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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: DUCKS VS PREDATORS

May 12, 2017

Peter Laviolette

Anaheim, California - Postgame

Nashville 3 - Anaheim 2

Q. Peter, I'm sure your team has a very strong belief system, but you go to Chicago, you win the first game, you go to St. Louis, you win the first game, both those series end up pretty good for you guys. Now you come in here and win the first game. Even though your team believes in itself, do you believe a little bit more when you keep ripping off this first game?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I thought we played well in those two games that you're talking about. I think we realize, too, that we don't have home ice. We're going to need to win on the road. I think the guys have played well in the first game. Tonight for me I thought was a game where we came out really well. I thought they pushed back, we pushed back against them, then they pushed back again on us and came back and tied it up. We didn't play very well in the third but in overtime we got back to our game and got back to playing again. There's probably going to be a lot of that goes on this series but tonight went our way in overtime.

Q. When Austin scored his goal, he was the 15th different player your team has had score a goal in the Playoffs, which is actually now a franchise record. We've talked about how important the depth has been to this team all season; why has it been so good or more pronounced in the post-season having everybody contribute in such a way?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I'm not sure. I'm not sure I can answer that. There's no different set of plans for different players or different lines. Everybody is on the same plan and the same page. But certainly I think when you get to the Playoffs and you have those opportunities, roll your lines and get your whole lineup involved the way we have in all two series and then tonight, as well, I think it just provides an opportunity for those players. It's a big time of the year, and it's been a big part of our success is just getting that balance and that attack from everybody. As you've seen before, in the first two rounds, and then tonight we're getting contributions from everybody in different places, and that's -- I think that team concept and that team mindset is a good way to do it.

Q. Peter, your team carried the play early on first period, and then in the second period, it seemed like they were the fresher group, so to speak. How big was it, do you think, to sort of kind of take care of business against St. Louis, and do you think that had an effect on just the way that you guys just seemed a hair quicker than them this game? Did you think you were a hair quicker than them?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: No -- well, at times I thought we were a little bit quicker and we did things well. There were times when I thought that they pushed back. There were spots in the second period where they seemed to have possession and territorial edge. You know, we had the lead in the third period, I thought it wasn't our best. It was probably our worst period, and they pushed more. The puck was in our end more than we wanted it to be. Their attack was probably a little bit better than ours. But I guess what I like is the response of not having a great period in the third period and coming back and playing hard in the overtime. It seemed like we were able to gain it back at that point.

Q. I was chatting with Forsberg and he was talking about he knew the team wanted to come in and get a really hot start, and you guys got that. I asked him why. He said he thought everyone was really eager to go. Being like that can work against you as well as it can work for you. How are you making sure that your team is channeling that energy properly?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Yeah, I would take that energy every time as opposed to dipping our toe in the water. We could dip our toe in the water or we could jump off the diving board and cannonball in. Given the choice, I would take that energy and I would take that juice, and I would try to push the pace and push them as much as possible. You're probably never going to play a 60 minutes that resemble exactly what you want, but I think that, to Phil's point, if you can do it more, if you can start that way, if you can contain moments of the game where you're playing that style and you're really pushing the pace, then you won't do it the whole game, but if you can get the majority -- if you can get better than 50 percent of the segment playing that way, then you can be successful.

Q. You mentioned the push-back they had in the third period. This is now your team's fifth one-goal win in the post-season. What's it say that they keep finding ways to win in the third or overtime tonight to get it done?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: Yeah, I thought Pekks was really good when they were pressing. Like I said, there was moments in the game when we ran too much and we relied on him making some big saves. There were some scrambles in front of the net where there was a lot of things that were coming against us. Like I said, what I do like is the fact that after not really liking the third period, I liked the way we came out and played the overtime. I thought we got back to the attack. You know, you just watch the games that take place in the Playoffs, usually the team that attacks is the team that can find success.

Q. So many people have been impressed with this team. Obviously we sometimes read the standings more than we should. But the way this team entered with the seed that you had, you've been so supposedly the underdog in these three series. You don't have the home ice, yet you've come out in all three series, win the first game on the road. Can you talk about the mindset of this team, how confident this team, the belief it has in itself right now?
PETER LAVIOLETTE: I think our opponents have probably made us work to try and bring out the best of ourselves. You play the Chicago Blackhawks, you know you have to play well, and if you don't, you know you won't find success. We had mentioned -- it's been said and it's knowledge and it's there that St. Louis is the best team in the league since February 1. They had the most points. They were playing extremely well. If you don't bring out your best, then that's the same thing.

I think Anaheim had three regulation losses in their last 25 games. This is a team that has played well down the stretch, as well. I think you realize that you need to play well. You need to do the right things in order to find success, and like I said, when you play a team like Anaheim, you're not going to walk away from 60 minutes or 70 minutes and say, yeah, it was 70 minutes, it was ours. But you need to work and try and stay consistent with your game because they're going to push back like they did tonight. There were parts where they played very well, but like I said, I liked the way we played the overtime.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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