Red-Hot Devils Get a Ticket to Finals

While the journey through the postseason has had some perilous moments, the defending champion New Jersey Devils are where they expected to be--in the Stanley Cup finals.

Jason Arnott scored twice and the Devils inched closer to their third title since 1995 by defeating Mario Lemieux and his Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-2, Tuesday night to win the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final in five games.

Bobby Holik and John Madden also scored for the Devils, who will play the Colorado Avalanche in Game 1 of the finals Saturday in Denver.

“We knew how good we can be,” Holik said. “This is not a surprise to us that we are back. It was just a matter of whether we wanted to do it or not.”

The Devils struggled in the opening two rounds of the playoffs. They were inconsistent in defeating the Carolina Hurricanes in six games and then they had to rally from a 3-2 deficit to defeat Toronto in seven games in the second round.

But the Devils dominated the Penguins in the conference finals, holding Lemieux and Jaromir Jagr, the league’s leading scorer, without a goal.

“This is the most self-driven team I have ever seen,” said defenseman Sean O’Donnell, who was acquired late in the season as a final piece to the Devils’ puzzle.

“[Coach] Larry [Robinson] is great with Xs and O’s and he occasionally gives a pep talk, but others guys aren’t afraid to step up and talk,” O’Donnell added. “This team wants to play perfect hockey.”

New Jersey won both regular regular-season games against the Avalanche, knocking out goaltender Patrick Roy twice in posting 6-1 and 6-3 victories.

While they had moments of inconsistency in the playoffs, the Devils played some of their best hockey in bringing the curtain down on the Penguins’ storybook season in which Lemieux returned after a 3 1/2-year retirement.

Lemieux and Jagr had very little to show in this series, starting with no goals. Jagr, who thinks he will be traded in the off-season because of his $10-million salary, was held scoreless. Lemieux has three assists, but showed his frustration in the final minute by cross-checking Madden after he claimed the Devils forward laughed at him.

“It was a great ride, especially after coming back after 3 1/2 years,” Lemieux said. “Obviously, we wanted to get to the finals. We got beat by a great team.”

The talented Penguins had only seven goals in the series against Martin Brodeur and not many more scoring chances against the Devils’ tenacious neutral zone trap.

“I think that’s a perfect model to compete for the Stanley Cup,” Lemieux said. “It’s a great system they play. It’s very simple. You just have to have an organization that is committed to playing it.”