"He (the referee) told me that he's allowed to play it when he steps off the bench. In his mind, he thought the guy was close enough."

"No matter what threesome I seem to have in there, they go out and do their job. But they've had an ability this year at times to go out and turn a game our way."

"If there hadn't been an injury, they probably would have played every game together. I like the way they work off each other."

"It was so nice to have the opportunity to put them out there at the end. We have five seniors ? we'll miss them badly. They've been super for us."

"Tyler Howells made a play that was just great. But as a coach, I was still worried with 10 seconds left."spo

"He (the referee) told me that he's allowed to play it when he steps off the bench. In his mind, he thought the guy was close enough."

"No matter what threesome I seem to have in there, they go out and do their job. But they've had an ability this year at times to go out and turn a game our way."

"If there hadn't been an injury, they probably would have played every game together. I like the way they work off each other."

"It was so nice to have the opportunity to put them out there at the end. We have five seniors ? we'll miss them badly. They've been super for us."

"Tyler Howells made a play that was just great. But as a coach, I was still worried with 10 seconds left."spo

"What's haunted us all year is our ability to score goals. I thought that was a game where we could have gone up by certainly at least two, maybe three."

"His ability to compete is his best talent, and his talents are good ? they're really good. He's just got a warrior mentality, and he does it every day. He's one of those really, really good players, and it doesn't matter to him whether it's practice or a game."

"Around the country, nobody knows what the juniors are going to do with this collective bargaining agreement. There could be a wave of kids leaving. We'll just have to wait and see."

"They're obviously a battle-tested team and we knew coming into here that they're a big-game program. Their experience I thought was a factor. They got the jump on us before we could settle down. This was a learning game for us and hopefully we can take it to the next level."

"I don't know what our missed games are, but we must lead the country in games missed due to injury."

"We beat the two teams ranked third and sixth in the country."

"I never thought he played out of panic or fear or worry because he always knew he could go faster (and) catch somebody. He had such great vision and good skills. He'd pass it over a stick, under a stick ? he just could do anything the situation called for."

"We're fighting for a first-round bye so that's the only thing we're kind of thinking about, talking about ? just as we've done over the last couple of months is just try to put wins on the board."

"We've been fighting hard now for a couple of years to get back nationally to a legitimate national level of a program. I'm convinced we're there."

"It's what you want from a good league and good balanced competition. It should be a whale of a hockey game."

"You always like to control your own destiny and we do that by playing teams that we need to beat."

"It's very difficult obviously, and it's hard for anybody to handle it perfect. But I have no complaints at all with how he's dealt with it."

"I've never coached a player in 34 years who prepares like he prepares. To the detail, to the consistency, to how much he stresses the importance of getting himself into his game mode."

"Any top-level team has to have an offensive catalyst on defense, and that's something we've lacked since John-Michael Liles graduated (in 2002). We recruited Tyler because wanted him to run the power play, but it took some time."

"That would have been a big one. The long delay in reviewing it certainly took the momentum away."

"We came back after Christmas and the guys worked so hard to get better. It's encouraging when different guys step in and contribute each night."

"We've got to live in the future now. As good as this (past) weekend was, you've got to let it go and get by it."

"It's a log jam and obviously every game is very important. The mindset is so important because every game is going to be tough to win."

"I know (Michigan) State hasn't scored a goal in three straight NCAA games. But this group ? they do what they need to do."

"Sometimes you like to win maybe better or prettier but, whatever, we'll take the win and go home and get ready for Saturday."

"That's what's haunted us all year, the inability to score goals."

"I thought that was a game we could have gone up by certainly at least two, maybe three (goals). But we couldn't get the puck in the net."

"Obviously we'd love to score six or seven goals but we don't do that. You're not going to beat people easy."

"I thought we could have had four or five (goals) in the first but you don't. You let them hang around and then they took the game away in the second."

"He's missed so much time. The darn injuries the last couple years have really slowed his growth down, and now he's getting games in consecutive fashion and I think he's responding very well to that."

"I thought we played really well. You don't beat a quality team like Michigan without playing very, very well."

"They've had trouble scoring and they've got some injury situations. I expect it to be a defensive game. I think we'll see some fallback and some neutral zone trapping."

"They're an older, bigger, stronger team, and those teams have given us a little bit of trouble at times because we're a younger team."

"I think the nature of Big Ten schools (is) they're not happy just to have programs. You put smiles on people's faces by winning. And the expectation is you do it the right way."

"We maybe looked a little tired tonight, but I thought our kids never panicked, and got a hard-earned win in overtime. It is so important, particularly at this point of the season, to get points on the road. We got one win, and now its time to start focusing on getting another one tomorrow."