The Big Green Continues Early Season Road Trip

It's been a difficult start to the season mainly in terms of opponents and travel hasn't it?
Coach Gaudet: As I've said in the past, I think the ECAC is the best its been and arguably is one of the best conferences in the country. Cornell was excellent, especially on special teams. We need to continue to get better in that area there's no argument about that. We're battling to find our way right now but I see some good signs. We played hard but they were playing excellent hockey. I thought it was a good game against Colgate the next night. We generated a lot of offense and they cashed in on the power play. It was a situation where I liked the way our team was competing and playing, we're just not getting the results we want at this point.

Dustin Walsh and Mark Goggin scored against Colgate, how important is it that the freshman class start contributing right way?
Coach Gaudet: I think it's great for their confidence. They're both very good players and both have an offensive capability and they were nice goals. Couple of nice passes that set the situations up and both guys finished up well. To have them contribute is important and to get their confidence up will only help us.

How has it been to keep Jody O'Neill from getting down on himself and how do you work at not having so many pucks get past him?
Coach Gaudet: Cornell really exploited us on the power play and back door situations. We've got to get better at defending and it's not the goalie's fault. He played excellent against Colgate and battled hard against Cornell. Goalie statistics are so heavily related to how well the team plays. We have given the opposition some opportunities that Jody can't be expected to handle all by himself. The way we attacked the game against Colgate, I thought we were a much better team then we were the night before. Those are things I like to see right now, the progression and as that happens the goalie is going to be protected a bit more and have a better chance of focusing more on the first shot then the rebounds and back door shots. It's not from lack of effort but maybe from focusing on the wrong things sometimes. So much of this game is about luck.

How different will this team be when it hits the Thompson Arena ice in two week?
Coach Gaudet: I think they will be a more hardened team. It's not like our schedule gets easier but when you travel there's different things you have to deal with. The familiarity of being home will help and make things a big easier. The games are still going to be really tough but I think these road trips are good ones, good teams in their buildings and they're all intense. It's fun to compete and watch a team grow, knowing that we're going to evolve into a very solid hockey team that is battle-tested.

Our junior class continues to lead the team with guys like Adam Estoclet, Evan Stephens, Scott Fleming, Andrew Owsiak, etc. How important is this class?
Coach Gaudet: Well they are important in terms of the size of the class. They are key guys who have high expectations for themselves. I don't try to temper that as a coach but what happens is that through expectations there comes pressure on them. I try to take that off by letting them know there are a lot of guys on this team that can be key players, maybe just in certain situations or roles. We need to continue to work hard day in and day out.

Talk about this weekend with Princeton and Quinnipiac. How hard is it to prepare for one team that has been on the ice as long as your team has and then the next night you get a team that hit the ice three weeks prior to your team?
Coach Gaudet: It evens out over the course of the season and my hope is we're getting close to evening that out now. Princeton started out with four games at home and we started on the road but that will flip-flop for us later on. They are a very good team that has been rated very highly. They have a very good skill level and work ethic. Then the next night is Quinnipiac who again is highly skilled and is high octane and with a good defense. They'll be good tests for us but we just need to take one at a time. With more games under your belt you really start to learn your strengths and weaknesses and traits of your team and I think Quinnipiac has been able to figure that out. We, as well as Princeton is in the process of figuring that out but we'll get there.