A little help from his friends

Off night by Brodeur salvaged by resurgent Devils offense

Jamie Langenbrunner netted two goals to help overcome an ordinary game by Martin Brodeur. AP

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- After years of watching their goalie save them in difficult situations, the New Jersey Devils had to pick up Martin Brodeur for a change.

On a night when Brodeur struggled, his teammates made up for it by firing pucks at the Ducks, and the result was a 6-3 victory by New Jersey on Thursday night that gave the Devils a 3-2 lead in the Stanley Cup finals.

"It was unbelievable," Devils goalie Martin Brodeur said. "What a weird game. I'm really thankful for my offense -- and you usually don't say that too often, because they don't score too many goals."

Ducks goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere also had a difficult night, giving up six goals on 37 New Jersey shots.

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"Seems like every game's a one-goal game, but tonight ... maybe both goaltenders weren't on tonight," Devils left wing Jay Pandolfo said. "It was nice to get some goals and hopefully get some confidence going back to Anaheim. We had a tough time scoring out there.

"This goalie's been unbelievable for them. So hopefully we got to his confidence a little bit."

The Devils, who are 11-1 at home this postseason, are within a victory of winning their third title in nine years. Game 6 is Saturday night in Anaheim, but in the 17 previous finals that were tied at 2-2, the team that won Game 5 went on to win the Cup 13 times.

The Devils were in the same spot two years ago, up 3-2 over Colorado, only to lose the final two games.

"We're going to draw on that a little," Brodeur said. "Now that we're going on the road to a place that was not too kind to us, that makes us want to do it. The pressure is on them. We had a lot of pressure in front of our fans in Game 6 against Colorado, and they took advantage of the bounces they had."

Jamie Langenbrunner scored twice in the third period; he's the leading goal-scorer in the series with 11.

"I just feel confident, and I felt like I'm eventually going to score, even when it's not going well," he said.

Brodeur entered the game with a 1.50 goals-against average in the series. But by early in the second period he'd already given up three goals. He fell behind 42 seconds in when former teammate Petr Sykora beat him from the top of the left circle.

Brodeur was brilliant early in the series, shutting out Anaheim 3-0 in the first two games before losing twice in overtime in Games 3 and 4. So the Devils had to compensate Thursday night, opening up their defense-oriented game and aggressively looking for shots. They took 11 shots on goal in the first period and 13 in the second.

After Pascal Rheaume (3:35) and Patrik Elias (7:45) scored first-period goals to give the Devils a 2-1 lead, Steve Rucchin beat Brodeur from the slot at 12:50. Brian Gionta scored for New Jersey at 6:35 of the second and Pandolfo scored at 9:02.

In the third, Langenbrunner scored 5:39 into the period, and again at 12:52.

Brodeur stopped 20 of 23 shots.

 

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