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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: FLAMES v SHARKSMay 19, 2004Martin GelinasJarome IginlaCALGARY, ALBERTA: Game Six Q. Martin, could you just talk, Martin, about three straight series game-winning goals. How mind-boggling is that to you yourself? MARTIN GELINAS: Overall it's just been a great team effort. And everybody's been chipping in. It just happened that I'm in the right place at the right time, and the pass by Connie was just unbelievable. He kind of gave me a little eye and said, go for it, and it was a great pass. And lucky it went in. Q. All year you've been he's been trying to make that play with you all year but you've been resisting. This is the first time you've tried that? MARTIN GELINAS: The first time I'm watching it. It's the first time he really said, let's go. Let's go for it. And it just happened that he made a great pass and it went in. Q. Since Martin won't take any credit for anything, can you talk about how unbelievable it was. He had three series-winning goals. JAROME IGINLA: It really is amazing. He's scored so many big goals in his career. And our club this year, he's an example for us in so many ways. The way he works every game is exactly what you're getting. He's the guy to watch and guy to follow. As players, as a young group, we really look up to him and he says he got lucky that went in, but what a move he made to fake slap a five hole. A lot of composure in that situation. That was a great goal. Q. It's been a tumultuous time for you since you got here and a lot of personal accomplishments, but the team's struggled. Take us through the last minute and what you were feeling and all that. Some guys were saying they were looking at their feet Donovan said he was praying, even though he's not a religious man and what were you doing the last minute? MARTIN GELINAS: A little bit of all those things, yeah, for sure. It was really the whole period. We were trying to keep the intensity up, trying to keep going at them but it was pretty exciting thinking it's 20 minutes away from the Stanley Cup Finals, and we had a one-goal lead and especially that last 15 seconds getting ready for that draw. We had a lot of confidence in the group out there. Those are perennial two candidates, Yelle and Conroy and Nilson has done just such a great job. Those are the guys you want to have out there at that time. But the clock couldn't have ticked down slow enough for sure. Q. Where is the trophy? JAROME IGINLA: There's a lot of pressure there, you know, I never been in that situation. Talking to some guys who had, Gelly and Dave Lowry and Rhett Warrener, and we're not a superstitious team I guess. Overall we say, we felt we could touch the trophy. We were very proud of it. Very proud to be in the conference finals and the things that have gone this year. But we wanted to go to the room and do some things in there, and but at the same time we do realize that this is now; we get closer and we're even hungrier. Q. So where is the trophy? JAROME IGINLA: I don't know. (Laughter.) Q. Could you talk a little bit, too, about Connie tonight, not only just obviously the assists but I think that I haven't seen the final stats, but I think his face-off percentage was like over 70 percent. Talk about his contributions there. JAROME IGINLA: That was -- he was totally in a zone. Talking to him, we were all talking and we played, you never know when this opportunity is going to come again. We would like to hope it's all the time and this year and things like that, but it's been a great ride and he was just so -- every faceoff he was battling, he was winning physically. Look at the passes that he made. He took two guys out in the one he gave to me, the play he made to Gelly. That was quite a game he played. MARTIN GELINAS: And he was awesome. That's all I got to say. Q. You both know that you've managed to manufacture this moment, tell us if you're stupefied by what has happened, as some of us are. MARTIN GELINAS: Sorry? Q. Are you amazed now that you've accomplished this now that you've done it? MARTIN GELINAS: You know, at the start we started this season and we knew we had a gritty team and a team that worked hard. And our goal was to make the playoffs. And as the season went along we realized that once we get to the playoffs, that we have the kind of team that believes in the play system, that can get you a long ways. At different times during the playoff different guys chipped in and played unbelievable. Our leader, Iginla has been strong right from the start, Kipper made the key save. And that takes you a long ways when you have a hot goalie. He's been playing unbelievable for us. But we just believed right from the start and right from the start of the playoffs that we could do great things. But to say that we were going to get to the Stanley Cup, you know, it's hard to believe. We took it a game at a time. We believe in each other and the system and here we are now. Q. I know it's awkward with him sitting right there, but can you talk a little bit about Gelly and just how clutch he's been. JAROME IGINLA: It's awkward. I can't talk about it. (Laughter.) No. No, he's -- he works so hard. You look at the shape he's in. He was the fittest guy in our camp here last couple years. He works so hard on and off the ice. He's always in a good mood. He's upbeat. And when he comes to play, he literally, we all try to be ready and try to be focused and consistent. But you know exactly that this guy is going every shift, every game. And as a young group of forwards we watch him. We do. He's built for the playoffs and gritty times and he's always smiling, but he gets pretty intense. That's all the awkwardness. Thank you. MARTIN GELINAS: This is the Stanley Cup Finals. They can't afford two microphones here? (Laughter.) (Question in French). Q. Martin, I think you're heading for your fourth Cup Final now. Can you talk about where this one is going to rank compared to the other ones you've been to? MARTIN GELINAS: As you get older you appreciate more and more. My first Cup is my first year and I took it for granted. I had another chance with Vancouver and Carolina, but now as you get older and you see it might be the end of the road, that you don't know how many more chances you're going to get. So you appreciate more and you put everything on the line. You're going to give it all. I know my teammates will. And we have a great opportunity here and I'm excited and looking forward to the challenge. Q. Martin, you've been there to the Stanley Cup representing a Canadian team as well as an American team. Can you talk about how those experiences compared and how meaningful it is to you to go there representing a Canadian team? MARTIN GELINAS: Well, it's pretty awesome. You just feel that buzz in the city and everywhere you go. And not only that, my dad is from Quebec, and he's here right now and everybody is just talking about Calgary and what we have accomplished so far. Not only we're representing Calgary, but Canada. And it's an opportunity that doesn't come very, very often. We just got to take the challenge and make the best out of it. Q. Can you talk about the importance of scoring the first goals. The first time you guys have scored in the first period at home in the playoffs. JAROME IGINLA: Oh, it was before the game we realized that the team that scored the first goal had won every game in the series. We knew it was going to be pretty intense and emotional on both sides. Very desperate. But at the same time, we prepared in our room that we wanted to push for that first goal, but either way, we were going to stay upbeat and we were going to stay with it and even after getting it, it's a whole game. And it was going to be hard the whole time. So it was great to see it go in and it was a boost for our club to get off ahead and then be able to have a 2-0 lead. But at the same time we were pretty focused and we were going to stick with it either way. Q. You've been here eight years, just talk about the fans and how they have been and it was really loud it in here tonight. JAROME IGINLA: The fans have been awesome. I said it before, but they don't get enough credit for how great a hockey city this is. Easily, easily one of the best in the NHL, if not the best. You look around the league, when other teams went through tough times and they were out of the playoffs, I mean we were getting 14, 15,000 people and that's tough on fans. We realize that. And they kept cheering us on. The beginning of this year, this whole year has been awesome. They're knowledgeable fans. They felt that we were going to turn the corner this year and get to the playoffs and then who knows. And this has been awesome to share it with them and see that they're excited around the city and in the arena, and it makes it so much more enjoyable for us, too. Q. Martin, don't you usually wait until a lot later in the game for these heroics? MARTIN GELINAS: Yeah, it's just, you know, it's too hard on my heart, so it was nice to get it over with earlier. Q. Bobby Clarke said that Simon Gagne had to raise his game to the level that you raised your game to win here in Calgary, in order to go from being a good player to a great player. When you hear people in the league talking about you that way, what does it say about the way you've played this year and how far you've come since you've been in Calgary? JAROME IGINLA: I mean it's very nice of them to say that. It's been fun playing here and growing with the group that we have. I think we have all grown as players. There's been a lot of experiences that have helped us this year. It's been huge all the way through, trying to push and make the playoffs. But I think if you look at it, I feel like our defense has grown like we're all growing together. And that's very -- it's an honor to hear that. Simon Gagne is an awesome player. A great player. I played with him at the Olympics, love his game and to hear that is humbling and I don't know what to say. But it's very nice of them. And I think that it's been very exciting to get to grow with the whole group that we have here and keep trying to push to get better. And we still feel and personally we want to keep getting better and I think our team, we want -- I think we're going to get better and we have a job to do.
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