NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: AVALANCHE v RED WINGS

May 31, 2002

Bob Hartley

COACH HARTLEY: He didn't want to come out. We all know Patrick, how much of a competitor that he is. But we asked him, I believe, twice, he always wanted to stay there. But I felt that after 6 goals, I took the decision that at one point like I have a responsibility to protect my goalie, and especially after the season that he gave us. I think that he had seen enough tonight, so it was time to give him a break.

COACH HARTLEY: It's never easy to lose a Game 7 in Conference Finals, but the Wings were better than us tonight. Those guys, they deserve lots of credit. I'm very proud of my players. We battled very hard through 21 games, three rounds. We could see tonight the depth of the Red Wings were very good, and those guys came out flying. And we just have to wish luck to the Red Wings.

COACH HARTLEY: Well, they scored right from the start of the game. And that was one thing that we didn't want to see because we knew that they would generate lots of momentum and tonight we simply ran out of gas.

COACH HARTLEY: Patrick got beat on the first two goals. They were two tips, like two deflections. The first one came off Holmstrom's stick and then I believe on Fedorov's goal, the puck went off Blake's shaft. So, it's tough to start a game like on two deflections. And then we had some bad decisions in our own zone. And when you leave guys like Robitaille and many of those Red Wing players alone in front of the net, they're going to make you pay. That's exactly what happened. It was a tough night for all of us.