Yale Postgame Press Conference Quotes

2010 NCAA ICE HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP
NORTHEAST REGIONAL · DCU CENTER · WORCESTER, MASS.
YALE POST-GAME PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES
MARCH 28, 2010

Head Coach Keith Allain, Senior Forward Marc Arcobello,
Senior Defenseman Ryan Donald, Senior Defenseman Tom Dignard

Opening statement:
Allain: “First of all I would like to congratulate Boston College, Jerry York and his staff. They are a great team and they did a great job. The game was 9-7 and I can’t tell you how proud I am of my guys. There were numerous occasions during the course of the game where they could have thrown in the towel, but didn’t. That’s what I’ve come to expect from this program and that’s what I’ve seen from this group.”

On the long goal:
Arcobello: “Every goal seemed like it was a momentum swing to us and them.  Going back and forth right down to the end, to say one goal in particular is a momentum swing, I don’t know if that really sums up the whole game.”

On the turnaround of Yale hockey:
Dignard: “We’ve come a long way since our freshman year, and the next couple weeks or so we’ll look back on it more.  Right now we’re still in the moment.”

On Boston College:
Dignard: “They’re a great team, I guess one of the best teams we played all year.  They’ve got really skilled forwards, great team, great goaltending.”

On the team’s accomplishments the past four years:
Donald: “Four years seems like a long time. It flies by. Sometimes you take it for granted getting to these big games on these big stages, but I can recall freshman year when winning was kind of secondary; we were just happy to slip the jersey on that night.  Coach has done a great job creating an environment the last four seasons. You’re expected to win, you’re expected to perform your best whether it’s practice or games.  I think that bodes well for the future of the program.”
Arcobello: “I think everyone tries to give our class all the credit, but it’s definitely not that at all.  We’ve got a lot of young guys that are the future of the program.  And I speak for Tom and Ryan, myself, we’re just proud to be part of the program.

On whether there was any consolation by getting the hat trick:
Arcobello: “If only I played as good on defense as on offense, I could have prevented a couple goals, so not really.”

On early scoring opportunities:
Allain: “I was very comfortable with the pace of the game and the style of the game.”  

On Mark Arcobello’s tremendous game:
Allain: “To me the amazing thing is he was absolutely great and he sits up here and tells you he wasn’t happy with his defensive play. That is what we want our hockey players to be like. Sean (Backman) wasn’t in the lineup and that’s a hole for us, and Mark has been more of a playmaker this year than a finisher. He saw where there was a need tonight and certainly did everything he could.” 

On how difficult it was to handle the long goal by Sneep, from a goalie’s perspective:
Allain: “There is nothing you can do. You want to get it as close to that bounce as you can. You don’t expect it to bounce like that and it was a terrific bounce for them and a terrible bounce for us.” 

On the defensive part of game:
Allain: “I don’t think we were very good as a team defensively. The goaltenders were part of that, but they certainly weren’t the only part of that.”  

On how far Yale’s program has come in the past four years:
Allain: “Like a lot of my players, my focus is pretty daily. When we came in here together, I think we had a vision of how we wanted to play. We approach things on a game-to-game basis as far as how we practice and how we carry ourselves. If you look back, we’ve made great strides that way. It comes down to the people that I’m surrounded with, from the administration to my assistant coaches to my players. Our success is a direct result of that.”  

On being able to come back from big deficits this year:
Allain: “I think we have some offensive talent. We’ve come back before. When you do something once, you get confidence that you can do it again and sometimes that feeds off itself. From my perspective, I wish we weren’t as far behind as we have been a few times this year. It’s a belief and it’s talent.”