NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: HURRICANES v RED WINGS

June 8, 2002

Scotty Bowman

COACH BOWMAN: Well, yeah, the way the teams were playing, it was real tough to get a real good chance, especially from the middle of the second overtime, I thought. There wasn't a lot of chances. Nobody wanted to make a mistake, really.

COACH BOWMAN: You start thinking, I guess, if you are going to ever win one in overtime. We have had a tough time this year, and I thought we played pretty well in the first overtime. I thought in the last one we were kind of -- we were looking for something to happen and Duchesne made a good play. But as far as feeling, you don't -- you know, I just think that the way I felt going in that obviously you hope you score and you hope that it's not a goal on either team. That's what I kind of think about most of the time, that it's a goal that -- it doesn't show up anybody because both teams played as hard as they could. This is what I think about the game is you can't play any harder. Both teams couldn't have played any harder.

COACH BOWMAN: I don't know about irony, but he's played in so many big games. I asked him on the ice if he ever scored an overtime goal, and he said, no, we don't play overtime in Russia. But he looks after himself. I mean, you know, it's tough, it's like having two games. And to have that much left to make a good -- Mathieu Dandenault made a good play going to the net too. He's looked after himself. That's why he's been able to play at the level he's been able to play at. He missed few games in the middle of the Playoffs. I think it definitely helped him now that we're in the Finals.

COACH BOWMAN: I have never been involved in a game this long, so I really don't know. We're coming back -- the next game is less than 48 hours away. I don't know as far as momentum is concerned, I just -- I just know that both teams be ready to play the next game. I usually think in the Playoffs that the games don't carry over. The first two games was a lot of penalties, tonight there wasn't. You can never predict what is going to happen, and just got to get as much rest as you can before the next game. They were using their four lines in the overtime. I think you could see it gave them a big lift, the four, five shift that line had. We were going to go four lines all the way except for a few faceoffs in our own end we might double up a bit, but we use the four lines and the 6th defense and of course we played Lidstrom and Chelios a little bit more, same as they did with their guys.

COACH BOWMAN: No, you know, you can't just -- yeah, it's going to be close the odd time. But look at all the good plays he's made; that's the way I look at it. The goalies can help your defense quite a bit. Especially the way the game is going, not much you can do except dump it in and go and get it. That takes a lot of forechecking away when the goalie can play the puck. I don't get into that stuff really.

COACH BOWMAN: Nothing, you know, out of the ordinary. We did get the faceoff and then the puck went over to Lidstrom. Nick had a great chance, he made a great save then he hit the post, but the posts are part of the goalie's stuff. But it was a routine shot, and I guess that's what you look at, a goal scorer gets those kind of goals. It was a good shot by Nick because he didn't try to put it through anybody, he was just trying to get it at the net.

COACH BOWMAN: Duchesne had the puck and he wasn't under a lot of pressure. I think he wanted to get it as far as he could, and it looked like we were going to have a 2-on-1. Holmstrom made a great play to make it a real race. He raced down the wing. I think the big factor -- and I kind of felt with our defense, Mathieu Dandenault has played a lot of forward, he's played defense now for three years now, and he looked like he could be a guy that might be able to move up with the play. They got a guy, Hedican, it is the same way, they are great skaters and I think Mathieu made a real -- made it tough for Irbe because he went right to the net, and at first it looked like Igor might give him a pass at the goal line so he has got to play that. Igor held on to it, went to his backhand, got it up high. There was 3, 4 good plays in there. We didn't have a lot in that third overtime, we didn't have a lot of really good scoring chances.

COACH BOWMAN: It's really -- you know, a tribute to the fans here. I think it makes the game a lot better, the players are into it. I mean, while the puck is moving, it's like most rinks. There's not much happening when the puck stops, obviously they are going to give -- this has been a dream season for all the fans here getting into the Finals and playing like they are. I think everybody feels that they weren't rated as high as they should have been, but it didn't bother them. But the fans here, this is going to be a great franchise, no question about it. You see hockey like that, and you know, the whole world is watching as well.