NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAPLE LEAFS v HURRICANES

May 28, 2002

Martin Gelinas

MARTIN GELINAS: It seemed like it was a little bit of a breakdown on their part. I saw CuJo jumping on that puck right in the corner, and Jaroslav was driving net and I drove the net sat the same time. It was a beautiful pass and pretty fortunate, it went over CuJo's pad.

MARTIN GELINAS: It's great. I'm happy for this franchise. We started against New Jersey and we were the underdog and started playing some good hockey and felt confident. The guys in the room really believe in themselves and won that series and felt good. Then went over to Montreal and beat them. And Toronto now, which had a great team. You know that, goal was a big goal for our franchise. It gives us a lot of respect. We're just happy to be here.

MARTIN GELINAS: Yeah, it felt good, there's no question about it. Like I said , it was a beautiful pass and just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Sometimes you get a lot of chances and it just doesn't go in. Pretty lucky that that one went in.

MARTIN GELINAS: He was great in the first two periods. You could see the confidence and the way he was playing. We just kept putting pucks on the net and crashing the net. Look at the goal Jeff O'Neill scored; he almost made that save, and Jeff kept working on the rebound and put it in and gave us a big boost. We started feeling better about our game and putting pucks behind Joseph. He was playing great for those guys. Same for our goalie, Arturs Irbe. I think this series has been about the goaltenders, and the two guys were both playing great hockey.

MARTIN GELINAS: Absolutely. There's tough things that have happened for everybody, and it's all in the fast past. Now the future, and the future is ahead. We are in the Finals and that's what it's all about.

MARTIN GELINAS: I think so. There's a lot of guys in that room that's got some leadership. You look at Ron Francis who won two Cups with Pittsburgh, plus Sean Hill, Brind'Amour, Hedican. There's a lot of guys that have been there. I think we'll try to talk to the younger guys and make sure they are on an even keel, just the way we've been playing the whole playoffs. It's exciting, and at the same time, we don't want to get carried away. Hopefully, we've got seven more games to play, and you never know what can happen in the Finals.