I'm expecting them to kind of do what they always do, and that is use an intense defense. It's just a very aggressive man-to-man defense. It's closely guarded, and they don't back off you. They play extremely hard for all 32 minutes.

He's definitely an all-around player; he can do it all. But our team really needed some defense and he has been able to step in and do it and do a good job at it. He's probably a better forward than he is a defenseman -- and you definitely don't get the stats or attention that you would as a forward -- but he's a real team guy and accepts any challenge we give him in the name of the team.

That says a lot for the defense.

Our defense kicked in. I had several freshmen in there, and I was happy how we pressed. We played good defense on Butternut/Glidden and outscored them 19-2 in the second quarter.

They're smart and they work together. The defense is going to be real solid this year.

We had to make adjustments on offense and defense at halftime. Those kids from Johnson are good. They can flat shoot the lights out. We had to go to a kind of half-man, half-zone 'D' to try and stop them.