, so you have a lot of time to think about what happened last night, and I know what was on everybody’s mind was the fact that we wanted to come out and play well and get some of our self-esteem back after last night. For a large part of the game, we did it. I think the result would have been different if we weren’t facing Mr. Lee in the net.”
On starting Landon Peterson over Joel Rumpel:
“On that second goal last night, when I went and looked at it—he was off his angle to a very great degree. Then the wraparound…maybe it was just time for a break and a little step back. There have been 12 goals scored on [Rumpel] in the last three games, and Landon’s been looking great in practice. He looked great tonight. He made some saves early for us. The decision was not as difficult as one may think, and that’s why we went with Peterson.”
On what led to the decisive goal:
“It was a simple line-rush. They came down the ice and took a backhand, and it got between [Peterson’s] arm and his pad and got in the net. It wasn’t like they were in our zone for a minute. There was another shift where they were in our zone for a long time. But on the winning goal it was the fact that it was a line-rush, and the guy took a backhand shot and [Peterson] didn’t squeeze it.”
On how the team looks to Schultz and Zengerle to lead the scoring push:
“I think they look to themselves. It’s expected of them, they expect it of themselves. It’s one of the things they’re graded on after games. All offensive people, there’s this flow and ebb. I’d be more concerned right now if they weren’t getting shots and they weren’t getting scoring chances. The fact is they are, and we know that that trend is going to come back up. That’s tough to tell an offensive guy, because they don’t want to hear that, they want results. What they need to do is to continue to come back to the drawing board on Monday and come back to work with the rest of us.”
On how this bye week impacts the team:
“I’m excited. I came into the locker room after the game and there was just this thought, ‘You know what? Things happen for a reason’. We probably have never been more disappointed. I see a lot of guys with red eyes and tears, and angry and frustrated, but now we’re going to get an x-ray vision of what we’re made of this week. We’re going to come back, and we’re going to get right back to the drawing board, and we’re going to push each other harder. That’s the only way we’re going to get out of this thing. It’s an opportunity for us to take a good look in the mirror. We’re either going to feel sorry for ourselves and think ‘Oh man, we lost four straight, woe-is-me,’ or we’re going to get right back in the saddle on Monday and all through this week we’re going to get after it and we’re going to get it done and we’re going to improve, and then we’ll see what happens when Denver comes to town.”
On how this bye week impacts the team:
I would ask if the record reflects the growth of this team. This week in practice, man, I really liked us. I thought as we watched us do drills, and we were standing there as coaches, and we said to each other, “Can you believe how far we’ve come?” Then we come out and do what we did last night, and I still can’t explain that. I think [our record] doesn’t reflect the growth. We’re putting a lot of pressure on some young people to perform at a high level. I look at young Joseph LaBate sometimes and I think, ‘Wow, there’s a lot of weight on his shoulders, playing with Zengerle and Barnes, and the expectations we’ve had.’ It’s almost not fair, but we’re going to stay with him, and he’s getting forged right now in the fire, being on the first line right now with what the expectations are. I think it’s going to serve him well in the future.”
On starting Little’s line instead of Zengerle’s:
“It was because of what they could provide at the beginning of the game, with their energy, to get the puck and go to work, and to change it up a little bit too. We’ve started Zengerle’s line an awful lot this year.”
On how the team responded the coaching staff asking them to shoot more:
“The thing that I talked about was needing to get more shots, and producing those scoring chances, and we did that. We had 33 and 43 shots, and over the course of the weekend we fired a lot more pucks. So the point of emphasis this week was taken to heart, and we did execute in the games, we just didn’t get enough goals.”
On the likelihood of his team getting home-ice for the WCHA playoffs:
“To be honest, we’re probably going to need some help. That’s the long and short of it. And once again, what becomes our focus is what we have to do next. But if you want to take a step back and look at the big picture, we’re going to need some help.”
Junior Defenseman Justin Schultz
On preparing for tonight's game after last night's performance:
"Same as every other day, watch the video and do what you have to do to get ready to play. I thought we were ready to play tonight. We played pretty well."
On the opposing goalie, Mike Lee's performance:
"We had chances. We just couldn't find a way to put anything in and that's frustrating. He's a good goalie."
On how to get past the scoring shortage:
"It starts in practice. Keep shooting in practice and it's going to carry over to the game. We had chances tonight and last night. We just couldn't put the puck in the net. So working on scoring is going to be the main thing."
Sophomore Defenseman Frankie Simonelli
On where the team is emotionally:
"We're definitely not excited about the outcome this weekend. We know come Monday we have to get back to work. There are only six games left in the regular season so we have a lot of work to do still. Our heads are up and we're going to get after it."
On tonight's game being a better performance than Friday's:
"We definitely put together a better effort than we did last night and we played a pretty complete game. Our shots were up in the forties. I think that's one of the first times all year we've had that. We ran into a hot goalie and that seemed to be the difference maker tonight."
Sophomore Forward Mark Zengerle
On the lack of scoring:
"I'd say it's frustrating. We want to be on the score sheet every night but I don't think it was any different than it is on any other weekend to be honest. I guess we just didn't seal the deal. We had chances, maybe not as many as we usually do, but there were definitely chances. I think their goalie played pretty well too."
On how he and Schultz get back on their game:
"We've been playing this game for a while and sometimes it doesn't always work out. The hour after the game is probably one of the more frustrating times, like right now. As it goes on you just need to get past it, get back to practice so you can regain your confidence. So I guess you do go back to the drawing board a little bit, but I guess it's a good thing we have a week off."
