Bowling Green State University Athletics
MSU vs. BGSU Quotes
February 23, 2007 | Ice Hockey
Feb. 23, 2007
Recap | Final Stats
Scott Paluch
OPENING STATEMENT
"This was a game that had a lot of momentum swings in it. A lot of ebb and flow, and I thought we came out and controlled the play until they took advantage of a mistake and they take over the play. We got it back, but ultimately we were right there in the third period and they made the play and stole the momentum at a key time. They were able to finish off the game. I thought we had a good effort out of our guys, but we didn't seize momentum and maintain momentum. Give credit to Michigan State, they made plays that at key times that take momentum from us when I thought we had it going at times."
Can you talk about the play of Jimmy Spratt?
"It seemed like a strange game for the goalies. The puck was bouncing around everywhere and there was a lot of play around the crease. I thought he made some saves and I don't think he had a chance to see much of that winning goal."
Can you talk about the play of the penalty kill tonight?
"Our penalty kill was strong and it had to be early with three penalties early in the first. Jimmy [Spratt] made some key saves on that as well. I thought we did a decent job as the game went on. It was a pretty disciplined movement not taking as many penalties. We had three early on and three the rest of the way."
How about the power play effort?
"I thought the power play opportunity that we had right of the gate, that we had things just where we wanted it. We just couldn't finish it off. The puck bounced a few times and we gave up some short-handed chances. I think it hurt a little bit of our confidence so we switched it up and got [Jonathan] Matsumoto off the point. I thought the first time we were able to get Mike Nesdill and Tim Maxwell out there that they did a decent job. I think early on our power play had chances but as the game got going and we had more chances, we didn't generate enough."
Can you talk about your mindset going into third period?
"I thought that stretch early in the game, the first 5-minutes of the game that we were playing really well. They took advantage of a break and they would get 5-minutes and we recovered well. I thought in the second period that we had some really good stretches of hockey. We were at 3-3 and right in the same situation again, where we had been quite a bit in our last home game against Michigan where we made the plays to win the hockey game. I didn't think we mentally responded as well after that goal. We tried to get some momentum going but we didn't get the type of chances that we had against Michigan."
