NHL WESTERN CONFERENCE FINALS: AVALANCHE v RED WINGS

May 25, 2002

Scotty Bowman

COACH BOWMAN: No. We had a good game. There wasn't many matchups. It wasn't in the cards.

COACH BOWMAN: It's two evenly matched teams. We have had a good road spin for the playoffs. I thought we played a solid game. But, you know, there was probably some factors for both sides, you know, 20 minutes of power plays and wasn't any goals, that was a disappointing part for us, and I'm sure for them too. But I thought we had a good game, a good faceoff game. We need to be able to play like we did the other night. We have had the lead since early in the third of Game 1, but you don't know. That's only a one-goal lead, and I thought we pressed right to the end. I was very proud of our team today. You look at how they play. You like to get the results, but that's probably what he's feeling was we played well but didn't win. I know that's not good enough, but it's always worse if you lose and play poorly, then you have to change everything around.

COACH BOWMAN: Yeah. It's something to both teams, they can shut down pretty well. But, you know, I think goaltending has been very strong on both sides. There's been some miraculous saves and, you know, fortunately, today, Sergei got back on track, he got a goal. He's been playing well, he hasn't been scoring, but got a goal today and got four or five other scoring chances. And Brett Hull had another half a dozen himself. Those guys, I feel confident if they keep getting those chances, the goals will go in.

COACH BOWMAN: He only played 11 minutes. We didn't know how much power play or penalty kill time there would be. I thought he was okay. You know, he carried the puck pretty well, but didn't get him on as much in the -- it's only 40 minutes. 20 minutes of specialty teams. Just coming back, I guess it's enough time, but I was looking if we got a lead, he would be a strong player for us. And Igor is a very good defensive player. We didn't have the lead, of course. What hurt us -- well, you had the time on the power play and we didn't score, it also cut down on ice time. Our best line today to me was Devereaux, Datsyuk,and Hull. They were dangerous most of the game. They probably had seven -- Hull had five or six himself, maybe not always with that line, but they were good. They drew the last penalty because Datsyuk, they just couldn't handle him. I think he's a guy that usually in the playoffs as the series goes on there is more even strength time because the players are more aware that the penalty -- I mean, right now you wash out the first four games and one team has to win two games out of the next two or the next three. I like the way that line played. I like the way the Draper line has played throughout the playoffs. They won a game for us in Game 1, and Maltby scored a shorthanded goal, so, you know, we have got some goals on the specialty games, but then on the reverse, we scored on the penalty kill, which is very unusual now. We have a couple now and a few on the playoffs too.