WMU Hockey vs. Western Ontario 10/5/13

Head Coach Andy Murray

Overall thoughts:

“We take every game as a real game, and tonight was an international game. We played a strong Canadian team that was 5-0 coming in to tonight. They pushed us real hard which is good preparation for us moving in to the regular season next weekend at Notre Dame. I liked a lot of things tonight, but we also had a lot of coachable moments that we will be able to work out with our team.”

On the freshmen's performance:

“When you have ten freshmen on your team you're going to need them to play. The majority of them were in the lineup. For the most part they looked like young players, and sometimes they played well. There are going to be some bumps along the road here but the idea with these young players is that we need to coach them up and make them better players.”

On kicking off the season with a win:

“We knew we were going to be pushed hard tonight. They had a game that we scouted last Tuesday that they won pretty decisively. We knew they were going to come in and play physically against us, and they did not disappoint. We have guys in there who are getting stitched up right now, but that is the nature of the fight. I thought we were smart tonight. Although, in the second period I thought we took from our offensive drive by taking a couple of bad penalties that they took advantage of.”

On Will Kessel's performance:

“Will started all of the games for us last year. He doubled his goal output from last year in one game tonight so that was great to see. We need Will to be solid, and his line mates are going to need to be good. Oesterle and Morrison are certainly going to get more ice time. We've got young defensemen so the veterans we do have need to play well.”

Junior Forward Will Kessel

On going in to the regular season with a win:

“We knew what we were going to get from them. We knew they were undefeated coming in to this game. We have been practicing for a bit, and at captain's practices we have been working the boys and not letting them slack. We were excited to come out, and the student section was unbelievable so we couldn't let them down.”

On team chemistry:

“The chemistry on our team is so high right now. We have a lot of new faces. Everyone wants to be here, and everyone has been putting in time. We've been here all summer working out, and we've definitely bonded.”

On being a leader:

“We are definitely a different team than last year. I got to play with some great players last year. It's a different scene. Hadley is a big body and he likes to get after it. Dries is an unbelievable player and loves to attack the opposing team. It's been fun playing with everyone and getting the new chemistry going.”

Freshman Forward Kyle Novak

On the game overall:

“It was tough for my first college game. Ever since we got here the seniors told us what to expect so I kind of braced myself and tried to be ready for it. Overall, I would say I was prepared, and things turned out great for us.”

On team chemistry:

“I definitely have great chemistry with one of my linemates, Shane Berschbach. He sees things other people don't see, and I don't know how he does it. Obviously that helps my game to have someone like that to play with. But overall, it's a great group of guys to play with.”

On starting the season with a win:

“It is definitely big for our confidence to start off with a win. Especially going in to this new conference and playing big teams every week.”

On his first goal:

“It felt good obviously. Shane just found me, so the credit goes to him.”