Postgame Quotes: Wisconsin vs. Cornell
November 26, 2016 | Women's Hockey
Thoughts from Coach Johnson, Pankowski and Cogan
Postgame Quotes vs. Cornell
Nov. 26, 2016
LaBahn Arena - Madison, Wis.
Head Coach Mark Johnson
On his overall thoughts of the weekend:
"Great weekend."
On the importance of non-conference victories:
"In the big picture, depending on who you're playing and the type of season they're having, it has huge effects on us. We played four non-conference games, two real strong opponents, Clarkson in their building and we came out with a couple of nice wins. With Cornell, we've never played them before so it was a good opportunity for us to play against a worthy opponent and come away with two wins. Next year we get an opportunity to travel to their place and play them two games out there. It was good. Tonight was a battle and they competed very hard which, if you're playing against opponents that do that you end up getting better by playing those types of opponents. We'll gain a lot of things from tonight's game and other than the victory, which is obviously the most important part, is it will help us become better and stronger."
On Annie Pankowski:
"As I tell a lot of people, the first one's the hardest. Once you get one usually the second, third or fourth come a little bit quicker than the first one. Once that first one goes in, then the second one becomes a little bit easier. Again, you concentrate and focus on, get into areas where you get good quality opportunities and then eventually they go in."
On tonight's game being a different style compared to last night's game:
"As I told the team before the game you've got to be ready for a push. They have a lot of pride in their program. They've had some great teams over the last seven or eight, ten years. You know they are going to rebound from their performance last night and come out strong, which they did. We got another power play goal and then we gave up an average goal I would say. Overall, we competed and Annie's goal in the second period and make it 3-2 was a big jump and then Sam right at the end of the power play collects on a rebound so it pushes it to 4-2 and puts you in a pretty good position."
On scoring on second chance opportunities:
"It was good. I showed them a bunch of clips from last night's game and again talked about where can they score and how can they score and if you want to score there are certain areas you can go to and have a strong stick and anticipate where the puck might be in traffic, my percentages are going to go up. That's sort of what's happened."
On playing the Gophers next week:
"It's fun. It'll be a fun weekend for both groups, easy games to get up for. It's nice to have that extra day to get ourselves organized. We'll have big crowds. For the last decade we've had great games against each other so Saturday and Sunday I'm sure we'll see two more."
Junior Annie Pankowski
On sweeping Cornell:
"I thought they brought a different challenge than obviously in some of our WCHA opponents, so it was nice to see what the East Coast has to bring and I thought we rose to that challenge this weekend."
On how games like this will help down the road:
"I think comparatively; it will help us to see where we fit in in the East Coast because we don't really get the opportunity to play them. But also I think it just gives us a little bit of confidence playing out-of-conference games and winning."
On lighting the lamp:
"I think it was just a little bit of patience and as soon as that first one went in it felt a lot easier, and I felt like I was back to my normal self. Definitely feels good to light the lamp a little bit."
On having those second-chance opportunities tonight:
"I think going into tonight, we knew we could put the puck to the net, and we wanted to put a little more quality into our shots. I think having that first goal go in kind of let everyone relax and focus on their goals for today."
On her backhand goal:
"It definitely feels good to score goals like that but I think it just comes down to hard work for my linemates and I can't thank them enough for all they do. I think it was a great all-around team effort."
On playing Minnesota next weekend:
"I think we're just readying ourselves for a battle. We know what the Minnesota games are like, we know what they feel like, we know what the atmosphere is going to be like, so I think everyone is just kind of putting their heads down and getting back to work and focusing on the little things that'll make the difference next weekend."
Sophomore Sam Cogan
On this weekend:
"I thought it was a good weekend for our team. We worked hard, got a lot of shots on net, ended up with two wins so you can't really complain."
On how this weekend will help down the road:
"I think down the road we are going to be facing a few big goalies, I know we're going to be playing Ohio State pretty soon and Minnesota, they have really good goalies and really good teams so down the road it's going to help us being patient to get the pucks on net and not being flustered if we're not getting goals."
On the different style of game opposed to Friday night and getting that first goal early:
"Getting the first goal is always key because you just get that momentum. You just have that confidence, so it's always good getting goals first."
On playing with (Emily) Clark and (Annie) Pankowski:
"Well we played last year together quite a bit and this is our second year playing together so it's sort of like have a feeling by now where we are on the ice and what kind of hockey players we all are, so I think we work well as a line and we're showing it by getting points."
On going into the Minnesota games after seeing the puck reach the back of the net a lot this weekend:
"They're always giving us a hard game, but we know we can score. We know we have talented girls on our team and as long as we work hard, like hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard like they say, so I think we've just got to work hard. We know that we can do it."
Nov. 26, 2016
LaBahn Arena - Madison, Wis.
Head Coach Mark Johnson
On his overall thoughts of the weekend:
"Great weekend."
On the importance of non-conference victories:
"In the big picture, depending on who you're playing and the type of season they're having, it has huge effects on us. We played four non-conference games, two real strong opponents, Clarkson in their building and we came out with a couple of nice wins. With Cornell, we've never played them before so it was a good opportunity for us to play against a worthy opponent and come away with two wins. Next year we get an opportunity to travel to their place and play them two games out there. It was good. Tonight was a battle and they competed very hard which, if you're playing against opponents that do that you end up getting better by playing those types of opponents. We'll gain a lot of things from tonight's game and other than the victory, which is obviously the most important part, is it will help us become better and stronger."
On Annie Pankowski:
"As I tell a lot of people, the first one's the hardest. Once you get one usually the second, third or fourth come a little bit quicker than the first one. Once that first one goes in, then the second one becomes a little bit easier. Again, you concentrate and focus on, get into areas where you get good quality opportunities and then eventually they go in."
On tonight's game being a different style compared to last night's game:
"As I told the team before the game you've got to be ready for a push. They have a lot of pride in their program. They've had some great teams over the last seven or eight, ten years. You know they are going to rebound from their performance last night and come out strong, which they did. We got another power play goal and then we gave up an average goal I would say. Overall, we competed and Annie's goal in the second period and make it 3-2 was a big jump and then Sam right at the end of the power play collects on a rebound so it pushes it to 4-2 and puts you in a pretty good position."
On scoring on second chance opportunities:
"It was good. I showed them a bunch of clips from last night's game and again talked about where can they score and how can they score and if you want to score there are certain areas you can go to and have a strong stick and anticipate where the puck might be in traffic, my percentages are going to go up. That's sort of what's happened."
On playing the Gophers next week:
"It's fun. It'll be a fun weekend for both groups, easy games to get up for. It's nice to have that extra day to get ourselves organized. We'll have big crowds. For the last decade we've had great games against each other so Saturday and Sunday I'm sure we'll see two more."
Junior Annie Pankowski
On sweeping Cornell:
"I thought they brought a different challenge than obviously in some of our WCHA opponents, so it was nice to see what the East Coast has to bring and I thought we rose to that challenge this weekend."
On how games like this will help down the road:
"I think comparatively; it will help us to see where we fit in in the East Coast because we don't really get the opportunity to play them. But also I think it just gives us a little bit of confidence playing out-of-conference games and winning."
On lighting the lamp:
"I think it was just a little bit of patience and as soon as that first one went in it felt a lot easier, and I felt like I was back to my normal self. Definitely feels good to light the lamp a little bit."
On having those second-chance opportunities tonight:
"I think going into tonight, we knew we could put the puck to the net, and we wanted to put a little more quality into our shots. I think having that first goal go in kind of let everyone relax and focus on their goals for today."
On her backhand goal:
"It definitely feels good to score goals like that but I think it just comes down to hard work for my linemates and I can't thank them enough for all they do. I think it was a great all-around team effort."
On playing Minnesota next weekend:
"I think we're just readying ourselves for a battle. We know what the Minnesota games are like, we know what they feel like, we know what the atmosphere is going to be like, so I think everyone is just kind of putting their heads down and getting back to work and focusing on the little things that'll make the difference next weekend."
Sophomore Sam Cogan
On this weekend:
"I thought it was a good weekend for our team. We worked hard, got a lot of shots on net, ended up with two wins so you can't really complain."
On how this weekend will help down the road:
"I think down the road we are going to be facing a few big goalies, I know we're going to be playing Ohio State pretty soon and Minnesota, they have really good goalies and really good teams so down the road it's going to help us being patient to get the pucks on net and not being flustered if we're not getting goals."
On the different style of game opposed to Friday night and getting that first goal early:
"Getting the first goal is always key because you just get that momentum. You just have that confidence, so it's always good getting goals first."
On playing with (Emily) Clark and (Annie) Pankowski:
"Well we played last year together quite a bit and this is our second year playing together so it's sort of like have a feeling by now where we are on the ice and what kind of hockey players we all are, so I think we work well as a line and we're showing it by getting points."
On going into the Minnesota games after seeing the puck reach the back of the net a lot this weekend:
"They're always giving us a hard game, but we know we can score. We know we have talented girls on our team and as long as we work hard, like hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard like they say, so I think we've just got to work hard. We know that we can do it."
Players Mentioned
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