Recap| Box Score
Postgame Quotes
NCAA Semifinal
Minnesota 3, Wisconsin 1
March 20, 2015
Ridder Arena - Minneapolis, Minn.
Head coach Mark Johnson
Opening Statement:
"As I told the team a few minutes ago, they left everything on the ice. We had our opportunities, we didn't capitalize on the opportunities that we had. It wasn't due to a lack of effort or commitment. The team was happy with the way we played. The tough part is you come up short again, similar situation that we were in last year. You can taste the championship game and you're one step away. It's disappointing for anybody when it's your last game and you don't get to practice tomorrow and don't get the opportunity to play Sunday afternoon. It's disappointing but again I'm very proud of my team and the way they conducted themselves, especially the last, probably, five or six weeks where we started to hone in and focus in and put themselves in a real good spot. That's the tough thing about our business, Minnesota did capitalize on a couple opportunities in the middle part of the second period and when we had our opportunities they were able to withhold that. Congratulations to them and wish them good luck Sunday afternoon."
On controlling play for the first 25 minutes:
"Well I think the one thing you saw is when a team scores a goal they get a lot of energy from it. After we scored and made it 1-0, we had some good shifts after that. They capitalized on a play and energized it and within two minutes they got a second goal, and then they capitalized on a power play later in the period. Again, the chances we had in the second period, two or three golden opportunities, even if you get one of those it might change the momentum of the game. Their goaltender was able to make the saves she needed to, they blocked the shots that they needed, and capitalized on the opportunities when we presented them."
On if Wisconsin was the better team and Minnesota has better individuals tonight:
"Well similar to our game last Saturday, when you're playing against world class athletes, at the end of the game you don't want to see them on the score sheet. If they're not on the score sheet you probably have a pretty good chance of winning. It just seems the last, probably year, maybe two years Hannah [Brandt] always seems to play a strong game against us. Rachel Ramsey always plays a strong game against us, [Dani] Cameranesi plays strong. Their elite players, their go-to players always seem to come up big in the big moments. When they needed a boost in today's game Hannah stepped up and scored and she set up a couple more plays. That's why she's so special to them, and that's one of the reasons that for three years they've been pretty tough to defeat, especially for us."
Forward Annie Pankowski
On if Minnesota's power-play goal was the momentum-changer:
"Power play goals are always a tough one to take and in a high intensity game like we had here and the crowd kind of shut us down a little bit, but that's the game of hockey, it's going to be up and down, it's going to be our ability to respond. It just didn't happen the way we wanted it to happen today."
On her season and how she will build on her breakout year for next year:
"I think in the locker room you could see on the faces of everyone, even the seniors that this was not enough for everyone. It's going to be that bitter taste that's in our mouth that's going to drive us next year."
On the play on Minnesota's goaltender:
"All the credit in the world to that goalie, she played a great game, but her team played a great game in front of her. It's just the little bounces that didn't go our way that could have changed the game. I think we had the opportunities we just didn't get our bounce."
