NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAPLE LEAFS v HURRICANES

May 25, 2002

Paul Maurice

COACH MAURICE: Well, it was tight. Through the first period, especially, there were not a lot of scoring chances either way, and I thought we had a better chance in the second period, but we passed up on some opportunities to make something happen. You can't play a great game only with a third period, they are not going to sit back the way they did in the third for 60 minutes and we are not going to run-and-gun quite as hard. You certainly cannot afford to do that. We certainly had enough chances to get one, like the last game we got the bounces of the puck, and tonight they did. Their goal went off two guys, one of ours and one of theirs to go in, and we had some pretty fine chances there in the third period and could not get it by. He made some great saves, no question. It was tough.

COACH MAURICE: It was similar in a lot of ways. I thought that our game got better as the game went on, with the exception of some power play chances, but the five-on-five got stronger and stronger. Had about as good a third as you can have. And for them, he made some big saves.

COACH MAURICE: Yeah. We did get blocked at the net. The five on three, got to generate more pressure.

COACH MAURICE: No. It's his game. That's what Erik Cole will be. I don't have a problem with him getting involved. I'm certainly not going to ask him to change his game because it's a battle out there. I think that's a good thing. We're doing everything that we can to win this, and at the same time, make sure we soak up all that we can as we're going. This is a great learning experience for a guy, it's his first year in the League.

COACH MAURICE: No. No more so than you could make the same statement the other way. Shots were four-on-four until the power play. I think if you took a look at the chances in this game, it would be decidedly in our favor again. I don't think they generated a whole lot. But we were on power play for an awful lot of that in the second period and the third period they were holding the lead, but I didn't have a sense of that.

COACH MAURICE: We are not finicky about the fourth game. We don't really care where it happens. It would be nice, sure. But we would be a lot happier doing it on the road in Game 6 than we would have to do it in Game 7.

COACH MAURICE: No more than the 3-1 game did. There are no indicators, fellas. I think that's so true. There's no sign, and you won't see one; that it's over until it is. We're going to have to come back with a bit more of that third period edge in periods one and two, and I believe we will.

COACH MAURICE: We almost got stuck in the same way we did in Game 1, running the boards with not a lot of options. We made improvements in Game 2 and Game 3. So much of it we run here; it's just different combinations that go out and we use a lot of different combinations in the power plays. It was hopping. But they did a good job on their power play. I thought they did a nice job, maybe even more so, in the neutral zone, forcing some cross-line dumps that came right back at us. So we'll have to continue to make some adjustments, and score some power play goals when the opportunity is there.

COACH MAURICE: You want to make sure that you're learning as you go and that you are remembering the different circumstances that you faced. Certainly we are not going to crawl into Toronto feeling overly confident because we won our last two Game 6's on the road. But at the same time, we feel it's almost the same hockey tape after the second period: Down 1-0 after the second period, feeling pretty good, and we'll feel the same going into Toronto.

COACH MAURICE: Much more good about our hockey team, playing stronger, with the exception of the five on three. The simplicity of our game usually dictates how well we play. The more simple we play, the better we play. I think we got back closer to our game than we were in Game 4 and I think you'll see it happen more and more.