Devils Demolish Detroit, 5-2 New Jersey Leads Series 3-0 And Can Win Cup At Home

Determined to excel at the Meadowlands Arena, the Devils played their very best. Determined to win the first Stanley Cup in franchise history, New Jersey humiliated what was supposed to be the NHL’s best team.

New Jersey, a record-setting road club this postseason, used a rare dominating home performance to defeat the Detroit Red Wings 5-2 Thursday night and move within one win of a championship series sweep.

“I think it’s our best game we played in the whole playoffs,” said Devils coach Jacques Lemaire, whose team can wrap up the best-of-seven series Saturday night. “I don’t recall any games that were close to this.”

And Detroit coach Scotty Bowman, who has six Stanley Cup titles and more than 1,000 career victories, couldn’t recall ever being more ashamed.

“I told them at the end of the game that some of them don’t even need a shower,” said Bowman, who coached the Red Wings to the league’s best record this season. “It was the most embarrassing and humiliating loss that I’ve ever had.

“I don’t think home ice was the deciding factor. The factor was that we didn’t compete and they wanted it a lot more, no question about it. If you owned the team and were paying these guys and myself big money, it’s unacceptable.”

To end their 40-year Stanley Cup drought, the Red Wings must become only the second team in history to win four straight games after trailing 3-0 in the finals.

“You want to be scared of your opponent every time you step on the ice,” New Jersey’s Claude Lemieux said. “We won’t forget that team was favored to sweep, favored in five or six games. When you think you have it made, that’s when you’re in trouble.”

In their previous series, the Devils went home with a 2-0 lead against Philadelphia but loss twice at the Meadowlands to let the Flyers back in the series. They didn’t want that to happen this time, too.

“Against Philly, we took shortcuts and weren’t focused the way we were on the road,” said captain Scott Stevens, whose Devils are 10-1 on the road but only 5-3 at home in the playoffs.

“Tonight, we didn’t take the easy way out. There’s no question we wanted to come out and dictate the game, forecheck and put a lot of pressure on. When you work hard a lot of good things happen.”

And when you don’t work hard, only bad things happen.

“We’ve been on top of the league all year,” Detroit’s Dino Ciccarelli said. “To have this sort of thing happen to us now is unbelievable and we’re all to blame.”

Toronto is the only team to win a best-ofseven championship series after losing the first three games, beating Detroit in 1942. The New York Islanders were the only other team in any round to stage such a comeback, defeating Pittsburgh in 1975.

The Red Wings had opened 3-0 leads in each of their three previous series - but none of those came against a team as disciplined, patient and committed to a system as New Jersey.

“They’ve made the Detroit Red Wings a different hockey club,” Detroit’s Kris Draper said. “The first two games, all we were talking about in our building was the New Jersey Devils.”

Lemieux scored his league-high 13th playoff goal. And led by Stevens, the tightchecking Devils again kept Detroit from mounting any sustained pressure on goalie Martin Brodeur.

Brodeur made 22 saves and led 5-0 until Sergei Fedorov and Steve Yzerman scored power-play goals in the final 3:03. New Jersey has allowed two or fewer goals in 16 of its 19 playoff contests.

Bruce Driver, Neal Broten, Randy McKay and Bobby Holik also scored for New Jersey, which outshot the Wings for the third consecutive game.

The Devils, usually content to make life miserable for their opponents and wait for mistakes before taking the offensive, had such control Thursday they were able to open their attack on several occasions.

“It was pretty exciting,” Stevens said. “There wasn’t much neutral-zone trapping out there, was there? As long as we don’t give up any odd-man rushes, we’re OK.”

Bowman replaced goalie Mike Vernon with Chris Osgood at 8:20 of the second period. Vernon, who allowed four goals on 20 shots, had done a good job shoring up Detroit’s weak spot since arriving in an offseason trade.

About 3 1/2 minutes into the game, Brodeur made his best save of the series - a scrambling stick stop on Kris Draper’s stuff attempt. “It was 0-0,” Brodeur said. “Any time you make a big save early, it brings the team on.”

And so it did.

Driver’s power-play goal at the 10:30 mark came on a slap shot from the point that went under McKay’s skate and between Vernon’s pads.

New Jersey fans then littered the ice with assorted marine objects, including an inflatable toy octopus, a lobster and a fish. Detroit fans throw octopuses on the ice after every goal at home games; the tradition began in the 1950s, when only eight wins were needed to win the Stanley Cup.

At 16:52, Lemieux took Bobby Carpenter’s pass, beat defenseman Viacheslav Fetisov into Detroit’s zone and drove a slap shot from the top of the right faceoff circle through a large opening between Vernon’s pads to make it 2-0.

“You can’t just shut it down after one period and say the game’s over,” Bowman said.

The Devils broke open the game with two second-period goals.

Broten picked up a loose puck at center ice, skated into Detroit’s end and beat Vernon low to the glove side with a 40-foot, straightaway slap shot at 6:59. Just 1:21 later, Holik chased down a rebound and fed in front to an unchecked McKay for the tip-in.

After Holik scored a power-play goal against Osgood at 8:14 of the third period, most of the 19,040 fans at the Meadowlands began chanting, “We want the Cup! We want the Cup!”

On Saturday night, they just might get it.

New Jersey 5, Detroit 2

Detroit 0 0 2 - 2

New Jersey 2 2 1 - 5

First Period-1, New Jersey, Driver 1 (Broten, MacLean), 10:30 (pp). 2, New Jersey, Lemieux 13 (Carpenter, Stevens), 16:52.

Second Period-3, New Jersey, Broten 5 (Stevens, MacLean), 6:59. 4, New Jersey, McKay 8 (Holik, Driver), 8:20.

Third Period-5, New Jersey, Holik 4 (Guerin, Richer), 8:14 (pp). 6, Detroit, Fedorov 6 (Fetisov,Brown), 16:57 (pp). 7, Detroit, Yzerman 4 (Sheppard, Lidstrom), 18:27 (pp).

Shots on goal-Detroit 7-5-12-24. New Jersey 15-8-8-31.Power-play opp.-Detroit 2 of 8; New Jersey 2 of 5.Goalies-Detroit, Vernon 12-5 (20 shots16 saves), Osgood (8:20 second, 11-10). New Jersey, Brodeur 15-4 (24-22).A-19,040 (19,040).

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: GAME 4 At New Jersey, Saturday, 5 p.m., Fox