With Sweep, Devils Do Have Their Day : Hockey: New Jersey’s 5-2 victory completes Stanley Cup mastery and extends Detroit’s drought.

Defenseman Bruce Driver often wondered if this day would come, if the accumulated losses and frustrations of so many lamentable seasons with the New Jersey Devils would someday define his career.

“Early on, for so many years, we were basically fighting to stay out of the basement,” said Driver, who joined the Devils late in the 1983-84 season. “We were a young team, and we were just looking for a little success.”

The Devils on Saturday achieved the ultimate hockey success, completing a Stanley Cup sweep of the Detroit Red Wings with a 5-2 victory before a sellout crowd of 19,040 at the Meadowlands Arena. No one enjoyed it more than Driver, right wing John MacLean and defenseman Ken Daneyko, the team’s three senior players and veterans of the years when Wayne Gretzky’s description of the Devils as “a Mickey Mouse organization” was charitable.

Fittingly, Devil Captain Scott Stevens allowed them to hold the Cup before it went to anyone else--even before it was passed to Claude Lemieux, winner of the Conn Smythe trophy as the most valuable player of the playoffs with a postseason-high 13 goals.

“They’ve been here through thick and thin and it’s great that they were able to enjoy it,” Stevens said of Driver, Daneyko and MacLean. “It’s great the Devils kept them around long enough for this to happen.”

It took 13 seasons in New Jersey, their third home after their birth in 1974 as the Kansas City Scouts, for the Devils to claim the Cup. They won it emphatically, sweeping the team that had the NHL’s best regular-season record and won the Western Conference championship.

“We felt going in that they were a great team,” Detroit Captain Steve Yzerman said, “but the thing that’s surprising is being swept. The thing that really surprises me is they did it so well. I thought we’d eventually be able to get through their defensive shell, but we couldn’t.”

Desperate to prolong their season, the Red Wings penetrated New Jersey’s defense twice in the first period Saturday but couldn’t hold the lead after playing probably their best period of the series. When New Jersey defenseman Shawn Chambers moved into the left circle and ripped a shot past Mike Vernon’s glove to tie the game, 2-2, with 2:15 to play in that opening period, the Red Wings’ final, faint hope disappeared.

Pushed by a crowd that chanted, “1955,” in derisive reference to the Red Wings’ league-long Stanley Cup drought, the Devils shredded Detroit’s defense. Neal Broten put them ahead to stay at 7:56 of the second period on a third-effort shot off a rebound; rookie Sergei Brylin--who had been benched in Game 2--flicked a shot past Vernon’s outstretched leg at 7:46 of the third period for a 4-2 lead, and Chambers applied the final flourish with his fourth playoff goal at 12:32.

“It was one of the better performances I’ve seen against a team,” Detroit Coach Scotty Bowman said of the Devils’ defensive play in holding the Red Wings to fewer than 20 shots in three of four games and only one in the final period of Game 4.

“I’ve gotten swept four times and I’ve swept other teams four times. Once you get on a roll like New Jersey--or a slide like we were--it’s tough to catch up. As the series goes on, you’ve got to play at a higher level and we couldn’t. We ran into a team that we couldn’t handle, especially when we were trying to go offensively. They’re a big, strong team.”

They were an exultant team Saturday.

“I’m in shock right now,” said Devil center Neal Broten, who became the second member of the gold medal-winning 1980 U.S. Olympic team to win the Stanley Cup. Ken Morrow won it with the New York Islanders in 1980.

“I waited a lot longer than Kenny,” Broten said, “and it’s really sweet.”

Tears flowed freely everywhere at the Meadowlands Arena. Mike Peluso couldn’t stop bawling while he was on the ice, and Lemieux’s cheeks glistened as he cradled the Conn Smythe trophy.

“It’s just unbelievable. Look at some of the names that are on this trophy,” said Lemieux, who had dedicated his season to his handicapped younger brother, Serge. “Just the thought [that] I’m going to be on there and that I won the Stanley Cup, it’s unbelievable.”

Some of the tears undoubtedly were cried by fans who left not knowing if the Devils will return to the Meadowlands Arena next season. Their owner, John McMullen, has received a lucrative offer to move the team to Nashville, Tenn., but he has deferred a decision until the playoffs ended.

Devil players, however, were too busy Saturday savoring the present to think about their future. “I’m still speechless. It’s a tremendous feeling,” MacLean said. “I can’t even believe it.”

Stanley Cup Notes

This was the first year since 1983 that the NHL and NBA finals were won in sweeps. The Philadelphia 76ers swept the Lakers and the New York Islanders beat the Edmonton Oilers on that occasion. . . . Red Wing center Sergei Fedorov was the top playoff scorer with seven goals and 24 points. . . . Teams from the Eastern Conference (formerly the Wales Conference) have won the last five Cups.

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Dry Spells

The Red Wings are one of the few pro sports franchises to not win a championship in the last 40 years. The list:

Sport Team Yrs Last MLB Cubs 86 1908 MLB White Sox 77 1917 MLB Red Sox 76 1918 NFL Cardinals 49 1946 MLB Indians 46 1948 NFL Rams 44 1951 NBA Kings 44 1951 MLB Giants 41 1954 NHL Red Wings 40 1955