Kolzig upbeat despite Game 1 loss
Posted: Wednesday June 10, 1998 01:11 AM
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Kolzig stopped all 21 of Detroit's shots in the final two periods, but allowed two goals in the first 16 minutes (AP) |
DETROIT (AP) -- They call him Olie the Goalie, not the Magic
Man. On many nights, the play of Washington goalie Olaf Kolzig would
have been good enough. But in the first game of the Stanley Cup finals, the
Capitals simply couldn't generate enough offense and the Detroit Red Wings began
defense of their title with a 2-1 victory Tuesday night. "We
know now we cannot take a shift off," said Kolzig, who had gone 7-1 on the
road through the first three rounds of the playoffs. "Not against that kind
of a hockey club." The Red Wings, bidding to become the first
team since 1992 to repeat as Cup champions, jumped on Kolzig for a 2-0 lead
on goals by Joe Kocur and Nicklas Lidstrom
in the first 16:18 of the game. Kolzig, who came into the finals with four
shutouts through the first three rounds, had almost no chance on either
goal. Kocur was able to skate up to the right side of the crease
because defenseman Sergei Gonchar
took himself out of the play with a check on Tomas Holmstrom.
Kolzig was screened when Lidstrom cut loose from the top of the left
circle. "I thought he was fine," Capitals coach Ron Wilson said
of his 6-foot-3, 225-pound goaltender. "The two goals he had, he didn't
have a chance on. He kept us in the game and gave us a chance.
"I wouldn't say to win, but he kept us close enough so that we could pull
the goalie at the end of the game and we had chances then, as well. So he
got the job done that we asked of him." Detroit outshot the
Capitals 31-17 with a 12-7 edge in the third period when the outcome was
still very much in doubt. "Whether it's a great goaltender or
not, you have to go to the net and you have to get a lot of bodies in front
of the net," Detroit forward Brendan Shanahan
said. "You just have to have good habits, and both those goals were good
goals. "He also made a lot of great saves toward the end. He's
clearly one of the great goalies in the league, and we can't be discouraged
when everything we throw at him doesn't to in." The Capitals
were appearing in the Cup finals for the first time in the club's 24-year
history, so they had a right to be a little in awe. Yet Kolzig said the
team remains confident. "I don't think we made that many
mistakes, but they capitalized on their opportunities," Kolzig said. "We're
still an upbeat bunch of guys. We could have folded our tents up here. But
we came back to make it a game. "Obviously, we got a little
confidence out of this game, because we were right there with them at the
end."
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