UNO Hockey Coach Mike Gabinet, senior forward Ryan Galt, and junior forward Zach Jordan answered media questions as part of the “Omaha Athletics Weekly Media Availability” on Feb. 19, 2019.
The three fielded questions regarding the UNO Hockey team’s bye week and the upcoming series against St. Cloud State on Feb. 22-23 at Baxter Arena.
According to the @OmahaVid Twitter account, the university was not able to live stream the press conference due to another event at the arena.
So, they posted a heavily truncated 4-minute version instead.
If you would like to watch the video (starting at the 5:35 mark), you can do so here.
ON THE BYE WEEK...
GABINET: "Nice to get a break in the off week there. Hadn’t had a break since Christmastime, so I think it was really good for the guys to recharge and kind of refocus and have a little bit of time to teach and to recover, so definitely used the week to our advantage there and I thought the guys did a great job preparing for this week and now we’ve got the number one team in the country coming to town, so an exciting week for us to prepare for."
ON PLAYING ST. CLOUD STATE...
GABINET: "I think sometimes we take it for granted a little bit in our conference because we are constantly playing a third-ranked team or a first-ranked team but you have to think if Alabama was coming to play Nebraska football, it would be a pretty big occasion, or if our basketball team was playing the number one team in the country, and I think because of our strength of schedule, sometimes it gets overlooked as to how good of opponents we get here and so it’s something we hope our fans are really excited about. I know our guys are looking forward to the challenge, but it’s a big deal when the number one team in the country comes to play you."
ON THE TEAM'S PROGRESSION THIS SEASON...
GABINET: "I think it’s been a nice, you know, when the guys start to see some of the results of the commitment level that you have to have in order to succeed in this conference, at this level, and they start to get a little bit of a taste of that — that if I do these certain things, I’m starting to get rewarded for that, and I think it’s been that kind of a constant small steps in the second half here, so they have to continue with that mindset, that it’s not going to be easy when you’re facing the number one team in the country, there’s going to be setbacks, and adversity, and you’ve got to be ready to handle that, but it’s nice to see the guys slowly building that resiliency that’s really going to serve us well down the home stretch here."
ON ST. CLOUD STATE'S STRONG SEASON...
GABINET: "Well, first off, if you just watch them play, just their ability to skate. We were just watching film before this here and their fourth and third line can absolutely fly out there and they are very, very tenacious on pucks, can move. They’ve done a very good job recruiting over the last several years and it’s paying off for them now. They have the ability to constantly be moving. They run a bunch of five man cycles and are constantly moving around the ice, so it’s very difficult to defend against. They spend a lot of time in other teams’ defensive zones, and with their ability to move and skate like that, it tires other teams out so they do a lot of good things, their compete level is high, but it’s a good challenge for us too. We’ve improved on that, we’re focused on that, so we’re ready for the opportunity to play these guys."
ON THE TEAM'S PROGRESS...
GALT: "It’s exciting. The seniors last year always describe it that way, where it kind of hits you when you don’t really expect it and it’s kind of true, but this year is a little bit different. We were in a better position last year at this time, like standings-wise, but this year is a little bit different because we’ve seen some absolute progression over this year, compared to last year, where we were good off the start and the finish. Where we didn’t have a great start this year, but seeing this team progress it’s really exciting to see what we can do here in the next month."
JORDAN: "I agree with Ryan. I think in the first half there were instances where we were playing the right way, and I think right now it’s just everybody is buying in and playing to their role much better, and it’s more like 55 minutes out of 60, not 20 [minutes] out of 60 and we’re starting to see even against Miami, we played well that Saturday night game — we lost, what 4-2, we played well for 50 minutes. Ten minutes we weren’t there, and I mean it just goes to show how close this league is and how quick things can happen [to] bury you. I think right now with us playing more and more consistently for more minutes of the game, it’s just going to keep get better for us."
ON THE TOUGH CHALLENGE AHEAD AGAINST ST. CLOUD...
GALT: "That’s how it works in this league. We’ve had the toughest schedule in UNO history, I think, three or four years running. And so every year it just gets harder for our team, but it also develops us even better. And it’s exciting to bring all these teams in here, but also, like we’re a really good team too — if we weren’t playing these teams, if say we were in the Hockey East, we’d be in the top 15 as well, just beating those other teams. So it’s tough playing St. Cloud, and Western, and Duluth and I think a lot of those teams from different leagues, say, “Oh, crap, we’re playing UNO, because they’re from the NCHC.” It’s just a high skilled league."
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