Coach Johnson
Opening Statement:
"I guess the first thing is, Paul and the Robert Morris staff and players, congratulating them on an outstanding season. You get down to eight teams and everyone has an opportunity to move on to the Frozen Four, and we're just thankful and appreciative of our fans. Certainly we all knew it was going to be an exciting atmosphere and we're enjoying another opportunity to play another game and looking forward to getting ourselves prepared Monday after the players get their day off tomorrow. Excited and looking forward to another challenge."
 
On the second period being a dominating period for UW:
I think after the first 20 minutes, I think the players relaxed somewhat from the standpoint of doing what we've done most of the season. It started with the first shift of the second period, creating some offensive zone time with puck possession—obviously the second period we had quite a bit of that, and so it was about trying to play with speed and continue to hang onto the puck and create some scoring opportunities, which we did. The result is that we got some pucks in the net and put ourselves in position to prepare for the third period.
 
It was a good period that we've had some of those throughout the season. The first eight or ten minutes of the game it was kind of like a feeling out process. There were a couple penalties called both ways.
 
You know, you can show footage and give the players an idea of what an opponent looks like, but until you actually get on the ice you really don't get a feel of it.  Once we got ourselves in position in the second period we started, like I say, it's almost like they relaxed and it's like "okay let's play" and we did a pretty good job of that for that 20 minutes."
 
On if there was any element of surprise for UW the first few minutes of the game:
Well you can practice and show some clips of what your opponent looks like, but until you get on the ice, you really don't maybe understand what we're talking about as a staff to the players, and when a team forechecks and plays a really aggressive system, it can look pretty ugly at times, and the first part of the game with some turnovers and then hanging onto the puck too long, and it creates some things that they aren't accustomed to. But you're feeling them out, and when you make a mistake you hopefully learn from it, and as you get another opportunity don't make that same mistake. I think as the game went on, we started to settle down and again, if you manage the puck and take care of pucks in certain areas, you're better off for that, and certainly going to have the puck more.
 
On the experience of Jenny Ryan and Melissa Channell:
Yeah they've, especially this season, they've logged a lot of minutes in games, and it's almost like having a security blanket. They generally play against the other teams' best offensive players, and they get challenged quite a bit, but the nice thing about those two is that they have that poise, that composure when they get the puck. Like in today's game, the other part of the game it's almost like "okay, watch what I do," and have the other players copy it, so we had some kids that hadn't been in this situation today, so you could tell in the early part of the game, some of them were nervous, especially the way they played, but having those two back there, generally you're going to get a real solid game out of both of them.
 
On the power play performance against RMU's highly rated penalty kill:
Well, we got a line change when Pankowski scored, and I thought the line rushes we had in the second period really created some opportunities. Look at Maddie Rolfes' goal, a great pass by Sarah Nurse into a space and her one-timing the puck into the upper corner.
Again, Pankowski came from the weak side, and we found her, and she was able to go in and deke the goaltender.  The power play, the first one was only 50 seconds long, wasn't very good. The first one of the second period wasn't very good, but again, you're looking at some situations and then when they come back off the ice and might get another one, you've injected some information and hopefully the next one looks pretty good.  The one in the third period, we just had a mismatch of players on the ice and giving them an opportunity.
 
On the distribution of scoring this year:
It does and that's been a thing that we've had going most of the season. If our top players aren't scoring, we are getting that second and third level scoring. You know there are some kids that have had some great seasons, I mean Baylee has had an outstanding season. I don't know if we sat here at the beginning of the year we were going to say she would get as many goals as she's scored this year. There's Sophia Shaver, maybe hasn't scored as many goals as she like, but she has quite a few assists, set up a great play today on a pop play off the goaltender's pad, and Baylee, driving the middle, and ends up getting an empty net goal. Those little things, and certainly the contribution from your defensemen make it more challenging for teams when they play against it, when you have that depth in scoring.
 
On advantages of having veteran defensemen like Jenny Ryan and Mellissa Channell on the same team as freshman Mekenzie Steffen:
I thought as I looked the first part of the period, Mekenzie, of our new players, players that haven't been in this game, she seemed most comfortable. Obviously she scored early which is probably going to relax her, but of all our defensemen, she was probably our best defenseman the first 20 minutes. That's a tribute to her and her growth and her maturity. As a coach, you don't know how they're going to react, like Maddie Rolfes, she wasn't part of the group last year due to her injury, so it was nice to see her get rewarded, the last six weeks she's played really well, she's created some situations similar to her goal this afternoon, so I was very proud of her.
 
On how it feels to have everyone healthy and the top line hitting its stride at this point in the year:
The nice thing is that you get to play another game, and so as a coach, with your medical, your staff, your trainers, you want to put kids in a position so that they're healthy and they get an opportunity to play in these games. They all work hard, they all commit themselves, so like all teams over the course of the winter, you have good days, you have good games, you have challenges, you have adversity, and how do you react to those things as a group. As I've always said, our leadership's been very solid, they've had some great learning experience throughout this season, the seniors have had some difficult learning experience the last three years, and so they're in a good place, I'm excited for them, and we get an opportunity to play another game, which is the most exciting part of this whole thing.

Ann-Renee Desbiens
On playing Boston College in the semifinal round:
"I think we need to focus on what we can control and the opponent is not one of them. I know whether we're playing Minnesota or Boston College, we'd be happy either way and give it our best."
On playing in LaBahn one last time:
"I just want to make sure I enjoy those moments as much as I can. It's not an atmosphere that a lot of hockey players can experience. I made sure I took everything in and enjoyed the moment. I'm always thankful for the fans here, they're just awesome and they made my experience here probably the best I could have asked for."
On her defense's performance today:
"They had a couple, more than a couple, really good blocked shots. They're ready to sacrifice their body for the team but also for me to help me out so I really appreciate their help."

Sarah Nurse:
On playing Boston College in the semifinal round:
"I think we're just excited for the opportunity. The last three years... what's happened has happened, it's in the past. I think we're really looking forward to playing Boston College and getting the win on Friday."
On the second period and what the team can do offensively:
"I think we were pretty relentless on them. They played a really good game, but I think we did come at them in waves and I think that's a testament to how prepared we were and how focused we are in practice so I was really excited to see that from the team."
On her post-season performance:
"I think everyone is clicking, we're a team that can go four lines deep. I think the energy from everybody, it's energizing everybody and we're all having an excellent postseason so far."
On playing in LaBahn one last time:
"Yeah it's kind of crazy. This morning all the seniors were kind of joking around like, 'this is the last time we're going to come down this elevator for a game.' It was definitely an emotional day but it was so special. I think playing here, you're never going to get this experience ever again. I have been so thankful and grateful and really humbled to play here. Huge thank you to all of the fans." 

Mekenzie Steffen
On her first NCAA tournament game:
"Yeah I was a little nervous, but it's obviously a lot of fun playing in front of a sold out crowd. I think we really took off the crowd's energy and played a really good game today."
On her performance today:
"The first rush was obviously my teammates putting it right on net, I happened to pick it up. We had some good line rushes and our forwards just put the puck in the net."
On playing with Jenny Ryan and Mellissa Channell:
"Obviously they put a lot of confidence in me, they help me up when I have a bad shift and I've learned a lot from just watching them play. They definitely have been great mentors for me this year."
On scoring a goal and adding two assists:
"We just had a good week of practices this week and we were all just kind of feeling it out there. I thought we all played really well, and yeah I got a few points, but that doesn't really matter won as a team. That's awesome."


Robert Morris Coach Paul Colontino
Opening Statement:
"Obviously Wisconsin played well. It was our first time at the tournament, I thought we had a little bit of first-time jitters. Moving into the first (period), and unfortunately into the second where they really capitalized on things and put some distance between them and us. Moving through the third, I thought we did a better job of just regaining a little bit of composure and a little bit more of our style of game. But in the end, I think we were out-matched, outgunned at that point of the game. We're definitely proud of our girls for the season as a whole. As a younger program, we were able to take some nice strides forward. First time at the NCAA (Tournament), first time we were able to claim regular season and playoff championships for the CHA. To our team and to our program we are super proud of our captains, our seniors for guiding the team. For us, it was a very remarkable experience and not summed up in one game here tonight. As a whole, we're just going to be proud of our team, our program, our players."
 
On the Badgers' second period:
"They have just a phenomenal transition game. Between the pipes, they were moving that puck up quick. It was making life very difficult to change one defense off at a time. We constantly had people stuck out there on the ice. We talked about the rink being wider and Wisconsin being used to their rink, their barn, and there's something to be said about that. They worked it to a T, and they did a heck of a job with it. To be blunt, the shots were 25-2 in the second. They worked it and they worked it well. They wore us out and took a lot of energy out of us. We'll learn from that, without a doubt. We'll learn from that and we'll make adjustments in the summer and with years to come and we'll expect those types of things. But a little wider, they worked that transition game, and when they got in the zone, they held onto it, kept the outside and they got the changes that they needed. All of a sudden, they were five fresh, versus sometimes two fresh and three that had been out there for 45 seconds to a minute and a half. So they did a nice job with it and it really did change the game that period."
 
On taking something from this game:
"Give full credit to Mark Johnson, his staff, the University of Wisconsin, they run a first-class program here. There's a lot of little things that you pick up when you're here. You learn from them, but in all honestly, on the ice they are just a phenomally solid team. You watch them on video and I had a number of press reporters throughout the week, saying, "have you found any weaknesses?" and I said, "well I've found a lot of checkmarks in what they were strong at! I kind of stopped looking for weaknesses." But we learned so much, sometimes just being exposed to that level of play. With the scheduling of NCAA Hockey, it is tough to play everybody. With the WCHA, they really only have six out of conference games that are available to them, whereas the CHA, we have about 14, and when you try and match up scheduling, it becomes tough. So the more you get exposed to that kind of hockey, the more we can learn from it. In all honesty, it makes it easy as a coach when you're having a little tough skate during practice and maybe you're hollering a little bit and you say, "remember that game? This is why we're a little angry right now, this is why we're pushing you." And you know what, it does make sense to these student-athletes, because they do remember. They say "yeah, they did some nice things on the ice, we want to do that." That is where the bar is at. Wisconsin does a very nice job of setting a high bar and we're going to inch our way closer to it."
 
Rikki Meilleur
On handling the environment:
"In the warmups you could see that we were a little nervous. We looked around and we had never played in front of a crowd like that. The most we've ever played in front of is close to 900 people. That was exciting to play against them and exciting to be around and the crowd, but as soon as we got in our zone I thought we came out like we should and if only we came out like that every period."
 
Amanda Pantaleo
On their fans and band coming out to support them:
"It was awesome, not just this weekend but last weekend too at the CHA Finals. They have so much support for us, they traveled so far and have to be back tonight for the basketball team. It makes you feel a little bit more like home when you look up and see them, for me it was something special looking up and seeing my dad up their too. I think all of us can say the same thing. The support from them has been unbelievable, the alumni, they did the best they could to make it feel like home."
 
Mikaela Lowater
On the difficulty of matching up with Wisconsin:
"We knew that they were going to be fast, that was our main focus. We knew we had to get our gaps ready and be able to apply a little bit of pressure and make them to make plays they didn't want to make. We just tried to play our game."