Bolts' Lecavalier: 'We never quit'

TAMPA, Fla. -- Vincent Lecavalier had a pair of assists Wednesday night to help the Tampa Bay Lightning defeat the Boston Bruins 5-4 and force a Game 7 in the Eastern Conference Finals.

The Tampa Bay captain got the Lightning started just 36 seconds into the first period by winning a faceoff in the Boston zone back to Teddy Purcell for a goal and added primary assist on the first of three power-play tallies for the team on the night.

Lecavalier now has 19 points in this postseason -- third in the League behind Vancouver's Henrik Sedin (21) and his teammate Martin St. Louis, who has 20. Here's what Lecavalier had to say after the game:

Q: Can you talk about the swing of momentum after they led in the first period and you charged out in the second and third?

Lecavalier: We had some turnovers in the first period, but we definitely came out and played in the second. We were skating tonight and we played well as a team. Even though they were always kind of coming back, we kept on playing, kept on being aggressive and it paid off.

Q: Can you talk about that third period and the energy and excitement in that third period?

Lecavalier: It was a great game. We never quit. We don't want to just stay on our heels in the third period. Even though we had the lead we just kept on going, kept on pressing them. They had a few good chances there at the end of the third period, but I thought we played pretty well defensively.

Q: You said from the beginning this was going seven [games] -- how do you feel?

Lecavalier: Yeah, we're excited. It was a huge game for us tonight. The crowd was great. Now we've got to go in there barn and play the same way we did tonight.

Q: What does it say about your team that everything seemed to come together tonight?

Lecavalier: We have that confidence. All year, we just coming back, coming back. Against Pittsburgh coming back and now again we came back from 3-2 in a series. Obviously it comes down to one game. We're going to have to step up our game even more -- special teams will have to play well, 5-on-5, everybody.

Q: Will you draw on the fact that you've been in here before in Game 7s?

Lecavalier: Yeah, we played well in our last Game 7. We played a really tight game against (Pittsburgh). We're just going to try to play our game -- Lightning hockey -- and do our best.

Q: Can you talk about the game that Marty had?

Lecavalier: What a great game -- he was really skating and he was hungry. Everybody really stepped up their game tonight from our last game and it shows. When we're skating, we get more opportunities and we play better hockey.

Q: How about the power play tonight? How did you get it going?

Lecavalier: We attacked the net a lot more. We were struggling a little bit in Game 5 and pretty much the whole series. We got it in their zone as much as we could and we set it up. That was a big thing -- we set it up in their zone and we got some shots off.

Q: On that first goal, can you talk about what you and Teddy exchanged and visually what you saw there?

Lecavalier: I saw it wasn't their first centerman. He got kicked off and [Kelly] coming in as a lefty, I knew if I won it, it would go between my legs. I just gave him a little wink and told him to move over. I got lucky and it ended up going right on his stick. We're definitely going to take that, especially on the first shift of the game.

Q: You got some pretty good experience with Game 7s with this franchise -- feel good going up to Boston?

Lecavalier: Yeah, definitely. We feel confident. We feel like we just have to play the same way we did tonight. We just have to skate. We have a lot of speed on this team and we just have to keep it going and we'll be ready to go. I'm sure they will be too, but it is going to be a great game.