NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

June 2, 2001

Chris Dingman

Jon Klemm

Dave Reid

CHRIS DINGMAN: We had the lead. Patty was huge for us in the second period. We sat on it. Made some huge saves for us. Got a goal late and had a chance to win. We let them get back in. They got back in, they scored a couple of goals. We just let up. We sat on the lead.

CHRIS DINGMAN: If it wasn't for him we'd probably be 5 -1, 6-1, it was huge. It is our fault too. He was huge. It is our fault too, we weren't holding them up. They were coming hard, coming with speed, as far as we got to hold up for him. He has to play that because they are coming in so hard. We sat on the lead. We can't do that.

CHRIS DINGMAN: It is a mental thing. I don't know. Sometimes there's a tendency when you are behind you got to push ahead, you have got to skate, got to force things a lot of times when you have a lead you feel you don't have to force it, and you just sit on it. That's the way it goes sometimes.

JON KLEMM: I don't fault him at all. He stood on his head through the whole game. It could have been uglier than it was. He was there the whole game. It is just a bad bounce, it happens. Just bounced into his feet and he couldn't find it. That happens. But he gave us a chance to win that game, and we let him down. We didn't play very well in front him.

JON KLEMM: No, I don't think so. I wasn't -- I think we were very disappointed the way we played. We weren't pointing any fingers at anybody. It's a team effort. We were awful. We let Patrick out to dry. You just can't do that this time of the year.

JON KLEMM: Obviously we got the home-ice advantage still, but like you have seen throughout the Playoffs home ice doesn't really matter this time of the year .We just want to play better. We weren't very good tonight, we were awful. We definitely want to come out in Game 5 and have a great game.

DAVE REID: Well, geez, even playing as poorly as we did going into the third we had an opportunity to win it. And we did. We didn't even deserve to be in the game the way we were playing but Patrick kept us in it. Yeah, we feel that way, but we also feel that we are not going to win many games playing that style. That is kind of the way we reverted to Game 2 by standing around not skating. With the pressure they brought on, we just didn't match it.

DAVE REID: Not at all. Usually when Patrick goes out guys are yelling where to throw it. I was on the ice. I was going to the boards and, anticipating coming around, nobody was yelling. This series Patrick has been moving the puck every way because guys are talking to him. I was out there. I was anticipating it, but I should have been yelling. Nobody was talking to him. He looked up and that hesitation ,they had the forecheck on him. Can't blame Patrick. He kept us in the game.

DAVE REID: I don't know, I wish I knew. If I knew -- if we could pinpoint that we wouldn't have it. It is something that has been going on throughout the Playoffs, something that we have been battling ourselves with all the time. I wish I knew.