June 7 postgame quotes: Anze Kopitar

On the first period:
I think we’d rather be up 2-0 for sure. Honestly, I don’t know what it is. We put ourselves in a hole, again. We came back, they scored a quick one after we scored the second one to make it 4-2. I think that just shows the character again of this team, resiliency. Never quit and we got it done eventually.

On Dustin Brown’s game winning goal:
It’s definitely nice for Brownie to get it. He’s working his ass off every game. To see him get rewarded like that, it’s very nice.

On whether fatigue was a factor late in the game:
You’re just trying to manage yourself as good as you can. At that point you’re trying to stick with the short shifts and make sure that you make strong plays. I thought we were rolling the lines pretty well. There will be the odd time where you get stuck out there and you have to gut it out for a little bit. But there are guys on the bench that are fresh and ready to go. [Reporter: Can you sense the legs getting heavier?] Since we’re playing we really don’t think about that. I’m sure it’s a little bit different when you’re watching. Again, it’s the same for both teams who are playing D, the exact same amount of minutes. So that really doesn’t matter.

On the game winning goal being a deflection:
Usually it’s not a very pretty goal and that’s what happened tonight. I know it’s a cliché, but every shot is a good shot in OT and it turned out to be that way.

On coming back from a two goal deficit in the victory:
We’re playing hard. Obviously the game plan is to not get down two goals, but we battled back. I don’t really know what else to say. It’s not encouraging to get down. But it seems like when we do get down that desperation kicks in and I think we showed that again tonight. [Reporter: Do you think you guys need that feeling of desperation?] Sometimes we do play our best hockey when we’re desperate and with more sense of urgency that maybe we start. Again, we still have some room to improve obviously. And we’re going to have to because we’re going into a loud building and I’m sure they’re going to be fired up to be at home and we’re going to have to match that intensity.

On the significance of being up 2-0 in the series:
Well obviously they came out here to win a couple games, or at least get the split. That’s our mindset to go there, win in Game 3 and we’ll go from there. We realize that it’s going to be hard and we’re going to have to play better. But we’ve got the 2-0 lead now and we’ve had this before in this playoffs and blew it. Now we have to focus on Game 3 and making sure we’re ready for it.

On whether they play with greater desperation when they are trailing:
Again, it’s our game. We’re not going to go out there and take chances left and right just because we’re down. We still have to do within the system and we’ve been doing it. Now we just have to pull it together for the first 40 minutes and try to get a better outcome of the 40 minutes. Then try to protect the lead instead of chasing it.

On whether it’s encouraging for the team to win the first two games of the series despite not playing their best:
I think it’s encouraging. We’ve been talking about it after Game 1. We’ve been talking about it Game 2 and we can play better hockey. We’ve done it before and everybody knows that we’re going to have to do it at MSG because that building is going to be loud. I’m sure they’re going to be very desperate and they’re going to throw everything at us that they have and we’re going to have to match all of the above.