NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: PENGUINS v DEVILS

May 22, 2001

Brian Rafalski

BRIAN RAFALSKI: Well, we came out strong, played a great first period which we wanted to do, to try to take away some of their life. Fortunately, got a goal there late in the first but this whole series, I think we have played some of our best hockey barring 15, 20 minutes. We hadn't done that yet and I think we are firing pretty close on all cylinders.

BRIAN RAFALSKI: Yes, it is. It is an achievement that is very-- that we are all very proud of. We wouldn't want to fall into the same trap as Dallas did. After winning it then they didn't win it. It is our goal to win two. We are facing a very good team, and we still have some work to do. But, I think we are a lot happier with the way we are playing. Still can improve.

BRIAN RAFALSKI: They are so good at creating time and space for each other that they force the wingers to come down and help out the center and the opposing "D". It allows me to find space and room where they can feed me the puck and I think they have confidence in me when they get the puck back to me that I can make a good play back to them.

BRIAN RAFALSKI: Patrik is a very good goaltender. He is on top of his game. You can look at -- he didn't look as sharp as he did earlier in the year but he really picked up his game tremendously. We have got obviously get people in front of him like we have been doing all Playoffs. He is much like Cujo's fire big name goaltenders. If you want to win you have got to play the best and he is probably one of the best goalies in the League and we are going to have to pull out a lot of rubber at time.

BRIAN RAFALSKI: I think all the guys are real proud of the job they did. It's probably one of the best defensive efforts from a team against caliber of those players that I have seen.

BRIAN RAFALSKI: Well if they dump it in we can't get to it. We know if we can just hold it up and give Marty a chance to play it. Couple of times in the third they made some good dumps, Marty was able to catch it, put it down and flip it out. All we had to do is get back to the blue line, kills 15, 20 second and we had the lead. That makes it a lot easier. Saves a lot of energy for us and.

BRIAN RAFALSKI: Well, road game we are going to keep playing the same way. We don't want to change much on the road. I think tonight we wanted to treat tonight like a road game. I think we did that. Played solid pretty much through the whole first period and through the game. And we are going to need to do that. They have a good talent for us as well. Going to be a fast team as with. It is going to be tough to stop them all. Seem to thrive on those challenges and it is going to be -- that building is really loud. There are times when you can't even hear yourself think out there. Some great fans.