Devils Show They Have the Drive on the Road
In the hands of the New Jersey Devils, a 2-1 lead seems insurmountable.
And because they made that slimmest of margins stand up in the face of a late Dallas Star power play Saturday at Reunion Arena, the Devils’ 2-1 edge in the Stanley Cup finals may be akin to a stranglehold.
“Right now we’re just looking at this game as a big positive,” said Devil center Jason Arnott, who scored his team’s first goal and set up Petr Sykora’s power-play winner at 12:27 of the second period.
“We wanted to win one on the road, and now we have a chance to win two. But we’ve got to keep level heads and get ready for the next game.”
Teams that have won Game 3 with the series 1-1 have won the Cup 18 of 21 times. The exceptions were the 1964 Toronto Maple Leafs, 1989 Calgary Flames and 1991 Pittsburgh Penguins.
“We’re going to be disappointed if we don’t win the next game,” said Devil winger Randy McKay, whose team is 8-2 on the road in the playoffs.
Devil Coach Larry Robinson had considered breaking up his top line of Arnott, Sykora and Patrik Elias after the trio was held scoreless and outplayed in Game 2 by its Dallas counterpart of Jere Lehtinen, Mike Modano and Brett Hull. Although Star Coach Ken Hitchcock generally avoided that matchup Saturday, Arnott and his linemates were so intent on maintaining their poise and using their speed to victimize the Stars’ burly but sometimes ponderous defensemen they barely noticed who played against them.
“After the last game, we knew we could play better,” said Arnott, who had two defenders clinging to him when he propelled a shot past Dallas goalie Ed Belfour at 18:06 of the first period. “This morning, we were pretty quiet. We all knew what we had to do to get out of it. We were quiet up until the game, then after the game started, we started to talk to each other.”
The trio’s tactically sound play had the Stars talking to themselves after their second home playoff loss in 11 games. Game 4 will also be at Dallas, on Monday.
“If we’re going to win the next game or expect to win the series, we’re going to have to play with a much higher sense of desperation from the red line in,” Hitchcock said. “I think both teams are going to get their chances off the rush, but I don’t think we’re getting the quality chances with the time we’re spending in the zone. . . .
“Both teams are committed defensively, and if you’re going to score, you’re going to have to be a lot more desperate.”
For the first time in the series, special teams played a key role, and the Devils had an edge there, too.
The Stars’ goal resulted from a power play. With Sergei Nemchinov serving a slashing penalty, Dallas winger Lehtinen took a shot from the left side that Devil goalie Martin Brodeur blocked with his chest. Brodeur reached with his stick to gather in the rebound, but teammate Scott Stevens pounced on the puck and tried to clear it, only to put it on Sylvain Cote’s stick. Cote’s wrist shot beat Brodeur at 13:08 of the first period.
“It was an unfortunate situation there, a little bit,” Brodeur said.
It could have been worse when New Jersey defenseman Vladimir Malakhov was penalized for interference at 13:51 and winger Claude Lemieux was sent off for cross-checking at 15:02, giving the Stars a two-man advantage for 49 seconds. However, thanks in part to New Jersey’s strong penalty killing, Dallas mustered only one shot. “It’s a great opportunity at that time of the game,” Modano said. “We obviously try to get [Sergei] Zubov and Brett [Hull] the shot, but they seemed to control the play pretty well.”
They lost the game, in essence, when Cote took a retaliatory elbow penalty he acknowledged “was not a good penalty” to give New Jersey a power play at 11:03 of the second period. Sykora took a pass from Arnott and one-timed a wrist shot that deflected off the stick of Dallas defenseman Derian Hatcher. “There was a lot of traffic from the shot right to the net,” Belfour said. “I didn’t get a good look at it.”
The Stars pressed in the third period, especially when Brodeur’s clearing attempt caromed off the glass and into the crowd for a delay-of-game penalty at 15:45, but the Devils hung on.
“That was scary,” Devil defenseman Ken Daneyko said. “I said, ‘Oh, my God,’ but then we said, ‘Let’s get it done.’ Marty was huge there. He battled. He knew it was his fault.”
Said Robinson: “Marty didn’t think my hair was gray enough, so he wanted to make it a little grayer.”
Hitchcock’s hair is already white, so it can’t get any grayer. “We’re disappointed we lost and to be down in the series,” Hatcher said. “We’re going to talk about it and bounce back for Game 4. We have a choice to either fight or quit.”
NEW JERSEY vs. DALLAS
Devils lead series, 2-1
* GAME 1: New Jersey 7, Dallas 3
* GAME 2: Dallas 2, New Jersey 1
* GAME 3: New Jersey 2, Dallas 1
* MONDAY: Game 4, at Dallas
* THURSDAY: Game 5, at New Jersey
* SATURDAY: Game 6, at Dallas *
* JUNE 12: Game 7, at New Jersey *
* if necessary; all games 5 p.m. Pacific on Channel 7
