Q&A with Anders Lee, Notre Dame hockey player

Notre Dame comes to this week's Frozen Four at Xcel Energy Center with four native Minnesotans on the roster. Former Edina standout Anders Lee is among them. The freshman forward, who scored in overtime to put the Fighting Irish into last weekend's regional final, is Notre Dame's second-leading scorer with 44 points (24 goals, 20 assists). He recently spoke with the Star Tribune's Brian Stensaas about this week's tournament.Q Every team says at the beginning of the season it wants to make it this far, but how does it feel to accomplish that goal?

A It's hard to describe, because you work all year for it and then when it comes down to tournament time, you have to string together a few more games. You get to this point, it's really fun and really special. I'm happy I could be a part of it with all the guys on this team.

Q What's been the key for this team?

A Just to play loose and play focused. We struggled a little bit through the CCHA playoffs, and that's because we played tight and too focused on what the other team was doing. But you know, for the NCAA tournament we got back to our game. And that's gotten us here.

Q You don't see too often 12 freshmen on a Frozen Four roster. Does it surprise you that the team made it this far despite its youth?

A Absolutely. Everyone is surprised. In the game of hockey anyone can win any game, and we've had some real good ones this season. We're young, but we have great senior leadership, and every single one of our freshmen played juniors. We may be young, but we're not really that young from a hockey perspective.

Q Are the four Minnesotans pretty close?

A Oh yeah. We have a lot of fun with the other guys, giving them [grief] that our high school state tournament is the best and we all were a part of it. Stuff like that. It's really special for us that we get to come home and show off the great hockey town that St. Paul is. Our friends and family realize that we're coming to take care of some business, though, and hopefully we can celebrate with them after.

Q Is there a mystique at Notre Dame?

A I think so. It's a very athletically enriched college campus with football and basketball. We've played well and our women's soccer team won a national championship. Even fencing. Everything. It's a very well-rounded school.

Q Did you get to any football games?

A We got to most of the home games before our season kicked off. And a few of us road-tripped up to Michigan State and saw a game there. It's really cool watching football games and supporting all the other teams. And it's fun knowing we'll have that kind of support in St. Paul.