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New Jersey 6, Anaheim 3

Posted: Friday June 06, 2003 01:19 AM

Anaheim Mighty Ducks Related Info: Team Page City Page: • Anaheim

New Jersey Devils Related Info: Team Page City Page: • Newark

EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- You want offense? Here's your offense.

The New Jersey Devils got a series' worth of bounces in one game and two goals from Jamie Langenbrunner, moving within a win of their third championship with a 6-3 victory over the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim in Game Five of the Stanley Cup Finals.

The teams exploded for nine goals after combining for 12 in the first four games to match a 58-year-old Stanley Cup Finals record.

"Both teams have been taking such a beating about how the scores are so low," Devils center Scott Gomez said. "If you're a hockey person, you know it's been a great series. But if you're switching the channel and you see 0-0, you're probably saying, 'What's this.' It was good for the NHL tonight. I'm sure both teams would disagree, but, hey, that's hockey."

New Jersey became the first team in this year's playoffs to score more than three goals against Jean-Sebastien Giguere, although they had help from the Ducks. One goal went in off the stick off Mike Leclerc, one went off the skate of Devils winger Jay Pandolfo and two others resulted from favorable bounces.

"This series has been who gets the bounces and the breaks. And we got kinda lucky today," Gomez said.

Brian Gionta chipped in a goal and two assists to help New Jersey improve to 11-1 at home in the playoffs. The home team has taken the first five games in the series, but a road win on Saturday would give the Devils the Stanley Cup.

"I think we're going on the road to a place that wasn't really kind to us so far in the series," said New Jersey's Martin Brodeur, who made 20 saves. "It kind of makes us want to do it."

Pandolfo netted the go-ahead tally at 9:02 of the second period. Giguere got his right skate on Gionta's shot from the top of the right faceoff circle, but the rebound hit the right skate of Pandolfo, who was driving to the net. The puck slid just past Giguere and inside the left goalpost, although Bill McCreary immediately waved off the goal.

Only after a video review was Pandolfo credited with his fifth playoff goal and first in eight games.

"When they went upstairs, I kind of knew if they had a good look at it they would call I didn't kick it," Pandolfo said. "I was just trying to stop in front and it just went off my foot and trickled in."

Langenbrunner struck twice in the third period, giving him a league-leading and career-high 11 playoff goals.

The Devils held the Ducks without a shot for the first 12 1/2 minutes of the final period and finished with a 37-23 overall advantage.

"We need the intensity we had in the third period," New Jersey rookie Michael Rupp said. "We were playing Devils' hockey in the third period, I think, which was great."

Gionta gave New Jersey its second lead of the game at 3:12 of the second period. Martin Brodeur made a blocker stop on Petr Sykora's right point shot, sending the puck to defenseman Scott Niedermayer to start a counterattack.

At the other end, Gionta threw the puck out of the right corner. It hit the sticks of Anaheim's Sandis Ozolinsh and Leclerc, who ended up tipping it past Giguere. The double deflection ended Gionta's postseason scoring drought at 23 games.

"Madds (John Madden) was coming down the slot and toward the backdoor and I was trying to pass it off to him," Gionta explained. "I knew it hit off the 'D' and then I really didn't see after that."

"We can talk all we want about bad luck or a bad break on the bounce. When you're running around in your own zone and the other team is going to their net, that's when those things happen," Anaheim coach Mike Babcock said. "We didn't do a good enough job in our own zone."

The Ducks forged the game's third tie just 3:23 later as Samuel Pahlsson scored his first goal in 16 games. Rob Niedermayer passed from the left corner to the faceoff circle, where Pahlsson wristed a one-timer past Brodeur for his second playoff tally.

The first four games featured just two ties and no lead changes.

A wild first period was dominated early by Anaheim, which had six shots in the opening 98 seconds. The Ducks took the lead at the 42-second mark on a goal eerily similar to defenseman Ruslan Salei's overtime winner in Game Three.

Adam Oates won a faceoff from Madden in the left circle and got the puck back to Sykora. The former Devil one-timed a wrist shot off the heel of Brodeur's glove and into the net for his third playoff goal, the first that did not come in overtime and first of this series.

It also was the first goal scored in the opening period in the series and Anaheim's first at the Continental Airlines Arena.

"We thought we got off to a good start tonight," Babcock said. "I really thought (the Devils) were just coming and working and they got a lot of good breaks. Like I said, they earned them." New Jersey needed just two shots and less than three minutes to tie it.

Turner Stevenson, back in the lineup after missing five games with a groin injury, tracked down a rebound behind the net. He moved to the right faceoff circle and threw the puck in front, where Pascal Rheaume redirected it past Giguere for his first playoff goal since 1999.

"Turner and I, we have to crash the net and we have to make some traffic in front of the net," Rheaume said. "That's how we're going to score our goals and that's how I scored my goal tonight."

The Devils got the game's first power play when defenseman Keith Carney was penalized for roughing at 7:03. They scored their second power-play goal of the series 37 seconds later as Elias, all alone in the low slot, deflected a pass from defenseman Brian Rafalski past Giguere for his fifth postseason tally.

New Jersey nearly made it 3-1 at 9:40, but referee Paul Devorski immediately waved off Gionta's apparent goal, ruling correctly that Gionta punched it past Giguere with his right glove.

That kept the Ducks close, and they tied it with 7:10 to go in the period. Held without a point in the first four games of the series, Paul Kariya worked the puck to Sykora at the bottom of the right circle. Sykora slid it to Steve Rucchin, who snapped a shot from the slot off the left goalpost and into the net for his first goal of the series and fifth of the playoffs.

"I'm not creating enough opportunities and as a group we are not creating enough second and third opportunities," Kariya said. "We scored three goals, but we didn't get any of the ugly goals."