NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: AVALANCHE v RED WINGS

May 31, 2002

Patrick Roy

PATRICK ROY: It wasn't always pretty, but we did our best. Unfortunately for us we lost the series. I don't think we necessarily lost tonight. It was the fourth loss being unable to win more than one game at home was basically the difference in the series. I thought the guys worked hard in Detroit, and before tonight we won two of three games. We should have played better in our own rink.

PATRICK ROY: Well, you look at what happened in the past couple of years. We've played a lot of playoff games. It's not an excuse. It's a very tough year. We have had a lot of close games because of the Olympics. Like you mentioned, three times we had seven-game series, and playing against very good teams: Los Angeles, San Jose. San Jose, we were down 3-2 and we came back and won the series in Seven. I thought we fought hard and played our best. We were playing against a very good hockey team. I think somewhere we should be proud of the way we played and battled. And we had our chances to win the series, and we should have won in our own building.

PATRICK ROY: No. Bob asked me after the fourth goal when I went to the bench to get some water, he asked me, do you want to come out? I said, no, I'm staying in. I want to be part of the team. I wanted to be there also in the bumpy times. I didn't want to let down the guys. I wanted to fight with them as long as I could. But after the sixth one, that was it.

PATRICK ROY: Well, you know, I think we got to look at how we played in our own building. We were up 3-2 going into Game 6. There is going to be a lot of times we're going to think about that. Game 7s are tough to win on the road. Both teams are very nervous. Both teams want to do well. And it seems like the home team has a little more advantage.

PATRICK ROY: I'm 6-and-1 at home, but it's tough to win on the road for Game 7 when you're playing against a very good team like Detroit. And they deserve a lot of credit for their performance tonight. They came out gritty.