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Desperate Ducks Anaheim hopes to repeat Colorado's comeback from 2001Posted: Friday June 06, 2003 6:23 PMUpdated: Friday June 06, 2003 10:58 PM
ANAHEIM, Calif. (AP) -- Anaheim goes home for a win-or-else Game 6, in desperate need of a comeback that will force a seventh game against a talented, confident opponent. Didn't we just go through this seven months ago? This time, it's the Mighty Ducks trailing the New Jersey Devils 3-2 in the Stanley Cup finals, not the Angels against the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. Same city, same scenario, different team. Something else that's different: Unlike the World Series, when Anaheim staged a memorable Game 6 comeback to stay alive, then beat the Giants in Game 7, the Ducks must return to the road even if they get to Game 7.
The Ducks have been outhit, outmuscled and out of luck in New Jersey, getting outscored 12-3 in three losses there, including a 6-3 defeat in Game 5 Thursday that saw the Devils get a series' worth of lucky bounces. Oh, you lucky Devils. One thing the Ducks don't plan to do, despite their worst loss of the playoffs -- not just execution-wise but also aesthetically -- is monkey around with what got them this far. That means no drastic lineup changes, defensive system overhauls or altered matchups. "We've got to play the system, because that's what got us here," said Paul Kariya, still without a goal in the series. "We don't need to change anything, we don't need to adjust anything," goalie Jean-Sebastien Giguere said. "We just need to do what we do." What they don't want to do is what they did Thursday:
"We've given them way too many offensive chances," Kariya said. "That's not the way we played through most of the playoffs. I think our offense is coming, and we have to get back to playing tighter defensively."
"We're not frustrated at all. We're down 3-2, and we're going home where we've been real good," said Steve Thomas, pointing to the Ducks' 8-1 home record. This might frustrate them, though: The Stanley Cup will be in the building Saturday, and the only team that can win it that night isn't Anaheim. "But this team is confident; that hasn't changed," Ducks forward Petr Sykora said. "I'm confident, the team's confident, Jiggy [Giguere] is confident. It's just another game." Really? When the Ducks last returned home, for Game 3 a week ago, the Devils were coming off two easy wins and were being told a sweep was inevitable. Now, New Jersey is bound to be more cautious following two overtime losses in Anaheim. The Devils also figure to be highly motivated to close out the series and avoid a potentially risky Game 7. They also might get a lift from the possible return of center Joe Nieuwendyk, out since Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals with a hip-related injury. He'll try to skate in warmups and, if he does better than he did during a test run Wednesday, he may try to play. "We're definitely not going to get too cocky," Jamie Langenbrunner said. "We learned our lesson the hard way the first time." They learned it in 2001, too. More than a dozen Devils remain from the team that squandered a 3-2 lead to the Ray Bourque-led Avalanche, losing 4-0 in Game 6 in New Jersey before dropping Game 7 in Colorado. Scott Gomez said he still hurts from not being able to finish off that series and never wants to go through that again. If the Devils had held on against Colorado, they would be going for their third Cup in four seasons Saturday and their fourth since 1995. "I think the pressure is definitely on them," said goalie Martin Brodeur, recalling how the Devils were badly outplayed at home by Colorado in Game 6 in 2001. "They feel good about themselves [in Anaheim], and we're going to try to ruin that. ... Definitely, we're going to try to draw from that a little bit." Still, defenseman Scott Stevens said, "You're definitely still a little nervous. It's definitely easier for the guys who have been here once or twice to handle it better." What isn't known is how the Mighty Ducks will react to a potential elimination game. They lost only two games in their first three playoff series. "It's going to be interesting to see how we respond," Giguere said. "This is a new challenge we haven't faced yet, and we'll see what we're all about." For the Devils, it's their third Game 6 in four seasons; they won the Stanley Cup in Game 6 on the road at Dallas in 2000. "We've put ourselves in a great situation," Brodeur said.
"It's definitely an exciting opportunity to show the world how
dominant we've been for the last 10 years or so."
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