1. Another championship on the resume. How does this championship compare to the one you guys won last summer? This was certainly a different feel from last year. Joe put together a great team last season, it was a blast, and we played great together from start to finish. This year was not like that at all! We were the returning champs and everyone expected big things from us (ourselves included), but we struggled to play well together at first, at times I was wondering if the chemistry was going to happen. Fortunately every week we got a little better, we just had to learn to play together and then it all worked out. So this year's progression was great to see and be a part of. 2. The Xtreme had just beaten the team that many thought would win the championship this season. Do you think they may have exploited too much energy into that series? I’m not sure what happened??? That may be a better question for them…..I know I watched the games Monday and Wednesday and I was a little nervous going into last night. 3. Game 1 was a mercy rule. What was the mindset of the team before game 2 started? Anytime you can take the first game of a series you come out of that with a ton of confidence, but we didn’t want to be over confident. A team with Joe, Dave and Kevin can never be written off. We just tried to stay calm and focused, our captain said “three more periods just like the last three”. We knew they were going to push hard, so we just tried to play smart and push back. 4. You guys added Gus and Eric to the roster. What can you say about the contributions those 2 guys made to the team? I can’t say enough good things about either of those guys! I met Gus playing in Bigler, he is a good time and a great hockey player! As soon as I heard he was playing in Reynoldsville I was hoping we could put him in a Renegade’s jersey! Gus has a great shot and is very smart on and off the floor, on several occasions this year he came through in a big way for us! And Lewy…..when news dropped that he was going to be a Renegade there was talk around the league as to how that was going to work out, and I want to say Eric Llewellyn is a great teammate! I’m glad we have him, he played great hockey all year, and he was an asset on the floor and on the bench! 5. Can you point to a particular game this season that may have been the starting point of this team being able to turn its season around? I don’t think there was a game that changed our path, but the night a few weeks into the season when there were words had between some of our guys and a ref after a game was probably a tipping point. I think we were all frustrated because we were struggling, and that’s when we realized it wasn’t just going to just click like last year. It was kind of a process, we tried a lot of different things, different pairings of forwards, diffident strategies, and we even had Denny on defense for a game or two. It didn’t immediately get better, every week we seemed to progresses a bit. As the guys gained confidence in each other we really started playing as a team and playing to our potential.
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