Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
And we welcome you back here to hot Talk Downtown
Grand Forks, says, we welcome you all across the Fighting
Hawks Radio network as we're wrapping up our season here
with just two shows remaining, including tonight, so we are
getting to that point of the season. It's daylight out
still we can look out over the great views of
downtown Grand Forks. Time to talk a little U and
(00:22):
D hockey as they get into the first round of
the NCCHC playoffs. Tim, you were there over the weekend
and you got to see all the actions, so I'll
let you lead us off.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, it was a stranger we I played really well.
I thought Friday night a lot of doubt. TJ played
very well Friday night win three to one. Saturday was
a weird game. And Brad Barry as well as the
course and Brody just thought there were some things your
team did that they hadn't been doing well.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
First of all, it went over video yesterday and today
with our guys like it should have been three nothing
for us in the first ten minutes, and then we
didn't score. Their goaltender played well, by the way, he's
the ncch goalie of the year. So again we're gonna
have to make a difficult on him this weekend. But uh,
we didn't score, and I think we got away from
our game. They scored the first one, and then he
scored one at the end of the second come out
(01:08):
or end of the first. Then we come out in
the second, and we kind of went away from our structure,
kind of playing desperate hockey, not patient hockey, like just
staying with the process of trying to get the next goal.
And uh, and and and at the end of the day,
we gave up some out numbered rushers, some situations that
normally we don't do, and and they ended up scoring
a couple more. We ended up making four to two,
getting back in the game, but then again at the
(01:29):
end of the second they made it five to three
goal three goal deficits. So you know, we we got
to let the game get away from us because we
I think we started pressing too early and instead of
just being patient with the game, because we had a
ton of chances early in the game to score and
I knew we were going to get more after we
just we just kind of were a little bit desperate.
Speaker 2 (01:47):
Yeah, I'm of the belief with your team seeing them
all here the two goals is not a big deal,
a big deal, not at all. I thought the one
at the end of the second was kind of the dagger.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Again, like in hockey, it is absolutely taboo to give
up a goal at the end of a last minute
of his period, So the first period and the second period,
so that happened twice on that night, and that like,
you can't do that. And so we were a little
bit loose in our game. And our guys know that
we had a really good practice today again and the
guys are fired up on getting under road and playing.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
So you know, I'm going to just equate this to
some of the things I heard this weekend in Sue
Falls at the sum of league tournament with college aged individuals,
which you're dealing with. And on the basketball side, Coach Henderson,
the head coach of South Dakota State, after North Gota
beat him, said something, and this is something that North
could have struggled with a lot this year in basketball.
He said, you know it sometimes as our guys missed
(02:44):
shots as the game we're on and this is on
Friday night when North got to beat South Dakota State
to advance to Saturday. He said, sometimes when our guys
missed shots. As we got into the second half, they
started worrying more about we're missing shots, and then that
affected their whole entire game. And so here you said,
you we had chances in the first period, and then
it affected some little parts of our details.
Speaker 3 (03:05):
Hunt of percent. And I think you know, the teams
that win or the teams that believe, and they have
patients in their game because they their structure is so good.
We have really good structure too. But I think when
when you don't score on your first two or three
or four opportunities that are Grade A because the goal
is making it standing on his head at the end
of the day, you got to trust that you're going
to get that next one and you're gonna you're going
(03:26):
to finally get a goal instead of bandon what you do.
And and that's exactly what you talked about in the
basketball terminology side of it, and uh and and again
especially in playoffs, whether it's NHL college or junior hockey.
At the end of the day, like if you play
really good defensively, you're going to get your offensive opportunities.
You just can't give up those those free plays to
the net. And I thought we you know, even though
(03:48):
we Omaha played a really good game, they played with
more desperation and conviction on Saturday because they lost the
night before. We didn't play as well, and I think
it was one of those things where where we kind
of beat ourselves a little bit.
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Yeah, Like I said, I think all season i'd felt
that way, especially on the road down to you don't
want to be down to Yeah, but you guys have
managed to stay the course in more n anything. I
think attention to detail maybe lost a little bit on Saraday.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Yeah, and again, like the attention to detail is always
being above the puck. Like I think situations where you're
when you're pressing, that's when you kind of go all
out and the puck goes behind you and then and
then you get out the outnumbered rushes. And that's what
happened to us on Saturday. Is if you keep guys
in front of you and you play good defensively, guess what,
They're not going to have anything and you're gonna get
(04:37):
your chances. You're going to frustrate the other team.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
Two and two was four on four, wasn't it when
they came into on Oh?
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I mean yeah, it was four and four. You know
when we were we were interchanging and we got two
d men cup below down below and our four didn't
didn't come back and support up top.
Speaker 1 (04:51):
So yeah, and TJ's body of work, we know it
as the goaltender of the month in February, when when
you you mentioned it before, it doesn't always equate to
what the goaltender is doing. Specifically, when you make a
change within a course of the game, that's a situation
where it might be a message to everybody here.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Correct a hundred percent. And you know what, He's been
a rock for the last couple of months. He's been outstanding.
He's given us chances to win when we won games,
and he's given chances a chance to win when we
lost games as well. Like he kept us right in
there when we lost games. You know, when I pulled
him after four goals, a lot of things are going
through my mind. You let him kind of work his
way out of it, but I think you have to
(05:30):
have a feeling what your team is doing at the time.
I didn't think our team was doing the right things
to give him a chance to hit for him to
get back in the game. So that's when I pulled
them and then you know what, the first thing I
did was run down to the end of the bench
and I grabbed him and I said, hey, at the
end of the day, we haven't played well enough in
front of you, Like, just you get your mindset ready
for next weekend. You're going to be the guy going
(05:50):
back in net here again. At the end of the day.
It wasn't because of you, So it was true. I
mean I didn't pull him because he had a bad night.
We just didn't play well in front of him.
Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, I mean, when you get a two to one
to zero, that's one thing. They had one with the
guy going back door and another guy going right down
the slot on touch. I mean, how do you blame?
Speaker 3 (06:12):
But as a coach, what do you do for the
best of your team? As a coach, you have to
think about your whole team, not just the goaltender. In
order to do that, it is okay, I need to
get a bump out of our team. Yanked the goalie
and everybody goes man, I got to be beg good
for Hobie coming in right, So we did. We made
it for two, which he.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
Was pretty good.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Oh, he made some great saves, but we got back
in the game, and then that, like you said, that
fifth goal at the end right in the last minute,
it hurt us to the third period because now it's
a three goal deficit.
Speaker 2 (06:36):
Well, like we said this morning, you wipe the slate clean. Yep,
everybody is zero and zero right, Yeah, for sure, and
there's no doubt.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
And we went down there a few years ago and
we ended up winning a three game set on the
row too, which is always tough in Nancy EC but
we did it.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
Dylan James had a great weekend that weekend. If I
miss I'm not mistaken, and he had a short I think,
and that yet in one of.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
The Tyler Clevin was a big part of that too
when he was in our lineup here or too. So yeah,
we yeah, we got some really good efforts there. And
I just think that we play a kind of a
simple north, kind of a not pretty game on the
road where they make make it tough on the other team.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Tell us a little bit about the unanimous choice to
the All Rookie team in the NB.
Speaker 3 (07:17):
Yeah, you know, super proud him. I just texted him
here on the way home before he came to the
radio show here because Alex doctor Johnson let me know
that he was the that he was the unanimous pick
for the All Rookie Team first team. And I think
you'll have a great chance to be the Rookie of
the Year too. That's gonna be named at the banquet
here in another week or so. But you know what,
he's come in here. He's a competitor. You and I
(07:38):
were just talking before the show. He's he's got god
given ability, he's got elite ability, but he's got huge
compete and he and he's a he's an he's a
guy that invests in his game every single days and
every day, and you just love to see guys have
success like that. We've had a number of guys those
high enders come in like that that came through our
program and went on to the NHL and have great careers.
But I think there's big, even better days ahead of
(08:01):
him here. Like he's really established himself. Like I thought
he had a good first half, especially when a lot
of our guys were out of the lineup, Like he
took charge right away, and then he kind of, you know,
he kind of plateaued a bit, and now he's really
taken off again. And you know, he's playing his best
hockey right now.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
I think one of the things under that people overlook
a little bit is he's very physical. Oh he's Uh,
he wins the battles on the ball. He's like Dylan James,
he wins the battles on the board.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Well again, fighting is not allowed in college college for sure.
He you know, he comes from a boxing background. His
dad was a professional boxer, owns a gym, professional boxing
gym and in uh twelve Riviere Quebec, and uh, he's
got that in him. So that's where the compete comes from.
But I got to watch him a lot in Moskegan
over the last two years because my kid was playing there,
(08:48):
and he got into like four fight four and four
or five fights a year. And it wasn't against kind
of weak guys. It was the tough guys on the
other team that he would go after. It's amazing, like
he's he's not afraid.
Speaker 2 (09:00):
So did you get them? How'd you get them?
Speaker 3 (09:03):
Well, I'm not going to tell you. Yeah, I'm not
going to tell you.
Speaker 1 (09:07):
So when you when you looked at Omaha from what
you saw this weekend, what would you say were the
characteristics that really stuck out. That made them a formidable
full and we'll make them a formidable folly.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
That's a great question, Paul. We've always I think it's
two similar programs that play fast, play North and they
play hard, right, you know, and uh, you know, over
the last couple of years, it's always been you know,
win one, lose one, win one, lose one, or a
one goal game kind of thing. And I think it's
a it's a situation. There's not a lot of open
ice out there, and you got to capitalize on your chances.
And like I just said earlier on, you cannot you
(09:41):
cannot give the other team momentum by by kind of
just being weak defensively or a little bit loose defensively.
You got to play a strong game. And again, I
think we capitalized on Friday night because I thought we
were a harder team and and and they broke down
a little bit. It turned the tables a little bit
on Saturday. And we want to be that that assertive team,
but under discipline and composure.
Speaker 2 (10:02):
Well it's going to be uh yeah, it'd be be
a battle. I mean, you guys, it's it's a rivalry.
The fact that you only played two games against each
other so far this season. Normally you play four and
sometimes I guess a little frisky. I think there's some
rivalry there.
Speaker 3 (10:17):
Yeah, there is, Yeah, one hundred percent there is. And uh,
you know, the one thing is too we've had you know,
going down there a couple of years ago too, and
you're the home When you're the home team, I think
there's more pressure on you when you're at home because
you're expected to win, right And we went down there,
we lost the first game, we won the second game,
and then the pressure goes on them in the third game.
And I think that first game is going to be
(10:38):
important again, and we want to win that game to
set ourselves up. But regardless of what happens is we're
going to compete right to the end here and and
I like where our guys are at right now. At
the end of the day. We didn't have our best
on Saturday, but you know, our guys are feeling it
right now. They want to they want to keep playing
the game and and we're going to bring our best.
Speaker 2 (10:55):
Do we know you about aj Emory?
Speaker 3 (10:57):
He skated today. I thought he was okay today and
we'll see where he's at tomorrow. We're getting on the
bus tomorrow. We're practicing tomorrow morning and then getting on
the bus at around noon and then we'll we'll see,
but tomorrow morning you will give us a good indication.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Did what did you think of jayde and Prawn as
far as kind of where he's at with everything?
Speaker 3 (11:14):
Basically, I thought Friday he was really good.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (11:16):
I thought Friday was really good. Saturday I didn't. I
didn't think he was poor, but I didn't think he
was where he was on Friday night. And you know,
I think that's to be expected. You know, he's been
Friday yeah. Drenaline on Friday yeah, and endurance and you know,
resiliency of playing back to back and you know he'll
be ready for Friday Saturday again here in Omaha. But
(11:38):
you know, he's been good and uh, you know, it's
always tough getting back in the lineup, but he's done
a good job.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Well that's good to hear. We're excited about the weekend ahead.
We're gonna be on pins and needles here. Fans that
can't make it down to Omaha, we'll be we'll be
watching and cheering and listening to Tim certainly and appreciate
you dropping in on a big week.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
Ahead of your good luck. Yeah, thanks a lot, guys,
all right, appreciate.
Speaker 1 (11:58):
Coach Brad Berry, everybody. Big weekend North Dakota hockey taking
on the Omaha Mavericks. When we return, we're gonna dive
into U and D football. That's right. Spring football is
just on the corner, and the new head coach will
get his first edition of Hawk Talk when we return.
Eric Schmidt joins the broadcast next as we turn our
attention to U and D football and the spring campaign,
(12:21):
and we'll have it for you next year as Hawk
Talk continues from the five oh six Pub downtown Grand Forks,
all across the Fighting Hawks radio network