Game 3: New Jersey road warriors
Associated Press
DALLAS -- If the New Jersey Devils win the Stanley Cup, it
might be appropriate if they do it on the road.
Playing in one of the toughest buildings in hockey, the Devils
beat the Dallas Stars 2-1 on Saturday night to take a 2-1 lead in
the finals.
|  | | Bobby Holik and New Jersey have become pesky Devils on the road. |
New Jersey improved to 8-2 in the playoffs away from the
Continental Airlines Arena, handing the Stars only their second
loss in 11 games at Reunion Arena.
"We are really confident on the road," defenseman Ken Daneyko
said. "Going into today we felt good about our chances. We just
had to work hard. For some reason, we play really simple and smart
on the road. We don't make as many defensive mistakes."
Larry Robinson said his team also seems to enjoy the challenge
of being on the road, the pressure and maybe having people feel
they can't do it.
"We don't try to do the fancy things that we try at home," he
said. "Maybe we feed off the other team's crowd."
Surprisingly, the Devils dominance on the road in the postseason
follows a regular season in which they were 17-19-5 in away
contests.
"The regular season is one thing and the playoffs are
another," defenseman Scott Niedermayer said. "You have to go out
when you are on the road and be focused and try to play your
best."
The Devils have done that under Robinson since he replaced
Robbie Ftorek as coach with eight games left in the regular season.
Home is another story. New Jersey is 6-4 there in the playoffs
and the difference in the team's play is obvious.
The Devils play a much more conservative game on the road. They
do all the little boring things that make them tough to beat.
They get the puck deep in their opponent's zone, they forecheck,
they counterattack and they convert. It's team orientated hockey.
The Devils didn't start Game 3 like a typical road game.
After allowing one power play in the first two games, New Jersey
picked up three penalties in a 2:16 span in the first period.
A slashing penalty on Sergei Nemchinov, the first of the trio,
set up the Stars' only goal, a rebound by defenseman Sylvain Cote
at 13:08.
Goaltender Martin Brodeur stopped the initial shot, but he and
defenseman Scott Stevens had a miscommunication trying to clear the
puck and Cote had an open net to shoot at for his second of the
playoffs.
It was only the fourth short-handed goal the Devils had given up
in 53 attempts.
Vladimir Malakhov and Claude Lemieux picked up penalties giving
the Stars a 49-second two-man advantage, but the Devils did not
allow a shot.
"That was the turning point for us," said rookie John Madden,
the Devils' leading penalty killer. "That was tough. They have
some big weapons with Mike Modano and Brett Hull and they can shoot
the puck. If we went down 2-0 it would have been very tough."
Jason Arnott tied the game late in the first period by splitting
the defense and beating Ed Belfour in close with 1:54 left in the
first period.
Petr Sykora got the game winner on a power play at 12:27 of the
second period. Brodeur made the lead stand up, stopping a wrist
shot by Brett Hull with less than a minute to play.
"We wanted to come in here and have a big, solid road game and
we did that," Stevens said.
The goals by Arnott and Sykora came just two days after the
Devils' top line -- Patrik Elias is the other member -- was
criticized by Robinson for a no-show effort in a 2-1 loss in Game 2
at home.
"They have been doing it for a long time," Niedermayer said of
Arnott's line. "They are talented guys, working real hard and they
are a big part of this team's offense. We depend on them and they
have been coming through."
The win guaranteed that the Devils will go home for Game 5 on
Thursday no worse than tied 2-2 in the series.
"We came in here looking for a split," Madden said. "We may
want to get greedy now." |
