NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: SABRES v STARS

June 12, 1999

Stu Barnes

Mike Modano

Joe Nieuwendyk

Rob Ray

Dave Reid

Q. How did your wrist feel that first period?

MIKE MODANO: Pretty good. As long as I don't feel it, it is fine. So we got it taken care of; got the edge off it pretty much. It is tough handling a stick when you got a cast on.

MIKE MODANO: Yeah, we numbed it up a little bit just to take the edge off it; it helped an awful lot. Feels good right now; just wanted to get out there and get a sweat; get involved in the game; get a couple of hits. Had a couple of good shots there early in the period, first shift, so it feels good right now.

Q. No current Sabre can appreciate being in the Stanley Cup like Rob Ray, the senior Sabre in terms of tenure, tenth season here. First of all, how special is this and did you ever think this would happen to through all these bad times?

ROB RAY: No, this is an unbelievable feeling and today when we got the opportunity to skate out on home ice in the Final, you know, made it all worthwhile. If we can possibly be successful in this, this is going to make it even greater. There has been a lot of tough years here and we battled through a lot to get where we are.

ROB RAY: I think we had to take a stand. We wanted to make sure they weren't going to get a piece of Dominik all night. Hopefully we did that. I think we got a little more traffic towards Eddie. Hopefully we are getting on their minds a little bit. There was a lot of talk going on out there and hopefully it gets them rattled a little bit and are able to do our game.

DAVE REID: Well, it is a battle for every inch you got out there. They got one there in the scrum in front of the net; pops out, guy bangs in the open side. We have been getting some shots, hit some pipes, same thing we get a little scrum in front, Newy is sitting down; gets a -- great third effort it was, and we tied it up. That is the way the whole series has gone. I just anticipate more of the same for the third.

DAVE REID: Yeah, you have to. You just have to keep pumping. Hully got a huge goal for us last game. We just have to keep pumping. Tony Hrkac moved up on that line with Mike Modano and I mean, he is very capable of doing the job up there, so we have total confidence in everybody.

JOE NIEUWENDYK: Really intense. We knew we had a battle with Colorado, but these guys are real tough. They are physical. They all skate well and they don't give you an inch out there.

JOE NIEUWENDYK: It is tough. We can't keep doing that to ourselves. They got such a good powerplay that we put ourselves behind the eight ball all the time. Eventually maybe we will get a few call going our way too.

STU BARNES: It has been nice, but biggest thing, we are having a great post-season as a team; that is the most important.

STU BARNES: We have to give them credit. They are playing good, strong defensive game and we just got to continue to go out; work hard and hopefully it will come for us.