Carroll talks adjustments entering crucial series with Bemidji State (Part I)

MANKATO, Minn. (KEYC) - The No. 13 Minnesota State men’s hockey team is on the road this weekend for a crucial series against CCHA-foe Bemidji State. The Mavericks are focused on putting together a strong performance from start to finish as the team is two points out of first place in the conference behind Michigan Tech, who is off this week.

MSU senior defenseman Andy Carroll shares insight on how the team looks to stay consistent after splitting a series with St. Thomas.

Mary Rominger: “Andy, talking about the team’s performance in the last month or so, you guys are 9-1 in the last 10 games. Can you talk about the key factor in your team’s success after the holiday break, which included struggles, but things really turned around.”

Andy Carroll: “Yeah, you know, I can’t really pinpoint one specific thing that changed coming back from Christmas break obviously going into Christmas break. We had a couple, you know tough losses but every single time it was it was a one goal differential or at least a lot of the time. I don’t know the exact number but yeah, I think moving forward from Christmas break, we kind of all took a look in the mirror and realized that some things needed to change and on a nightly basis that can really change whether it’s a stop by our goaltender on a penalty kill or you know finding a way to block a shot or even just finding ways to find second and third opportunities to score goals. I think on a nightly basis we’ve done a much better job over the second half on kind of understanding what it’s gonna take to win a hockey game and that’s what we’ve you know, kind of just stepped in the role at it’s it’s not always gonna be pretty but we’re gonna we’re gonna do our very best to find a way to win.”

MR: “Last week’s off week you guys split a series with St. Thomas, where you earned CCHA defenseman of the week. What did you see from the team and what fell short at home with one goal lost then to go on the road and pick up a decisive victory.”

AC: “Yeah, I think I said it in a post game press conference Friday, but it seems like we’re we found a we found a lot of ways this year to lose games where we out shoot a team by nearly triple and you know, like we talked about it Saturday morning that we need to find ways to generate more second third opportunities and find ways to get it in goaltenders eyes and create those opportunities where you’re not just trying to beat a goalie from 40-feet out, but rather trying to you know, get his eyes and create some traffic in front of them and I thought we did a great job of that on Saturday night multiple of our goals came that way and a couple of them or both of them that were actually disallowed, questionable, but that’s that’s the way it is. Yeah, I think just finding ways to get in front of the the goaltender’s eyes will be huge for us moving forward to find ways to score more five on five goals.”

The purple and gold drop the puck with the Beavers at 7:07 p.m. on Friday and 6:07 on Saturday.

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