Mark Johnson Won Quotations

My dad played here in the '50s, I spent a lot of time in this area, my grandparents lived here, I played for the (Minnesota) North Stars for a short time and my dad won a Stanley Cup in this state. It's a place I'm very familiar with and that's why playing against Minnesota in Minneapolis makes the afternoon very special.

It has been a good year. One of our goals was to win a league championship. These players are very committed and very passionate. They won the first league championship for our young program. This is their moment.

Well, we've been pretty consistent with our statements and what we want to do as a group, and that gets better each weekend. We've certainly made some strides in the early part of September to where we are now, but now it's time to elevate the bar a little bit more. The team has done some real nice things up to this point, and we've won a lot of hockey games, but now you got to keep watering it and put a little fertilizer on it and grow with it.

When people leave Minneapolis on Sunday, they'll only remember the team that won. You only remember the team that won it. That's the mission. We're a part of it, and why not go win it?

That was a close call, but it was the right one. There was never any doubt that (Byrd) won that match.

I hope it means a lot to the team. It's the first time in the history of our program that we've won a championship. It's a credit to our players and a credit to the players that have been here in the past. ... It's a nice piece of hardware to have, but the prize at the end of the journey is bigger than that.