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From the Locker Rooms Devils' Brodeur beams; Stars' Hatcher bums
Posted: Tuesday June 06, 2000 12:15 AM By David Vecsey, CNNSI.com DALLAS -- Devils defenseman Ken Daneyko came off the ice muttering to himself and shaking his head. "That ... was ... nerve-racking," he said to nobody in particular.
A few more Devils filed by. Along came goalie Martin Brodeur, his own devilish smile beaming out from beneath the pitchforks and flames of his mask. "Zat was entertaining, no?" he said with just enough French-Canadian accent to make you smile, too. Brodeur, who took a delay-of-game penalty with 4:15 left while holding a one-goal lead in a Stanley Cup finals game, was loving every minute of it. He oohed and ahhed his way through his postgame news conference as he recalled the rocket Brett Hull launched into his chest from point-blank range with less than a minute left. "I think Modano made the play there," Brodeur said. "It was amazing for him to go behind the net and almost lose the puck and be able to saucer it right to Brett Hull's stick. Anybody but him! But, you know, [Hull] has got a little luck. He hit my shoulder and it stays in front of me instead of, you know, crawling to the net." It was a night of narrow escapes for the Devils, who nevertheless dominated the game, won 2-1 and took a 2-1 series lead over the defending champs. After taking just one penalty through the first two games of the series, the Devils found themselves short-handed midway through the first period. Less than 30 seconds into the power play, Brodeur stopped a shot and appeared to be falling on top of the puck when defenseman Scott Stevens cleared it right out from underneath Brodeur. And right to Sylvain Cote, who had no trouble finding the back of the wide-open net for a 1-0 Stars lead. Less than 40 seconds after that, the Devils were short-handed again. And a minute later, they were down two men. That's when survival instinct took over. They killed 49 seconds of 5-on-3, then the remaining 1:11 of the 5-on-4. Then they knew they were in control. Right up until the final five minutes, when the Stars threw everything they had at Brodeur, who complicated things by tossing the puck over the glass and drawing a penalty. "It's something that you don't want to happen, but I didn't know," he smiled churlishly. "I just learned I have a good backhand ... I mean, it is something that I was really upset about."
For the Stars, missed opportunities galoreWhile most of his teammates bunkered down in the trainer's room or in other media-restricted areas, Stars captain Derian Hatcher stood with two giant bags of ice taped to his leg and sought the same answers as many of the reporters. If the Stars couldn't score on some of the chances they had Saturday, when would they be able to deliver the big goal? "It's tough to say whether we got enough chances," he said. "It really doesn't matter because we lost the game. Once again, we felt that we didn't do the right things." There were nothing obvious statements left for the Stars. They scored first, then allowed the Devils to tie it right before the end of the first period. They couldn't convert on a 5-on-3. They didn't score down the stretch despite a full frontal attack. All back-breakers. "We have a choice to either fight or quit," Hatcher said. Ken Hitchcock has a day to rally his team before Monday's Game 4. "I think we are the team that has to pick up the pace," he said. I thought once the game went 2-1, Jersey controlled a big part of the hockey game until the end. We had flurries in the last nine or 10 minutes. But through that middle period and start of the third, they were controlling the level of play."
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