NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: AVALANCHE v RED WINGS

May 20, 2002

Bob Hartley

COACH HARTLEY: If my memory is good, like, two three years ago, Chris Drury was scoring OT goals. What a great play by that line. I felt that Chris, Peter, and Reino [Reinprecht] all get along. They were skating very well and generating a lot for us, a result of good puck movement and control, good second effort. Reino did a great play, saw the loose puck stop, created the 2-on-1 at the net. Chris Drury, one of the best money players we can have on our team.

COACH HARTLEY: We kept our composure. Everyone was disappointed. That was the key, like we had talked about that this morning, that, you know, since the start of the playoffs, we had that saying, like, nothing bothers us, and I think like tonight we proved it once again. We showed lots of character. We would get the lead and they would try for the 3-3 game, and we kept coming at them. Obviously it's a big win for us.

COACH HARTLEY: It doesn't change.

COACH HARTLEY: No. Well, on that goal, it was just a matter that Patrick made the right play, but it went off Maltby's skate. Joe got kind of tangled up with another Wings player, and that basically opened the way to Maltby, and Patrick was too far away from his net. And I'm sure he kind of lost track of his net, where it was.

COACH HARTLEY: Like I said with Peter, that line was great, they generated a lot. Peter is so creative and patient with the puck. That's what makes him such a special player. He has the habit of drawing two or three players towards him. That creates, obviously, lots of space for Chris and Reino. I felt our support game was great, and our physical game was also good. We were able to finish some good checks and we did a good job.