Huskies coach, three players talked to media day before tonight's big game

On Wednesay, St. Cloud State's coach and several key players faced the media. Wish you were there? Me, too. But here is a transcript of the Huskies' news conference:

THE MODERATOR: Well, ladies and gentlemen, welcome, and we'll start as we have with some opening thoughts from those with us on the podium, and we'll start with Coach [Bob] Motzko.

COACH MOTZKO: It's an understatement how excited we are to be here. It's a proud moment for our program. In a short history, we're not in our infancy as a Division I program, but we're teenagers going back to 1989-90 when we made the move to Division I. We've been in nine NCAA Tournaments and it's well-documented by all of our friends that we haven't done much in those eight previous by losing. But we've been darn close. [St. Cloud State was 1-9 in previous NCAA trips.]

We always talk about Craig Dahl's team in 2001, one of the best teams in the country that year. And a lot of people thought that was the best team in the country, and they get placed in Yost Arena and had to play Michigan. It's very [difficult] going to Yost and winning a hockey game.

In my time, this is our fourth time there, and we've got the right bunch of guys for St. Cloud State to punch the ticket and get through to this stage. We've got so many great followers in St. Cloud, with our alumni, our supporters and our fans, to see the excitement.

So it's been two-fold for me. The excitement with that group has been just tremendous, and with that week off, you really get to feel it. It's not a quick turnaround. It seems like that week takes a month to get here, but then I'm also so proud of these guys. We have a great group of guys that deserve to be here, and I'm awfully proud of them.

BEN HANOWSKI [senior co-captain, forward from Little Falls]: Like Coach said, we're just excited to be here. I think our guys are pumped up to play, obviously, in the Frozen Four, Thursday night and trying to get into the title game. I think we have the group that can do it if everything falls into place and we play a really good game on Thursday.

But I've never seen our team play better hockey in those two games all year. We're just going to continue to play the way we got here, and we're really happy we're here.

DREW LeBLANC [WCHA player of year, fifth-year senior center from Hermantown]: Well, the previous three kind of ate up all my material. But we're extremely proud to be here representing the city of St. Cloud, the university, our fans and students and everyone that's supported us along the way. They've been great to us all year long, and we kind of want to go out here and prove why we should be here and why we fit in out here.

Q. You guys are in a very similar position as Yale in that you kind of had to back your way into the tournament. Do you guys consider yourselves to be underdogs in this tournament? Do you enjoy that role, if you feel that way?

HANOWSKI: I don't think we're underdogs. Everyone at the Frozen Four, every team is a good team and high quality team. So I don't think we're an underdog here. Maybe in the Regional people thought we were, but we believed in our team. We were the regular season co-champs in the WCHA. So we're confident in our ability and we believed and we knew we could make it to Pittsburgh.

THE MODERATOR: Drew, are you an underdog?

JENSEN: Yeah, I don't think our team thinks we're the underdogs, but we've been put in the underdog situation by everyone else. The guys have really embraced it though. I know we were considered underdogs going into the Regionals. Not saying the locker rooms are bad, but we got stuck in a split locker room. And after we won our first game, we were asked if we want to go to the big locker room, and we were like no, way. We're staying here. This is where we started and this is where we're going to finish it. The guys have embraced it and it shows the character of our team now.

THE MODERATOR: Coach, you're an underdog, I'm sure? Every coach would say they're an underdog, right?

COACH MOTZKO: Yeah, we have no business being here [laughing]. I got to make sure I word it correctly, because I don't know if I find it funny. But I'm always amused. We'll put it this way, College Hockey News and USCHO and our local newspaper and Twitter is how we follow it. So when they said these are the 16 teams in our tournament, everybody said it's a wide-open tournament this year and anybody can win. Then when we came through the regions, all the talk was well, the big names aren't there.

So it switches so quickly. It's anybody's tournament, then a week later, oh, shocking that these teams get through. So I don't know if it's underdog or not. I did learn a new lesson this week because I kept thinking as a coach, because you do get interviewed a lot, you have to come up with something new.

Well, people that know me know I can't come up with anything new. I'm not that quick. I just say the same thing over and over again. But the right teams are here. It's not the "named" teams aren't here. The "right" teams are here. Three of the teams won their conference championship, which is the best indication of what kind of season you put through. And Yale kicked the crap out of the WCHA going 4-0 this year. They went into CC and Denver, knocked them off, and knocked off North Dakota in Minnesota.

Q. Bob, and maybe one of the players can talk about it too, making the run for the MacNaughton Cup. Obviously, it's a tough road as it is in any league. Did it take something out of your team? And how have you been able to build it up the last few weeks, especially in the Regionals and to get here?

COACH MOTZKO: No, it made us better. We coaches are spin doctors on all the stuff you throw at us. The question to me just the other day was: You were struggling at the end of the year, Coach. And did you feel like you got new life?

Well, at the end of the WCHA coming down the stretch, and I believe this to be true, there were six teams going for the league championship -- four points separated six teams. I mean, think of that. So, we were all playing each other. If you take a Stanley Cup playoff series, very few of them go 4-0, and you go, oh, boy, that team's hot.

You have to win the best 4 out of 7. So if you win 4 and lose 3, they're not saying, boy, you didn't play really good in that series, you survived it. That's what we did coming down the stretch in the WCHA. We were kicking the crap out of each other in a tough league. If you win a 5-3 stretch down the end, people, our good friends from USCHO, you're struggling.

We weren't struggling. We were surviving, and we were a nervous team. That's one thing we were coming down the stretch. We'd never been in that position before. I did think that we were nervous. We ended up winning and were able to battle through and win that series to win the MacNaughton Cup, and I think it made us a better hockey team.

I think once you're programmed and you're there year after year, you learn to deal with it. But that was the first time for us. Then I found our team and sensed our team just settled in. And I'm hoping that two weeks later we can continue to be settled in and play good hockey.

JENSEN: Yeah, the MacNaughton, any league, the regular season championship, I think it's really underrated feat to accomplish. Most people say it's not how you do in the regular season, it's how you do in playoffs. But to go through the whole season weekend by weekend and continue to win and be at the top, I mean, in my mind and in my sight, that is one of the hardest things to do. A team can go all year losing and then turn it on in the playoffs. But to keep it going all regular season is one of the toughest things to do.

I really think that was a big thing for our team to accomplish, and I really think it led into the playoffs. I really think it helped.

Q. Drew, you want to talk about a potential match-up going against Eric Hartzell? And for Coach, this is a team that won 21 straight games at one time this year. Just talk about that challenge?

LeBLANC: Well, I think they've been ranked toward the top of the country all year for a reason. He's a big reason why. They obviously have a good team there. They play well defensively. Goaltending has been good, and they have a pretty solid group of forwards.

COACH MOTZKO: Breaking them down in the last handful of days or last week, they're as good on film. They deserve to be the No. 1 team in the country or No. 1-2 as they've been all year. Really impressed with the depth of their team. They've got us beat in older [players] -- they've got 17 upperclassmen, so maybe there is one of the key reasons they are on a 21-game streak that they just didn't buckle and withstood the tough challenges that our sport presents to them.

Eric Hartzell has to be given tons of credit. His numbers are just gaudy. He is a big, strong, athletic looking kid. I think their coach last week said he's the best player in the country, and they just have tremendous confidence as a hockey team - No. 1 or 2 in the country in defense led by a goaltender like that. So, you know, they're a program or a team this year that's had confidence, it sounds like all year long. They came back with all those veterans and expected to be there and wanted to be there.

We started the year wanting to be here, but we had to battle through the entire season and find out how good we could be and deal with a couple injuries, when Ben and [Joey] Benik went down, and we were a work in progress all year long. They've got that experience, and it's so well-deserving of that No. 1 rating they've had all year.

Q. This is for both Drew and Bob. What point of the season, guys, did you actually feel that this was a solid team, good team, and one that could qualify for the Frozen Four?

LeBLANC: Well, we knew coming into the year that we had a couple good seasons in place. We knew our defensive corps was good from the year before, and we knew Ryan Faragher, our goaltender, was very good as well.

Once we got in, like Coach was saying, it was just a sense of calmness and relaxed and we were ready for the moment. We were ready to take on the challenge. We knew we had to go out to Toledo and play two good hockey games, and we did that. We're a confident group coming in here to Pittsburgh, and hopefully get a chance to prove that.

COACH MOTZKO: I don't know if there was a moment that hit me. But I go back to one story. I started the year with a new athletic director, Heather Weems, and a new coach who wanted to make sure you get along with your new boss. We got swept in New Hampshire the first weekend of the year. New Hampshire is a great program. And I think it was the Monday we got back that we were talking, and I remember just saying, I really like this hockey team.

We were tied after two periods in both games. We lose on the road with only seven upperclassmen, and I said I'm not going to look into this. I really like this hockey team, and I knew that coming in. We just had a lot of areas that we liked. We liked our goaltending. We loved our defensive corps with Nick Jensen coming back. How could you not like the defensive four, and then Drew making the decision to come back? We had these freshmen.

But after a couple weeks of practice, we thought these freshmen are pretty darn good; and that's exactly what we talked about. More and more, it was like you just fell more and more in like with your team every day and we stayed very consistent. We took points every weekend the rest of the year except for one little hiccup right after Christmas.

We just seemed like a team that kept getting better and better through the entire season, outside of one little hiccup after Christmas, and we just kept hanging in there. We got better every time. If we had an area we had to improve on, either defense or back-checking, whatever the issue, these guys were just so easy to coach. It is one of the best group of guys that I've coached.

THE MODERATOR: If you'd like to know more about that conversation after that UNH series, Heather is in the back. She'll be happy to talk to you after.

Q. I was wondering if you could talk about what you thought was the key to turning it around against Notre Dame and Miami compared to the WCHA tournament?

HANOWSKI: Well, in the WCHA tournament, just like the NCAA Regional with one game, I don't think we necessarily played bad against Wisconsin. They were just an extremely hot team and played extremely well against us. So I think our keys to success in the Regional were we played great defense.

We only gave up 39 shots in two games. So when you're doing that, you limit your opponents to opportunities. That is going to be big.

We got off to an early lead. We scored early against Notre Dame and scored early against Miami. We got those leads and we were pretty confident and comfortable and we just kept playing our game and did an extremely good job keeping pucks out of our end.

HANOWSKI: Yeah, it's definitely been a unique two weeks. It started out with that on a Thursday when we were leaving for Regional. It was definitely -- I don't know how to describe it, being part of a trade with a future Hall of Famer. It was kind of weird to see yourself and be a part of that deal. Just kind of a coincidence that the Frozen Four is in Pittsburgh, and we were fortunate enough to make it.

So I don't think it's really sunk in yet. Just kind of trying to focus on being a Husky and trying to contribute to this team as many ways as I can right now. So maybe after the Frozen Four is over, I'll be able to give you something better. But I haven't been able to think about it too much.

JENSEN: Well, I don't have much to say about the Pittsburgh thing. I think it is a little ironic because I know there are a few pictures floating out there that had some funny sayings on them about Hanowski getting traded from Pittsburgh, but he's going back anyways.

But just overall with Hanowski's season, it's an unbelievable thing to watch as it progresses. You see a leader get knocked out, and get a concussion and have a concussion problem and a few shoulder injuries. You look at a guy after that and see what his character's like. Is he down off the ice, on the ice? There is not a nick in his armor, and he just kept dialing through it. It's what a leader does. He's one of the best leaders I've ever had on the team.

LeBLANC: I'm jealous. I kind of want to be traded for a Hall of Famer. I think that would be kind of cool. But to Ben's credit, he's handled it in stride. It hasn't fazed him at all. Like Nick was saying, he's continued to work hard on and off the ice and lead this team. That says a lot about his character, and I'm sure like everything else, it's really not time to be focusing on that kind of stuff right now.

THE MODERATOR: Bob, what did you think of the trade?

COACH MOTZKO: You know, the biggest thing you wanted to make sure was -- I sure know Ben now after being around him for four years, and he's a fun-loving guy. So the trade went down. He was sleeping. I did get a text. I was still up. It was probably midnight, something like that. And we had a morning practice the next morning, and I blew the whistle and everybody came around. I just wanted to break the tension.

I said, anybody else get traded overnight? And the first guy laughing was Ben, and he took it in great stride. Then all the guys were tapping him on the shoulder. I said, well, there are a lot of people that want you. We're sure glad you're with us, and here's the drill. We went on to practice, and that was it.

The things you do as a team. I don't know what his teammates did behind the scenes, but I can tell you I was not worried about Ben. I just wanted to get him to smile, and he did quickly and we moved on.

Q. I'm wondering, maybe a quick comment from the coach and Ben, Drew touched on the focus piece as being key, but maybe that's it? That's the dynamic between the Regional, and now that does become the focus?

But let's keep it in its own little department. Every team's going through it, too. So all four teams, it's exactly the same, from the demand on answering the questions and media, because that is completely different from something that I think the college athlete is used to. But let's face it, to be here and have to put up with it, absolutely, we love it.

All four teams are probably saying the same thing. You have to find a way to park it, and keep your eye on the ball of what we have to do. For us, it starts at 8:05 tomorrow night [7 p.m. CT]. And that falls squarely on the coaching staff and our leaders. We haven't talked in great depth about it, but we have enough to where our guys understand.

Let's have fun and embrace all of the events that come with the Frozen Four, because we're darn happy we're here. Let's also remember what the heck we're here for and make sure we're ready to go at 8:05 on Thursday night.

HANOWSKI: I think Coach did a good job of hitting that right on the head. We've been following his lead. Coach has been in Frozen Fours before when he was with Minnesota. As a group, we're just trying to stay together. Obviously, a lot more people wanted to talk to guys on our team in the past 10 days than usual.

But I think we have a focused group. The guys know what kind of opportunity we have here, and we're excited for it. The coaches have been doing a great job of prepping us and getting ready for Quinnipiac tomorrow night. So I don't think focus is going to be too big of an issue for our group.

COACH MOTZKO: Don't answer that, Drew [laughing].

LEBLANC: You know, I can't say anything on that. But our coaches have done a tremendous job of getting us ready. They've watched probably seven, eight games on Quinnipiac, I would guess. They know. They've put a good game plan into place and we're just following their lead. They prep us every week, and this one is no different. We're just going out there, doing what they say to do. We're assuming they made the right game plan.

Q. Got a question for Bob, but first a comment on the players. I don't know how big the Amish community is going to be around the city of Pittsburgh, but I think there are going to be a lot of Husky fans this weekend. For Coach Motzko, you mentioned this team coming into its teenage years. You were there dare I say, a quarter century ago as part of St. Cloud. Can you talk about the particular pride of what the roots in the beginning of the program are to now attaining the Frozen Four and having a chance to win a championship?

COACH MOTZKO: Yes, we've had hockey since 1931-32. When I got hired eight years ago, and Craig Dahl was leaving, it was really to reach back to the alumni. We're trying to do a tremendous job of getting everybody back into the fold about if you wore the jersey, once a Husky, always a Husky, has been our theme. We've been a program, because players and ex-players, they want to be around for things like this. We're going to have a tremendous turnout here this week. But to watch it when I was there as a Division III player and with John Perpich as a coach and then worked there for just one year in that transition year and then followed it for many years and coached against them. It was a job that I always wanted when I was not there, to be a head coach. Then to get the job, I mean, it was truly a big moment for me, personally. I'm really into the excitement right now. This is kind of tying it all together because we've kind of had loose ends. We've been there. We've had NHL players, Olympians, All-Americans at the Division III level, and at the Division I level.

We've been looking for one thing to kind of tie it all together to bring everybody in and give them a reason, and there's been the last eight days how they've reached out with Twitter and with text and emails and phone calls. There is something brewing back in St. Cloud and our program right now, but it's been for a long time. This is just a moment that is kind of validating our program. I'm all over the map on that.

COACH MOTZKO: Well, we've really handled the Toledo one well, for sure. But we were so focused in Toledo, obviously, because I've heard some of the other coaches talk about how bad it was. When you win, you wouldn't get that out of us because you were so focused when that happened. It is different. But I don't think to these guys -- it was more different for the coaches, maybe, because you're trying to calm our guys down in the big game because I think we made some mistakes in St. Paul, and that's what helped us.

We usually don't take a lot of penalties. I think we were the lowest penalized team in the country. We had that big crowd in St. Paul. We were amped up, and we were playing the afternoon game. We took nine minutes of penalties, I think we took 14 all together, and nine of them were ridiculous, not smart on our part. I couldn't be mad because we normally don't do that.

But we learned from it, and we carry that into the next week. I'm hoping now with the big crowd that our guys now understand. I think they do. I know that they do.

That tournament means so much to the players. We do want to get bigger crowds. Don't get me wrong, we want to change that and I am against going back on campuses right now. I think we need to try something, ticket prices, just throw it out. We have to tackle something before we get to move back on campus sites. If that doesn't work, yeah, we get back.

But I'm telling you, after being in a handful of these regions, your guys are pretty dialed in. We had a great demeanor about us there. Whether there were 5,000, 6,000 more people for us, this is the stage we wanted to get to.

COACH MOTZKO: Yes, yes. If you're going to get in this business and coach at a program like St. Cloud State, you want this to happen to your program. Our program had been so close even before I got there. I mean, Craig Dahl had it very, very close. When my turn rolled around, you want to recruit guys like this, and you have to put the belief that they can have it happen.

The only thing, the very first interview I did when I got hired at St. Cloud, it popped out of my mouth. The question was, I've come from Minnesota -- I'm referencing that. I'm not saying -- Well, we won a couple titles there and in the interview the guy said, "Coach, do you think you can win a National title here?"

And the first thing that popped out of my mouth was, "It can happen here." And someone gave me that and framed that article. The caption on it is, "It can happen here." That is in our locker room now. It can happen here, but it means so many more things. Yes, we can win a National Championship. You can become a doctor. We have three former doctors that are alum from our university. We use that in so many different ways. That's been our calling card when we recruit. It can happen here. And "it" is anything, it can happen here. You recruit guys like this that can believe it and now it's validated.

Obviously, we've got to take the next step. People pave the way, a couple years ago with Bemidji State punching their ticket. Ferris State punching their ticket. This isn't an aberration now. Our sport now, it's a race to get into that region, and it's going to be a dog fight to get in there, because anybody can get in there.

Even before with St. Cloud State or any of the teams here, it's not a surprise. It's been happening for a handful of years right now.

LEBLANC: I know this building is only a couple years old, but just driving off and seeing that big Frozen Four sign on the window with our name up there, it's like, oh, this really happened. Since then it's been a whirlwind of practice and interviews and this and that. We haven't had a chance to sit down and enjoy the moment yet. And that is kind of part of being here. That is handling all the hoopla, like Coach was saying earlier, and we're having fun with it. It's getting really, really cool and business time now, and that is the exciting part. We can't wait to get to that point. In a couple of hours, it will be go time.

JENSEN: Yeah, there's been a lot of excitement ever since we got into the Frozen Four, both home and then obviously arriving in Pittsburgh. A lot of guys have never been here. I know I've never been here myself. Being able to be in the Pittsburgh Arena, I've never been here. Obviously, it's an outstanding rink, just all the activities.

I know Drew touched on a bunch of them. All of it has just been a lulling situation for all of us, and all the guys are excited to be here. The focus is there. While all this excitement is going on, everyone's enjoying themselves.

But in the back of their mind, everyone's thinking 8 o'clock tomorrow night. That is what they're focused on, and we're going to be ready.

HANOWSKI: As Coach said and Drew said, the hoopla, Coach loves that word. He loves using that saying. We're excited to be here. We drove in and you see Heinz Field and PNC Park, pretty cool view, and driving in on the bus, and seeing the St. Cloud State logo up there next to the Frozen Four pin and everything like that is pretty special, something I know I'll always remember being a part of it. Just getting through the day, and once tomorrow morning rolls around, it's go time. Later on tonight, guys will be ready to go and focused and we'll be excited to get on the ice and play.

All the teams are under the same rules right now. The leaders are going to have to take charge of that. That's pretty much it on that standpoint, and everything has been great. The biggest thing for me was when we landed last week in St. Cloud, we got back from the regions and the airport was packed with a couple hundred people. For an old coach, I go, wow, this is pretty cool. People are jumping on board.

Q. Drew, can you talk briefly about what it's like to be a Hobey Baker nominee and the honor that goes with that? And for coaches and teammates, can you talk about, briefly, what it's like to play with Drew and coach him?

LEBLANC: Well, I think just to be associated with the name Hobey Baker and what he meant to not only college hockey, but the time period in general, how big of a figure he was, just to be associated with that has been pretty special for me. I've said it a bunch of times now, but it doesn't happen if our team doesn't have the success that we've had this year.

I've been fortunate enough to play with a great group of guys and with great people and great leaders. It's just everything kind of aligned right and found a place for me, and I'm just fortunate to have the opportunity.

But at the same time, I haven't thought about it too much because we're still playing. We've got bigger marbles to play for than that, so trying to channel all my energy and focus towards that, that will be something that I can reflect on down the road.

COACH MOTZKO: He's our guy. We go to battle with this guy. We've watched him. Last year with Mike Lee, a World Junior goaltender, and Mike going in on the Monday before the practice before our first league game at North Dakota, he blew his hip and had to go under surgery. We had to turn to a freshman and say, tag, you're it, and you're going to go at North Dakota for your first start. He shuts them out 4-0, and I think at that moment it turned heads that we've got something here. We've watched him get better and improve in so many areas. When he's had a couple of these challenges as a goaltender to get better, he's handled them. I think all of us -- I know all of us, not think, have complete confidence in him that he's going to be prepared to go.

LEBLANC: We feel he is one of the best in the country too. We see it day-in and day-out. We get the bird's-eye view of it going there. He gets going. He's won in big games and played on big stages before and performed well. He thrives under these moments. I'm sure he's looking for the opportunity to think of it as I can outdo one of the best goalies in the country and hopefully show that he is that high-caliber goaltender. We're excited for the challenge tomorrow. That's for sure.

THE MODERATOR: 8:05 tomorrow [7 p.m. CT], Quinnipiac and St. Cloud. Thank you guys very much, and best of luck.