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BOSTON – Northeastern men' hockey head coach Jim Madigan participated in a Hockey East teleconference on Tuesday ahead of this weekend's conference quarterfinals. Madigan looked back at last weekend's victories against Connecticut in the Hockey East First Round and previewed this week's matchup at No. 8/6 Boston University.
 
Coach Madigan on the Connecticut series and looking ahead to this weekend's Hockey East Quarterfinals at Boston University:
"We had a really tough playoff series against Connecticut. Both games were really close, the first night was 3-1 and the second night's score was not indicative of how the game went. It was a 6-2 final, but it was a 3-2 game with 10 minutes left in the third period and we were able to capitalize on a five-minute major and score three times that put the game away. I thought the games were hard fought and I liked how we played. I thought we played really well defensively, I thought we stayed above the puck a lot and had good presence in the neutral zone. Connecticut has some skilled offensive forwards. Maxim Letunov and Tage Thompson are as good as anyone in our league, and they still got their chances, but I thought we did a good job managing them in five-on-five situations. This time of the year you have to win close hockey games and I liked our mindset and mentality and how we played with patience. Finding a way to play well and get two victories is tough. We played Connecticut two weeks earlier and within three weeks and I was pleased with our team's effort, from goaltender out we played well.
 
"Now we're expecting a tougher series against Boston University, who is one of the tri-Hockey East regular season champions, and they play very well in their building. They're very skilled and we played them earlier in the year where we tied them in our building and lost to them in their building, so we know how good they are. We know that we have to play smart, disciplined and execute well going over to their building. We're excited and ready for the challenge, but we know it's going to be a large challenge."
 
Coach Madigan on the recent play of sophomore goaltender Ryan Ruck:
"Ryan has had a very good last 15 games, and a lot of times emphasis is placed on the goalie when you're not playing well and giving up a lot of goals. Certainly there's one or two Ryan would want to have back during that time period, but we weren't playing very well defensively either. Our corps of five just wasn't defending well in front of him. We got a little bit better there, buoyed by the fact that we had a couple players return, most notably John and Nolan Stevens.
 
"Ryan has been really good, and I thought he was excellent last weekend. I thought he was assertive, aggressive at the net-front and played really well. When I look at Ryan Ruck's career with us, we've had 38 wins in two years, that's better than Brad Thiessen, Bruce Racine, and any of those other really good goalies Northeastern has had. I played with Racine and I watched Thiessen and I had a lot to do with signing Brad with the Penguins when I was with them. We always want more from Ryan, but he's certainly back boned this club to 38 wins in two seasons and that's not a short task."
 
Coach Madigan on the play of the Zach Aston-Reese, John Stevens Nolan Stevens following the injuries to the Stevens brothers:
"Putting the total number of points aside, we did expect a lot out of them. Out of Aston-Reese, Dylan Sikura, Adam Gaudette and out of Nolan and John Stevens. If you look at the last two-thirds of the season last year, where Aston-Reese was with John and Nolan Stevens, they were really productive. We didn't think 50 points was out of the question for Aston-Reese and where Gaudette and Sikura played together the last half of the season, with their production, we just expected a lot more. The disappointing part of it was the production wasn't there for Nolan and John Stevens because of injuries. Nolan Stevens led our team last year with 20 goals and he didn't have that chance this year missing 21 games and John missing 13 games. We expected them to put up numbers and as for consistency, Aston-Reese has been consistent here from day one.
 
"Consistency can be measured different ways, not only production of goals and assists. What we've asked him to do as a freshman and sophomore, he was consistent in that role and then as we elevated his role in his junior and senior seasons, he's been consistent that way. We're seeing last year with 44 points, we're seeing this year with 62, so we're gravitating towards that but his game hasn't changed. He's still a 200-foot guy and he can impact our team in a game with his great defensive play just as well as his offensive play."
 
Coach Madigan on the return of the Stevens brothers:
"When Nolan came back there was excitement in the room, that was leading into the first Beanpot game, because everyone saw how hard Nolan had been working. Rehab is the toughest work assignment you can take on and it was a four-month rehab. As excited as we were for Nolan, then Johnny went out right at the same time, for the second time, so it kind of deflated us a little bit.
 
"Johnny was our leader on the ice and off the ice, and we were expecting everyone to play again and then we had to put that on hold for three weeks. The balloon let some air out of it but we were able to get both of them back. The three of them (Nolan, John, Aston-Reese) have only played five Hockey-East and playoff games together this season. I thought their game last weekend was very good, specifically on Saturday and I think they're just now getting into their stride. They expect things to happen and now they are producing because they work hard and they like playing with each other."
 
Coach Madigan on Northeastern's offense against Boston University's defense:
"I look at Boston University and certainly I am well aware of its defensive prowess and accomplishments this year. But when I look at that lineup, I see an awful lot of offense there too. Maybe the numbers don't speak to the numbers that some of our top three or four guys have, but it's hard to think they're not an offensive team when you throw Greenway, Keller and some of those guys up that way, Harper and Forsbacka-Karlsson. Those are good match-ups, and I like to think that we play well defensively even though our numbers don't show it.
 
"This time of the year you have to play tight, and I thought last weekend where we scored three goals and then six the second night, but three before everything exploded. I thought we played smart and above the puck and eliminated a lot of the high-end quality chances that Connecticut had. We're going to have to play that way against Boston University.
 
"We're hoping that our offense can continue. We know we're not going to get four and five goals against a BU team because of the way they play, so we're going to be a little bit smarter and opportunistic around the net. We're hitting at 29% on the power play. That's probably not going to happen as much in the playoffs because of the tightness, but I feel good if we get four or five opportunities that we'll get at least one on the power-play. We know that they're really good on the penalty kill so we'll have to be smart and find the open guy but we've got some confidence in the power play and right now our guys are moving it well."
 
Coach Madigan on overcoming last year's adversity and how it benefits this year's team:
"We see it right now and we saw it in this past weekend of preparation. When John Stevens speaks up and talks to the group and Aston-Reese is there and Garret Cockerill, who is a junior and some other seniors who were on the team last year, there's a confidence and a calmness. I like the words and I like the messaging that is coming from those leaders in the room. It's invaluable. It keeps everyone in neutral, balanced. We had a good week of practice last week, we're on Spring Break, so there aren't a lot of distractions this week with our players. They can focus in on preparing for this weekend and the message has been really good with our senior and veteran leadership in the locker room. It is invaluable this time of the year."