NHL STANLEY CUP FINALS: DEVILS v AVALANCHE

June 3, 2001

Martin Brodeur

Scott Gomez

Bobby Holik

BOBBY HOLIK: That team is too good for us to think there are any kind of signs of wearing down or anything like that. We have to approach the game tomorrow night the same way as we needed to last night. We cannot look at it as they might be wearing down because, you know what, as they showed with those two goals, they don't need much to score goals because they have players with game-breaking abilities and you give them a little bit, they grab on it, even though they are being outplayed.

BOBBY HOLIK: Exploit?

BOBBY HOLIK: Yeah, but what happened last night? It was a mistake that, believe me, it is not going to happen for a long time. So we can not try to play or try to make it a set play. They gave it to him trying to make him cough it up again. Because he is a great goaltender and even great players make mistakes.

BOBBY HOLIK: But you know what, he has played so well that this year could be a different situation. He has played tremendously, so nobody is perfect: That's why I don't look at it as something that we can exploit anymore than we have already because I believe he is going to be very careful what he does with the puck and how he does it and where he does it. Because we all know how good he is and how much of a competitor he is, and I don't want to look at it as that's what cost them the game, but I think we scored off of that turnover because we were persistent throughout the whole game. If we didn't play as well as we had, we probably wouldn't have gotten that break. That's why good teams who work hard every shift get breaks like that. That's how I look at it. I don't look at it as something that is going to happen again or that it's Patrick's weakness.

BOBBY HOLIK: Yeah, if it happens in a regular season there's another 81 games to do it better. Here you are very ten times magnified because when you play only in a 7-games series you only play a 10th of the games you would play in a regular season, even less, so -- and there's a lot more media coverage and they have a tendency of overblowing these kind of things out of proportion.

BOBBY HOLIK: You know what, until the last moment I really didn't know who it was. I didn't know to look for that kind of a hit. It happened -- when you -- I believe we played in position better than we did in any other game yesterday. And when you are like that, how it happened is I was backchecking the way I was supposed to be coming through the middle. And we don't want the "D" to step up on these players because they have too much skill and they then -- we have done that where our "D" stepped up, they passed to the side because they have somebody else going by there, so we want forwards to step up right inside the blue line. You know what, if Hejduk had his head up just probably play the angle on him but I saw him, he just kind of looked down for the puck going for the shot; and I think I thought this is a great opportunity, I am going to take advantage of it, so...

BOBBY HOLIK: It is tough to get skilled players like that because they are always aware of where everybody is.

BOBBY HOLIK: That helps. But --

BOBBY HOLIK: I think he fell face first.

MARTIN BRODEUR: I think both teams have different skills and stuff, but when it comes down to it the effort that we had last night proved that when we work hard we are able to match their intensity. They are a good team and definitely it has been a great series for both teams at times. Hopefully we will be able to build on what we did yesterday.

MARTIN BRODEUR: Yeah, well for sure if anybody -- if Colorado would take that scenario any day, but for us it's a big momentum swing of almost being down 3-1 being two-two now. So we are excited about it. Now it is going to be a big battle to see who is going to win the Cup now.

MARTIN BRODEUR: Well, I mean, in this building it is a lot different. I think everything happens a lot quicker with the boards and the glass and their offense, it is always easier to play at home, so definitely it is going to be a lot different than probably Game 4.

MARTIN BRODEUR: On both sides and for us, for once in the series we got some breaks and these guys they are skilled players, so can't give them breakaways just like that, they will bury it. That's what they did. They waited for the opportunity and hope they didn't make mistakes but they finally made some mistakes and we made them pay.

MARTIN BRODEUR: You know, that's one of the reasons why these teams are here because tremendous, you know, and the fact that the fourth and third line are able to contribute defensively at time around. So that says a lot from a hockey club when other guys are able to step up when big guys are going down.

SCOTT GOMEZ: No, not one bit. This ain't an easy place to play. They are really going to be jacked up. The fans are going to be going ballistic, and we just got to come out and stick to our game plan again.

? SCOTT GOMEZ: If anything, we have been trying to keep it away from him because I think he doesn't get enough credit. He can move it up. Yeah when he makes made a mistake whatever but at the same time I think if anything we are trying to keep it away from him.

SCOTT GOMEZ: I was never really concerned about the goal scoring, just like -- just the way we were playing. It wasn't there. Whether you score or not. I mean, if you can tell yourself you gave it your all, then yeah, that is what you are happy with. But it just wasn't happening for me but I thought last night our line we came out, we did what we had to do, and hey, that's all you can ask for is just to contribute as much as possible.

SCOTT GOMEZ: No, it is just a good series. Hey, this is what it is about. This adds years to you, you talk about nerves and everything hey1 you are going to get it all here. No team, people can say what they want, teams got the edge or whatever, it doesn't matter. You got too many guys here that have been through it. They are going to come out tomorrow like nothing happened and we got to do the same thing.

SCOTT GOMEZ: Yeah, I mean, hey they earned the right to be called the best team in hockey. We got to take that away from them. Hey they played like it. Especially at home, they got some talent there that's crazy, they are never out of it. We won the game, but I mean you never know a bounce here or there it's a different story, so I mean, we got to come out and just do our job and hopefully things work out.