2004 Atlantic Hockey Championship Game - Postgame Quotes

March 20, 2004

Holy Cross head coach Paul Pearl

Opening Remarks:

"I thought that to come into the finals and play as solidly as we did tonight was a great joy to watch. We came together this season and seemed to get a little better as the year went on, and I think tonight was a fitting end to that.

I would like to congratulate Sacred Heart on a good tournament and a great season. They have a very good team.

We played hard tonight. We played good defense and scored on the power play. When you have eight seniors in your locker room, that has a way of getting you to the end of the game in a positive manner."

On going to the NCAA Tournament:

"I don't know how it feels. I know how it feels to beat Sacred Heart. Tonight, I really haven't gone too much beyond that. It is really exciting, and we will do our best (at the NCAA's) to represent Atlantic Hockey."

On the play of goaltender Tony Quesada:

"He was outstanding. Many of the saves he makes do not look hard, but it is rebound coverage and ability to steer the puck to the corner that make him so good. Those are the type of things he has been doing for the last 180 minutes."

Tournament MVP Greg Kealey (Holy Cross)

On scoring the first goal of the game:

"That is always very important. You always want to score first to get the momentum going your way. We've done that the whole tournament and all year long. An early lead gives us a lot of confidence because we know we have Tony (Quesada) back there, who only gave up one goal in the entire tournament."

On going to the NCAA Tournament:

"It is a great honor. It feels great. We will take it one game at a time; one period at a time as we like to say. I think when we play our type of game and are playing our best we can do some damage. Who knows what will happen."

Holy Cross goaltender Tony Quesada

On his tournament success:

"(Tate Rink) is starting to become one of my favorite places to play. Even against Army (on Feb. 22), I gained a lot of confidence coming out of that game. It makes my job a lot easier when we score first, and we did that in all three games."

Sacred Heart head coach Shaun Hannah

Opening Remarks:

"Holy Cross is a very good hockey team and played very well tonight. Our players put in a solid effort. For whatever reason, things don't always happen the way you plan them. But our players never quit. They kept going for 60 minutes. There was always a sense of hope in the locker room and on the bench."

On the first 10 minutes of the game:

"They came out with their guns blazing and forced us to move the puck quickly. We had trouble getting through the neutral zone and (Holy Cross) gained a lot of momentum off of that. Playing a team with so much fire power up front and passion is difficult. They played a really solid game."

On the importance of the power play:

"Their power play was 2-for-5 and ours was 0-for-3. (Holy Cross) has a good power play and we knew that. We thought that our guys who were killing the penalties have done a tremendous job all year. But (Holy Cross) has a good hockey team with skilled forwards and they put the puck in the net twice tonight."

Sacred Heart forward Mike Reagan:

On Holy Cross' third goal of the game, which took a fortunate bounce off the glass and onto Jeff Dams' stick:

"I think that goal made us feel like they were getting the bounces tonight and we weren't. Many times the puck doesn't come off the glass like it did there. It is disappointing, but we had confidence in our team. We have come from behind before. Even when it was 3-0, we were hopeful. We just didn't get too many bounces."

On the play of Holy Cross goaltender Tony Quesada:

"Coming in I thought that might be a weakness of their team. But he played his angles really well. I tried to put the puck on net as much as possible because playoff hockey is not usually that pretty. I was trying to shoot as much as possible. I think I hit a couple of posts, and (Quesada) made some nice saves."

Sacred Heart goaltender Kevin LaPointe:

On Holy Cross' first goal of the game, which ricocheted off his stick and into the net:

"It is just one of those things. The angle of my stick was wrong and the puck just rolled right off of it and into the net."