Head Coach Andy Murray
Thoughts on game2 of home and home series
“I liked our defensive play on the weekend, we did not give up an even strength goal all weekend, we gave up one 4 on 4 but our 5 on 5 play I thought was solid. We were a little scrambly in the first 10 minutes of last night but tonight we came out with better focus and our theme was being ready at 7:05 and we were ready at 7:05. Certainly gratifying and we have some young players that are logging a lot of minutes for us right now and it's good to see that continue to develop.”
Deciding to play Frank
“Frank Slubowski has been a top goaltender in this league for two years. He was on the all rookie team last year, he was a second team all star, he is a solid goaltender. I like the fact that Lukas Hafner played two great games, he was coming off a shutout so his next game that he goes in for he is coming off a shutout and I felt it was important here to get Frank back in the net as well. Sometimes those decisions work for you and you feel pretty good about them but I was clear in my mind that Frank was going to play tonight. I woke up this morning and my wife said who are you going to play in goaltender and I said Frank.”
Powerplay
“We have been generating chances on the power play the last number of games. Last night in the 2nd half of the game we had some great looks at the net and missed some shots. But, great seeing a couple of defenseman score for us, we haven't gotten the offensive output from our blue line as we have in the past years. It was nice seeing Kenney get rewarded, I want Kenney to get the same reward for making a great poke check or defensive play and he's been gaining in that gratification but he also likes to score and he put one in and then for Chris Dienes to get one, Chris Dienes had serious hand surgery earlier this summer and we didn't know for sure if he was going to be able to play this year, he has just continued to work and found a way into the lineup and has played well for us. So to see him get a goal is great I just hope his family was here tonight”
Powering through after 2nd period struggles
“Let's put the hammer down . It was important for us. Michigan State works extremely hard, they came in here determined to win tonight so it was important for us to get after them being here in the 2nd. Our players talked about it in the room and our 2nd period tonight was good. We have another 2nd period to play this coming Friday and we will see how we do in that one.”
Berschbach- Baker candidate?
“I think Shane has played extremely hard, he had a great summer of training and he put on 20 pounds. He was committed, he is committed in so many areas now that he has changed his whole lifestyle around, we are just as excited about that as we are. The fact that he has put points on the board, Shane is going to continue to work hard, I don't ever really talk about our players in terms of individual rewards because ultimately the only thing that we are seriously pursuing is a team reward and bottom line is we have a packed house here tonight. We wanted to play real strong here tonight. We have been a miserable team over the last number of years here at Lawson Arena and we had to establish that a little bit and we got a little of that back tonight.”
Complete Team-pictured in beginning of season
“Yes, I have dreams every night when I go to bed that we are going to play the perfect game the next night. I could have nightmares and think about all the bad plays that were going to make but would you just let me have good dreams that is what we are looking for, to get better. Our team is in my opinion, I don't know if we will ever play the perfect game, we are trying to get better. We are trying to get better every single time and you either go backwards if you are not getting better but we are trying to get better.”
Freshman Forward Chris Dienes
First career goal—home
“It feels great getting the first one out of the way especially with a packed house tonight and it just feels great to get a sweep. Michigan State is a good team and they battled hard all weekend so it was just good to contribute to that.”
Thoughts on goal
“Bersch actually fed me on the first one, I looked to Pitt back door and I got the puck right back, Bersch gave it to me again and I just tried to put it on net and it went in.”
Being a Freshman apart of this group
“It has been great, we have great senior leadership. We have Matt Stewart and Dennis Brown have been great helping us out all the time but they make it really easy on us. Coach Ferschweiler has been great and it's been a pretty easy transition.”
Putting previous two weeks behind with losing the lead
“Yes I think last night we took 0-0 in the 2nd period and to get the lead in the 2nd period when we have been giving up leads is big for us and we just continued that momentum into the week.”
Senior forward Shane Berschbach
Goal and two assists—your point of view
“I just thought we had an all around great game for our team and our line was really clicking tonight, we were all jumping and we had a lot of speed coming through the neutral zone and generated a lot of offense through it, played well tonight.”
Playing State non conference
“It is a little different but the rivalry is always there especially with our community. This game back at Lawson, always the best ones of the year especially against Michigan State so it is just great that we got the win for the fans out there.”
Two goals on powerplay
“We expressed that this morning and how we need to get better on the power play; about how important it is, how important those parts of the game are, and getting those goals are real big for us.”
17 points—consider Baker candidate?
“I am not even thinking about anything like that, I am just focusing on our team and moving forward and getting wins as a team so we will go from there. “
