The goals we did score came off things we've been working on in practice. I'm real pleased that things we work on show up when it's time.

Their goalie was there to play, and boy, he did.

They came out strong but we kept our composure. It was a very back-and-forth game and exciting to watch.

It wasn't our night tonight. The pucks didn't bounce our way. We need to play better at this time of year and we just aren't doing it.

That's who I wanted to play first. We didn't want to play Watertown again coming off a tough loss to them. Mitchell will be a pretty exciting game for our opening game.

As far as knowing the plays we've been running, we're as prepared as we're going to be. We'll take it one game at a time, one period at a time. We set goals for each period and that works best for us.

Duke had a real strong period in the first period. He kind of held us in there.

Duke had quite a few one-on-one opportunities and faced a lot of breakaways. He did a good job of making saves and holding us in there.

Brookings has had a real good streak in the last few years. They have a good program. Sioux Falls has been coming on lately. They worked their way into fourth in the league standings in the last month and a half. They were seeded below us for most of the season.

We were down a couple of guys and had to fill in some players. We played pretty good. I was really pleased with tonight, other than that first period. It was a nice win for us before we go to Pierre.