University of Massachusets Athletics
Coach Toot Cahoon's Hockey East Teleconference
March 10, 2009 | Hockey
March 10, 2009
AMHERST, Mass. - UMass Head Hockey Coach Don "Toot" Cahoon held his Hockey East Teleconference on Tuesday. Cahoon discussed his team's progress to this point in the season, and previewed this weekend's matchup at No. 4 Northeastern. The Minutemen will travel to Boston this Friday to take on the Huskies in the Hockey East Quarterfinals. Friday's game will begin at 7 PM while Saturday's game will start at 7:30 PM and be broadcast live on NESN.
Coach Cahoon on the season to this point:
As I've said in the past, the season has been up and down; I think our record speaks for itself. We've been a hard team to figure out, both internally and externally. It seems to go as our team offenses and special teams go. When we bring our best, like most of the teams in this league, we're going to be competitive with almost everyone. As for this weekend, Northeastern presents a lot of problems. Coach Cronin has done a tremendous job, and is deserving of all the accolades that he's going to get in the future. Their team has had one of the best years in program history, and it has a lot to do with his leadership and his ability to get his guys to rally around some concepts that they fully bought into. It's no easy task to disrupt their abilities, to penetrate their tenacious play, and be able to get be productive enough to cause some problems that could create an upset.
Coach Cahoon's secret to success against Northeastern:
I think we've caught them at times when they've come off huge series. They've been consistently playing at a high level all season. I think when they came out here, Coach Cronin made it very clear that they didn't bring their best game. We played really well for two periods and then they hammered us in the third, but we managed to survive. In the second game out here, we got off to a good start, and then they hammered us in the second half and ended up walking away with a win. And in the third game, our backs were really against the wall, and we needed to get something going. And we brought as good a game as we've brought all season, and we were able to walk away with the win. I don't think it's the matchup, and I don't think that those games have anything to do with this weekend. This is a whole new season and a brand new start for both teams and you need to bring your best and be consistent and be able to execute in all the situations that will come about in a season like this.
Coach Cahoon on what the Minutemen need to do against Northeastern:
The first thing we have to do is have perfect discipline; we can't be marching ourselves to the box repeatedly. Off and on throughout the season, we've gotten ourselves into trouble when we've taken several penalties in succession. Many of our key players that play special teams and a lot of 5-on-5 hockey end up getting fatigued. And we end up playing ourselves out of the game because we've got our backs against the wall killing penalties; it just exhausts your team. The second thing we have to do is play great team defense. I think teams that win in the playoffs play great defense, and we need to do that.
Cahoon on the recent success of the power play:
Its different weekend to weekend, I think that many of the teams in the league go through peaks and valleys when it comes to the power play. To speak to what makes it work, it's when the guys start making simple plays; play off their forehand, keep the puck off the wall, put passes on the tape. These are things that any coach in the league would consider fundamentals to the power play.
