December 27 postgame quotes: Stothers and Hensick

Mike Stothers, on the game overall and Jack Campbell’s play:
I think the full game was the Jack Campbell show. … The first game’s tough after Christmas break, seven days. The second game is even tougher and it looked like it took a toll on us more than it did on San Diego. They had the better of the play, more territorial play, and Jack was good for us. We don’t want to make a habit of that. We’re happy that we got the two points, we’re happy that we got the win obviously, but by no means do I want our guys to think that, ‘hey, this is the way we can play and get away with it.’ We don’t rely on any one person and we certainly don’t rely on our goaltender to win our games single-handedly. But, you know what, the other way of looking at it is maybe it all balances out. Maybe there’s times … talked about it earlier in the year that we thought we played well enough to win and we didn’t. Tonight, I thought we could of played a heck of a lot better and we found a way to win. I don’t know. It’s a crazy game.

Stothers, on the success of the Mersch-Hensick-Purcell line:
Well, Hensick and Purcell are pretty gifted, talented guys offensively. They can make some things happen. Merschy’s kind of the glue that keeps everything together, right? He’s not the flashy part of the game, or the line, but he’s effective. He does all the dirty work, the wall work. And then once you can get the puck to Henner and Teddy they’re so good at finding open bodies and seams and whatnot. You know what, it’s working quite well right now. They seem to enjoy playing together and I don’t have any problem throwing those three over the boards so it’s been good.

Stothers, on the team’s three straight overtime wins:
At the start of the year we played some overtime games and we weren’t getting on the right end of it. We got a point, now we’re finding a way to get that second point. It’s important. We’ll take a couple of days here and enjoy the fact that we won the first two games after the Christmas break but we’ve got a heck of a weekend coming up Friday night in Stockton and return home against Stockton on Saturday.

T.J. Hensick, on the success of his line with Mersch and Purcell:
Obviously it feels good right now. The three of us are feeding off each other. We seem to know where each other are at all times on the ice. It’s been fun. It’s a big part of it. Hopefully keep things going. … When you get a guy like Teddy down it’s easy to play with, it’s fun, he’s creative and obviously his experience speaks for itself. [Reporter: What about the goal tonight?] I think the three of us offensively think the same, so we can read off each other. That goal tonight was pretty tic-tac-toe. It was a pretty goal. I felt like Teddy knew exactly where to put it and he did. Obviously it’s a good feeling to get that one-nothing lead going into the third.

Hensick, on how tough it is to come back from the Christmas break:
Actually felt better last night. I think you could tell by the shots tonight that we didn’t have it. We found a way to win which is a big thing, obviously. Soupy, Campbell, played amazing for us, stole a game for us. Huge points on the road. Any way you can find a way to win a hockey game is huge so we’ll continue the streak that we’re on and get ready for the weekend.

Hensick, on the Reign’s abundance of overtime games this season:
You can look at it two different ways — unfortunately we’re getting to overtime but we’ve got a pretty skilled group so when you get to overtime, 3-on-3 is a lot of ice out there. We can skate as a group, find each other, and we’re creating opportunities for ourselves and cashing in on them.

Hensick, on facing Stockton in a home-and-home Friday and Saturday:
Obviously they’re a good team there. I think they’re top in the Pacific Division, a team we’re trying to catch. We’re looking forward to the challenge this weekend. Got them back-to-back. Hopefully we can end the year on a good note.