Dave Hakstol Playing Quotations

When we went down 2-0, I actually thought we were playing pretty good. The first goal we scored was important. It relaxed us a bit and gave us a little extra confidence. Then we scored at the end of the first and we were able to carry that momentum with us into the locker room.

Early in the year, we lost four or five in a row at home, and you don't get all those back at once. You just have to slowly chip away, and we feel like we're playing pretty well at home right now.

Lee is a guy who has a lot of experience playing up front and back on defense. I really like the experience level he brings. I think the potential for him to bring a solid, physical presence is a real positive thing.

I think it's important to be playing well at this time of year. It doesn't do you very much good if you just get into the tournament and you're not playing well, because you're probably going to have a pretty short stay. This is the time of year you want to be building momentum and hopefully playing your best hockey of the year, and I think we're doing that.

Those two guys we have in back will have a lot of stability for us. They can give a lot of confidence to the guys playing in front of them.

Being at home for the regional is very important and something we've heard about all year, but an NCAA berth is just the byproduct of playing well during the season. Our play has been pretty consistent since the middle of January. Our goal right now is to secure home ice for the league playoffs.

When you're playing your third game in three days, it's a heck of a lot easier playing with the lead than it is trying to play catch-up. So getting a two-goal lead was obviously a key for us.