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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLAMES v SHARKS

May 11, 2004

Darryl Sutter

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA: Game Two

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.
Q. Start of the game surprise you?
DARRYL SUTTER: Hell of a shot by Nilson. I mean, it doesn't matter. It's important to take the crowd out of it. I think that goal did. That line made a great play again on the second goal, Donovan. It was a great play.
But how do you mean "surprise"? Because we scored?
Q. Sure.
DARRYL SUTTER: I think, you know, they started Ricci's line, we started Marcus' line. It's going to be a forecheck with those two, one way or the other.
Q. Looked to me like you shut them off down low.
DARRYL SUTTER: We were a lot better in our zone. I thought our two centermen, Yelle and Nilson were really good players for us tonight. They won't get much credit. Those guys were great in our zone.
I thought Regehr, too, was unbelievable. It's funny, you win 4-1, there's some things that we did better last game than we did tonight even though the shot differential is so different. You know, the big thing after Game 1, everybody was talking about how many shots that the Sharks had, but we put more on them than they'd seen the whole playoffs, too. Nobody talked about that.
We knew if we could do things a little better in our zone, stick with it, we could still get our chances the other way.
Q. They looked like a different team in the first period. Do you think that initial goal set them back?
DARRYL SUTTER: I know from being on the other side of it, you get scored on in the first minute, it's hard. Then you get another one, you know, it's -- it's not that far removed where they were down 2-0 in Game 1. It trickles back in.
Q. When they had 16 shots, their shorts had come from their defensemen.
DARRYL SUTTER: Yeah.
Q. That's a good thing for you guys, right?
DARRYL SUTTER: Yeah.
Q. That shows what you can do.
DARRYL SUTTER: My biggest fear going into the third period was -- what were the shots after the second? I looked when I walked out there. They had 12, did they?
Q. 11.
DARRYL SUTTER: 40 in the third period, tie their lot the first game (smiling).
Q. Nieminen had a big game, too.
DARRYL SUTTER: That line was really good. All three of them were. I mean, they played a lot. Marcus in Game 1, too, he played almost 30 minutes for us.
Q. When you came in here, obviously you were looking for at least a split.
DARRYL SUTTER: That's what I said before Game 1. It's a lot easier to win the first game than the seventh game on the road. We know what kind of home team they've been all year. Their first periods, their home record, I bet their first periods are the best in the league. We knew what we were up against.
Q. A lot of talk about you coming back here and Kiprusoff, but not too much about Donovan, who probably changed that tonight.
DARRYL SUTTER: I thought Don was really good in the first game, too. I think that, you know, there's a number of guys that played here or have been involved, you know, with the Sharks. I don't think that's real motivation. I mean, I think what we're trying to do is relish the fact we're in the final four, then try and play our hearts out.
Q. About Donovan, it seems he has got that offensive touch he had during that nine goals and six games. He's a streaky guy, but when he gets on one of those rolls, he looks like a completely different scorer. Tonight he looked like the guy he was in the middle of the season.
DARRYL SUTTER: When he's using his speed, sticking his nose in there, he can be a really effective player. I think when he sticks to those fundamental basics of his game, he's a pretty good player. I mean, we talked about how we have to spread it out. That line scores all three goals, three of the four goals, it's pretty good.
Q. How do you like where you stand?
DARRYL SUTTER: Hell of a lot better than 0-2, I know that.

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