NHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: MAPLE LEAFS v HURRICANES

May 19, 2002

Travis Green

Jonas Hoglund

Alyn McCauley

Darcy Tucker

DARCY TUCKER: I think maybe we tried to do too much. We scored the one goal, but we battled. We've done it all year. We'll go back home and get prepared for Game 3 and see if we can get it done.

DARCY TUCKER: Yeah, you've got to get in the game, when you've been gone for a while.

JONAS HOGLUND: They made it hard for us, especially in the second period. In the first and third we played good, but Irbe made some great stops and kept them in the game. In the second they were all over us, but CuJo made some great stops and kept us in the game and battled back and got the tie, but it wasn't enough.

JONAS HOGLUND: It's certainly nice to get a couple of days off. I think everybody felt good about that and I thought the longer the game went, the stronger we became. But the winning goal bouncing off of your legs going in, that's a lucky goal. In overtime, the game is often decided with a lucky goal.

JONAS HOGLUND: I think he played great. Every time he's on the ice, he's a tremendous presence out there. He's missed some games and been out for a while, but I still feel that he played great tonight. He came in and played strong for us.

JONAS HOGLUND: I think that we are in a good position. We are tied and now we play two games at home. I would say we are in pretty good position.

JONAS HOGLUND: I think they played stronger in the neutral zone. We could not get anything going in the neutral zone and they played strong then. They took the passes away. Often one guy had to go through four guys. They made it tough for us. But we have to be positive, we did good, battling back.

TRAVIS GREEN: Yeah, it's always disappointing when you lose in overtime. Especially when you've got the first game won and you want to get the second one. They played a good game. It was a hard-fought game.

TRAVIS GREEN: They played very good in the second period. We didn't play very good in the second. Third period was obviously they got the goal and then they sat back a bit and we clawed. It's disappointing when you score with seven seconds left and then lose the game.

TRAVIS GREEN: Yeah, it didn't look like they missed a beat. It's great to have everyone back. Obviously, a few guys that we would like to get back in there.

TRAVIS GREEN: I don't know if they did a lot different. It was a lot of the same kind of game, really. Maybe in the second we didn't play the way we wanted to, and we didn't support each other in the second, but other than that, they probably played a little more desperate tonight. We knew that would happen. Other than that, I thought it was a pretty close game.

ALYN McCAULEY: Well, Irbe was up to the challenge. There was another one that Roberts shot from the slot and looked like it was going in from the bench. But we fought hard and just came up a little short tonight. So back to the ACC and try to get the job done.

ALYN McCAULEY: We had a chance to really take a good hold in the series tonight. They played hard and gave the effort we expected of them. We are going to have to stay focused. I'm sure they are going to play a lot harder coming to the ACC with the series tied 1-1 than if we were up 2-0. It's going to be a much tougher task to win at the ACC now.

ALYN McCAULEY: Mats was there; I couldn't really see the puck. There were a number of cross-checks to the front and that's probably what led to me moving way from the front of the net and Gary got the puck and I just saw a little seam there and then he made a great pass and I just tried to get it in the right part of the net and it found the right part in the net.

ALYN McCAULEY: It's always disappointing losing. I don't know that it's any more disappointing. We fought and we fought hard. We got a break towards the end of the game to tie it up and we looked like we should have the momentum going into overtime. Probably was. We did get early chances and just couldn't finish them off. You know, give them credit. They worked hard throughout the game. Maybe they worked a little harder than us tonight.