NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: CAPITALS v RED WINGS

June 10, 1998

Olaf Kolzig

OLAF KOLZIG: I don't think we really had any jitters. I don't think we were lacking in focus. It was just a situation where we didn't know what to expect. We only played this team twice this year. You come in a city like Detroit and all you read in the paper is, you know, go for two straight how dominant they are. So, I think the first period we basically didn't know what to expect as far as what they were going to dish out and then we finally saw, hey, the only time we got beat was when we beat ourselves and give them the opportunities. I think after the first period we realized how we can play with these guys; we deserve to be here as much as they do. We played solid after that. We have got to start out tomorrow night the way we finished off last night.

OLAF KOLZIG: I thought it was a fairly even hockey game. We managed to play with them, and couple mistakes, near the end of the period they capitalized on it. That was the difference in the hockey game. The rest of the way we matched scoring chances. Osgood made a couple of big saves in the game and Dan McCarty -- (inaudible) I think the game would have could have gone into overtime, who knows. It was a good sign. We usually could have folded after it was 2-nothing in the first period, but we sucked it up, fought back and made it a close hockey game.

OLAF KOLZIG: I haven't seen Berube, I don't know.

OLAF KOLZIG: I don't know. I was here dealing with you guys; then I was on a bus. I didn't even get a chance to see him. So I hope everything goes well for him, and I mean, I can't speak from experience, but I am sure it is a real important part of his life, and I hope everything goes well.

OLAF KOLZIG: Yeah, I mean, like I said, the first period I think we were just -- it was a matter of -- it was a feelout process. We hardly played team this year. We saw how they played in the Playoffs. Pretty solid hockey team. We really didn't know how we matched up against them. I thought after the first period even though we were down 2-nothing, we realized how we match up with these guys pretty well. Except for a couple of mistakes on our part, I thought we played with them stride-for-stride. We had a lot of confidence even though we were down 1-nothing, I thought we played a good road game, maybe a little sluggish some parts in the first period, but, had it not been for a couple of saves on Osgood's part and a great play by Dan McCarty, who knows how the game would have turned out.