RALEIGH, N.C. -- For a guy who had just given up five goals in the most important game of his life, Jussi Markkanen was remarkably composed and confident in his post-game appearance before the media.
Markkanen made 21 saves in replacing Dwayne Roloson, who suffered a knee sprain and hyperextended elbow late in Game 1. Markkanen's sole Stanley Cup Playoffs experience amounted to 13 minutes played in a game in the 2002-03 playoffs. This was his Finals debut and certainly not what he'd hoped for.
Reporters offered Markkanen several opportunities to blame his teammates for their ragged play and special-teams failures, but Markkanen put the loss in a team context, sharing blame with his teammates.
"We took a lot of penalties and they capitalized on their chances," Markkanen said. "I felt fine from the start of the first period and made some good saves. I thought we moved the puck well and kind of played well, but, in the end, we gave up five goals. There are some places for improvement. They got a lot of chances and I have to be there to make those saves. I felt pretty comfortable and I definitely want to build from here and be able to help the team win."
|
|
Schedule / Links:
| |
| Gm. 1: CAR 5, EDM 4 | Photos |
| Gm. 2: CAR 5, EDM 0 | Photos |
Gm. 3: June 10, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Edmonton (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
Gm. 4: June 12, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Edmonton (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
*Gm. 5: June 14, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Carolina (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
*Gm. 6: June 17, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Edmonton (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
*Gm. 7: June 19, 8:00 p.m. ET
at Carolina (NBC, CBC, RDS) |
| *if necessary |
|
Markkanen said he was confident he was going to make the save on Andrew Ladd's first-period shot that led to the opening goal, but defenseman Marc-Andre Bergeron deflected it over his glove. He said he and his teammates had plenty of opportunity to overcome the setback.
Markkanen's coach, Craig MacTavish, indicated Markkanen would get the nod again in Game 3. The team's other goaltender, Ty Conklin, replaced Roloson in Game 1 and made a puckhandling mistake that led to the deciding goal.
"I really thought that Jussi played a fine game for us tonight, and you look at the first goal, you are analyzing that, it goes off Bergeron's foot, tough break for him and into the top corner," MacTavish said. "Second goal, it went through him. Goalies don't like that style of goal. The third goal, Stillman flipped the puck across and up over the net and then went behind the net and retrieved it and put it in the back of the net. So that was tough. The fourth goal was a crazy deflection off our defensemen's stick to Doug Weight, and off his skate. Then the fifth goal was the deflection.
"So really, you can't fault him on any of those goals, with the exception of maybe the second, and it was pretty good shot. I thought he played fine. He handled the puck and normally that's an indicator of a goaltender's confidence level. He came out, he handled the puck, he was comfortable in the game. That's all we could ask. We've got to do a better job. You don't win a lot of games, even if you get outstanding goaltending, if you don't score any goals. So he was fine tonight."
Changing it up -- Both teams changed their look slightly in Game 2.
Edmonton did it by necessity, starting Markkanen in goal in place of the injured Roloson. Ty Conklin, who replaced Roloson late in the third period of Game 1 and gave up a last-minute tying goal when he mishandled a puck behind the net, was the backup Wednesday.
Carolina, meanwhile, changed its lineup out of convenience. Coach Peter Laviolette opted to go with seven defensemen Wednesday night, inserting veteran blueliner Oleg Tverdovsky into the mix in place of fourth-line forward Chad LaRose.
Tverdovsky, who did not take a shift in the first two periods, had played in four playoff games without a point and was minus-1. He played a mere two minutes and 20 seconds Wednesday, all after Carolina had assumed a commanding lead.
LaRose had played in the first 19 games this postseason, registering an assist and a minus-1 rating. LaRose's assist, the first point this season by any member of Carolina's fourth line, came in Monday's Game 1.
"We have used seven D so many times this year," Laviolette said. "It was just kind of a hunch that maybe we should have seven defensemen in the lineup. No particular reason, to be honest with you."
In elite company? -- Carolina's Justin Williams continues to have a huge playoffs, registering a shorthanded goal and an assist in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, followed by a one-assist performance in Game 2's 5-0 victory on Wednesday night. Those virtuoso performances came on the heels of a three-point night in the deciding Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final against Buffalo.
For the playoffs, Williams six goals and 11 assists in 20 games and is second among the team's forwards in average ice time per game in the postseason, behind only the multi-dimensional Rod Brind'Amour. But, not everybody notices the offensive production.
Some observers, it seems, are more drawn to his abrasive style. In the second round, Williams was the recipient of New Jersey's wrath for his penchant to crash the crease of Martin Brodeur. Monday night, he was often in the face of Edmonton goalie Dwayne Roloson before the Oilers goalie left late in the third period.
|
|
Carolina's Justin Williams has six goals and 11 assists in 20 postseason games, and is second among the team's forwards in average ice time per game in the playoffs.
|
As a result of all that negative attention, a reporter on Wednesday morning asked Carolina coach Peter Laviolette if Williams was entering the hallowed ground of super pest once so proudly occupied by legendary agitators Claude Lemieux and Esa Tikkanen.
"I am not a big comparison type of guy," Laviolette said. "I don't see Willie as a real pest, I see him as a really good hockey player. He's strong on the puck. It's not that he's a mouthy or he plays dirty -- I don't think anyway.
"But I do think he's a really good two-way player. That's why his minutes are where they are at. Really they are short of Rod Brind'Amour. It's because of he's a situational player. When you start playing in all situations your minutes go up and I think in order to play in those situations you have to have the
confidence of the coach that those situations will get handled in the right way and he does that."
Center of attention -- Don't count the Edmonton Oilers among Rod Brind'Amour's faceoff fan club. In Game 1, Brind'Amour went 28-of-34 in the faceoff circle, regularly beating the Oilers to the draw in all three zones.
Still, the Oilers were not ready to concede that Brind'Amour, one Of the game's elite faceoff men, is the most-skilled draw artist in this series. In fact, Shawn Horcoff, one of Brind'Amour's whipping boys in Game 1, has suggested repeatedly since Monday night that the Carolina captain not only receives favoritism from officials because of his longevity, but also that Brind'Amour routinely stretches the rules while in the
faceoff circle.
Horcoff, who won just 9-of-27 draws Monday night, takes the majority of Edmonton's draws and is clicking at almost 56 percent in the playoffs. That is the same rate of conversion that he enjoyed in the regular season.
To explain Horcoff's ineffectiveness, it has been suggested that Brind'Amour does not square himself for the draw, gaining a leverage advantage against his opponent. He has also been accused of removing his stick from the ice after properly grounding it before the drop of the puck.
Laviolette could only laugh when those accusations were relayed to him after Wednesday's morning skate. He has watched Brind'Amour dominate the best centers in the league throughout the regular season and the playoffs. So, Brind'Amour's 82-percent winning percentage in Monday's game didn't raise an eyebrow among the
Carolina coaching staff.
"I don't know, I guess I don't have one," Laviolette said when asked his opinion of the cheating charges. "I think he wins 82 percent of his draws because he's really good on faceoffs and he's been really good his whole career."
Things were a little more even in Wednesday's Game 2 as both Brind'Amour and Horcoff went 50 percent on their draws.
Horcoff won 8-of-16 and Brind'Amour took 10 of 20.
