Quinnipiac Head Coach Rand Pecknold on playing in Fargo and playing North Dakota.
“We’re excited to be here,” coach Pecknold said. “We thank the City of Fargo for hosting. It’s been great so far, we’re excited. Certainly we have a big challenge ahead of us with North Dakota. I think they are one of the best teams in the country, they have proved that all year. I think they might be the most talented team in the country. They have a great coaching staff. I have the upmost respect for Dave Hakstol, I think he is one of the best in the business and his assistants do a great job.
“We are looking forward to the challenge on Friday night. We realize that playing North Dakota anywhere is tough, and it’s even tougher to play them in North Dakota. We understand that and we are going to embrace that. At the same time, while we have the utmost respect for them we know that we are a pretty good hockey team ourselves, and we have won a lot of games here the last couple of years and we have got some pretty good players, so we are going to come out and play hard. We’ll have our battle mode on early, and try to give them the best game we can.”
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Head coach Dave Hakstol on hosting the regional tourney in Fargo, ND.
“I think the home-ice advantage is what you make of it. Sometimes to certain groups it can add a little bit of pressure, which wouldn’t come across as an advantage. This is a special opportunity for us, but it doesn’t guarantee anything. It is a special opportunity to play in a regional in North Dakota that is one hour south of our campus. We are going to do what we do, prepare really well, enjoy the experience, and do everything we can to help energize the crowd who will in turn help us a bit. Let’s take advantage of the opportunity to play in the state of North Dakota.”
UND forward Bryn Chyzyk was asked about playing Quinnipiac.
“I think our focus is to get back to playing our best hockey of the year,” Chyzyk said. “This is the time of year we want to play our best hockey. We know we’re going to see a good team over there. Quinnipiac won their regular season, but the biggest thing for us is to bring our best game and the rest will take care of itself.”
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