2008 Woodie Awards
Miami welcomes Notre Dame to Goggin
Kevin Jacobs
Issue date: 11/9/07 Section: Sports
After returning from a weekend that put its current winning-streak and No. 1 national ranking in jeopardy at Northern Michigan University, the Miami University ice hockey team looks to continue its dominant play with two CCHA games against No. 12 ranked University of Notre Dame Friday and Saturday at Steve Cady Ice Arena.
ND boasts a 6-3 overall record, a 4-1 record in CCHA play and is the reigning CCHA regular season champion. The Fighting Irish are coming off a weekend sweep of Lake Superior State and are led by forwards Erik Condra and Mark Van Guilder. Van Guilder leads Notre Dame with six goals, but will run into RedHawk goalie Jeff Zatkoff, who has been extremely hot this season, sporting a 1.34 goals against average and a .944 save percentage.
"For me, it's pretty much the same thing every weekend: It's giving my team the chance to win every night by stopping the shots I need to stop and stopping a couple that I shouldn't," Zatkoff said. "That's my focus every weekend, just giving my team a chance to win."
Winning is what the 'Hawks have proven they're very capable of this season, but despite their success they have been able to put things in perspective. They haven't let the pressure to win compromise their play and have shrugged off the pressure casually.
"Obviously the ultimate goal is to win games, so to have a winning streak like this is nice," captain Ryan Jones said. "As far as the pressure goes, I think that the team has done a great job of taking it a day at a time. Everyday that we are at the rink it is the most important day thus far in the season. We continue to get better on a daily basis and I think that helps us to not focus too much on the pressures that come with rankings and winning streaks."
Head Coach Enrico Blasi echoed Jones' confidence in his team to deal with the pressure and focus on the games at hand.
"Really from August to this point, we've focused on our preparation, making sure that we control exactly what we can control," Blasi said. "We don't want to worry about what happened in the past and we don't want to worry about who we play next week. Our focus and our leadership, starting with Ryan Jones, has really emphasized that in the long term and our focus has really been on Notre Dame. It really doesn't matter what has happened in the past. This is part of the process that we're going to go through the rest of the year. Everyday is a new day and we have to get better."
ND boasts a 6-3 overall record, a 4-1 record in CCHA play and is the reigning CCHA regular season champion. The Fighting Irish are coming off a weekend sweep of Lake Superior State and are led by forwards Erik Condra and Mark Van Guilder. Van Guilder leads Notre Dame with six goals, but will run into RedHawk goalie Jeff Zatkoff, who has been extremely hot this season, sporting a 1.34 goals against average and a .944 save percentage.
"For me, it's pretty much the same thing every weekend: It's giving my team the chance to win every night by stopping the shots I need to stop and stopping a couple that I shouldn't," Zatkoff said. "That's my focus every weekend, just giving my team a chance to win."
Winning is what the 'Hawks have proven they're very capable of this season, but despite their success they have been able to put things in perspective. They haven't let the pressure to win compromise their play and have shrugged off the pressure casually.
"Obviously the ultimate goal is to win games, so to have a winning streak like this is nice," captain Ryan Jones said. "As far as the pressure goes, I think that the team has done a great job of taking it a day at a time. Everyday that we are at the rink it is the most important day thus far in the season. We continue to get better on a daily basis and I think that helps us to not focus too much on the pressures that come with rankings and winning streaks."
Head Coach Enrico Blasi echoed Jones' confidence in his team to deal with the pressure and focus on the games at hand.
"Really from August to this point, we've focused on our preparation, making sure that we control exactly what we can control," Blasi said. "We don't want to worry about what happened in the past and we don't want to worry about who we play next week. Our focus and our leadership, starting with Ryan Jones, has really emphasized that in the long term and our focus has really been on Notre Dame. It really doesn't matter what has happened in the past. This is part of the process that we're going to go through the rest of the year. Everyday is a new day and we have to get better."
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