Parker knows Catamounts will not be taken lightly

WASHINGTON, DC – The way this season’s Frozen Four tournament has gone, being the number one seed was more of a curse than an advantage. In years past, being the number one seed was pretty much a one way ticket to the final four. The Boston University Terriers almost became a victim as well but some late game heroics with 14.4 seconds left in their Northeast final game against Hockey East rival New Hampshire, propelled the Terriers into this years final four in Washington, D.C. The Terriers will take on another Hockey East foe in the University of Vermont Catamounts Thursday night. The winner will take on either Bemidji State or Miami (Ohio) in the Saturday night’s title game. Before the two schools go head first against each other, both head coaches held their pre-game press conferences. Up at the microphone was Boston University Head Coach Jack Parker. Opening Statement

“I have been to many Frozen Fours watching them and it is more fun to be here with the team. We are very fortunate to be here, we had a very tough regional final against New Hampshire, our big rival, and squeaked out the game with 14 seconds to go which was par for the course with most of the regionals; most of the teams scoring with about one tenth of a second to go and then winning in overtime.” “It certainly was a great way to get here to be in a battle like that and get here. And now we are facing a Hockey East opponent that we know well. We had a great season so far and we have won some championships. We have won a lot of games but I hope our best hockey is still in front of us because we need to play our best to win a national championship.” On the teams in the Frozen Four and the fact that no player on any team has played in the Frozen Four “I think it is unusual that there is no repeat performance this year or over the last couple of years. There is nobody on my team that has played in the Frozen Four and there is no one on the other teams that has. It plays a little bit of a different situation. I think it is more unusual than different.” “I don’t think it matters that much. There is always the hoopla around tournaments and this is a big tournament, an important tournament to win. This almost seems like another Bean Pot. There is as much press around the Bean Pot as there is around the National Tournament. It is not like anyone has any advantage as far as they have experience handling big games. They won’t be better off because they are the favorite or the underdog.” On whether it is hard being the No. 1 team “When you are the No. 1 team you get the other teams jacked up that you are playing. You get the immediate gratification of knocking off the No. 1 team. I don’t think that has anything to do with this tournament. No one is trying to knock off the No. 1 team, they are trying to become the No. 1 team. On the team play at a high level all seasonWe get named the No. 1 team in November and then we lost three of our last four games, including two to Vermont.” “Three days after being named the No. 1 team we get beat by UMass 5-1. We have found out how not to handle the pressure. I think after that it settled us down. Later on, when we got high in the polls, and it took us a while, it was easier to handle. We didn’t get full of ourselves. The other thing is we got use to getting everybody else’s best game.” “We get used to seeing everybody play real high, including our last game against New Hampshire or the middle game against Maine. In fact the first two games against Maine in the playoffs. A lot of teams showed us how hard you have to play. We kept getting reminded how hard you have to play. We kept an even keel and we didn’t get full of ourselves because we saw what happens when we get full of ourselves. We are used to playing hard games night-in and night-out in our league with everybody coming at you with their best game.” On the team’s attitude “They are a loose bunch right now that’s for sure. We cut practice short today. We had a couple of other things we were going to do but we liked what we saw. We liked the energy. At this stage in the game it is our job to get out of the way and let the boys play. There are not too many things you are going to talk about Vermont, about the breakout, the power play, and the rush.” “We practice a lot of things all year and now it is time to let them play. I think they feel comfortable. I can not make them creative, but I can take their creativity away. I can’t make my team loose, but I can make them uptight. It is our job to stand aside and let the players play.” On whether Vermont has changed since their last meeting “Their power play is a little different, their power play personnel is different. Their philosophy and forechecking is the same, not much different there. Not a lot of changes since we saw them before.” “The thing that was constant is that they work so hard. People talk about how they have a certain style, a certain philosophy. The most difficult thing about Vermont is that they want to outwork their opponent and they have outworked their opponent a lot this year, including the two games they beat us in our rink. The reason they won those games is because they outworked us.” On what the team’s ‘Burn the Boats’ t-shirts mean “It is an in-house thing. I was told by the boys not to let it out before the tournament was over so I can not comment on it. I have one as well and I was wearing it at a National Rowing Association indoor rowing invitational. I was wearing it and I realized everyone was staring at me wearing a t-shirt that says ‘Burn the Boats’. I thought about explaining it to them, but I realized I was sworn to secrecy and I had to get out of there.” On the play of Corey Trivino “He has played very well lately. Corey centers our freshman line. The other two guys on the wings have played very well all year long and have gotten a lot of ice time. They play the power play, they kill penalties. Corey was in the lineup, he got hurt, he was out of the line up, then I didn’t think he was playing that well. Mostly it was the pace of the game.” “I tell all of our freshmen that guys seem to get it at different stages. Some guys pick it up right off the bat and are ready to go. They figure out the pace of college hockey and are able to create and be the player they are supposed to be given the pace they play at. Other players take a little longer.” “I think Chris Connolly got it right away. I think for Vinny Saponari it took a little longer, but he got it. It took Trivino a little longer to get it. Now that he has got it, he is playing very well, he is very confident and he has a lot of skill.” Quotes provided by the NCAA Contact the author at Brian.jennings@prohockeynews.com