Stothers, O’Brien, Weal discuss the triple overtime win

Quotes from the Manchester dressing room after Wednesday’s 4-3, triple overtime win over the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins:

Mike Stothers, on the game:
I thought it was a great game, awesome. That’s great hockey. Two great teams and man, oh man, if that’s how this series is going to be, woo. It’s going to be a beaut.

Stothers, on how the players’ legs were feeling in the third overtime:
I know mine were getting heavy. You just go on adrenaline. You just go on will. They worked hard. They wanted to be the guy to be the difference and they didn’t want to let their teammates down. So you just go. Now, ask me that an hour or two from now and there’s going to be some pretty fatigued guys on both sides. I guess as an example of schedule of a game like that, you’ve got to play again tomorrow or today. I don’t even know what time it is. … It is what it is. We’ve got to get the games in, but it certainly makes it tough when you’ve got two evenly matched teams like this. I think you can expect a lot of these long, drawn out games.

Stothers, on how he prepares for Thursday’s game:
You’ve got to feel pretty good about what’s happened. I think that gives you some energy. It’s one game, so you’ve got to get ready. That’s just the way it is, it’s playoff hockey. Usually you don’t have to get the guys too pumped up to play hockey, they’re pretty much dialed in and ready to go.

Stothers, on whether he said something to the team before the first overtime:
Listen, you guys always ask if I said something. There’s no miracle statement. Half the time I don’t even remember what I said. I just say it. Whatever comes out of my mouth comes out of my mouth. I have no filter and I just say it.

Stothers, on what came out of his mouth when Zach O’Brien scored the game-winning goal:
I don’t think I said anything. I might have dropped … no, I don’t think I said anything.

Stothers, on Zach O’Brien’s first playoff goal serving as the game-winner:
Again, I refer to the fact that we’ve had guys step up all season long. This is a new season. This is the playoffs, it’s a new season. You look to have contributions from everybody and OB has been a versatile guy for us. He’s a huge contributor to our team both offensively and defensively. Tonight was his night to find the back of the net. But you know what, I look at both teams and I just couldn’t be more pleased. That’s just good hockey by both teams. I’m watching their team and I’m going “wow.” Then I watch our team sometimes and I go “wow.” And then I watch my team and I go “wow” for a different reason. That’s a great, great playoff series.

Stothers, on facing a hot goalie in the playoffs like Matt Murray:
He’s very capable and he’s worthy of every award that he’s won this year. He’s had a terrific year. But you’re exactly right, I wasn’t here for last year. I don’t much care about last year and I told you yesterday I don’t really care about the regular season. We’re all starting fresh and we’re all starting new. We know how good he is.

Stothers, on J.F. Berube’s performance:
I don’t look at it as [save-for-save], I look at it as team-for-team. It’s a team sport. It was one good team against another good team. Tomorrow night, it will be one good team against another good team.

Zach O’Brien, on scoring the game-winning goal:
It felt awesome. Probably the biggest goal I’ve scored in my career, to be honest with you. It was a long game and the boys didn’t stop skating and everyone was going and it definitely felt really good.

O’Brien, on the aggressive style of play in the overtimes:
In overtime you can’t sit back, that’s when you get in trouble. That’s what we talked about in the room and we were staying positive mentally. It ended up working out for us.

O’Brien, on his goal:
Someone changed for me, so I hopped out and it ended up being wide open. It was perfect. Vandy sent over a pass that was right on my tape and I got it on net and it squeaked through. I’m not even sure where it went to be honest with you. I just know that it went in.

O’Brien, on whether the win will be important for the rest of the series:
It’s definitely a huge win for us. It wouldn’t have felt good if we ended up losing that one after playing for so long and using up so much energy. That felt really good and we needed to take care of home ice.

O’Brien, on scoring after having some earlier scoring chances:
It felt good. I thought I should’ve scored before that on a couple of Grade-A chances. For that one to go in at that time, definitely a relief.

O’Brien, on the mood in the room before the first overtime:
We were just staying positive and staying strong mentally. We wanted to keep going. We didn’t want to sit back in overtime, we wanted to take it to them. Even though it took the three overtimes, we tried to stay the same the whole way and it worked out.

O’Brien, on whether the team will be tired heading into the next game:
We’ll be alright. We skated hard all year and trained for this. We’ll be fine.

Jordan Weal, on the triple overtime win:
I thought we played really well, especially for the 60 minutes of regulation and then into overtime. We were playing a good game. We weren’t giving them much. We were really getting pucks in behind their D and going to work. We were creating chances, we just couldn’t put them in the first couple. It’s awesome that OB capitalized in the third to get us Game 1 here.

Weal, on how the team would’ve reacted if they lost the game:
It would’ve been tough, but we’re a resilient bunch and I think if we would’ve lost that one we would’ve bounced back tomorrow and got the win. We got the win and we just have to keep it going, keep working and focus on Game 2.

Weal, on the mindset when facing a short turnaround between games:
It’ll be the same because the big philosophy on our team is playing the right way – be on the right side of pucks, smart chips, getting the puck low and going to work – when we do that, we’re at our best. It’s all mental things. The body’s feeling tired, you just have to will yourself to play the right way.

Weal, on how he’s elevated his game for the playoffs:
The team’s playing great. When the team’s playing really well, then it’s easy for individuals to have success. I think if the group goes, then individual people will go. That’s about it. It’s a great time to play and you like to have fun at this time and enjoy it.

Weal, on whether he was concerned about running into a hot goalie like last year:
We weren’t thinking about that, for sure. We were just worried about getting bodies in front of him, because he’s a really good goalie. He’s put up great numbers this year and if we can get puck towards him with those one or two guys at the net while the pucks are arriving, it’ll cause problems for him. It’ll cause problems for any goalie. We’ve just got to keep that up and bring it into tomorrow’s game.

Weal, on whether confidence is improved by beating Matt Murray:
Oh, for sure. He shut us out last game, but getting these couple goals early was big for us. That first period was a big first step.

Weal, on whether they were frustrated by playing three overtimes:
It’s not frustrating. It’s physically demanding, but we definitely talked about having a good frame of mind because your mind can take you a long way. I think we stayed positive throughout every overtime and it showed with the chances we were getting.