Lemieux Is Key to Victory as Devils Force a Game 7

The New Jersey Devils forced Game 7 in the Eastern Conference finals against the Philadelphia Flyers because they had an answer to Eric Lindros.

They had Claude Lemieux.

Lemieux scored on a rebound with 8:34 to play to break a scoreless tie Wednesday night and the Devils overcame the return of Lindros by beating the Flyers, 2-1, to inch closer to becoming the first team to rally from a 3-1 deficit to reach the Stanley Cup finals.

“Claude, what can you say? Who else would score?” Devil defenseman Ken Daneyko said.

“He got his goal. He was working hard all night. He jumped on the loose puck but this is his time of year. You know, he’s the Reggie Jackson of hockey in May and June.”

Alexander Mogilny added an insurance goal for the Devils and it proved vital when Lindros beat Martin Brodeur with 30 seconds to play.

Brodeur faced only 13 shots as the Devils beat the Flyers for the second time in three nights to set up Game 7 at Philadelphia on Friday night.

“We don’t have anything yet,” Daneyko said. “I hope we didn’t climb back for nothing because Game 7 is going to be extremely difficult.”

If that game is as good as Game 6 it will be a wonderful finale to what has been a great series between these border rivals separated only by the New Jersey Turnpike.

The go-ahead goal came after Lemieux forced a turnover by Flyer defenseman Andy Delmore just inside the blue line.

Bobby Holik got the puck and his shot from the right faceoff circle was stopped by Brian Boucher, but Lemieux, the veteran the Devils acquired to get them back to the Cup finals, got to the rebound and backhanded it into an open net.

It was the 80th goal in the playoffs for Lemieux, the playoff MVP when the Devils won their only Stanley Cup in 1995.

Lindros came close to having a storybook return from a series of concussions. With 2.7 seconds to play in the second period of a then-scoreless game, the Flyers pulled Boucher and sent six skaters out for a faceoff deep in the Devils’ zone.

Lindros won the faceoff and the puck got pushed to him to the right of Brodeur. The goaltender stopped his first shot but Lindros lifted the second over him just after the horn sounded to end the period.

The officials signaled no goal and a replay upheld the call.

Lindros played 14 minutes 47 seconds on 19 shifts. He played right wing on a third line centered by Daymond Langkow.