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Devils take control

A 4-1 win over the Avalanche puts the defending Stanley Cup champions one win from consecutive titles.

[AP photos] Devils goaltender Martin Brodeur dives against Dave Reid to make one of his 22 saves in his best performance of the finals.

©Associated Press

© St. Petersburg Times,
published June 5, 2001

DENVER -- The Devils seem to have a Mission 16W, too. And it could end at Exit 16W of the New Jersey Turnpike on Thursday.

The Devils, who won the Stanley Cup on the road last season, moved within a victory of winning it at home by beating the Avalanche on Monday night on its ice for the second straight time, a 4-1 victory secured by Alexander Mogilny's first goal in 15 games.

John Madden, right, jumps into the arms of Sergei Brylin after scoring the Devils' final goal, his fourth of the playoffs.

Sergei Brylin also ended a long streak with his first goal in 12 games. And Patrik Elias, playing without injured A-Line center Jason Arnott, scored his second in as many games as New Jersey won for the third time in the past four games to seize a 3-2 series lead.

"There's no doubt that with a player of that magnitude out (Arnott), you hope as a coach everybody else elevates their game to make up for loss of a great player," Devils coach Larry Robinson said. "Sometimes it brings a team together and brings out the best in other players."

However, playing at home sometimes brings out the worst in the Devils. They are 8-3 on the road in the playoffs but 7-5 at home as they go back to the Meadowlands for Game 6 on Thursday night.

"These opportunities don't come very often, in front of our fans," Devils goalie Martin Brodeur said. "We don't want to bring it back here for a Game 7."

Continental Airlines Arena, the Devils' home, is at turnpike Exit 16W. Colorado defenseman Ray Bourque's Mission 16W -- his attempt to win his first Cup in 22 seasons -- may come up short. "16W" represents how many wins are needed to get the Cup.

"We're down 3-2," Bourque said, "but we have every intention of bringing it back to Denver for Game 7. There's no frustration here."

Last year the Devils held a 3-1 lead in the Cup final and could have closed out Dallas at home, but they lost 1-0 in triple overtime. New Jersey won the Cup at Dallas in Game 6.

This series of ever-shifting momentum may have swung when Avalanche goaltender Patrick Roy abandoned the net in Game 4 and let in the tying goal when Colorado seemed ready to take a 3-1 series lead. Roy's problem Monday was he was anchored in the net.

The Devils took advantage of Colorado's repeated attempts to force the offense after being limited to 12 shots in Game 4. However, the Avalanche not only could not get to Brodeur, who played his best game of the series with 22 saves, it often was trapped in the Devils' zone, creating a succession of odd-man breaks that led to the goals by Elias and Mogilny.

"They beat us tonight," said Alex Tanguay, who scored Colorado's goal. "I think we gave it to them. We gave them a few turnovers, and they played well and took advantage of it."

The Devils scored the first goal on one of their five odd-man rushes in the first period, more than they had in any previous game. And the linemates of Arnott, out with a concussion, got it.

Elias scored on a two-on-one break with Petr Sykora at 3:09 of the first. Avalanche defenseman Adam Foote was caught between the two on the break, and Roy gambled that Foote could break up the pass. Foote couldn't, and with Roy shifted to his left, Elias flipped the puck in the open left side of the net.

The Avalanche tied it with Tanguay's goal on a power play at 10:09. But what proved to be the winning goal came on a rush after Colorado forward Chris Drury tried to force the puck to Greg de Vries in a crowded neutral zone. The Devils' Brian Rafalski deflected it to Gomez, who made a drop pass that Mogilny wristed by Roy to the stick side from the right circle.

"We capitalized on their mistakes," Mogilny said, referring to all the breakouts. "We certainly haven't been playing to our potential, but tonight everybody showed up."

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