"The result in OT is us hitting the (cross)bar and them getting one off of our stick that goes in the net."

Dave Hakstol

After a tough loss in overtime to the fourth-ranked Denver Pioneers, Hakstol was obviously not pleased with the end of the 1-0 defeat in the extra session that resulted in a sweep on home ice. Here's what else the head coach had to say.

"Bottom line, our guys should be proud of the effort that they gave in this building, in front of our fans. That's a big step towards the level that we want to play at."

Looking Back to Friday's game vs Sunday

"We didn't get out of our zone or through the neutral zone at all on Friday. Realistically, that's why we spent so much time in our D (defensive) zone. I thought we were much better there; we had a bit of an identity today (Sunday) as a forechecking team because we were able to get through the neutral zone with some pace and a mentality."

"Our D (defensive) zone was significantly better. Faster, harder than it was the other night(Friday). Now, some of that is, we were fresher because we didn't spend that much time (in) there. So some nice improvements there in terms of what we did against a very mobile team."

"The other thing we wanted to address was just improvement on our special teams, from game one of the series, which went against us. We didn't get a chance on the power play tonight (Sunday) but our PK did an outstanding job (holding them 0-4)."

Where the Group is at Establishing an Identity so far

"That's a tough one to answer. You have to go out and just prove that. We've been together what, three weeks and two days, maybe? Their (the team's) identity has always been that they're a together group, and they work extremely hard together, and I don't think you saw anything different Friday or today (Sunday)... coming into the series, we're not looking for measuring sticks. I've got a real clear view of what our standards are. We're looking for wins in our league."

On Goaltender Samuel Urban

"Yeah, (his performance) was good. Sam was good again. The first two periods, we didn't give up a ton, but off of some of the outnumbered rushes, he's looking at some difficult saves, and he answered that bell. (On the) penalty kill, you goaltender has to be good. In the 3rd period, they had a little more traffic, a little more action around him, and he did a great job getting us into overtime."

Looking Ahead to Next Series and Bye Week

"That's two weeks away, I haven't even thought of Minnesota-Duluth, to be honest with you. Another outstanding hockey team, obviously the skill level there doesn't need any introduction, with the returning Hobey Baker (award winner, Max Plante), really well coached team, but we'll start thinking more about them a week from now. We're going to try and accomplish our own things with the off week."

"We need to take a significant step in terms of our conditioning(on the bye week), 60+ minute hockey, back to back nights, you need to be in such good shape to compete at the level that you need to in this league. I used the off day to pick and choose a couple of games around the NCHC to watch, and when you watch some of the games last night, it's high level. Our conditioning and readiness can never be at a high enough level... that's one thing we'll do over the (bye) week, and we'll keep building some of the structure of our game as well."

On The NCHC

"Beyond the National Hockey League, this league is as tough as it gets."

Dave Hakstol