It was a fitting end to the D-III season on Sunday night as the two best teams in the country battled evenly through sixty minutes of regulation hockey before ultimately deciding the national championship in overtime with Hobart’s Wil Crane scoring to lift the Statesmen to their first national championship. It was tough to see anyone lose this contest as both teams left it all on the ice delighting the capacity crowd and the new president of the NCAA (former Massachusetts governor, Charlie Baker) with end-to-end excitement and momentum shifts. Here are some of the great comments from both coaches to wrap-up an outstanding Frozen Four weekend:
Mark Taylor – “It’s great, feels great. It probably really hasn’t sunk in yet, but the best part was probably seeing twenty to forty years of alums that were out there that are just pumped to get it and certainly, these guys, you know, I had a great feeling about this group going into overtime and they set the goal of 18:41 – I am really pumped for that!”
Message going into overtime – “Just stay the course – I thought we were doing the right things. For me going into overtime was easy. These guys owe me nothing. They played their hearts out all year. I was going to feel the same about them win or lose. It’s great to do this, but no question that at all but I have had a great bunch of guys for 23 years. Seeing some of the guys I coached my first year and it’s a great feeling. Like Zach [Tyson] said that was a goal for us to get it done. Certainly, I know what it means to all our supporters and these guys here and it means a ton to me as well. I have had the front seat privilege of being with a group of great players for 23 years at Hobart.”
On winning medal at the World University Games and National Championship – “How to top this year – yup, coaching another year. You do it long enough you realize you have a pretty good job. So, we intend to be sitting here next year – that is the challenge. We had two guys that were injured, we want to make sure they have a chance of playing in it. It was fun – it was awesome. There were two guys that went to the University Games from my team and three guys from Adrian on that. That was a nice sign for a lot of people that you can have the best of both worlds. That didn’t hurt either one of us and the kids had experiences they should have. When people have to step away for a little bit others have to step up.”
Adam Krug – “It was a great hockey game – two great teams, two very good teams, best two teams in the country. I can’t say enough about our group – how resilient they were the whole tournament. Overtime in the quarterfinal, win. Down 5-2 on Friday, come back, blow the lead, go to overtime win. Get to the championship game. This guy right here [Nic Tallarico] gets another stab at it today and plays great – 30-something saves. Nothing he could do on the overtime winner – kind of a harmless shot that goes off our defenseman and right to a guy at the back door for an open net tap-in. Congrats to Coach Taylor and their group. They have been banging on the door for a long time like we have, and they finally got it done. Congrats to Hobart.”
On Hobart’s game plan – “I thought they did a great job going north. Any loose puck they were just going. It took us probably two-thirds/three quarters of the first period to kinda get that under control and then we got to our game a little bit. They are a solid hockey team. They counter pretty well. They are very good defensively. Clearly the number one defensive team in the country, statistically. You see why. They have detail and they outnumber you very well. Well coached – I can certainly say that.”
And so, it ends after an epic season of D-III college hockey. Hobart claims their first national championship over a very good Adrian team that feel just short in their journey to repeat as champions. Congratulations to both teams on an incredible season.
Look for Brian Lester and my All-USCHO awards coming out this week. The awards will include our picks for the All-USCHO team, All-Rookie Team, and Rookie of the year as well as Player of the Year and Coach of the Year.
