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EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- The New Jersey Devils are going back to their roots. Defending NHL champion New Jersey returned to the Stanley Cup Finals with a 4-2 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins behind another solid defensive effort and two goals from Jason Arnott. Bobby Holik and John Madden also scored and Jay Pandolfo picked up a pair of assists for the Devils, who won the Eastern Conference finals in five games and will face the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday in Denver in Game One of the Stanley Cup Finals. It will be a homecoming of sorts for the Devils, who spent six seasons in Denver as the Colorado Rockies before moving to New Jersey in 1982. The Penguins finally got a puck past Martin Brodeur after suffering home shutout losses in Games Three and Four. But they had the lead in just one game of the series and fell short of their first Stanley Cup Finals appearance in nine years. "We gave ourselves the best chance to win a Stanley Cup," said Penguins defenseman Darius Kasparaitis. "We beat the Capitals and Buffalo by playing defensively and when we got to this round, we changed our style. Don't ask me why." The defeat ended Mario Lemieux's dream of a third title. Pittsburgh's owner ended a 3 1/2-year retirement in December and helped take his team to the conference finals for the first time since 1996. But Lemieux and fellow superstar Jaromir Jagr were held without a goal by the stingy Devils and Lemieux's frustration boiled over with a retaliatory cross-checking penalty in the game's final minute. "I was glad to give a little bit back to the fans," said Lemieux, who had three assists in the series. "All in all, this has been a fun year and I'll be back next year." "Going into the series, we thought they're going to get their chances, they're going to score some goals. We wanted to limit their chances and try to contain them as best we can," Madden said. "Obviously, we're surprised. But also we're happy with our output." This may have been Jagr's final game as a Penguin. He fueled speculation throughout the postseason that the cost-conscious team will trade him and his hefty salary over the summer. "I was able to spend 11 great years of my life here, but the time comes when you have to move on," Jagr said. "I never thought about restructuring my contract or taking deferred money. But it's a long summer and I'll have a lot of time to think. I still have years left on my contract and I have to do whatever the Pittsburgh Penguins want to do." Meanwhile, the Devils are headed to the Stanley Cup Finals for the third time, having won championships in 1995 and 2000. There was little celebration in New Jersey's business-like locker room. "For us, we look at it as an opportunity to finally defend our title," Holik said. "It was a long year. We had a lot of ups, a few downs. After 100-plus games, we are here and now the defense of the title finally starts. The main goal is just ahead of us." New Jersey grabbed the lead for good, 2-1, on Arnott's goal 7:41 into the second period. The Devils had an apparent go-ahead goal disallowed six minutes into the period when referee Bill McCreary ruled he blew the whistle before Holik's rebound trickled over the goal line. New Jersey caught a break less than a minute later when Ian Moran got a borderline penalty for interfering with Petr Sykora. Scoreless on two power play chances in the first period, the Devils cashed in as Sykora passed off the right boards and Arnott ripped a one-timer from the blue line along the ice, through a screen and inside the right goalpost. It was the 10th goal of the series for New Jersey's "A" line of Arnott, Sykora and Patrik Elias. "We kind of strive on working off of each other," Arnott said. "When all three of us are going, we can be the best line in the NHL. But it takes all three of us. We turned it around and we all paid the price and got in there and made some things happen." Arnott's trio personally outscored the entire Penguins' team. "They're a great, great team with a lot of talent that uses four lines," Jagr said. "They've had their system in place for two years now, with the same players. You can't beat it. They make you look slower and they make you get there late. That's because they know about each other. When the one guy has the puck, the other four guys know what he's going to do with it and they go directly to a spot. "We played our best tonight and we still couldn't stay with them. That goes to show how far ahead of us they are." Less than two minutes after Brodeur turned aside shots by defenseman Andrew Ference and Moran, the Devils opened a 3-1 lead. Kasparaitis was checked at the left point, sending New Jersey in on an odd-man rush. Holik trailed the play, took a pass from Pandolfo and rifled a shot from the top of the right circle over goaltender Johan Hedberg's glove for his sixth playoff goal. Holik hooked Kasparaitis behind the Pittsburgh net 21 seconds later, setting off a frantic sequence. Moments after Hedberg kicked out his pad to deny Madden on a shorthanded breakaway, Martin Straka got his own rebound and lifted it over Brodeur for his fifth playoff goal and the Penguins' second in 13 power-play chances in the series. Hedberg stopped Scott Gomez on another breakaway with 3:27 left in the period to keep Pittsburgh close. But the Penguins went nearly six minutes without a shot after Straka scored and Madden finally made good on a breakaway at 3:32 of the third to seal the win. "(Goaltending coach) Jacques Caron came in between periods and said if you get a chance, go high. That's what I did," Madden said. The "A" line energized an already raucous crowd by scoring on the game's first shot. Arnott stretched his goal-scoring streak to three games by beating Hedberg with a one-time blast from the top of the right circle at the 57-second mark. Pittsburgh halted New Jersey's momentum after killing a holding penalty on Ference but could not get anything going offensively. The Devils continued to press and nearly doubled the lead when Sergei Nemchinov lifted a wristed a shot off the crossbar midway through the opening period. The Penguins finally got their first shot with just over four minutes remaining, then sprung to life. With a delayed penalty signaled on the Devils, Moran backhanded a pass down low to Alexei Morozov, who shifted to his forehand and flipped a shot by Brodeur. It ended Brodeur's shutout streak at 151 minutes, 19 seconds. Of Morozov's 43 career regular-season and playoff goals, 11 have come against New Jersey, including two in this series. "On the second goal, it bounced over (Brian Rafalski's) stick and the old Devil killer was right there to put it in," New Jersey coach Larry Robinson said. Brodeur stopped 18 shots while Hedberg's magical run through the playoffs ended with a 19-save performance. "It's been an unbelievable run, even though I feel very empty right now," said Hedberg, who played just nine games during the regular season. "I realize how fortunate I have been to be in this situation. I'm thankful for all the support my teammates have given me. I'm very, very happy. Unfortunately, I couldn't take them all the way." |
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