I'm sure you were as disappointed as I was in not winning today. However, the reason for my 'hurt' today, was for you. We left more 'water' on the ice today than in any other single, previous game. It looked like you really wanted to win. It will always hurt when you work as hard as you did, yet come up shorthanded. Well, this is life -- sometimes. But, with everyday effort, these disappointments, while still upsetting, happen fewer and fewer times. When the effort, attitude, commitment, preparation and enthusiasm are there, the winning takes care itself. Your disappointment today just shows me and everyone else that you care. I'll take it. You are all, a great group of young men. Thanks for a great season.

Champions arrive early and stay late. They know what they're there for. They don't have to be told five times to do something or be given a five minute lecture on how to do it. You give them the challenge, and they get it done. There are people who work at 50 percent of their ability and who are successful. Then there are the ones who give 100 percent of everything they've got and barely make it. Which one would you want? I'd rather have the people who give it their all and walk off the field knowing that. In business, as in athletics, a champion is the person who at the end says, "I gave it everything I had; win or lose, you got the best I can give". -- James Williams

There is a sign in the Notre Dame locker room above the door that leads onto the field. It was a tradition that when the team would go through the door, each of us would touch it. It reads: Play like a champion. To me that meant to go out and play your best. Even if things don't go the way you want, if you've done your best, you can feel good about it. -- Christopher Zorich