Flyers Send Devils Home

Robert Esche stood in the crease, raised his arms and jumped while teammates mobbed him. Martin Brodeur put his head down and slowly skated off the ice.

Esche again outplayed Brodeur in goal, and Danny Markov scored on a long shot with 5:23 left, helping the Philadelphia Flyers eliminate the defending Stanley Cup champion New Jersey Devils with a 3-1 victory in Game 5 of their first-round Eastern Conference series Saturday.

“It was exciting,” said Esche, who started his first playoff series. “I could feel the ice shake. I didn’t think the crowd could get that loud. I didn’t think anything could get that loud.”

Markov’s shot from just inside the blue line sailed by defenseman Colin White, past Brodeur, hit the left post and went in, a fitting way for the Flyers to end years of frustration against the Devils, who won three championships in the previous nine years.

“I couldn’t see the puck, so I was looking high,” said Brodeur, who hardly resembled a reigning Vezina Trophy winner in the series. “Next thing I knew it was at the bottom of the circle and I had a foot to react.”

Alexei Zhamnov also scored for Philadelphia, which advanced to the second round for the second straight year. Sami Kapanen added an empty-net goal in the final seconds.

“It’s a little shocking,” said Scott Niedermayer, who scored the New Jersey goal. “We set our goals a lot higher. We wanted to be playing longer than this.”

New Jersey had been Philadelphia’s nemesis for years, beating the Flyers in the conference finals in 1995 and 2000, when they rallied from a 3-1 series deficit.

But after starting the season series 0-2-1, Philadelphia won the final three regular-season games against the Devils and four of five in the playoffs.

Esche finished with 31 saves and allowed nine goals in the series on 155 shots. He wasn’t named the starting goaltender until after the regular season ended, beating out veteran Sean Burke for the spot.

The Devils missed perennial All-Star defenseman Scott Stevens, who sat out the series with post-concussion syndrome.

“It certainly would have made a difference to have him out there,” Devil Coach Pat Burns said.