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NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINAL: CAPITALS vs LIGHTNING

May 18, 2018

Alex Killorn

Washington, D.C.: Practice Day

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

Q. You scored four goals in the first three games of the playoffs, then haven't scored in a while. How big a deal is that for you personally to get that goal last night?
ALEX KILLORN: It was big for me. You don't focus too much on individual stats in the playoffs especially. But it does wear on you a little bit because you just want to be more of a contributing factor to the team. It had been a couple games that I hadn't scored. To get that was nice.

Q. Those two wins coming back, the series feel a little bit better?
ALEX KILLORN: I think so. The series is tied now. It's even. Going into Washington, not knowing what was going to happen, the series could have been over by now. We've given ourselves some new life.

But there's still a long way to go.

Q. It could be easy to get down after losing those first two at home. How do you feel you were able to find a way to come back?
ALEX KILLORN: At first I think you can feel bad for yourself. We're a pretty optimistic group. We watched the video. It's easy to say they're a great team, they're doing a lot of good things. But there's a lot of things we could have done better. I think we made some adjustments that have ultimately helped us out.

Q. I know it's tied, but you have home ice advantage now. Do you feel the wins you had home ice will flip the pressure on them a little bit?
ALEX KILLORN: Yeah, well, I mean, as we've seen, in this series home ice hasn't meant much. We're hoping we can use that to our advantage more tomorrow.

Q. What do you have to do to take that road game and translate into the home game tomorrow?
ALEX KILLORN: Well, when you're on the road, everyone talks about you play a more simple game. You kind of wait for things to happen or you don't force things because you don't want to make a mistake on the road typically.

I think that's the way we have to handle tomorrow, kind of don't force any mistakes, play good, defensive hockey, let those plays come to us.

Q. When you're going through a second period like you went through last night, are you noticing that the other team is dominating or look at the score and say it's 2-2?
ALEX KILLORN: No, you notice. When you're playing most of your shifts in the defensive zone, guys get frustrated, guys want to be playing offense. We feel bad for our goalie, putting him in a tough position.

But because of that, I think going into the third period we kind of had a talk with each other in the locker room, we said that we got to be better. Even though they had done so well in the second period, it was still a 2-2 game. Being on the road 2-2 going into the third, we'll take that.

Q. Did you think that shot was going to go in last night?
ALEX KILLORN: I don't know. It was one of those plays where it happened so quick, you know, you don't know. You just try to put a good shot in net.

Q. In three out of four games this series, you have had less than 25 shots. How do you challenge more?
ALEX KILLORN: I think that's something we need to work on, for sure. We need to have a higher shot volume. They've done a great job in that sense. They've done a good job breaking pucks out, not spending too much time in their defensive zone. Hasn't allowed us to have a lot of second-chance opportunities. We have to be better in that department.

Q. (Question about breaking stick.)
ALEX KILLORN: Give a lot of credit to Johnson. A lot of times when you break a stick, we have a certain plan. The plan is not to go and to shadow a player. When you're playing against a guy like Ovechkin, you want to take away one of their best assets. Johnson did a great job of that.

FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports

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