April 5 postgame quotes: Brown, Folin

Dustin Brown, on having such a strong season at this stage of his career:
You just plug away, really. I felt better even starting back last year. I got an opportunity this year to play big minutes and be a huge part of the team, and that’s probably the more important thing, that I was able to help the team make the playoffs. Like Kopi, Drew, Quickie, all those guys – they’re our best players. If we’re going to win most nights, then it’s up to the secondary guys like me, that next group to push, and that’s how you have a good team.

Brown, on scoring four goals:
It’s something I’ve never done before. It’s nice. To do it and try to climb the standings, it’s a big win for us. Ultimately the most important thing is just climbing. [Reporter: But fun, right?] Yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Brown, on losing the lead but coming back to win:
I don’t know what it is in our DNA, but we seem to make it hard on ourselves a lot. We’ve done that, I’m sure you guys could look it up. It maybe didn’t seem like it – I don’t know, I think we’re like, the thing is, we do that, and we come back and win, so the stats probably lie a little bit when you see those records, holding a lead after two periods. There are probably three or four games, I could think of two in the last 20, so that’s eight a year where we have control of a game and then try to get heroics every night, which is probably something we need to avoid next week.

Brown, on the focus for the remaining regular season game:
Two points. The standings are really complicated right now because everyone’s so tight, and it depends on people winning and losing. But we need to win our game, and if you go out there trying not to get hurt, that’s what’s going to happen. You need to play.

Brown, on whether it’s good to flush this type of game out so close to the playoffs:
I guess that’s one way to look at it. Like I said, I think it’s important that we were in that position. We have some guys here that haven’t experienced playoff hockey, and tonight was not playoff hockey. When it comes to puck battles along the wall, that was probably how they climbed back into the game, and we actually weren’t very good along the walls most of the night, so if we want to win when it matters, those are the plays that make the defense ultimately. There are a lot of guys in here that understand that, and there are a lot of guys that are going to learn it.

Brown, on whether he’s ever scored four goals at any level:
It depends on what you deem a ‘level.’ I actually – I think I did have one in the OHL, maybe. I’d have to look. I don’t count pee wee, because it’s pee wee.

Christian Folin, on the win:
We’ve had tough games against Minnesota all year. They’ve been really tight games. I think the last game was overtime, too. I know them pretty well, too. They forecheck really hard, and I think they came out pretty well. They played last night, so they had a little bit of that momentum, but we had the first goal. They battled back, though. They’re a good team, they’re a playoff team, so it was a good game today.

Folin, on what Dustin Brown means to the team:
Brownie, he’s a great guy. He’s a solid guy all around. He sacrifices his body every day and he shows up early, he goes on early at practice and he works on his shot. Actually, the last goal, I had seen him do that take every morning skate and practice, so it was fun to see that it went in.

Folin, on what this type of momentum does for the team:
It always feels a little bit better when you win in overtime for some reason. I don’t know why, but it does. It’s important to get into the playoffs playing good hockey and having a good feeling in the locker room.

-Lead photo via Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images