NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: WILD v MIGHTY DUCKS

May 14, 2003

Jean-Sebastien Giguere

Paul Kariya

J.S. GIGUERE: The save, I saw him coming. He has a lot of speed. I had to be very aggressive on him. I was trying not to give him any room to shoot at. He kind of surprised me, but I went down trying to cover the bottom of the ice, and I got a good pad on it.

PAUL KARIYA: The first goal was, you know, a great pass by Adam, Petr and they worked the puck down low. I got on my stick and released it quickly. That was all Adam Oates. The second goal Petr, once he turned it over again, I did my baseball impression and knocked it down.

PAUL KARIYA: I was waiting for it to come down. I didn't think it was as close as it looked on the replay. Obviously I had to wait.

PAUL KARIYA: Keith made an unbelievable pass. I wasn't expecting it, to be honest. It came through one of their plays. I felt badly for not finishing it off for him.

J.S. GIGUERE: That's something I have to take care of every day. Obviously, I drink lots and lots and lots of water and Gatorade and Pedialyte and all that. I really have to be careful. Saying that, you know, today the rinks are pretty much brand new, and they have a good air conditioning system, and, you know, it's not like it used to be. Pretty much every rink, it's playable. I don't have too much of a hard time, so, you know, it's just a question of me taking care of myself, and, you know, if I go overboard, if I go past my limits, the doctors are in the room, they're ready to take care of me. It's not something I think about.

J.S. GIGUERE: Well, you know, it's not very comparable to the regular season, just because playoffs is not about personal statistics; it's about the team game. It's one game at a time. Obviously the team has been playing unbelievable in front of me, and, you know, there is nothing I could have done without them, and, you know, the defensemen are playing very well, the forwards are coming back helping them. We're blocking so many shots in front of me. Everybody is playing in their zone. I don't go out there to make a shutout. I go out there to make one save at a time, and keep it simple. Good things happen when you do that. I don't worry about the final result.

PAUL KARIYA: Well, you know, we didn't get out of our system. I don't think we really opened up. We capitalized on the chances that we were given. I don't think it was a question of us changing our style. We still played very well defensively, and we got some opportunities, capitalized on some rebounds, and that was it, but it wasn't that we changed anything.

J.S. GIGUERE: A little bit I guess. You know, we're a team that's ready to play. You know, every night we're ready to play. We're ready to go. We have a good system. If we play this system as a team, as good as we can, then we should be a team that doesn't give many goals, and obviously, it's a little bit surreal, but, you know, it's part of the game, and, they're a good team out there. They're going to try to find a way to score. We're not going to give it to them. We're going to keep battling as hard as we can. We're going to try to give ourself a chance to win every night.

PAUL KARIYA: At this time of year, obviously rest plays a big part. We talked about that in the first series, but, you know, if you win them in four or seven, it doesn't matter as long as you win them. You play a lot on adrenaline at this time of year. You enjoy the experience, but it is nice to get rest.

PAUL KARIYA: No, again, I didn't change anything tonight, you know, our team, we play a defense-first system, and our chances a lot of the times come off the turnovers and the other team making mistakes, but, you know, it was nice to help the team out tonight, but, again, it's playing our system and playing the way we have to play that's going to give us success.

PAUL KARIYA: We realize that we're playing a great hockey club here, and any team that comes back from two 3-1 deficits, we know they're going to play their best game of the series in a couple of days here. Our focus right now will be to have a good skate tomorrow and prepare.

J.S. GIGUERE: Tough question. I don't know much about the other sports. I know one thing is in baseball when you have a perfect game, it's mostly about the pitcher playing very well, and in hockey, it has nothing to do with the goalie. It's a team game, and, you know, obviously the goalie needs to play well, but you need the defensemen to play well and the forward and everybody to follow the system. That's what we have been doing, and, you know, it's nothing unusual. It's just something that if we want to be successful, that's how we have to play. That's what we have been doing.

PAUL KARIYA: Well, Steve, I think he's just been incredible during the playoffs and really during the year. He's our work horse out there. He plays a lot of minutes and regular shift, penalty kill, powerplay. I'm so happy he's getting the recognition he's starting to get. He deserves a lot more, believe me, the way he plays and what he does for our team. It's just great to see that he's getting rewarded for all his hard work.

PAUL KARIYA: We don't get too far ahead of ourselves. We're focusing on our next game. I think that's been a great asset for our team this year to take everything one game at a time and really not look too far ahead. That's the way I'm looking at it right now.

PAUL KARIYA: Well, I believed in that, and I wasn't concerned if people laughed or didn't take me seriously. That's the way I looked at things and, you know, it's nice for a team to have some success here and get some recognition for the job we have been doing, but we've got a long way to go, and you know, again, we've got to get ready for next game.

PAUL KARIYA: You guys are trying to trick me here. You know, no, it's a nice feeling to be at the final four teams, and to be playing well like this, but like I said earlier, we've got a lot of work to do. This is a fantastic hockey club. There is going to be no give-up in them. We're going to have to be very good next game.