NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: MIGHTY DUCKS v DEVILS

May 27, 2003

Martin Brodeur

Jeff Friesen

Grant Marshall

MARTY BRODEUR: It's definitely nice. We wanted to get off to a good start. This is important to win hockey games. Definitely, it's nice. We're down to the magic number of 3. They're a good team, and they compete, and until we scored that first goal, even though they didn't get much offensively, when you play against a team so well-coached and disciplined, you've got to be careful. I thought we played the way we wanted to play all three zones. We'll take this and try to improve. I know we played well, but I'm sure there is some room for improvement. I know they'll probably be better next game.

MARTY BRODEUR: Definitely. The ideal situation is you get a lot of shots from outside early in the game and you get yourself in the groove. You can't really pick and choose. My team is going to play in front of me. I think definitely when it comes down to it, we're up two goals. You just want to keep them down. It's important that we didn't give them any life late in the game. So, we just wanted to play solid, and we were able to do it for the later part of the period. That's where they probably got some of the chances later in the game.

GRANT MARSHALL: First, the goal there, it just was a breakdown, kind of, in the corner by the net there. I thought Patty would try to get a one-footer off. Patty made a good move. Giguere made a good save. The key was Patty stuck with his rebound, and it made my job easy with the empty net. As with the trade, you get comfortable in places you are in, but missing the playoffs for two years, it's frustrating. This is what we play for, a second season. I'm just thrilled to be a part of this great tradition of team.

JEFF FRIESEN: I don't know. I thought they played pretty good in the first period. They didn't give us much. The shots were 6 to 4. I thought they started pretty good. We took it to them more in the second. We went to the net a little harder. We got some breaks off of it. They were in the game. It was 1-0 for awhile. A bounce here or there could be a big difference. The way we were disciplined, I think, really made them have to work for whatever they got. They had two powerplays in the first period. We kind of stopped there, and it was important for us to play them 5-on-5 and we didn't want to give them any kind of momentum with not being disciplined.

GRANT MARSHALL: A little frustrating. Marty was jabbing me because he had more goals than I did. It was a little frustrating. For the most part, I thought I was playing my job, doing my role. You always want to be rewarded with a goal, but the final outcome, if you win, it doesn't matter. Statistics just don't matter. There is no question you always want to help your team any way you can. I got that monkey off my back, and hopefully I can keep going.

JEFF FRIESEN: I got one with 6 shots one time, Game 7, that was nice.

JEFF FRIESEN: I felt in my career I played against Anaheim a lot in San Jose, division rivals, the games are a lot of big games. That's kind of nice to know that I played against them a lot, and playing with that team last year, getting to play with Giguere, knowing some of his tendencies, but it just worked out. I think we did a great job. Marty made the big saves in the first period. Our penalty-killers did a great job. It was just nice to contribute that. Certainly you don't think the first one is going to be the game winner, but with Marty in the net, a lot of times it is.

MARTY BRODEUR: You know what, it's a great era that's going to be over tomorrow, if he does retire. I think Patrick is a guy that I looked up to when I was younger. He's definitely one of the factors in why there is so many French-Canadian goalies out in the league having a lot of success, and definitely what I accomplish right now, it's a lot of fun for me. It's a great ride. Hopefully, it's not going to be over soon. Whatever he did, it's quite an accomplishment, and it will be really hard for anybody to get close to him.

MARTY BRODEUR: He's a very good goaltender, and he plays a lot like Patrick Roy and takes the bottom half of the net away. Again, just getting traffic and going to the net on him are key in this series and getting our chances and trying to hit our shots. It was just one of those shots that worked out tonight. It's one game, and it's nice to get that goal, but I just want to continue to get stronger as we go here.

GRANT MARSHALL: It's obviously a big factor. You've got to give credit to their defense, their system. They take pride in playing defense, as we do as well. It's a working man's game. You've got to battle with their D in the trenches to get to the battle area, to get in front of Giguere. I think when you do that through the course of the game, hopefully things will go your way. He's going to play hard. You've got to just out work them.

JEFF FRIESEN: Obviously it was a great opportunity when I came here to have something like that happen. It feels good. It's one step closer to my dream, winning a Stanley Cup, and I will just take it in stride, and hopefully we're not done yet. We're going to need offense to win this series, so hopefully we can continue to find a way to score and come up with big goals.

GRANT MARSHALL: I kind of laughed because I looked up at the replay, and there was a flashback of Mike Foligno with his hops. I guess I was excited about it. I don't get too many of them. If you don't get excited about this, there is something wrong. I'm with a phenomenal bunch of guys. I'm having fun with it.

JEFF FRIESEN: Obviously, I just got the puck, and I kind of took a look and seen where he was. I hit my shot. Things happen quick. Like I said, I've played with Giguere so I know some of his tendencies. It just went in. It felt good to get that. It turned out to be a big goal and a game-winner.

JEFF FRIESEN: No, I was pretty excited. It's the first time for me at the Cup Finals. I don't know what I think about when I score those goals. It's an unbelievable experience for me. I'm trying to take it in stride and not get overexcited but help contribute every night.

JEFF FRIESEN: Obviously, with Joe down, Sergei Brylin steps in and plays a great game. He supported the puck well and made the job easy for us. We created some offensive chances. That was nice. I felt comfortable playing with him, and that's the great thing about Brylin. He is such a great depth player. He played a game like that tonight. He was big for us, and we're going to need that in the series.

MARTY BRODEUR: Yeah, well, you know, for me, this is the best team I've played on. It seems in that Ottawa series, it felt to me that that was the best team I've played in the playoffs. I thought they were an unbelievable hockey team. Also, the fact of playing my old team, I just had some jump. Again, it's one game, and we move on tomorrow, getting focused for Game 2.