NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: BLUES v AVALANCHE

May 18, 2001

Chris Pronger

Joel Quenneville

Pierre Turgeon

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We had a great comeback. It was -- you come back like that, you feel like it's heading in the right direction. Tough loss to swallow. It was certainly -- the game had a little bit of what happened last game with Roman having a tough start. We just tried to break a little bit of the momentum there. I just -- he came back and bounced back last game and did the same tonight. But certainly, you know, playing catch-up hockey is tough, but we did everything we could to get ourselves back in that game. It was a little frustrating knowing the result.

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think Blake, pinching down, if you don't get him down there, you have to stay with him. He beat him to the puck and lost position on him. The whole play developed. An innocent play turned into a dramatic goal. It mean things can happen like that in overtime. We saw what happened last game. Today they get the break.

COACH QUENNEVILLE: I think Turgeon had a great game tonight. He's rally effective. He had good patience on the pass across. He did a lot of good things tonight on the second and third effort. He was real strong and had a heck of the game.

COACH QUENNEVILLE: We've got a day off to think about everything and regroup as a team on Sunday. We'll consider all our options. There might be a change or two.

COACH QUENNEVILLE: Or get the lead. I haven't played with the lead for one minute in the last four games. That hasn't been the case. Scoring first would help. But I think the way we're playing, the style we're playing, we've got to continue the do that. We've got to get (inaudible) get regarded for what we're doing right, and I don't think we want to change the approach.

PIERRE TURGEON: I don't know. Just came back after the first and we talked about it in the dressing room and seemed like we got a goal and we got a little bit of momentum, we got a second one. We got a goal after that. But obviously it was tough. We had a tough start. And, you know, we got down three goals and we were playing catch-up hockey. Just got to have a better start.

PIERRE TURGEON: Well, obviously it was a good play by Younger. It took a big hit there to make the play. I just told him to win the net, win the net. It was a good play by Pascal and Younger, too.

PIERRE TURGEON: I just pushed it. I just shot I.

PIERRE TURGEON: Well, it's -- you know, it's tough. Especially to start with the first period. You know, starting from behind and we got some momentum in the second period. We played well the 40 minutes. It's hard from the first period. Obviously, you get down three goals, and you're playing catch-up hockey and it's always a tough situation to come back from that situation. You just don't want to be in that situation.

PIERRE TURGEON: He's been playing well. He's the reason why we're here. You look at the goal, first goal I think it was coming from behind the net. His stick, went in the air, went in the net. I think the third one, I think Ray Bourque shot it and it hit the stick. Those scores are tough. The last one was the same thing. It was a pass, Yelle just touched it. Those are tough.

CHRIS PRONGER: Well, I just think getting off to better starts in the third periods are getting us. It's critical for us to get off to better starts and try to play with the lead. We haven't done that at all this series. It seems like we're down every third period. We're always trying to claw back. It takes lot of energy and a lot of excitement from us. I guess we can't have an enough for the end.

CHRIS PRONGER: Well, I think after the first game we were little bit out of control and weren't really cutting off passing lanes and trying to come up with the big hit all the time. You've just got to try to play positional and limit the (inaudible) and seem to find holes to get the puck through. You've got to be smart and be able to take away those passing lanes. And, again, as I said, when you get a chance to get a look, you get one.

CHRIS PRONGER: Well, I saw the puck kind of get turned over on the side wall. I was trying to get around him. He was trying to pick me a little bit and I was trying to get around him to get in front of Blake's shot. I wasn't able to slide to get my body in front of the shot. He just tipped the puck.

CHRIS PRONGER: Yes, you look at up until the goal was scored, we were trying to control the play. Had a couple chances to score early in the overtime. Goals in overtime aren't pretty. It's usually turned over in our own end or on breakout. That's what happened in that goal.

CHRIS PRONGER: To use the old cliche, but it's one game at a time. You've got to win two to win three. We've dug a pretty deep hole for ourselves and we've just got to back down and steal one in Colorado and come back for Game 6 and win a home game. We can't start looking too far ahead. We've got to deal with what's in front of us and go to Colorado and go to Game 5.

CHRIS PRONGER: It's difficult. You're down 3-0 and you're able to claw your way back to 3-2 and come back in the third and send it to overtime; it's pretty big. Close doesn't count. We've got to win those hockey games. We weren't able to pull this one out. That's why there's seven games.