Postgame Quotes: Wisconsin vs. No. 16 Michigan

Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. No. 16 Michigan
Jan. 24, 2015
Kohl Center - Madison, Wis.

UW Head Coach Mike Eaves

On his thought process of which goalie to play after the first period:
"Our goaltending has been such a strong piece of our team here. Rumpz (Joel Rumpel) would like that first one back and Petey (Landon Peterson) would like that third one back. So they were a little bit of a hole there for us. Whether or not Rumpz was going to go back in depended on how Petey played and how he looked. If he looked sharp, we might've left him in there, but he struggled and the decision was made easy. Rumpz went in there in the [second] period and he looked really good. He was very fluid, athletic, powerful. It was a good decision. What he basically said was 'I'm here boys; let's get going,' through his play. It was a good statement by him."

On how the team's effort was tonight:
"Well the first 20 (minutes) was disappointing. I thought we stood around and we watched again and we didn't respond like I thought we would've. Maybe the shock from last night was still lingering in their little bodies. The test was in the second and third periods. Guys missed ice. If guys weren't doing what they were supposed to do, they missed ice time. Enough's enough. I think that was a good thing to do at that time."

On if he thinks he lost the team:
"Sometimes I wonder the angle you come at these questions with. I answered this two weeks ago and it's still the same."

On the progress of the team:
"How do you measure that? Inches? We've improved and there's lots of room to grow, but I don't know how you quantify it. When you grow a plant in the ground and you plant the seed, you can measure how it's growing. How do you do that with a group of young people? I can tell you that they've gotten better, but there's lots of room to grow. How's that?"

On the game plan against a top team like Michigan:
"They lead the country in goals for, so we knew that coming in. We knew part of the formula tonight was that our goaltenders would have to be good. Part of our plan tonight was to hopefully play better without the puck so that we would have the puck more and play in their zone so that was the plan. It didn't come through like we thought."

On if he saw the results he wanted to after benching players:
"I think that the line has been drawn in the sand. It's interesting when you're working with college kids as opposed to pro, we can't trade people. We can't send people down and bring people up. This is the group we have. The fact is that we have to use measures that are going to be somewhat stimulating, and that they'll have to give up ice time no matter who it is. (Kevin) Schulze missed ice time, (Joseph) LaBate missed ice time, (Grant) Besse missed ice time, (Matt) Paape missed ice time. The line is drawn in the sand and we're going to a new level and it's about accountability and to keep moving forward. This is all part of the process of us getting better. It's not the first time that this type of thing has happened with this team and it's going to continue."

On if the benching was due to effort or attention to detail:
"Not effort. Poor Brad Navin. The kids has such a big heart. He takes a penalty in the third period for holding and I say, 'Brad, what are you doing? You have to sit down and miss some shifts. Great heart but just not very intelligent. It's coming down to things like that where we need to hold them accountable. This will be part of the solution for us to keep growing now."

On why the line wasn't drawn earlier in the season:
"I think because of the youth and the patience and stuff, but we're at a different point in the season so this is a new….well an old tactic that we're using at this point in the season."

Wisconsin Players

Senior Forward Brad Navin

On what impact Eddie Wittchow's suspension had on this series, if any:

"Eddie is definitely a strong part of our back end. We saw that he's been struggling with bad luck this year. He got a concussion, broke his finger. Eddie definitely brings a physical aspect to our defensive core. We don't have many guys that bang their body around and that's one aspect that Eddie brings. It's a huge part of our lineup, especially getting the puck out of the zone. Eddie can do that for us, keeps everything simple, so he's definitely missed. But Cullen Hurley did his job this weekend, played simple and did what we needed him to do."

On if accountability is something that has been missing for this season:

"Accountability has been something we've talked about all year long. Guys know what is expected of them every night. We've had talks on what each guy can bring to the lineup every night. We see spurts of it here and there, we just don't have it consistently every night. You can start here with the senior core. We've got to lead for the younger guys. They're looking up to us too, so some consistency comes from us too. But it's time for them to fill their roles too. The word young, we're not big fans of that word."

Senior Goaltender Joel Rumpel

On his reaction after getting pulled a couple minutes into the game after the Badgers went down 2-0:

"I don't know. I wasn't thinking too much into it really. Obviously I wasn't playing that well. Made a couple mistakes early and you can't have that against a team like this. They're going to capitalize."

On how he seemed to be energized after coming back in in the second period:

"Yeah, getting pulled and letting your team down like that, I wanted to come out and make some big saves and not let any in. That obviously didn't happen, but yeah you can say that."

On what was head coach Mike Eave's message in the locker room after the game:

"Just we have got to quit making excuses. Nobody's young anymore, we can't be saying that. Everbody has got to bring it every night from goaltending to our forwards, to our young guys to our old guys. We can't be inconsistent like this. We've just got to figure it out pretty much."

Senior Forward Joseph LaBate

On if it's fair to say that Mike Eaves has reached his limit, that his patience has run out with this team:

"I think so. Obviously losing 6-0 is very frustrating. We only have two wins on the season, but I give him credit. He has not given up on our team. Our coaching staff isn't and none of the guys in the locker room are giving up, so we're going to get right back to work and get ready for Minnesota."

On if he can explain the slow start in the first period:

"I don't have a direct word for it. I think they got a quick bounce and just one after another. Any time you go down 4-0 it's pretty frustrating in the first period. But our mentality in the locker room was to just keep going, keep the energy up on the bench. To our credit we did that. I know you can't see that on the ice, but we felt it. No one's giving up in the locker room and we're getting ready for Minnesota."

University of Wisconsin Athletics

Postgame Quotes: Wisconsin vs. No. 16 Michigan

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