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NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: BLACKHAWKS v RED WINGS

May 22, 2009

Joel Quenneville

CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: Game Three

Red Wings Â– 3
Blackhawks - 4

THE MODERATOR: Questions for Joel Quenneville.

Q. What happened to Nikolai?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Nik had a lower body injury. Say he's day to day. See how he presents tomorrow.

Q. How about Havlat?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: He looked better after the game. We'll see how he presents tomorrow, as well. We'll call it day to day.

Q. What did you think of the hit?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: It's a dangerous hit when you haven't touched the puck. It was a hard hit. A dangerous hit when you still haven't touched it.

Q. Your thoughts on Huet's performance put into that situation?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Should be really commended on, just not tonight's game, his diligence and his dedication for the last month and change has been amazing how, you know, he hasn't -- you know, just watching every day and working his tail off in practices every day. Every day, every practice, he was working, doing all the right things. Looked like he was staying sharp.
He was hoping this opportunity came by how he was competing in practice. He looked very comfortable out there. He deserves a lot of credit how he handled the interim of waiting for this chance.

Q. Is this lower-body injury what kept him out of practice yesterday?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: We'll call this independent, from keeping him out of practice (smiling).

Q. Do you attribute any of those three goals late in the second period to his injury?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Tough to say on that, if it was a defining moment or not. You know, we'll just leave it at that.

Q. Detroit's four wins in the Stanley Cup, in these finals you were on the opposite team as the coach. Is it a personal challenge for you to beat Detroit one more time?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: We want to beat them every day we play them. I think that's our whole challenge as a group, as a team. I think history is the next game, the next shift.
I think that's prioritizing everything. I think we've had a lot of excitement in our team coming into this series. You know, coming back from this deficit that we're in right now, it was a huge win for us. But we just can't rely on one game, or be satisfied with one game. But it was certainly a big win.

Q. You folks were confident even down 0-2. Now that you're on the board, where does the confidence level go from there?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: That's got to help. I think especially giving up the three-goal lead in second period with seven minutes to go, you lose a lot of momentum. I just thought we stabilized ourselves a little bit in the third there. I was kicking myself in the butt for not calling timeout at 3-2. So we dodged a bullet there. I thought we were good in the latter part of the third, and into the overtime as well.
I just think the crowd, it was a fun place to be. I think we've done well here all year. You know, let's take the momentum going into next game and try to do the same.

Q. Was it just them going into another gear late in the second?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Well, we had three penalties in a row. They got some momentum, had some chances, scored at the end of the third power play. We're in our end, we didn't get the puck in deep on some shifts. When they're coming, they're coming. Especially when they're down, they got a lot of offensive weaponry. Their D are active, as well. We got a couple of tough changes where we didn't get a fresh group out there. You know, they can make plays.
That's why I felt like I should have called timeout at 3-2.

Q. You obviously don't want to give up a three-goal lead. Any way that can maybe help you going forward, just having that adversity?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Yeah, I think when you come into the locker room at 3-3 after two, it's a tough place, knowing where we're at, what we just gave away -- not necessarily gave it away. They deserve credit for earning what they did. At the same time perservering, knowing we've been in a tough hole a lot of times in this playoffs, this year.
But the locker room was good going into the third period. We had some good energy as we progressed there. But these guys never say die and found a way, which can help us.

Q. You kind of just answered it, but second intermission you lose the goaltender after giving up those three. They weren't hanging their heads at all. Did you have to do any sort of motivation?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Motivational speech? No. I think our guys are pretty good about the approach. Like I say, watching Huey all playoffs, battling, working his tail off just to stay sharp, hopefully get this chance. Then he responded right off the bat. I think we got a lot of juice off of him making some key saves early in that third period. His patience and poise helped us stabilize our game, got us back on the right track.

Q. You tightened up obviously offensively in the third. Did that have to do with the fact that Huet hadn't played in so long?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: Whether it was that or it's a dangerous team, we got a lot of respect for them. I thought he helped settle our game down himself, with his composure, play in the net. I think both teams have a lot of respect for what the opposition can do offensively. You know, I just think checking is a little bit -- we got to prioritize that as part of our objective when you play that team.

Q. What were the series of events with changing goalie in the locker room in the intermission?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: No, we just talked about it. The group was fine. I just think with the way he came out in the third, he looked very comfortable and patient in the net, made some key saves early. I said he stabilized our game, settled us down a little bit. I think he helped us get ourselves back in the game.

Q. Calling Crawford, how did that transpire?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: He's been around. Playoffs, you can have that third goalie available, ready to play at any moment. We had that luxury. We got two goalies here, along with Crow. So that's kind of where we're at. You know, he was ready. We called him up from the press box, but he's always an alert.

Q. Back to the Kronwall hit. A lot of people upstairs within the game thought it was maybe a clean hit. What did you think of the call, what did you think of the hit?
JOEL QUENNEVILLE: I think it was the right call. He hadn't touched the puck. He left his feet. It was a tough hit.

End of FastScripts

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