Bowling Green State University Athletics
Western Michigan vs. BGSU Quotes
November 03, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Nov. 3, 2007
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Head Coach Scott Paluch
OPENING STATEMENT
"The biggest thing we want to take out of this game is that it is a big win for us. The overall product was a pretty good effort by our team. We manufactured our scoring chances and were solid throughout the game. Teams can score in this league and Western Michigan got their goals, but I liked the way we were able to make a big play in overtime. This is a real big sweep and really big weekend for us."
Do you think that the team settled down after a physical first period?
"We have had a regular theme throughout the year. We are a team that is at our best when we can play a lot of players. The more penalties we take then we are limited to who we can play, we are just not as strong. We want to stay out of that, we don't want to play 4-on-5 we want to play 5-on-5. That is why when you look at our games this season, even the Notre Dame game we have been a very strong team 5-on-5. You look at the 5-on-5 play tonight and it was in our favor as it was most of the weekend. That's kind of what we alluded to when the guys were in the box."
Do you think the checking from behind penalty on Western Michigan helped BG's momentum?
"It was a little different because we took a matching penalty that limited us to a three minute power play. I think it was important that we scored on that and it sparked our power play. I like the way our power play has progressed, we haven't scored many goals but last night's goal and going 3-for-9 tonight is really big for us. It's a big lift."
Talk about the play of Jacob Cepis and Kevin Schmidt tonight.
"Kevin Schmidt is a guy who we talked a lot about in the off-season. We want more production out of our defenseman, it was a big focus in the off-season and Schmidt is a guy that has a lot of skills and good feet. He spent a lot of time in his junior career being involved and we wanted to get more out of him in that way. So far this year he has really involved offensively and has been strong on the power play and really good on the power play tonight. Joining the rush to win a hockey game is a good feeling."
"Jacob Cepis is one of those electric first year players. He's a guy who has the ability to create his own offense whether he's using his speed or you can see how tricky he is coming out of corners. His size is not a deterrent, he's a dangerous hockey player."
What did you say during the time-out you called in the third period?
"All we said is to remember how well we are playing. Even at that point we were playing really well and I thought we responded well to the time-out and we got back to our 5-on-5 game. It was a big part of what we needed to do. We needed to play our forwards against their defense down low. Cycle and get some offense from there. I thought we did a good job of that. There's that final ten seconds where the puck is bouncing around and the puck ended up in the net, but there was still a lot of hockey to play and great play to win the game."
Junior DefensemanKevin Schmidt
Can you talk about your game winning goal?
"I was just trying to get active in the play and Tood McIlrath saw me jumping up on the play and gave me a beautiful pass and I was able to walk in and get a pretty good shot off."
How important is it for the defense to jump up on the rush?
"We have been talking a lot, there are right times to get involved in the rush but it's a work in progress right now and a lot of our defensemen are doing a pretty good job so far. It is fun to get involved and the guys are having a pretty good time with that."
Talk about back to back overtime thrillers.
"It's great for our team. We lost to Notre Dame and now we're getting back on track by getting four points this weekend. It's really important for us to get off to a good start, we are feeling good, but we have a pretty big weekend against Ferris State next weekend. We will need those four points as well."
What'd you see on the goalie as you were moving on him?
"I had pretty good speed. I was thinking about taking it backhand and going across the crease, but when I looked up I had the right side. I wasn't thinking shot at first but I took what I saw."
What did you think about Western Michigan's surge in the third period?
"It was a rollercoaster. They had a couple power play goals to get them back into the game. We tried to stick with it, but you have to give them credit they came out pretty hard. I didn't think we let down or gave up which is great for our team. We stayed with our game plan and worked hard at getting pucks deep. We just regrouped in overtime and came out with the same attitude we had in the first two periods."
