Wisconsin Postgame Quotes
Wisconsin vs. Denver
November 21, 2015
Kohl Center - Madison, Wis.
 
Mike Eaves
On the team's slow starts this season:
"Until you said those numbers, I would have disagreed with you. Last night we got off to a slow start because we hadn't played in two weeks. Tonight we got off to a slow start, I think that was our fault. The goal scoring part, the 10-3, I think we've had some good starts and haven't scored. I think that's a little skewed, the numbers are skewed, based on sometimes you get off to a good start and you don't score but tonight was a puzzle for us as coaches. I think this was the first night in a long time, we've played 12 games now, that we can say, 'We didn't take a step forward, or half a step forward tonight.' Our schedule has been such that we've played such good teams and been on the road and tonight we just didn't take that step and that was disappointing. But at the same time I can say with a whole heart that that's going to happen with a young team. What's really important now is how we respond to the things that happened tonight and we have another couple weeks here to work on that and it's about how we respond in practice. We talked to the guys after and we played well in North Dakota and we got the reward of giving them a weekend off. We didn't fare so well this weekend, so we are going to stay and we're going to practice Monday through Saturday and we're going to get after it. We're going to continue to push to get better, that's what we need to do. That's what the doctor ordered, so we're going to fill that prescription."
 
On Matt Jurusik's performance:
"There's a two-sided coin to that. The fact is, he made some "gihugic" saves. We look at that as, we need to be better in front of him. The fact that he made those saves makes you think "wow, that's a good thing to have in the bank for us" but we didn't handle their second wave of attack, we had poor body positions in our own zone. Instead of having our feet east and west and knowing where people were, we were north and south and people were coming in behind us and that's not good. That's where we took half a step back, which is disappointing. But again, young group. These are things we're going to continue to work on and get better at."
 
On the amount of time spent in their own zone:
"I think it was a combination of two things. Number one, I think when we were in their zone we shot pucks but we didn't retrieve pucks very well in there so we didn't spend as much time in there. In our own zone, because of the way they play and they interchange positions, we didn't seem to handle our switches and our talk very well. As a result they had it in our zone much too long."


Defender Tim Davison

"Well obviously they came out with a little jump. They were probably pretty disappointed, a top ranked team, to come in here and end in a tie last night. We had a good game plan and had the right mindset but things just weren't working at the start. We kind of got frustrated and fortunately Matt [Jurusik] played really well and we were able to stay in the game for the most part until late in the third period."

"It was a nice pass by Adam Rockwood who was able to get it past their forward. Then Jedd Soleway had a great screen in front and the goalie wasn't able to see it. We definitely had some momentum going, had some energy and a little boost on the bench. Shortly after that, Jake Linhart was able to get a goal. Things were going in our favor. We had a lot of energy and momentum going into the third period. That was good for a moment."

"Yeah, definitely early in the season when we were able to come back from games. It definitely gives us that confidence knowing that we can do it and its possible. When we try to run with that and try not to forget things that happened in the past and build towards the future."

"Definitely not my best night. Whenever you give up five it's a bad night. Didn't play my best but a couple positives throughout the game. It's just putting together a full 60 that we're working on right now. Once we do that we'll start seeing good results.

"It stings a little bit. But there are a lot of things we can learn from this weekend. It's just taking those into the bye week and really making sure we're ready to go when we play games again."