Dave Hakstol Team Quotations

We wanted an opportunity to come back to the rink (today) and prepare for another game. That's what our focus was tonight. We had a real tough task against a real good Michigan team. We had leads of two, three and even four goals, but against that team and the weapons that they have, you really never feel comfortable.

The No. 1 thing it says is that what our team is doing offensively maybe gets more of the headlines. But if you take a close look at this team, they're a group of guys who take a lot of pride in good team defense.

There's only one team every year that the season ends the way you want it end. Certainly when your season does come to an end, whether its earlier on in the season, earlier on in the tournament or a night like tonight, it's tough.

I think the way we played was the most important not necessarily the outcome of the game. We had a poor performance (Friday) night, taking nothing away from Minnesota, because they had a lot to do with that. But we really needed to come out with a good team effort, and that's what we did.

I was very happy with the way our team kept pushing and kept pressing all the way through 60 minutes. I thought our team did an excellent job of closing out the game.

You've got four very competitive regions. It's a great sign for where college hockey is at. All 16 teams are competitive.

I feel pretty good about our position as far as the NCAA tournament goes. But every game is an opportunity to improve your position. Every game is an opportunity to improve your overall team play. Hopefully we haven't peaked yet.

You can look back over a long period of time. Some of the teams that won it at UND were expected to and others maybe not so much. It says a lot about how important it is to have the right to advance to the Frozen Four.

There's been no change in philosophy as far as the way we approach the game or as far as what we're trying to teach or the attitude that our team is going to try to play with.