Kale Clague Post Game | 05.01.25
This is something that you’ve been waiting for your entire pro career to have five points in three games. I mean, how how amped have you been for this playoff experience? I mean, yeah, it’s it’s been a while. Um, you know, it’s exciting hockey and uh anyone in the room will tell you that we have the group to do a special thing this year. So, um, which makes it even more exciting. Is there a sweet spot from the left point on Halverson? Same time of game, all three pretty much. I don’t know. I’m just I mean I’m just throwing it there. We had I think there was good traffic in front again when tonight when it went in. So um yeah, I mean sometimes they just go in. Have you ever had a streak like this professionally? Not professionally. No, I in junior maybe, but you know that was obviously a long time ago for me now. Goalie was great again, but obviously D helped out. Can you just talk about shutting them out for really the last eight periods of the series? Yeah, I mean we have, you know, the best goalie in the in the AHL on our team. So, um it’s, you know, as long as we play solid defensively, he’s going to bail us out on, you know, a couple chances that we might give up throughout the game. Um that’s what he’s he’s done. He’s done it all year. Um but yeah, team defense. We’ve been playing we’ve been doing a great job with it those last three games. Um you know, it’s a collective group, you know, when you when you it’s a it’s a team Yeah. team defense when you when you don’t allow any goals. Um, two playoff games. So, coach has preached all season long, scoring’s great, but you got to keep the puck out of your net and has harped on the defense only allowing two goals this entire series. Devin was great, but it was like you said, was there a shift in the collectiveness of the team to, hey, it’s playoff hockey now. Everybody’s got to buckle down. Yeah, I think you just, you know, you try to protect the puck a little bit. I mean, a little bit more. Um, everything’s magnified. every shift you’re, you know, um you never know what what could be the mistake to end up in the back of your net. So, um yeah, I feel like as a group we’re just, you know, playing connected and playing tight and, um everyone’s got a little bit more jam, I guess, maybe in the in the D zone, you know, um they’re tight games, so it’s hard to win. I’m going to assume, I mean, that’s what you expected Syracuse to come out like. Yeah. Face an elimination and Yeah, I mean they came out hard. Um you know, they’re, you know, physically a bigger team than us. I’ve said that like already in this series. Um but you know our group we stuck together and um protected each other, stood up to them um from a physical standpoint and um our our legs and our skill I think takes over. Kale, you know, in the couple days leading up, we heard a lot about kind of how hard it can be to play here. How nice was it that at times it kind of almost felt like a a home game? Yeah, that was pretty awesome. Um, I’ve never played a playoff game here, so I didn’t know what it was going to be like, but obviously we had a lot of traveling fans that came to support us. Obviously, you could hear it. It almost felt like a home game at times. Um, so we obviously appreciate that. You guys are going to move on to the North Division finals. What’s something you want to take from this series and apply to the next one? Um, I mean, it’s going to be, you know, a different series. They’re uh, you know, they’re they they’re skilled. They’re there’s, you know, more skill and, um, you know, they they have good speed as well. So, um, I mean, more of the same, just, you know, playing good D, um, just chipping away and, uh, like I said, I, you know, full faith in our group and we have a lot of skill and speed. As long as we protect the puck and play good team D, um, the offense will always come for us. How do you stay in this room with there being the scheduling, the time off with now waiting for the other teams? Like, how do you keep this up? I think just good practices. Um, we’ve had great practices all year, just good practice habits, good energy. Um, I mean, that’s the only way. It is a long break which is odd but um yeah good practices and getting engage into practice is going to be the best recipe for that. Was there a sense there that you know maybe later in the second period that you guys kind of as as Leo said tilted the ice? Yeah, I mean there was still one nothing until you score. There was uh times throughout the throughout the game obviously that you know they kind of suffocated us a little bit but we you know we obviously expect that in this rink. We know it’s hard to hard to win in this building. Um, you know, just stuck stuck to the game plan and um, you know, they break eventually.
