Victory

A few player quotes from Rich Garven's game story and sidebar stories in today's T&G:

Tony Quesada:
"This is the best day of my life."

"I feel like I didn’t have my best game or that I was challenged as much as I expected coming into tonight. Going against a team with all that offensive firepower, I expected I would have to make a ton of stops. I just felt like I made normal saves. They weren’t desperate ones where you’re diving around."

"We’re definitely enjoying the moment right now. But we’ll wake up in the morning and be focused on the next game. That’s what we’re here for, to win hockey games."

Tyler McGregor:
"We came in confident. It was confidence in our system and confidence in what we do."

"I just shot it on instinct. I saw it go pretty much right in the middle of the net. When you get a chance like that you don’t want to screw it up."

"I saw everyone coming over, and I was just hoping I didn't get killed." - This quote is not from the T&G, but is taken from the post-game press conference, where McGregor was asked about his team's reaction after he scored the winning goal.


Updates since last night:
We posted last evening, soon after the game, and offered our thoughts on the "Save of the night" and "Goal of the night." Today's paper has this to say about that critical Quesada save:

With 4:52 to go, a screened Quesada made a tremendous glove save on a blistering shot by Andy Sertich, who cut loose from the left circle. Quesada then stopped four shots in the final two minutes as the Golden Gophers swarmed the Holy Cross zone.

Not only was Tony screened by Gophers, but there was a lot of traffic from both teams in front of him at the time. How he spotted that puck is beyond me.

As for the McGregor goal in the second period, it came in the midst of a scoring flurry in the middle of the period, but only half-a-minute after Minnesota scored a short-handed goal to tie the game at 1. The McGregor one-timer was a quick response, putting Holy Cross ahead, and showed this fan that Holy Cross was in this one for real.

Pearl of Wisdom #18

"Good players have puck luck."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Rich Garven's game story in today's Telegram & Gazette, referring to Tyler McGregor and the winning goal in overtime, as Holy Cross defeated Minnesota 4-3 in the first round of the NCAA Hockey Tournament.

By the way, kudos to the T&G for sending Garven to North Dakota for coverage of the tournament. I would've been surprised if the newspaper hadn't sent a reporter, but nevertheless, it's been fun reading the daily features and notes columns the past several days.

Pearl of Wisdom #16

"We're not North Dakota and we're not Minnesota, but we want our guys to act like it is and to buy into the program, and I know they do. There's no evading the academic rigors here, but the second thing in their lives is hockey and training for hockey. They've bought into our picture of 'We want Holy Cross hockey to be this,' and they know it's not going to happen just by saying it. It's going to happen with hard work and they've done all the work."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's excellent feature story on the coach, which ran in the Telegram & Gazette of this Wednesday, March 22.

Pearl of Wisdom #15

"We're very excited to play Minnesota. They obviously have a great program and it will be a great challenge for our program to go match up against theirs. They're really fast and they have excellent special teams. It will be a formidable opponent. We're going to have to play really good defense against them and be opportunistic on our chances that we get. We'll go in there and play them hard and see that we can do."

-Coach Paul Pearl, from Jen Toland's "selection show" story in Monday's Telegram & Gazette.

Play hard they did. We fell behind on our "Pearls of Wisdom" after Holy Cross clinched the number one seed for the AHA tournament, so in recognition of the team's unbelievable victory last night, we're trying to catch up on a couple of Coach Pearl's comments from the past week.

Sweetness

Holy Cross Wins!

Wow, what a game. Holy Cross just pulled off what many hockey analysts are calling the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history! And others are removing the "tournament" qualifier, suggesting it's the biggest upset in the history of college hockey. Holy Cow? Holy Cross!

I'm thrilled for Coach Paul Pearl and his excellent squad of skaters. They're great guys, they work hard, and they deserve this win! Tyler, Bubba, Sean, Tony, Marty, Jon, Blair, Pierre, Dale, Cal, Tanner, Marc, Ben and everyone else - thanks for a terrific season - and it's not over yet! You've made Crusader Nation proud!

Goal of the night: The sweet, sweet goal by Holy Cross senior Tyler McGregor in the second period, off the slick cross-ice assist from Bubba Sixsmith, putting HC up 2-1 while on a two-man advantage. That goal was a thing of beauty! Of course, the game-winner was thrilling and dramatic, but that second goal was pure execution. It was outstanding, and set the tone that Holy Cross was outplaying those Gophers.

Save of the night: Tony Q's awesome glove save late in the third period, preserving a 3-3 tie. Wow.

Key to the game: Holy Cross's penalty kill. This was all the announcers could talk about, and it was a big topic on the local Fox Sports Network affiliate's lengthy post-game coverage. Even the Gophers players pointed to the HC penalty kill as a critical factor in their team's loss.

By the way, FSN-North was set up at UND with a remote set, an anchor with two analysts, plus an "outside the locker room" reporter, all in coverage of their Golden Gophers. Needless to say, it was quite enjoyable watching them as they analyzed the game and interviewed Gopher coaches and players after the game. They also threw in some post-game press conference clips of Tyler McGregor and Tony Quesada. Good stuff! Their coverage was excellent, though, considering it's college hockey. It makes you realize the enormity of Minnesota hockey as a sports presence in that market. The post-game production was similar to what you'd see from Fox Sports New England for a Patriots playoff game.

This win was tremendous. At least one of our fans seems to have had a premonition that this was in the cards. See the comment left for this "We Are Crusaders" post from February. "This year's team is on the cusp of greatness." Well, cusp no more. Greatness achieved!

So it's on to the final eight. Good luck Saturday night!

HOLY CROSS 4, MINNESOTA 3: Biggest Holy Cross Victory in Over Fifty Years!